Philips Hue: Everything You Need To Know

Philips Hue is perhaps the virtually pop brand for smart lighting in the globe right at present. Function of this is because they were i of the outset to adopt smart lighting, and they too make regular calorie-free bulbs so people trust them. But in that location's still a lot that you need to know about Philips Hue. Like which smart administration does information technology work with? Do yous need a hub? and much more than.

And so here's everything you need to know about Philips Hue.

How to get started with Philips Hue?

Philips Hue offers a few dissimilar starter kits that you tin buy. These typically come with a few lite bulbs, and the Philips Hue Span (also known as their hub). This is a good place to showtime, every bit it gives you the Hub, which you lot'll want to use for connecting to the bulbs.

Yes, Philips Hue does work with Bluetooth, however very few bulbs piece of work with Bluetooth. Philips Hue only recently started calculation Bluetooth to its products. And the experience with Bluetooth is not great, as it can be very dull to connect. So the Bridge is the better bet.

The one that nosotros recommend quite often is the four A19 smart seedling kit with the Span. This is normally around $200, though yous tin find it cheaper throughout the year. These bulbs in this particular starter kit are actually colored, so you tin add together some accent lighting to your habitation.

Information technology's very easy to set up your showtime Philips Hue bulb. Only download the Hue app onto your smartphone and plug in the Bridge. Now because information technology is connected to your router, you'll never need to worry about connecting it to WiFi. In the Philips Hue app, just tap on "Add Lights" and it'll search for the lights around yous to add. From there yous'll exist able to add it to your dwelling house and a specific room, even giving information technology a proper noun.

What lighting options does it offering?

Philips Hue really offers a ton of different lighting products that you lot tin buy for your home. Of grade, it is most famous for its bulbs and LED light strips. About calorie-free seedling sizes are available from Philips Hue. This includes E26, A19 and BR30. Philips Hue also offers these in White bulbs, White Ambiance bulbs, Color Ambiance bulbs, and Filament bulbs. So there's something for everyone. Of course, the white and white ambiance options are going to exist the cheapest.

There are also a number of smart lamps that Philips Hue offers here. Like the Hue Play Bar, which is a great way to add some emphasis lighting to your home. There's besides the Hue Flower, which can throw light onto the wall. And of class, a number of LED strips in different sizes. With the Gradient Light Strip bachelor for 55-inch, 65-inch and 75-inch TVs.

Philips Hue has also been expanding its outdoor lighting in contempo years. So now y'all tin can discover more bulbs that work outside, as well as spotlights and even LED Strips.

Basically, any lighting product y'all are looking for, it'south likely available from Hue. Which is actually nice to have. Since you can control them all on your one Hue Bridge.

Are in that location outdoor lights available?

Yes, there are.

Philips Hue has a number of outdoor lights available. There are the Hue Lily spotlights that are available with white and colour. Equally well every bit a bigger Lily XL spot light kit that you tin buy. Philips Hue has smart pathway lighting, and floodlights to name a few.

So you tin add some color to the outside of your habitation also, since the bulk of these are available in White & Color Ambiance. So you tin can really accept some fun effectually the holidays – like Halloween and Christmas.

How many Philips Hue lights can I really have?

You can really have as many as y'all want. But the Hue Span tin can only support up to 50 smart lights. Once yous pass that 50 mark, things tin become a bit more tricky, when information technology comes to decision-making your bulbs.

However, for most people, 50 lights is going to be more than than plenty. Even if every single light in your dwelling house is a Philips Hue bulb, y'all tin probably control them all from the Hue Bridge. This is also much better than having these 50 bulbs all connected to your WiFi network, bogging it downwards.

Which smart assistants are uniform?

Hue is compatible with pretty much all of the smart assistants that are out there. That includes Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri/Homekit, and the Google Assistant. It likewise works with a number of other automation services out there like IFTTT, Home Assistant and others.

This ways that you don't even need to use the Philips Hue app all that much. As you can use your voice to control your lights, or use a Nest Hub or Echo Show to practice information technology.

What does the app allow you to exercise?

The Philips Hue app allows you lot to do quite a few things. But to be honest, you lot probably won't e'er leave from the "Abode" tab. Which is where all of your lights are located, and sorted by room. You can tap on them to modify the colors and besides the brightness. Too as setting up a scene with your lights.

The app also has a few other tabs hither, like Automations. And then you don't need to utilise the IFTTT service to do some dwelling house automation. The popular 1 here, is using Philips Hue lights to wake you upward, by simulating the sunrise. You can take it synced to your warning on your smartphone too, which is really neat.

There'southward as well the explore tab, then y'all can store Hue products. Likewise every bit finding out what works with Hue and too what apps work slap-up with it. And then there's the Settings.

Philips has done a good job with the app. Giving it a skillful corporeality of features, merely not overwhelming the users here. That is a fine balancing deed that tin always be kind of hard.

Can yous set a schedule with Philips Hue?

Aye, with the automation department of the app, y'all can fix a time for the lights to plow on in your home. Y'all can as well do this with Google Home or Apple Homekit too. Which is really swell.

This can be corking to do, for when you get home from work. And then you lot aren't walking into a dark abode.

How to create a scene with Philips Hue?

You lot can create your own scene with Philips Hue, which is really easy to do. You tin can tap the Plus sign for each room and set upward a scene. It's best to practise it with multiple lights.

Hue lets you use their own pre-fabricated scenes, create a custom scene, or create one from a photo. The ability to create it from a photo is really cool, I must say. These can all be saved to your room too, then yous can easily set this scene from the app, or using your voice with Google Assistant, or Amazon Alexa.

I particularly create scenes for when I'm watching sports. Using my team'southward favorite colors in the room, information technology really gets you lot in the mood to sentinel football game, to be quite honest.

How does information technology compare to other competitors out in that location?

There are some competitors out in that location to Philips Hue, but none of them really compare completely. LIFX is probably the most popular ane, but they are plagued with all sorts of connectivity issues. C by GE is also out there, but with far less variety of products available.

Govee is another one that has been creeping up on Philips Hue with its products. It'southward probably the closest to what Hue offers. However, Hue'southward product catalog is nonetheless larger. Govee does offer smart bulbs, smart lamps and even light bars, for much less. Just the integration simply isn't there like information technology is with Hue. Simply we do believe that Govee will exist the i to actually challenge Philips Hue's crown for the king of smart lighting.

In that location volition likely come up a time where Philips Hue has a feasible competitor, just as for at present, it really is the all-time in the land of smart home lighting.

Should I invest in the Philips Hue ecosystem?

For sure. I know Philips Hue products do look pretty pricey, merely remember that you pay for what you lot get. So you spend $x on a smart calorie-free, and it doesn't work likewise as you'd similar, well that's why.

The biggest reason that nosotros suggest investing in the Hue ecosystem is just the sheer variety of lights it has. Certain you tin can buy some lights from Ring, only in guild to outfit your whole dwelling house in smart lights, you'll need to utilise different products from unlike companies, and that can go very disruptive to use. Fifty-fifty if you lot exercise put them all in Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

Philips Hue offers the best all-around ecosystem for smart lighting right now. That might change in the future, but for at present, information technology'due south Hue easily-down.