Philips Hue White Bulb

Philips Hue White A19 Bulb and Bridge Review – Smart lighting

It is becoming more and more convenient to set your home as smart as we could see in movies. We can easily achieve that by an Amazon Echo smart device as the controller. Have you ever thought of that you can turn on your lights when you are working outside, just for the reason of seeming someone is home and getting ready for you coming back. I wish I could, and I always like to make my home as automated as I can, so I did some research on that kind of things to see if there is any solution, and finally I found a very popular smart bulb, actually a starter kit, of Philips. That is the Philips Hue White A19 Kit, which includes two soft white 60W equivalent smart bulbs and a bridge, and something smart to work with Amazon Alexa.

Easy to Install and Use

As a set of smart things, it should be as easy as possible to use. That is what Philips Hue While A19 Kit is designed and made for. This starter kit includes two bulbs and a Hue bridge as the key parts for you to have a simple initial setup. There are some easy steps to get it started. Here we go. Firstly, screw the Philips Hue bulbs into your lighting sockets and then turn the wall switches on for lights. Secondly, power on the Hue bridge and connect it to your network, actually to your router, with the included network cable. Yes, it is hardwired for more stable signal to work for you. Then just wait for a short time and the three blue lights on the bridge will turn on. Thirdly, get the latest Philips Hue app from the App Store or Google Play, and use it to connect to the Hue bridge and find the Hue White lights. Lastly, just complete a simple wizard in the Alexa app to make sure Hue bridge is connected to Alexa. That’s all, then you can voice control your lights with a number of up to 50 controlled by the Hue bridge at home with a connection to Amazon Alexa. You can live your life with voice-controlled lighting for your most convenience.

Smart Lighting

As smart, Philips Hue White A19 Kit is something you can do a lot of things with in a brand-new smart way. Generally speaking, the Hue Kit is a lighting housekeeper that greatly works with Amazon Alexa. With Hue Kit being well set up, you can control your lights powered by Philips Hue, for example, turn them off remotely while you are working at office in case that you forgot to do that in the morning. Because you don’t need the full brightness all the time, for example, you may want to dim the lights for a dinner with your wife, or you just want to dim them for a great movie sitting in your favorite chair, you can make that happen all by Hue, creating a romantic atmosphere or a perfect mood. And sometimes you want to get the lights for some particular periods without any of your operation, you can also use Hue for lighting schedules. With the Philips Hue app, you can easily set the lights on at a preset time before you are back home or during your holiday. If you have different rooms installed with the Hue White lights, you can even set them to light up at different times you want. Furthermore, Philips Hue is compatible with Amazon Echo Dot, Echo and Echo Show, so you can take voice controls of your Hue White lights without lifting a finger, instead all is hands-free for your lighting.

Voice Control

As mentioned, Philips Hue White Kit is designed and made to be compatible to work with Amazon Alexa, which is a kind of voice service allowing you to complete a lot of things just by voice. Working with Amazon Alexa, Philips Hue is part of your smart home, you can control Hue White lights with your voice only, without lifting a finger to touch a switch or open the Hue app. What you have to do is just ask Alexa to turn on your Hue lights as long as you own any of Amazon Echo smart devices. Here I have some suggestions about using Amazon Alexa to control Hue LED lights. If you are using Echo Dot, Echo or Echo Show, make sure you create groups and name them in a simple way, for example ‘Bedroom’. Because Amazon Echo has a hard time to understand a voice command like ‘Alexa, turn the Hue lights on’, however, she understands ‘Alexa, turn the Bedroom on’ well every time you ask her. So, you just take different groups for different lights in different rooms.

Features & Specifications

  • Designed and built as smart lights, you can use them to enhance your home with soft white lighting, controlled remotely wherever you are in a smart way
  • Smart to be set lighting schedules, you can control your home lighting as you want anytime, anywhere
  • Easy to set up and use, you can use it for standard table lamps and overhead lights, and control up to 50 lights with the Philips Hue Bridge
  • Built as pre-paired with the Hue Bridge to allow you to control smart-bulb-equipped lamps and overhead lights via the Philips Hue App as easily as you can expect, just like ordinary bulbs
  • Easy to work with your existing smart system to be part of your smart home
  • Built to be compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Assistant, you can voice control your home lighting without lifting a finger
  • Includes dimmable soft white A19 bulbs as well as Hue Bridge, Ethernet cable and power adapter
  • Dimensions: 11.2 x 7.3 x 3.9 inches
  • Weight: 1.5 pounds (Starter Kit)
  • Backed by a 2-year limited warranty

 

Philips Hue White A19 Starter Kit
Philips Hue White A19, starter kit

Pros & Cons

Pros: Easy to set up and use as ordinary lights; Smart lighting for your home, remote control anywhere; Dimmable for the perfect ambiance; Allows you to set lighting schedules; Works with Amazon Alexa for voice controlling your home lighting; Reliability that Hue bridge is hardwired to ensure controlling signal is transmitted correctly and appropriately.

Cons: Not Wi-Fi based, instead using hardwire connection though it is reliable, making it some ‘ugly’.

Conclusion with Customer Reviews

As a complete review of the Philips Hue White Bulb and Bridge, I also have included the real life customer review. While doing some research for this smart lighting kit, I found more than 1500 helpful customer reviews, telling me that this Philips Hue Kit has a 4.2 out of 5 stars rating. In other words, most people have given the Philips Hue Starter Kit the highest scores possible.

And for further research in the customer reviews, I noticed that there were some minor complaints that the Hue Bridge is not Wi-Fi based, but using hardwired connection instead, which does not matter much, as it is used for reliable controlling signal transmission. However, the overall consensus is that the Philips Hue White lights starter kit is one of the best smart lights that works well with Amazon Alexa at a price around $60. If you are looking for a kit of smart lights with an expectation to use with Amazon Alexa for voice controlling, I highly recommend the Philips Hue White A19 Starter Kit.

Get the Philips Hue White A19 Starter Kit from Amazon.

 

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