No doubt, Philips has revolutionized the world of bright LEDs. The latest bulb, Hue White, and Color Ambiance prove why the company has been a major competitor in this space from the very beginning. The design of the latest Philips Hue White Starter Kit has just changed slightly. Though they are still shaped like rounded-off twisters, now they come up with a white base instead of a silver one. Overall, the bulbs remain quite modest in comparison to the competition. They are designed to work successfully in connection to your Wi-Fi router through an Ethernet cable.
The Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 Starter kit is not small and more streamlined in contrast to prior models at $60. It is included along with three bulbs in a $176 kit reviewed here. It has become a standard in its way and is now compatible with methods and GE bulbs. These Hue lights efficiently work with Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant, Apple’s HomeKit platform, and several other smart-home products. Have a look to know more about the finer features and reliable performance of the Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 Starter kit.
Let’s get rolling……
Philips Hue White Starter Kit
Pros
- Philips Hue White Starter kit offers an impressive list of compatible smart home platforms.
- It can sync your bulb with the iOS device.
- You can trigger lighting changes by asking Siri.
- The redesigned Hue bridge is less intrusive.
- It includes support for Apple Siri and the Apple watch.
- The technical improvements make them the best-looking and brightest bulbs.
- It offers smooth dimming, so the lights are never too bright or dark.
- You can control lights from anywhere when paired with a Philips Hue bridge.
- It lets you set different rooms for different times.
- You can download third-party apps to integrate the A19 bulb with music or gaming experience.
- It offers a range of natural white light from cool energizing daylight to relaxing warm white light.
- You can use 16 million colours to paint your walls with a variety of light shades.
Cons
- The app could have more benefited from the ease of use upgrade.
- There are no fun features.
- The installation process may be a bit complicated.
- The A19 starter kit is expensive.
- The app is simple with white-only features.
Key Features
Philips Hue White starter kit comes with 3 Philips Hue white and colour Medium Lumen A19 16W LED smart bulbs, a Philips Hue hub and one smart button with a mounting plate.
Philips Hue Hub can control up to 50 Hue lights and connect the smart bulbs with smart devices like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Homekit.
Philips Hue White Starter Kit Features
Philips Hue White Starter kit comes with three Hue bulbs and a bridge that you can control via Philips Hue App on your Android or iOS device. The most significant addition is that Philips benefited from HomeKit without compromising on the core components of the Hue platform. The major advantages of Hue include updated software that allows third-party developers to make their apps for the lights and bring up new functionality.
Some developer stuff, great isn’t it?
With the app, you can change the colour of your bulbs using the drag-and-drop display that lets you cover the part of the spectrum that you want. The emergence of HomeKit support allows smart home devices to effectively communicate within iOS. The HomeKit compatibility makes it exceptionally easy for other products to assimilate Hue controls into their controller apps. That means you can program lighting changes that are linked directly to those products e.g. lights that turn on or off when you lock your door.
Moreover, you can do that a lot by syncing your lights with a master hub called as SmartThings or an automation system like IFTTT. Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 Starter kit in association with HomeKit bring you voice activation and on-demand lighting changes that are fit for the system. Now asking Siri to turn the lights is way too easier.
In addition to red, blue and orange which are the primary colours, you can request teal, gold, and other colours as well. Siri can understand modifiers such as light blue. However, it cannot understand anything on the white light spectrum such as soft white, daylight or 2700K.
While using Siri, you can also control your Hue scenes which lets you trigger multiple bulbs at a time. The Hue scenes are not programmed in the same way as HomeKit scenes so they might not work at first. However, the work is simple. All you need to do is go to Hue’s app settings and select “Siri voice control.” You will get a list of scenes that you want to control using Siri and He will translate them into something that Siri can work with.
Pretty customized, right?
Another option you have is to create new scenes using an app that follows Home Kit’s scene-creation protocols. Though it might look inappropriate to program the Hue lights outside the Hue app, doing so, will let you create more complex scenes that involve your other HomeKit-compatible gadgets e.g. a good night scene will turn the lights off and lock your door.
Moving on, the Hue offers a bridge transfer mode in the app that will make it easier to switch. Simply follow the onscreen instructions, and it will save your existing settings in the cloud and load them into the new bridge. It will consume a few minutes to get things switched, and after you are done, many lights and scenes will remain intact.
Though Siri-powered voice control works well, still occasionally there might be language mix-ups. Another unexpected drawback is Hue’s integration with the voice-activated Amazon Echo. The new bridge does not let the Echo talk to your lights. The company is working with Amazon to fix it as soon as possible.
Performance
Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance kit offer a superb performance that can make your day. Using the Hue mobile app, Web portal, Siri or HomeKit support, you can easily create sophisticated remote-controlled lighting setups along with automation. For instance, you can set all your lights off as soon as your iPhone leaves the house.
In our testing, we set the lamps to fade at sunset, and it worked well. Also, you can trigger the scenes to switch between colour and brightness settings. We have tried even more elaborate options through IFTTT integration. The white ambience bulbs strike between Philips’s cheaper pure white options and expensive full-colour models. This white ambience collection offers various colour temperatures within the white spectrum that range from a warm orange to a cold blueish white. The important part is that you can still adjust your lights as per different moods or times of the day. Additionally, the updated Hue app gives you an option of “Wake up” and “Go to sleep” along with “Nightlight” scenes. All these options are formulated with a white ambience.
While testing the Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 Starter kit which comes with two bulbs, a scene switch and a bright hub, we found that warmer lights are more excellent than the most basic LED bulbs which can be quite refreshing according to our liking.
In various situations, warm lighting feels more natural. Moreover, the full brightness is 800 lumens which is available along with the neutral 4,000K colour temperature and is not the default setting. The output dims as you go warmer down to 400 lumens while you hit 2,220K. For a few people, even 800 lumens are dim, and they look for using some extra lighting to compensate.
We found the new Hue app relatively well-designed. It allows users to set up lights, rooms, and routines without any trouble. Also, it lets you manage bridges and switches. You can control the lights over cellular connections through the app. However, Siri will only work outside of the Wi-Fi range if you have an Apple TV. We observed some odd limitations in the software. For example, to rename the bulbs, you need to go into the settings menu and manually resync them with Siri. Also, Siri will not automatically recognize each scene. Hence you must select for yourself.
Furthermore, when you say, “turn on the living room lights” or “dim the living room lights to 40%”, you can’t say “turn on the existing lights to 40 per cent” as first, you have to turn them on and then you can tweak brightness. Another issue in our observation with the app is that it may not be instantly apparent how to adjust brightness unless you use scenes or routines. The only way to control the colour temperature on each bulb is by tapping icons that you may not recognize as interactive. Also, with routines, you cannot set lights to shift to a particular colour temperature automatically. In many cases, you may not have any way to create routines for individual bulbs rather than making separate rooms.
Comparison of Philips Hue White Starter Kit
As the brand says it all, Philips is one of the most prominent competitors in the electronic world. The Hue colour ambience bulbs have not changed much since 2012. Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 Starter kit comes with new bulbs that last longer. Also, the company is adding new shapes, sizes and accessories. The Hue app has also improved significantly. The Hue bulbs are available in a wide range of forms in which A19 has become very popular in a short while. The price of the starter kit includes the required Philips Hue Bridge.
Whereas, new bulbs cost $60 each. Here LIFX colour has become a major rival. The LIFX colour LED bright bulb along with an array of infrared LEDs will even help your home security camera to see in the dark. Overall, Philips has earned the best position for an extensive collection of styles and several compatible accessories. If you want color A19 or BR30, LIFX is also a considerable option. It’s true if you are installing them in cylinder lamps as they are the brightest bulbs in this roundup.
The price of the starter kit includes the required Philips Hue Bridge. Whereas, new bulbs cost $60 each. Here LIFX colour has become a major rival. The LIFX color LED bright bulb along with an array of infrared LEDs will even help your home security camera to see in the dark. Overall, Philips has earned the best position for an extensive collection of styles and several compatible accessories. If you want color A19 or BR30, LIFX is also a considerable option. It’s true if you are installing them in cylinder lamps as they are the brightest bulbs in this roundup.
Overall, Philips has earned the best position for extensive collection of styles and several compatible accessories. If you want the colour A19 or BR30, LIFX is also a considerable option. It’s true if you are installing them in cylinder lamps as they are the brightest bulbs in this roundup.
Conclusion
Nonetheless, automation is the foremost reason to buy Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 Starter kit. Once you set up the right routine, you will hardly need Siri or an app to switch. This is something fanatic about lights that are coming on whenever you need them and shutting off when they are not required. Hence, it boosts security and power efficiency at the same time. This white ambiance kit is an excellent starting point when you need at least two bulbs with warmer lighting. Therefore, it makes clear sense to go for the $175 white and colour kit.
Additionally, if you have several smart gadgets and you want colour hanging bulbs that incredibly work with them then Hue is the best option you can get. Likewise, if you are a Hue and iOS user as well, then upgrading the new Hue Bridge to setup and add Siri controls is worth considering this kit.
But if you haven’t bought Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance A19 Starter kit yet, the $175 cost of kit getting reachable. On the other hand, competition is even more compelling. LIFX offers brighter and high-quality colour bulbs with easy to use the app at $34 each. Also, there is no hub required so you can control each one straight away from the box, meaning you don’t need to invest $175 just to get started.
Lighten up your life, the Philips way!
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