Philips Hue White Personal Wireless Lighting LED Starter Kit, Includes 2 x 8.5 W A60 E27 Edison Screw Bulbs, 1 x Hue Bridge

I would say brand says a lot here and with Philips you can be sure you're getting a good product. A lot of companies rip products off and I always try to go with the original or market leader because you do get quality although you pay a bit more but with these lights you will want to pay that extra bit for the quality. The hub was really easy to setup, you just plug it into your router, the only thing is it has to be wired so you better have a port free. The connection is reliable and it always works. The only negative thing and this could be the ECHO DOT but when you tell it to turn off "ROOM" sometimes it gets confused. ~TURN OFF "MY ROOM" ~ There is more than one device named "MY ROOM" which one do you mean? ~ "MY ROOM" ~ OK Then the light goes off so you have to repeat the name of the room... I only have two rooms setup with a single light bulb in each room and it gets confused and it did it when I just had the one room so there isn't multiple rooms with similar names or anything. It's not too bad, most of the time it works, it helps if you phrase it a certain way: "ALEXA TURN OFF.... .... .... 'MY ROOM' " You can connect the bridge to the Philips website so you can control the lights when you're away from home which is good. Make sure you get the correct bulb set for your lights, bayonet or screw. I haven't tried it but Philips say a single hub can control up to 50 lights and there are lots of options. I don't have 50 lights in my house even with lamps and everything but you can buy wall lights for cool ambient effects and you can set moods where you get your control device a command and it will turn that setting on. I just have the white lights but you can get the colour lights if you want something like that. Practically for me it is handy turning off the lights using voice commands, the light switch is on the opposite side of the room with respect to my bed and my room can be messy so for me I used to turn the light off and navigate to the bed but now I can get into bed and just turn the light off with a voice command. It's also nice using brightness commands to dim the lights so If I wake up in the middle of the night I can set all lights to 50% brightness meaning I don't need to cover my face when I go to the toilet. It's only a benefit to get this, you just have to justify the price.

Ok here we go..... Having recently moved into a new house I thought it was about time that I finally accepted that technology was moving at a great speed and that I needed to do some catching up. Having already gotten an Amazon Echo and a Dot, plus a Nest Thermostat, (reviews are available in my profile), I already had the makings of a simple smart home. My first venture in smart wireless lighting was the Phillips Hue starter kit, that comes with the bridge, power supply for this and two smart bulbs. As can be expected for the price you get a well designed and thought out package with all the techno bumph to boot, the box draws eyes but sort of shows the lacking inadequacy of the purchase and as you can guess further bulbs are needed to really zoop up your house, so to speak. The whole setup is simple, this is done in conjunction with the Hue app and the bulbs I got are dimmable but no colour change. The light given off by the bulbs is warm and cosy and at the dimmest is great for the evening in front of the TV. The brightest setting is enough to easily read a book or write a letter etc. The app is straight forward with varying degrees of functionality but this can be extended with zones being set up, more bubs, coloured bulbs, the list goes on and on. Now the real fun for me was the integration with Alexa, she allows voice control at the simplest end, for those with coloured bulbs, you guys are going to need the IFTTT app, I don't use this app but rest assured set up is simple and use more so. As the product matures technologies like zonal lighting, motion detection and speech recognition are only going to improve and I am so far very happy with my techno purchase. Great product, 5 stars and I'm very happy.

I'm a bit of a gadget lover and having control of my home lighting both while at home and away really appeals to me. Initially purchased for it's Echo dot integration I now question why I didn't get this sooner! Pros: I get the impression of very good quality with the look, the weight and the feel of both the hub and bulbs. I've purchased more Hue products since getting this and everyone has been easy to set up, working first time and every time. The mobile application is smart and intuitive, coming with pre set 'scenes' for different lighting levels such as 'concentrate' and 'reading'. The app allows me to set up my own scenes as well as dim the lights on the fly. You can set the lights to come on when you're close to home and go off when you leave, and the icing on the cake is voice activation using Alexa. I can turn the lights off, on, select scenes, dim and increase lighting levels with just a few verbal commands. Cons: Compared to some others on the market Hue products are a touch more expensive.

I was unconvinced about the Hue system but decided to take a chance on the starter kit as a low point of entry to the system. The system is very straightforward to install - connect the hub via the cable, download the app, replace the relevant bulbs, and switch the lights on. That's the theory, but the truth is slightly more convoluted. I followed the instructions to the letter and initially everything worked, however later on one the bulbs could not be found by the app, no matter what I tried. I decided to reset everything and since then it's been a flawless, the app is very straightforward and the functionality of routines, individual lights etc. is intuitive. I have since added two further bulbs to the system (one using an E14 to E27 adapter) and plan to add more. It also 'talks' to the Nest system of a fashion. All in all well worth it, one star deducted for the early-on malfunction, but otherwise highly recommended.