Philips Hue White Ambiance A19 2-Pack 60W Equivalent Dimmable LED Smart Bulbs (Hue Hub Required, Works with Alexa, Apple Homekit & more), Old Version, 2 Bulbs (453092)

Lights are as advertised. Cheaper but not as awesome as their color siblings.

If you notice a common thread among Hue reviews, its that people are amazed about how they work so well despite being so far from the hub. Theres a simple explanation for this, its because Hue uses a protocol called Zigbee to connect. Zigbee devices all talk to one another, rather than just to a single access point like WiFi connected bulbs do. As a result, as long as any bulb or switch can trace a signal via other bulbs all the way back to the hub, they will work. They even have redundancies so if you turn on a device that interferes with the signal (like a microwave), they will try to negotiate a new path through via a different bulb. This makes for a much longer ranged and reliable setup, that gets better and better the more bulbs you add to your home. There are other bulbs that use Zigbee as well, and as long as the hub supports them, they will work as repeaters as well - you will want to do some searching before you buy to make sure that any given brand will work this way. That doesnt mean Hue bulbs are without issues, though. The biggest one is that they tend to not be as bright as some of their competition, especially in some color profiles. In yellow mode, they are noticeably dimmer than than, say, the Sylvania competitors. In my opinion, though, the convenience of the most widely available software platform makes up for this shortcoming.

I bought several Hue products to act as a system for automating my household lights in certain rooms for daily use, & also to give the illusion that someone is at home when no one is. The products included the one for which I am posting this review, and I will be posting the identical review for the other products I bought. The products involved are the White Ambiance Decorative Candle 40 W dimmable, the White Ambiance 60W Dimmable, the Dimmer Switch with Remote, the Motion Sensor, and the Hue Hub. I use these products over an eero based WiFi system, with the Apple HomeKit app operating on my Apple TV4. I control them remotely from my iPhone and my iPad, using the Home app from Apple and the Hue app. (You really need to use both to set the system up, because it maximizes your options to do so.) Setting up the system was quite easy, and all of the accessories work as one would expect. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement, which is why I’ve rated all of them, together, as 4 rather than 5 stars. The biggest problem I have with the system concerns our chandeliers. Both of the ones we have are dimmable, and one of them is controlled by switches at two different doorways. Both of them take 3 light bulbs, and neither of them will function reliably if all three of the bulbs are Hue bulbs. The problem is that when all three of the bulbs are Hue bulbs, they flicker on & off, rendering it impossible to use the chandelier at all. This is a known issue with certain light fixtures which are dimmable, and Phillips is upfront with the likelihood that this could occur. Unfortunately, you won’t know if you have the problem till you try it out. The best solution is to rewire the chandeliers so that they are not dimmable. But pending having that done, I discovered that the living room chandelier works just fine if one light socket is left empty. Not true for the dining room chandelier, but for that one, I discovered that if two of the bulbs are Hue, and the third is a refrigerator light bulb, the flickering does not occur. The problem is that in order to use the scheduling & remote features for the Hue bulbs, the socket the bulbs are in have to be switched on all the time, which means that in the dinning room, the refridgerator light winds up being on all the time. A minor problem I have with Hue lights is that they are all 60 watts (or less). This is not bright enough to read by. For instance, I had three 100 watt bulbs in both our chandeliers, and even when I get three Hues to operate correctly in them, it’s not quite bright enough. I’m hoping that Phillips is working on higher watt versions of the Hue bulbs. The remote device and the motion detector work just fine. Oddly, the motion detector also gives the temperature at the place where it is positioned. For what it’s worth, the ordinary Hue bulbs will work outside even when the temperature drops as much as 20 degrees below zero. At least, that’s been my experience after about a month of use involving a lot of subzero temperatures.

I knew getting into the Hue world it would be pricey, but I dont feel like they should charge this much. I guess you get what you pay for. I have had zero problems with any of my Hue gear. They are pretty idiot proof and the app gets better with age.

Love these bulbs

Can count on it

Creating a smarter and smarter house one bulb at a time.

Well its an LED bulb that does what it does.

Works great

As a first time buyer of this type of product, it was confusing...probably thanks to Apple. The lightbulbs are not Apple HomeKit compatible by themselves, the light bulbs must be connected to a Philips hub. After getting a hub, these light bulbs are great. They set a great ambiance. If only they were not so expensive. If youre looking at these vs the standard white, GET THESE as they are more versatile and youre not locked into a single white color.