Philips HueStarter Kit White and Colour Ambiance: Smart Bulb 2 Pack LED [E27 Edison Screw] Including Hue Smart Button and Hue Bridge, Works with Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit

This is an expensive, yet unique and gorgeous lighting system and is not starting to synergies very nicely with other items and eco-systems and in my case doubles up in my room with my PC rig as it links in with ASUS's Aura software!!!, The Aura software on recent ASUS boards can actually search for Philips HUE bridges on the same network and control and synergies the lighting with your PC rig, mental!Now before I go on, what do you get in the box. Well its very apple-esq, with a clean white finish on most the parts and with this kit you get 3 bulbs, the 2.0 bridge, remote control, power cable for the bridge and small Ethernet cable to connect your bridge to your Router / Hub. Setting the kit up is a pretty straight forward process, download the App to popular Ecosystems, in my case my Android Phone / tablets and PC with ASUS Aura.Getting them hooked up usually just requires pressing the bridge button on your 2.0 bridge and my devices were hooked and up and running within a minute each with no issue.Using the app is straight forward and there are some powerful options, such as setting the color's in a very granular control, or having the light brighten based on time of the day (so in the morning start slowly with your alarm) and so on and so forth with the ability to set up custom profiles for color's / themes you like.Separate from that, you can set themes, in room's so with multiple bulbs working together, can create a pattern of sorts, the options are endless.The bulbs themselves are reasonably bright, but any color other then white seems to loose some lumans with some colors being a fair bit dimmer, at that point your adding ambiance rather then it acting as a prime source of light, which I guess the name of the product implies, but something to keep in mind.Like I said, for myself, I use the product in two places, one in the main bedroom in a floorstanding lamp which with the remote now is amazing, read in bed and just hit the remote switch to turn off the lamp when reading and not bothered to get out of bed. The other reason as mentioned is to add ambiance to my PC setup, with the HUE lighting now synergistic with ASUS aura software, so the lighting works well with their lighting systems and ECO system to set up some crazy RGB systems.In all, I love the product, its smart, works well, easy to use and does what it says on the pack. Now had any issues and the ability for other products to work with HUE is a bonus. The price is the expensive part, but there is a reason why they can command a premium and that is simply put, it works with no faff and looks great.

I've never loved my lights so much!. I kind of bought these as a spur of the moment idea after hearing a lot about them and doing a bit of research first. I was going to go for these ones but in the light version but I couldn't resist getting the colour ones as everyone says. Omg I'm glad I did!. It never get old turning you lights on as your walking into the room from you phone and it makes you feel like James Bond or maybe a Jedi?.So first of all these are perfect because they are fun and practical. I have these in my bedroom so use them everyday. After messing around a bit with the colour settings you can find the perfect colours to use in normal use and save it at the click of a button. I prefer to get the colour close to regular lightbulbs which is a slightly yellow/off white colour as to not be too bright and strain you eyes. I have setting for normal use, 100% brightness, pure white, a movie/low light mode etc. You can spend hours messing around with the app and it's pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. I'm great with technology so picked it up in no time without reading hardly any instructions but I'm sure one it's setup more people can use it.My devices are all iOS devices and these integrate perfectly on all of them. I find the most useful one is the apps widget because I can just flick to the side from my devices lock screen and tap a icon from the ones I had setup prior. You can also swipe up on iOS devices and select the Apple Home icon but this has been made more difficult and takes twice as long with the release of iOS 11 as you now need to swipe up, tap the Home button and only then does the menu come up. Also it's not as instant and the Hue widget and seems to have a slight delay but the widgets are instant. I make it sound like a big deal but it's literally a 1 second delay sometimes. The lights do work with siri but I find that more as a party trick to show people and isn't very quick or practical.It's very easy to add new devices to the bridge via the app and tapping the button on the bridge. I bought 1 extra light bulb for the next room and it was so quick and easy to setup. It's a shame the bridge has such big blue lights on constantly though, they don't seem to flash or do anything and just stay on. I put it on the wall behind my curtain and it still show though a bit. Also while I'm on the subject, I bought a Hue Tap to go with these lights which is again, easy to setup and highly customisable. It's a rip off though at £50. But you're paying a premium price for this whole kit anyay.But overall I'm super impressed with how well all this kit works and I really cannot fault it. I feel as if Philips are definitely leading the way currently with this one. The perfect combination of fun, practicality and combustibility.