Philips Hue White LED Starter Kit review – CNET

The Good The plain, vanilla version of Philips Hue’s smart LEDs don’t change colors, but they do enjoy all of the benefits of Hue’s well-connected platform. They’re also bright, good looking bulbs with easy-to-use smarts, and you can add extras to your setup for just $15 each.

The Bad At $70, the two-bulb starter kit still comes with a fair share of sticker shock.

The Bottom Line Philips Hue is one of the best-developed DIY smart-home platforms money can buy, and this white-light starter kit is your most affordable entry point. It’s practically a must-buy if you’re serious about smart lighting.

There’s an awful lot to like about Philips Hue’s smart lighting ecosystem. It’s polished. It’s easy to use. It works with just about everything. The only problem? The price. A starter kit with the essential Philips Hue Bridge and three color-changing bulbs costs $200 — a steep point of entry for connected lighting.

Fortunately, that color-changing kit isn’t your only option. For $70, Philips also sells a starter kit with that same Hue Bridge and a pair of plain, soft white smart bulbs. They won’t change colors at all, but you can still automate them to turn on and off or dim up and down, and they’ll work with all of the same third-party services as the rest of the Hue lineup, including Amazon’s Alexa, Apple HomeKit, IFTTT, the Nest Learning Thermostat and more. Plus, given that the Hue Bridge typically sells for about $60 on its own, you’re basically getting them for $5 each if you buy the kit, which is a heck of a deal.

All of that makes the Philips Hue White LED Starter Kit a near must-have for anyone who’s serious about connected lighting and a very safe purchase given how good Philips has been about keeping its bulbs up to date with the latest platforms and products.

Let’s talk light bulbs

If you take a look at the shape of the bulb itself, you’ll see that it’s nice and wide, extending out beyond the heat sink that makes up the bottom half. That gives it a nice, omnidirectional light output that can shine downward if you’re using it in something like a bedside reading lamp. To me, that’s a slight edge over the Lifx White 800 LED. Though the Lifx is a brighter bulb overall, its flat-topped design that falls flush with the base of the bulb prevents the bulb from casting as much downward light as it should.

The Philips Hue White LED does a great job of casting light out evenly in all directions.

Tyler Lizenby/CNET

The Philips bulb also dims exceptionally well, going all the way down to 0.9 percent brightness at its minimum setting (about 7 lumens). And because it’s using in-bulb dimming smarts as opposed to relying on in-wall dimmer switches, you won’t have to worry about flicker or buzz. Just be sure not to use it with one of those in-wall dimmer switches, as the two dimming mechanisms will clash and cause the bulb to strobe.