If you're not hung up on the color changing aspect of the whole affair, you can get the bridge + six white - only
Lux bulbs for the same price as the color - changing Hue starter kit.
The Hue bulbs, Hue
Lux bulbs, and Philips standard LED bulbs (sans smart features) all share the same flattened - A10 style shape that looks like a standard light bulb that has been smooshed down a little on the top.
At those prices for every three fixtures you outfit with a third party bulb (compared to using
the Lux bulbs) you essentially get a fourth bulb for free.
In addition to saving you a bit of money at the register, the Hue
Lux bulbs are also rated for a longer life (25,000 versus 15,000 hours), are a bit brighter (750 lumens versus 600 lumens), unsurprisingly that extra brightness yields a tiny increase in power use (9 watts versus 8.5 watts), and they are a bit more efficient (84 % versus 71 % efficient).
That warning aside (and again it applies to socketed smart bulbs across the board) the Hue
Lux bulbs were a pleasure to use.
The LUX bulbs are available in different varieties to suit your present lighting fixtures for home usage.
The old bridge works just fine (and even supports the newer Hue
Lux bulbs as well as the very newest updated Hue bulbs and products which were released at the same time as the updated bridge).
The Good Osram's tunable Lightify LEDs offer smart color - temperature controls that you won't find with Belkin WeMo or Philips Hue
Lux bulbs.
Osram's tunable Lightify LEDs offer smart color - temperature controls that you won't find with Belkin WeMo or Philips Hue
Lux bulbs.
Not exact matches
The color has is impact too as a «whiter»
bulb will give more
lux.
Putting out 520
lux from the top and 360 from the side, it's brighter than many of the
bulbs we tested, but also more expensive — twice the price of the Cree or GE
bulbs.
The 800 - lumen white - and - color
bulb measured 460
lux from the top and 240
lux from the side, making them bright enough for reading, and we found their softer tone made pages look better than the harsher white light of some of the competitors.
Unlike the color
bulbs, the Hue white
bulb is shaped like a more traditional
bulb, but like the color
bulb, it still throws twice as much light out of the top (420
lux) than the sides (300
lux).
Among the tunable white smart
bulbs, the LIFX White 800 is the brightest, peaking at over 1,320
lux from the top and 620 from the side.
The Ilumi was bright, measuring 700
lux from the top and 240
lux from the side, and its colors were considerably richer than those of any other Bluetooth smart
bulbs I used.
Merkury Innovations is bucking that trend by hanging $ 25 price tags on both its
Lux (white) and Prisma (color) series Wi - Fi smart
bulbs.
Those include the
Lux 800, a dimmable (but not tunable) white
bulb; the
Lux 1050, a higher - power, white - tunable
bulb; and the Prisma 450 and Prisma 1050, both color - tunable
bulbs of varying brightness.
As for the
bulbs themselves, the
Lux 800, pre-tuned to 2700K, offers plenty of warmth and, even at a mere 60 - watt equivalent, is bright enough to easily read by.
Like the Hue
Lux LEDs, the WeMo
bulbs are IFTTT - compatible and boast a full suite of well - designed, easy - to - use app controls.
The plug will receive data over Wi - Fi (such as you turning the lights on from the WeMo app), then relay it to the
bulbs via ZigBee, the same standard used by Philips Hue and Hue
Lux LEDs.
Geeni offers you a
LUX white light
bulb series that are as bright as conventional
bulbs for using throughout your home.
Although the Hue
Lux is more economical than the color - changing Hue line, smart
bulbs (across the board) are still a pricey investment.
If you're reading up on smart
bulbs in general, however, and wish to get started with the Hue system (and expand it with third party
bulbs) we'd encourage you to check out our review of the Philips Hue
Lux starter kit here.
When it comes to outfitting multiple rooms the $ 5 difference between the Hue
Lux ($ 20) and more economical
bulbs like the Cree Connected and GE Link (both $ 15) is significant.
At the top of the «My lights» list select «Connect new lights ``; in the screenshot below disregard the «
Lux» entries as these are existing
bulbs already connected to the Hue bridge.
As of this review the Philips Hue
Lux system is the most sensible way to get into the smart
bulb market as there are no comparable smart lighting starter kits.
The starter kit and
bulbs are, even with recent price reduction, still slightly more expensive than competing solutions like the Philips Hue
Lux.
Even with the introduction of the economical Hue
Lux system (a white - only
bulb that's significantly cheaper than the original color - changing Hue
bulbs) the Philips Hue
bulbs are still priced above the third party
bulbs on the market like the Cree Connected and the GE Link.
RELATED: HTG Reviews the Philips Hue
Lux: Frustration Free Smart
Bulbs for the Thoroughly Modern Home
At first glance, Hue
Lux could easily be mistaken for the original Hue we reviewed back in 2012: a screw - fit E26
bulb with a frosted glass top and a tapering body.
The smart lock company was one of the initial partners in Apple's HomeKit certification program, which also included Philips, maker of the connected Hue
Lux light
bulb, and thermostat maker Honeywell.
Specifically, the Amazon Echo allows owners to use their voice for controlling the Switch, Insight Switch, and Light Switch devices from WeMo and the Philips Hue A19,
Lux, BR30, Bloom, and LightStrip light
bulb.
Geeni's lineup of dimmable
bulbs, which range in price from $ 24.99 for the
Lux 800 (60 - watt equivalent) to the
Lux 1050 (75 - watt equivalent), can connect directly to your Wi - Fi network without a hub, eliminating a big pain point with many smart
bulbs.