Philips Hue Bridge - Unlock the Full Potential of Hue - Multi-Room and Out-of-Home Control - Create Automations and Zones - Secure, Stable Connection Won't Strain Your Wi-Fi - Works with Voice, Matter

Easy to set up, easy to use. The only downside is that it only supports about 64 devices in total. A more capable hub that supports 256 would be better, but adding more device support is about the only way they could improve this.

I struggled with what to include in this review as the product itself is pretty straightforward and really has no meaningful functionality to "review," per se: it either works or it doesn't. In my case, the hub worked just fine, setup was easy enough, and I haven't had any actual trouble with the hub. Since most people looking at the hub are likely considering diving into the Hue system as a whole, my review, instead, will focus on my experience with a relatively built-out Hue system after a few weeks.My current setup includes two BR-30 multicolor lights in my theater room, three of the same in my kitchen, a LightStrip with multiple extenders in the bedroom, and two A7 lightbulbs for our nightstand lamps in the bedroom. The only "smart" home product that I've owned prior to the Hue lights was two Nest thermostats and a Ring doorbell, so my experience with this category of technology is fairly limited.Overall, this lights are just fun. Adding lights to the system was straightforward, the automatic detection worked well, and it was easy to get individual lights assigned to rooms and scenes set up. The Hue app itself is fairly easy to use, though some of the UI decisions in the most recent version of the app are a little annoying (for example, having different "tabs" for individual lights and scenes). I've had some hiccups with getting individual lights to "group" together for color changes when setting up scenes, though this has been relatively rare. Setting up scenes was straightforward, though I'll admit I almost immediately deleted most of the included presets since I thought they were a bit strange. But setting up individual scenes with custom colors and brightness was a breeze.Getting used to using an app - rather than light switches - has been a bit of a challenge. This isn't a fault of the Hue system itself but is something relevant, I think, to the experience of switching to a smart lighting system. A few weeks in, I still accidentally use my light switches at times. I'm looking forward to getting some of the Hue motion sensors to see if this can make the system truly automated; I love the idea of lights turning on and off automatically based on need, and I imagine that this will improve my experience with the system immensely. For now, though, there's definitely a bit of a learning curve to getting used to using an app (and carrying a phone around) to turn your lights on rather than the much more convenient light switch.The main problem I've had thus far is having individual lights being "unreachable" for, sometimes, long periods of time. Interestingly, the lights still respond to scene changes even when they're listed as "unreachable," but I can't control "unreachable" lights individually. I haven't quite figured out what the issue with this is, and I've verified that all of the firmware for the lights and the iOS app are up-to-date. This seems to mostly happen with the bedroom lights, which are located upstairs while the hub is downstairs, and I wonder if this is part of the problem. Perhaps it'll be less of an issue as I continue to expand the system and have a stronger mesh network throughout the house. But I will say that this has been quite an annoyance that I haven't been able to sort out completely. Not enough to say that I won't continue to buy Hue lights, but certainly something to be aware of if this might be enough to cause you to think twice.Because of this issue, HomeKit integration has been spotty for me. While the Hue app will allow me to change the lights via scenes even when they're "unreachable," this isn't the case in HomeKit. As a result, I rarely use HomeKit, and frankly I just find the Hue app easier to use. Since I don't have a ton of smart products, I don't necessarily need the deep integration and automation that can be achieved with the HomeKit system.The brightness and color setting are very granular, and you can create just about any lighting situation you can imagine. You're really only limited to your creativity. For day-to-day use, most of these features are a bit unnecessary, though even at times it can be fun to use some of the different colors. The adjustable brightness and color warmth are incredibly useful on a regular basis. But I can imagine this being a very nice touch for parties or big get togethers.Overall, do I think the Hue system is work the admittedly high cost? After about $600 to be able to light three rooms, I have to say I don't think so. It's a very fun toy, and I'll continue to expand the system, but I don't see this as a huge game-changer. Maybe it's because I'm not using the system to its fullest extent (e.g., integration with a smart thermostat), but I see this as a very expensive amusement and nothing else. Hopefully the lights will last quite a while: at $30-40 for each replacement, this can very quickly become an expensive system. But for those looking for the ability to fine tune your home lighting setup and are willing to pay the high price, I would definitely recommend it, although perhaps try setting it up in just a room or two to see how it goes before you spend a ton of money for whole-house lighting.

I love being able to connect my TV lights to the screen itself so everything is in sync. This is small, fits perfectly behind a TV, the white color keeps it modern and suitable for all color themes.

I have been toying with the idea of getting the Phillips Hue system for my house for a few years now and kept putting it off. But I finally pulled the trigger. The biggest concern I had, and I think most people have, is the price for buying the hub, which you technically do not need for the bluetooth enabled bulbs, but you do need it for other features like controlling lights through the internet instead of having to be in range of your phone or tablet's bluetooth signal which is about 30 feet. The bulbs can be a bit pricey. I bought the candle bulbs for my ceiling fans and they were in the range of $25 a pop for the regular white light ones. If you want the color version, they can be around $50 a pop for that particular bulb. I went with the white lights because I have no need to go all psychedelic, and you can control their temperature to get that nice warm glow which I love and had a hard time finding in a normal LED light. There are cheaper systems out there, but I found with the Phillips Hue system you have access to more apps to control it with, and a bigger line of bulb types for really any kind of lighting solution you need... from light strips, to accent lighting, to regular bulbs, to candle bulbs, to outdoor lighting.... color or just white. I can even control everything through my Android enabled smart TV which is super nice and convenient for me.Installation was simple enough for me. With the hub, you need to plug it directly into a router of some type, either a regular one or your wifi box. I live in a new place where all the rooms have cat 6 Ethernet wall connections so I can easily skip the routers. It took me about 10 minutes to get everything set up and started. For some reason my iPhone did not detect the hub box, but my TV did, but I just manually entered the device's IP address which was given on my TV app and the iPhone app worked just fine after entering that specific IP address. I am not sure why it did that, but I solved that issue in a few short minutes. After I entered the individual bulb serial numbers in the app, it detected them just fine, but the bulbs were located in the same room as the hub. As I purchase more bulbs and put them throughout the house, I am not sure how well the hub will detect them. That is something I am just going to have to try by trial and error. My house and walls are notorious for dampening wifi signal strength. Unfortunately, I currently know of no way to have multiple hubs in one house all operated on the same app. Right now, the apps seem to only let you control one hub and its lights. So, I may not be able to have hue lights in all the places I would like them in the house without having to use multiple apps or devices. I will update my review on this potential issue as I expand my system.But overall, I am satisfied with the Phillips Hue system. There is definitely a lot more room for improvement, but this is a fairly new technology. I find it super convenient because my ceiling lights now can be controlled directly or by a timer system. This is great for those places like hallways and staircases where there are no outlets or places to put lamps plugged into old fashioned timers to light at night. A good improvement idea would be to allow the timers to adjust with the sunset and sunrise actual times since those differ from day to day, month to month, season to season. They are predictable, and to have a system to automatically adjust in correspondence to that would be a solid improvement instead of having to manually reset the timer ever so often to adjust for different sunset and sunrise times throughout the year.

This hub works perfectly with the Hue ecosystem. Setup was quick and hassle-free, and the app is intuitive and user-friendly. It works just as I’d hoped—actually, it exceeded my expectations with how easy everything was to get up and running. Definitely recommend it for anyone using Hue products.

this unit worked with no trouble. it allows much better control of lighting. real Phillips lighting is the best.

Does exactly what it says, and is the only way to get Matter support with Philips Hue products!