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amazon Philips Dimmable A19 Smart Wi-Fi Wiz Light Bulb reviews
The Philips Smart Wi-Fi Wiz Dimmable A19 Bulb is an affordable, hub-free LED light that you can control from your phone, offering plenty of options for party customization and connectivity third-party.
Philips makes some of our favorite smart bulbs, but its Hue LEDs are also some of the most expensive we’ve tested. Starting at only $9.97, the Philips A19 Dimmable Smart Wi-Fi Bulb is a much more affordable option that you can control anywhere with the Wiz for phone app clever. It offers rich features for the price, including support for IFTTT integration and voice control via Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri Shortcuts. Its companion app lets you create Scenes to set the mood for different occasions with the press of a button, Rhythm to adjust lighting based on the time of day automatically, and Schedule to turn on your favorite lighting your preferences on certain days and times.
Price and features
You may not be familiar with the Wiz line, but you’ve certainly heard of Philips’ sister brand Hue. Wiz is essentially a lower-cost alternative to Hue, with the main difference being the back-end technology and protocol they use. Hue is based on Bluetooth and Zigbee, while Wiz uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
Several Philips bulbs to choose from (both in the Hue and Wiz series), but the one I tested here is called the Wi-Fi Wiz Connected Smart Wireless Dimmable Bulb. That is Soft White A19 LED 60W. It offers 800 lumens of brightness, roughly equivalent to a 60-watt incandescent bulb, and has a 2700K (warm) color temperature. It is intended for indoor use only; it stands 5.71 inches tall by 2.83 inches wide and features an E26 base that will fit into any standard light socket. Philips says it’s rated to last 25,000 hours or about 22 years when used for an average of three hours per day.
A single bulb costs $9.97, or you can buy a two-bulb for $19.94 or a four-bulb for $39.88. If the warm-toned Soft White isn’t your fault, the bulb also has a cooler Daylight color temperature for the same price, as well as Adjustable White and Color Shift options; available prices are $11.97 and $12.97 for a bulb, respectively.
The Wyze Bulb also has built-in Wi-Fi, plays well with Alexa and the Google Assistant, offers scheduling options, and lets you create Scenes. It doesn’t offer Siri voice control, dynamic lighting effects, or the Auto Rhythm you get with Philips Wiz (more on these in a bit), but it does have a 2700K to 6500K color temperature range. You can adjust it to warmer or cooler.
Philips Wiz bulb setup
To set up Philips Wiz bulbs, you need first to download the Wiz app (available for Android and iOS), grant it permission to discover and connect to devices on your Wi-Fi network, and accept the Terms of Use. From there, you can create a home, join a home, or log in with an existing Wiz account. It is not compatible with the Philips Hue app.
Since I am new to the Wiz ecosystem, I chose to create a home. In doing so, you name your house (I name it My Home default), give the app permission to find your new lights via Bluetooth, and tap the plus sign at the top of the app to add one new room on the Home page. After you set up the room, tap Add Device > Lights, then enter your Wi-Fi password.
Then you have the option to do smart or manual pairing. With the smart pairing option, you can set up multiple lights simultaneously; the manual pairing option only allows you to handle them one by one. Since I just set up one, I used the manual pairing option. The app instructs you to power off the lights, then quickly turn them on three times, after which the bulb pulses with a blue/cool light.
After doing this, my light didn’t pulse, so I went back and tried the smart pairing option. For this method, you turn the lights off, then on, the app shows a 60-second countdown while searching for them. Unfortunately, the app is still looking for my light bulb after the minute is up. I waited a little longer, and it didn’t seem to work, so I force closed the app, reopened it, and the light connected.
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Light bulb control
After connecting the bulb, you’ll see five tabs at the bottom of the Wiz app: Home, Scenes, Rhythm, Schedule, and Settings.
On the Home page, you’ll see any rooms you’ve created and all the lights set up in each room. When you click on a light bulb, you’ll see its name at the top of the app. The Home tab has On, Off, and Night Lights buttons that let you quickly control your connected bulbs. There is also a dimmer slider to adjust its brightness.
This bulb supports several dynamic lighting effects, including Flashing Light; Pulse, fade in and out; and Steampunk, frequently flashing for a vintage feel. For the latter two, you can control the speed of the effect by using a slider with the tortoise and rabbit on the other. The app also offers Wake-up and Bedtime options that gradually lighten or dim, respectively, over 30 minutes.
In Scenes, you can save the current state of your lights to adjust them in the same way in the future quickly. To add a Scene, tap the plus sign in the upper-right corner, select a room, name your Scene, take a photo of the light to help you remember what it looks like, then tap Create This Scene. Then, when you want to tweak your lighting that way in the future, just hit the play button on that Scene. With the iOS app, you can also create a custom Siri shortcut phrase for that Scene.
Under Rhythmbox, you can turn on a Ring Rhythm setting that provides the best lighting throughout the day according to your waking and bedtime habits. You can also create a custom Rhythm that will automatically turn on selected lighting modes at a specified time. You can add up to five highlights when creating a Custom Rhythm.
In Schedule, you can program your connected bulbs to perform certain actions, such as turning them on or off, on specified days and times. For example, you can create a Morning Schedule that allows Wake-up mode to start at 7:30 a.m. every day of the week. There is also a Sleep Mode option designed to simulate presence at home in the morning and evening while you are away.
In Settings, you can create a new home, add rooms to your home, edit the lights in each room, invite others to join your home to control the lights, view your energy consumption, access video tutorials, and chat with someone from support for help. You can also enable and manage integrations with Amazon Alexa, Alice, Conrad Connect, Enki, IFTTT, ImperiHome, Google Assistant, and SmartThings. With IFTTT, you can program your light bulbs to react based on your location, weather, Facebook notifications, and more.
If you have the Alexa app on your phone, it only takes a few taps to link it to Wiz. After doing so, you can control the lights with voice commands like “Alexa, turn on the light,” “Alexa, turn the light to warm white,” or “Alexa, dim it.”
Performance
I inserted the bulb into my office light and created a “Work” Scene in the Wiz app that adjusts the light to its brightest setting with the push of a button. I also created a Lights Out Scene, and both worked without issue. Then I create Siri shortcuts to run the appropriate Scene when I say to the virtual assistant, “Turn on my work light” or “Turn off my work light,” and the feature works as expected. After linking the Wiz to Amazon Alexa, I had no problem controlling the light bulb with voice commands through my Echo smart speaker.
That said, I’ve had some issues controlling the bulbs through the app’s Home menu. Sometimes, I’ll press the On or Off button or adjust the brightness slider, and the bulb becomes unresponsive or only does so after a delay. When it’s completely unresponsive, I can always get it to work by switching to another part of the app or force closing it and trying again.
Conclusion
The Philips Smart Wi-Fi Wiz dimmable A19 bulb offers loads of value and convenience at a low price. It works with Wi-Fi for app control without the need for a separate hub, supports voice commands, and has plenty of customization options, including the ability to create Scenes and Lighting Schedules. Aside from some minor Wi-Fi connectivity issues, which are easily remedied, there’s very little you don’t like about this bulb. Overall, it’s a great smart dimmable Wi-Fi LED bulb for the price, but it falls a bit behind the Wyze Bulb, our Editors’ Choice in the range. This micro costs less ($7.99 per bulb) and has adjustable white temperature but lacks Siri controls and dynamic lighting effects.
Advantages
Good price
No need for a central hub
Connect via Wi-Fi for remote app control
Works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, and Siri Shortcuts
Supports Light Rhythms, Scenes, and Schedules
Defect
Responsive Wi-Fi setup and app control in the test
Does not support HomeKit