Philips Hue Bluetooth White and Color Ambiance Bulb

amazon Philips Hue Bluetooth White and Color Ambiance Bulb reviews

Philips Hue Bluetooth White and Color Ambiance is a smart LED bulb that you can control with your phone and voice without a controller — that is unless you want to control it from a remote location or make it work with other smart devices.

Philips Hue Bluetooth White and Color Ambiance ($49.99) is the first Hue smart bulb to come with a Bluetooth radio, which means you can control it without connecting to a Hue Bridge. It has an app that allows you to turn on or off, dim and change colors and color temperature settings, and support Alexa and Google voice commands. It offers a quick and easy way to add smart lighting to your home, but it doesn’t come cheap, and you have to be within Bluetooth range to control it. However, you can pair it with the Hue Bridge if you want to control it remotely and take advantage of the smart home integration and all the other features that make Hue a good smart lighting platform best in class.

Design and Features

The Bluetooth model is essentially the same as the bulb you get in the A19 Hue White and Color Ambiance Starter Kit. Still, with one big difference: It contains both Bluetooth and a Zigbee radio (all previous Hue bulbs were just Zigbee and request a bridge). It’s an A19 LED bulb with a standard E26 screw base, and it also comes in a BR30 luminaire form. The bulb is dimmable and capable of displaying 16 million colors, and the white temperature is between 2000-6500K. It has a light output of 800 lumens, roughly equivalent to a 60-watt bulb. It has an estimated lifespan of 25,000 hours or up to 22 years.

Having a Bluetooth radio makes setup easy, but it also has limitations. You must be within 40 feet or more to control the bulbs using the mobile app, and you can only control up to 10 bulbs at a time and manage one room at a time. Furthermore, you can’t take advantage of many of the features that make the Hue platform so special, including the ability to control lights from anywhere, integration with compatible, HomeKit, and IFTTT compatible smart home devices. Support for Hue accessories such as Hue Tap and Hue Motion Sensor, and support for Hue Sync and Hue Entertainment apps.

The good news is that since this bulb also contains a Zigbee radio, it can be paired with the Hue Bridge to become part of your current (or future) Hue ecosystem and take advantage of all the Hue features. In addition to connecting to your home Wi-Fi, Hue Bridge lets you control up to 50 lights and multiple rooms.

Hue Bluetooth offers some cool features despite its limitations, including preset and customizable light scenes and Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice control. The bulb has its own Android and iOS mobile apps that look similar to the full Hue app. It opens the Lights screen showing the tabs of all your Bluetooth bulbs. Each tab is colored according to the bulb’s current color and has an on/off switch and a dimming slider. All Lights tab that you can dim and turns all your Bluetooth lights on/off at once.

Tap any bulb tab to access a setting that allows you to change the color or white temperature using the color wheel. You can also select a preset lighting scene from a list that includes Bright, Night Light, Reading, Energy, Dim, Relax, and Focus. Each preset is customizable, and you can create your scene with custom colors and brightness levels.

At the bottom of the screen is an Explore button that provides information on upgrading the bridge or smart switch.

A Settings button takes you to a screen where you can configure Power On behavior such as color and brightness default light, such as settings where you can connect the bulb to an Amazon or Google device. Switch the bulb to Hue Bridge, upgrade the bulb’s firmware, restore it to its settings root or delete it. The Bluetooth app is missing the Processes (Wake Up, Home and Away, Go to Sleep) and Timers you get with the Wi-Fi Hue app. It also lacks the Room and Zone, Recreation Area, Accessory Setup, and Homeless Controls settings found on the bridged control app.

where can you get a Philips Hue Bluetooth White and Color Ambiance Bulb online

Philips Hue White and Color Ambiance 3-Pack A19 LED Smart Bulb, Bluetooth & Zigbee Compatible (Hue Hub Optional), Works with Alexa & Google Assistant – A Certified for Humans Device (562785): Buy it now

Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance Smart Retrofit Recessed Downlight 4″, Bluetooth & Zigbee Compatible (Hue Hub Optional), Smart Ceiling Lighting: Buy it now

Settings and Performance

Philips Hue Bluetooth Scenes Setting up a Bluetooth Hue bulb couldn’t be easier. I screwed it into a light socket, downloaded the Hue Bluetooth mobile app, entered my name and email address, and then tapped Add Light. Within seconds I received a Bluetooth Pairing Request and pressed Pair. The bulb blinks once and is paired instantly. I click Done, and the installation is complete.

Bluetooth Hue bulbs delivered vibrant colors and a wide range of warm to cold whites in our testing and responded instantly to on/off commands using the app. Scenes work perfectly, as do voice commands using Amazon Echo Plus. I had no trouble turning the bulb on and off, dimming and changing its color simply by asking Alexa.

Conclusion

If you want to immerse yourself in the waters of smart lighting before investing in an expensive centrally controlled system like the Philips Hue White Starter Kit and our editorial pick of Color Ambiance A19, Hue Bluetooth White, and Color Ambiance bulbs are a good place to start. It worked well in our tests and was easy to set up, and you can add it to your Hue ecosystem if and when you decide to go all out and connect it to a bridge. That said, it lacks many of the features you get with hub-connected Hue bulbs.

If you require more connectivity than Hue Bluetooth has to offer in a single bulb, consider the Eufy Lumos White and Color Smart Bulb. It’s about $15 cheaper than Hue Bluetooth and uses Wi-Fi, which means you can control it from anywhere without a hub. However, its expected lifespan is shorter than Hue’s, and despite having a Wi-Fi radio, it has limited built-in options.

Advantages

Works without a central hub.

Easy to install.

Colorful.

Supports Alexa and Google voice commands.

It can be added to the Hue ecosystem.

Defect

Expensive.

Requires Hue Bridge to remotely access and use other Hue features.