Philips Hue Bridge Assessment vs Bluetooth

Over the previous yr, I’ve reviewed fairly a couple of glorious Philips Hue merchandise, and I’m presently in the course of reviewing the brand new Philips Hue Surimu rectangle panel gentle and the wall change module.

I’ve all the time used the Philips Hue Bridge as I began utilizing Hue earlier than they rolled out the Bluetooth performance again in 2019. Nonetheless, I’ve by no means really reviewed the Philips Hue Bridge or the way it compares to Bluetooth management.

Somewhat than including an enormous part to my Surimu evaluate, I made a decision to put in writing a devoted piece on the Hue Bridge.

For all of the Philips Hue indoor lights, you’ll be able to management the lights with Bluetooth. For the outside lights, you could use a Hue Bridge.

You probably have a Hue Bridge, you’ll be able to join as much as 50 lights all through your complete house, however if you happen to management your sensible lights through Bluetooth, you’ll be able to solely join as much as 10 lights in a single room.

Philips Hue Opinions

My earlier Philips Hue opinions embrace:

Philips Hue Bridge vs Bluetooth Management Execs and Cons

Philips Hue Bridge

The Hue Bridge is a central hub that acts as the guts of the Philips Hue ecosystem. It connects to your house community through Ethernet, and the sensible bulbs talk with the Bridge utilizing a wi-fi protocol referred to as Zigbee. The Bridge serves as a bridge between your smartphone or different sensible gadgets and the Hue bulbs, permitting you to manage the lights remotely via the Philips Hue app or voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple HomeKit. The Bridge permits superior options equivalent to creating schedules, scenes, and automation, which give a extra sturdy and seamless sensible lighting expertise.

Execs of Philips Hue Bridge:

• Helps a bigger variety of bulbs and equipment.
• Higher vary and reliability on account of Zigbee’s mesh community expertise.
• Permits for extra superior options and integrations with different sensible house gadgets.
• Distant management and entry whenever you’re away from house.

Cons of Philips Hue Bridge:

• Requires an extra buy (the Bridge itself) to function the system absolutely.
• Requires a wired connection to your house community.

Bluetooth Management

Philips Hue additionally launched Bluetooth-enabled sensible bulbs again in 2019 to cater to customers who could not wish to put money into the Hue Bridge initially. These Bluetooth bulbs will be managed instantly out of your smartphone through the Philips Hue Bluetooth app. This setup does not require the Bridge, because the bulbs themselves have Bluetooth functionality built-in, permitting for fundamental management and color changes.

Execs of Bluetooth Management:

• No must buy the Hue Bridge, making it a extra inexpensive entry level to sensible lighting.
• Appropriate for customers who solely need fundamental management with out the necessity for superior options or distant entry.

Cons of Bluetooth Management:

• Restricted vary; you could be comparatively near the bulbs to manage them instantly through Bluetooth.
• Restricted system assist
• Bluetooth connection will be much less secure in comparison with the Zigbee community used with the Hue Bridge.
• No assist for superior options, equivalent to automation and integration with different sensible house gadgets.

Vary of Hue Bridge vs Bluetooth

The Hue Bridge has a 291-metre outside vary and an indoor vary of 25 metres. Nonetheless, the Hue lights themselves will act as a repeater for the ZigBee sign, extending the vary of your complete system. So, you need to by no means have any vary points with the Hue Bridge, whereas Bluetooth is usually a bit annoying.

With Bluetooth, you have got an approximate vary of 9 metres and usually, you’d management no matter lights can be found within the room you’re in.

Enhance the system capability of the Hue Bridge

As acknowledged beforehand, the Hue Bridge is designed to deal with 50 lights and equipment (it may well deal with a bit of greater than that).

Previously, if you happen to had extra gadgets than this, you’d must arrange a second Hue Bridge and run the Hue app on a distinct system.

Nonetheless, Philips Hue now permits you to add a second Bridge to your account by:

1. Go to Settings

2. Faucet Hue Bridges

3. Faucet the plus icon (+)

This successfully runs two Zigbee networks which might trigger congestion. You need to place the hubs throughout your house and pair up the lights to the closest hub. It will guarantee probably the most dependable efficiency.

Philips Hue Bluetooth Options

With the Hue Bluetooth app, you’ll be able to activate and off your lights, dim and brighten them, and set gentle recipes or customized scenes, relying on what kind of bulb you have got: White, White Ambiance, or White and Color Ambiance. 

You possibly can management your Bluetooth lights along with your voice through sensible house assistants, equivalent to Amazon Alexa utilizing the Echo Dot third Technology or choose Google Residence gadgets.

Philips Hue Bridge Options

As highlighted within the execs and cons, the Hue bridge can join as much as 50 lights throughout your house and extra with further Hubs.

It then offers you full entry to the vary of Hue and Associates of Hue sensible equipment and all of the sensible features that Hue has to supply. This contains:

Philips Hue Bridge Equipment

To take advantage of sensible lighting, I feel the assorted equipment you may get are important. Having to drag my telephone out each time I wish to change on a lightweight defeats the item of getting a sensible gentle, I would as nicely use a change.

Philips Hue has an intensive vary of their very own equipment. Highlights embrace:

Dimmer Change

A vital funding. The dimmer change successfully replaces your gentle change and magnetically attaches to the wall mount, and is battery-powered, permitting you to take it with you whenever you enter the room. You assign the change to a room or rooms, and you may set scenes based mostly on the button presses.

Good button

It is a simplified model of the dimmer change. A single click on controls your lights whereas urgent and holding the button dims or brightens them. There may be not a lot value distinction between this and the dimmer, so I might personally follow the dimmer.

Faucet dial change

The Faucet dial change is an upgraded dimmer, supplying you with 4 buttons and a pleasing-to-use dial to manage the brightness. Utilizing the totally different buttons, you’ll be able to management totally different rooms with one change.

Hue Movement sensor

This has been one other important funding for me, and I discover that is superior to different movement sensors that you need to use from third-party integrations.

On the time of writing, there are solely two time zones, one for day and one for night time. Later within the yr, this shall be up to date to offer you as much as 10 time zones.

Philips Hue wall change module

I’ve not too long ago put in a Philips Hue wall change module and shall be reviewing it quickly. You probably have changed all of your lights in a room with Hue bulbs, then this makes plenty of sense.

It sits behind your dumb change within the again field, and it basically leaves the sunshine circuit powered on. Whenever you press the change, it would then activate no matter operate you have got assigned. On the whole, this might be on/of, and you may toggle to alter scenes.

There are two massive advantages to this:

• It is a a lot cleaner look vs having a dumb change and a dimmer sat subsequent to it.
• It prevents anybody from by chance turning the lights off with a traditional change.

Play HDMI Sync Field

I’ve reviewed the Play HDMI Sync Field, and it’s a very good however costly option to sync up your lights with no matter you’re watching on TV or listening to in your telephone.

It sits between your media participant, equivalent to a FireTV or Nvidia Protect, and the TV (or AV receiver). It then takes the sign from the HDMI cable and maps the lighting to no matter is displayed in your TV.

Matter

Matter is meant to rework the sensible house market by enhancing interoperability between manufacturers. It has been off to a rocky begin, I wasn’t overly impressed with Matter after I reviewed the Google Nest WiFi Professional, however it would enhance as extra manufacturers assist it.

Philips Hue was presupposed to roll out Matter by the top of 2023, however this has now been delayed. There was no timeframe given for the rollout, and plenty of different manufacturers have additionally delayed rolling it out on their merchandise.

Third-Celebration Integrations

A giant promoting level for Hue is the in depth assist throughout platforms. It’s so nicely supported that you do not actually need to fret about Matter that a lot.

The third-party integrations are too in depth to listing, however highlights embrace:

• Voice Management:
• Leisure / Mild Syncing
  • Spotify – hyperlink your account to sync your lightsCorsair iCue to sync your lights with iCue gadgets
  • Razer sync your lights with in-game actions and Razer merchandise
• Good Residence Units:

With IFTTT, Homey, SmartThings and Residence Assistant, you may get Hue working with a variety of sensible house ecosystems and create complicated house automation scenes.

My Philips Hue Residence

Amazon tells me that I purchased my first Philips Hue product again in 2016 with one of many starter kits. On the time, I believed it was an overpriced luxurious that I would not use that a lot. Within the subsequent two months, I purchased 5 extra bulbs and two dimmers. Then one other eight bulbs and a dimmer in 2017, and continued to switch as many bulbs as potential since then.

The one space I have never invested in is the Hue GU10 bulbs. At £50 for a single color atmosphere bulb, it will get a bit spendy when I’ve eight or extra GU10 bulbs in my dwelling areas. I might strongly suggest the panel lights instead product.

I feel when you go down the Philips Hue route, it’s onerous resisting the temptation to develop the system and decide to their ecosystem.   

TV Room

The room the place I watch TV has probably the most spectacular Hue options. On this room, I’ve:

• 2 x lamps with Hue atmosphere bulbs
• Philips Hue Signe Gradient Flooring Lamp
• Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip
• Philips Hue Faucet Dial Change
• Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Field

I haven’t got any automations arrange, I as a substitute use the Faucet Dial Change to activate the lights and choose no matter scene I would like. Once I watch a film, I’ll sync my lights utilizing the HDMI Sync Field for a extra immersive expertise.  

For common TV, I’m a bit fan of the Tropical Twilight and Savana Sundown scenes as they supply a very good stage of sunshine that’s simple on my eyes.

Hallways

Utilizing Philips Hue in my hallways is my favorite a part of my Hue system. We dwell in a nook home with no exterior home windows within the hallways, so they’re all the time darkish. Utilizing dumb switches inevitably means I fumble round at the hours of darkness at night time and neglect to change the lights off.

With Hue, I’ve movement sensors to activate the lights after I enter after which change off routinely after 2 minutes. At night time, the lights come on with the dim scene or night time gentle, so I do not get blinded.  

Workplace

I’ve three Hue bulbs in my workplace, and extra not too long ago, I put in the wall change module. The lights come on routinely by schedule as a result of I stick with the identical schedule daily. The wall change module then offers a neat set up, and after I depart the workplace within the night, I can press the change, and it’ll flip off all of the Hue lights with out disconnecting them.

Bedrooms

For the bedrooms, we management the lights utilizing dimmer switches. I then have the lights switched off at a set time within the morning to keep away from them being left on.

Most of my Hue merchandise are managed through schedules or the Hue sensors, however I even have Hue built-in into Homey and use Aqara gentle switches on lots of my sockets, which might then activate the lights.

Since reviewing the Homey Bridge, I’ve additionally arrange an Aqara wi-fi change to change my Hue bedside gentle on and lift my Aqara blinds after I change it on within the morning. Simply to be further lazy.

General

The Bluetooth performance with Philips Hue is actually solely there to offer you a taster of what Hue can supply with out the necessity to put money into the £50 Bridge.

You probably have no intention of ever getting the Bridge or increasing your system, then there are numerous competing manufacturers with extra inexpensive merchandise that will make extra sense than Hue.

Signify, the corporate behind Philips Hue, additionally personal WiZ, and so they appear to be the most effective sensible lighting different. There may be TP-Hyperlink Tapo which has fewer lighting merchandise however is a bit higher worth for cash.

As for Philips Hue, they’re by far the most effective sensible lighting ecosystem on the market, and the Philips Hue Bridge is a necessary buy if you wish to take advantage of their merchandise.

The one drawback with them being the most effective is that there’s a vital premium to pay for his or her lighting merchandise. I really assume the Bridge is kind of inexpensive, and it’s a minor price in comparison with the remainder of my system.

Final replace on 2023-08-05 / Affiliate hyperlinks / Photos from Amazon Product Promoting API