Philips Hue Line Gains Brighter A21 Bulb, Bluetooth Lightstrip and Revamped Bloom Lamp

[MacRumors]

The Philips Hue line of lights is gaining several new additions this summer, including a bright white bulb, a Bluetooth version of the Lightstrip Plus, and a revamped Hue Bloom.

Priced at $20, the new Philips Hue White A21 bulb is the brightest bulb in the Hue lineup with 1,600 lumen output that's equivalent to a 100W bulb. That's much brighter than the standard Hue White and Color Ambiance bulbs, which are 60W equivalent. The Hue White A21 bulb can fully illuminate a kitchen, garage, or other room, plus it offers wireless dimming. It will launch in late July.

Also new is the Bluetooth-enabled Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus, a Bluetooth version of the popular Hue Lightstrip Plus that connects to WiFi. This new Bluetooth model does not require a hub to work, though it is compatible with the Hue hub. Up to eight extensions can be added.

A two-meter Bluetooth Lightstrip will be available from Target for $79.99 starting this week, and it will come to other retailers later in the summer. A one-meter extension will also be available for purchase for $24.99.

Along with the new A21 bulb and the Lightstrip, the Hue line is also gaining a redesigned Bluetooth-compatible Hue Bloom table lamp, which features richer colors and an improved white light with brightness up to 500 lumens compared to the prior version. It has also been updated with a more consistent experience with the rest of the Hue range, and the color temperature can now be tuned from 2000K to 6500K.

The Philips Hue Bloom will be available in late July and it will cost $69.99. More information on all of the new announcements can be found on the Philips Hue website.

Article Link: Philips Hue Line Gains Brighter A21 Bulb, Bluetooth Lightstrip and Revamped Bloom Lamp

 

[itsmilo]

Thanks for the heads up. Was just about to buy an additional light for the kitchen in our new apartment. Guess I will wait

 

[SBlue1]

The Hue light strip is the best under cupboard light I ever had.

 

[dsdevries]

The whole smart lighting idea is nice. Too bad the lights themselves suck so badly. All the Philips Hue lights are rated CRI80 at 4000K. When dimmed and set to a warmer 2700K the CRI drops way below 75. Even fluorescent produce richer colours than this! Whenever I visit friends that have these Philips Hue lamps it looks like everyone ate some bad mussels or something.

The Philips master line have much cheaper GU10 lamps that are rated CRI97 at 2700K. Osram has a Clear retro look E27 lamp that is rated CRI90 at 2700K. Both of these are just a few bucks and produce much nicer light. Even when dimmed heavily. Why on earth would you want to mess around with these Philips Hue crap?

 

[itsmilo]

The whole smart lighting idea is nice. Too bad the lights themselves suck so badly. All the Philips Hue lights are rated CRI80 at 4000K. When dimmed and set to a warmer 2700K the CRI drops way below 75. Even fluorescent produce richer colours than this! Whenever I visit friends that have these Philips Hue lamps it looks like everyone ate some bad mussels or something.

The Philips master line have much cheaper GU10 lamps that are rated CRI97 at 2700K. Osram has a Clear retro look E27 lamp that is rated CRI90 at 2700K. Both of these are just a few bucks and produce much nicer light. Even when dimmed heavily. Why on earth would you want to mess around with these Philips Hue crap?

because the average person like me didn’t understand a single thing you just wrote. I am happy with my Hue lights and it was easy enough to set up. Love it

 

[x-evil-x]

The whole smart lighting idea is nice. Too bad the lights themselves suck so badly. All the Philips Hue lights are rated CRI80 at 4000K. When dimmed and set to a warmer 2700K the CRI drops way below 75. Even fluorescent produce richer colours than this! Whenever I visit friends that have these Philips Hue lamps it looks like everyone ate some bad mussels or something.

The Philips master line have much cheaper GU10 lamps that are rated CRI97 at 2700K. Osram has a Clear retro look E27 lamp that is rated CRI90 at 2700K. Both of these are just a few bucks and produce much nicer light. Even when dimmed heavily. Why on earth would you want to mess around with these Philips Hue crap?

nobody can tell the difference between my hue bulbs and a incandescent bulb. I have to tell everyone they are led bulbs. All of my kitchen spotlights are also hue. Hues can match color from 2500-3500 pretty well compared to a normal bulb color. The led strips can do the same unlike Lifx that do horrible whites.
Not too sure what you're talking about that colors are bad on these. They might not get as bright. I sometimes have two bulbs in one light but I think the colors are pretty accurate looking at an incandescent and hue side by side.

 

[fhall1]

About time they made a 100W equivalent. 60W doesn't cut it for most of our lighting needs.

 

[kemal]

You can request white, soft white, cool white and so on. One can even differentiate between pink and hot pink. Essential with a five year old.

 

[The.316]

because the average person like me didn’t understand a single thing you just wrote. I am happy with my Hue lights and it was easy enough to set up. Love it

Question...do you need a hub for the bulbs, or can an Apple TV act as one? I have two bulbs from a different brand, that run through my Dot. I’m fixing up my place, and was thinking of going with Philips bulbs.

 

[obiwantoby]

The whole smart lighting idea is nice. Too bad the lights themselves suck so badly. All the Philips Hue lights are rated CRI80 at 4000K. When dimmed and set to a warmer 2700K the CRI drops way below 75. Even fluorescent produce richer colours than this! Whenever I visit friends that have these Philips Hue lamps it looks like everyone ate some bad mussels or something.

The Philips master line have much cheaper GU10 lamps that are rated CRI97 at 2700K. Osram has a Clear retro look E27 lamp that is rated CRI90 at 2700K. Both of these are just a few bucks and produce much nicer light. Even when dimmed heavily. Why on earth would you want to mess around with these Philips Hue crap?

I agree with this. I have been on a crusade to introduce higher CRI lighting. I am not sure what meets even 90+ in the smart bulb space. Perhaps this new bulb could be closer. Smart lights do have a certain level of ease and awesome to them. If I want daylight 1 hour or 30 minutes before sunset it helps ease the transition into night.

 

[robertcoogan]

So now have a Bluetooth-controlled light bulb to save us the trouble of walking approx. 33 feet (Bluetooth range) to turn on a light. For $20.

 

[zorinlynx]

It's too bad they're not offering a brighter version of their color bulbs, because that might lead me to upgrade some of mine!

 

[tfresquezdxs]

It's too bad they're not offering a brighter version of their color bulbs, because that might lead me to upgrade some of mine!

Agreed! They are not horrible by any means, but I definitely think they are two dim. I have 2 in my bedroom and they are just not bright enough in my opinion.

 

[itsmilo]

Question...do you need a hub for the bulbs, or can an Apple TV act as one? I have two bulbs from a different brand, that run through my Dot. I’m fixing up my place, and was thinking of going with Philips bulbs.

i actually don’t know. I got my first bulbs from a Christmas special over 3 years ago and it included the bridge for free

 

[MHenr]

Question...do you need a hub for the bulbs, or can an Apple TV act as one?

No, you'll still need a bridge.
You can use (official and unofficial) apps on your iOS devices or AppleTV to control the lights though.
In order to do so you have to pair the app with the bridge.

 

[jglavin]

The whole smart lighting idea is nice. Too bad the lights themselves suck so badly. All the Philips Hue lights are rated CRI80 at 4000K. When dimmed and set to a warmer 2700K the CRI drops way below 75. Even fluorescent produce richer colours than this! Whenever I visit friends that have these Philips Hue lamps it looks like everyone ate some bad mussels or something.

The Philips master line have much cheaper GU10 lamps that are rated CRI97 at 2700K. Osram has a Clear retro look E27 lamp that is rated CRI90 at 2700K. Both of these are just a few bucks and produce much nicer light. Even when dimmed heavily. Why on earth would you want to mess around with these Philips Hue crap?

LED manufacturers can game CRI ratings without actually performing correctly. If you're picky about color rendition be sure to look for the TM30 metrics of your lamps. It's similar to the color gamut charts you can get on good computer monitors and any manufacturer that's serious about color rendition will publish theirs.

In any case, Hue lights are not bad at all, certainly fine for residential use. Sure, you probably won't find them in an art museum. Frankly I find I'm more annoyed with the lighting design/fixture placements in friend's homes than I am with the light source itself.

 

[macsplusmacs]

My Hue light system has brought our house so much ease and convenience. I will definitely be updating to these brighter bulbs though. one of my only complaints.

Go Hue!

 

[gugy]

Hue looks cool but they seem too overpriced. Many cheaper options on Amazon, probably not as easy to use or the quality a bit inferior but when it comes to value, I think they are hard to beat.

 

[Stromos]

70 bucks for some RGB LEDs and a zwave chip in a plastic housing. Hue is still insane. Keep buying it!

I like my Hue Iris lamps but they were 15 bucks on clearance at HD. I bet Hue still made money.

 

[nwcs]

Glad to finally see this much needed update. I’ll be buying two as soon as they’re available.

 

[sinsin07]

Question...do you need a hub for the bulbs, or can an Apple TV act as one? I have two bulbs from a different brand, that run through my Dot. I’m fixing up my place, and was thinking of going with Philips bulbs.

i actually don’t know. I got my first bulbs from a Christmas special over 3 years ago and it included the bridge for free

No, you'll still need a bridge.
You can use (official and unofficial) apps on your iOS devices or AppleTV to control the lights though.
In order to do so you have to pair the app with the bridge.

If you use Apple TV, you need bridge.
The image above in article shows icons for Amazon and Google.
You can use voice control for the bulbs using devices from those companies without a bridge.
The following is directly from Phillips website:

What's supported:

Philips Hue App
IOS 11 and later
Android 7.0 and later

Voice assistants
Amazon Alexa
Google Assistant

Apple HomeKit (Via Hue Bridge)
Microsoft Cortana (Via Hue Bridge)

Philips Hue Bluetooth App
IOS 11 and later
Android 7.0 and late

However without the bridge, some functionality may not be available.
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snip... That's much brighter than the standard Hue White and Color Ambiance bulbs, which are 60W equivalent.

Phillips made a bulb brighter than 60W:

Philips 75-Watt Equivalent A19 Dimmable Energy Saving LED Light Bulb Daylight (5000K) (2-Pack) 556449 - The Home Depot

Philips LED A-Shape light bulbs are a smart alternative to standard incandescent, with longer life and excellent performance. Perfect for any general lighting application, this Philips 9.5-Watt is ideal

www.homedepot.com

I don't know if this is consider "standard" or not.

 

[zorinlynx]

Hue looks cool but they seem too overpriced. Many cheaper options on Amazon, probably not as easy to use or the quality a bit inferior but when it comes to value, I think they are hard to beat.

It seems overpriced at first, but the bulbs last practically forever, so in the long run it doesn't matter.

I bought all my Hue kit about for years ago and have spent $0 since then. Everything is still working great.

 

[dsdevries]

because the average person like me didn’t understand a single thing you just wrote. I am happy with my Hue lights and it was easy enough to set up. Love it

Ok, And this is exactly how the average person is being screwed over by manufacturers who lie or leave information behind in order to sell you cheap products for bigger margins.

CRI stands for Color Rendition Index. It basically means how much of the humanly visible light spectrum a lamp can produce. Just like the frequency response of a speaker or headphone tells you how much of the audible frequencies it can produce. Most people know by now that listening to cheap headphones can induce serious hearing loss because people tend to listen to them at much louder volumes in order to make up for the frequencies the headphones are unable to produce.

The same goes for CRI in lamps. A single LED is not able to produce the full visible light spectrum. So manufacturers usually mix different LED's into a single Light source to produce a wider spectrum. This works great when you look at the light source directly because your brain can somehow fill in the blanks. This principle has been used for years in TV's and computerscreens in which a pixel made out of a Red, Green and Blue diode can produce millions of colours. However, this principle does not work when the light needs to reflect on different surfaces before it reaches your eyes. Because when light falls on a yellow surface for instance, what this means is that the light of all frequencies except for that yellow frequency are being absorbed. So when that yellow frequency is not actually in the light source, then no light at all is being reflected and the surface would appear to be black. So, in theory, with just a few Red, Green and Blue diodes, I will be able to produce a light source that appears to be a nice warm white when you look directly at it, but is unable to light out a yellow object. And this is how manufacturers fool you.

But be warned, Cheap lights with a low CRI can also lead to serious problems! Most people can notice something is off, but can not quite pinpoint what it is exactly. It only becomes apparent when you dimm the lights and wan't to lay out a puzzel, play a game of rummikub, read a comic, study arts or basically anything that involves looking at colourful objects. Even though most of the room seems properly lit, you just can't seem to see everything perfectly. So you dimm the lights a little bit less. But just like Louder sound does not equal more or better sound, brighter light does not equal more or better light.

The brighter ambience with mainly blueish hues prevents your body from producing melatonine. This is how many people develop sleep problems. Sleep problems leed to psychiatric problems. Psychiatric problems lead to social problems. And many years and a lot of medical expenses later, people find out that all their problems were just caused by the cheap LED lights.

 

[Unregistered 4U]

I bet Hue still made money.

No, but HD did
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because the average person like me didn’t understand a single thing you just wrote. I am happy with my Hue lights and it was easy enough to set up. Love it

How familiar are you with CRI exactly?
Uh, not at all.
Oh BOY! I envy you!

 

[FaustsHausUK]

Question...do you need a hub for the bulbs, or can an Apple TV act as one? I have two bulbs from a different brand, that run through my Dot. I’m fixing up my place, and was thinking of going with Philips bulbs.

Philips Hue products only work with the bridge device. Philips offers bulbs under Wiz branding that don’t need the bridge, but the lineup is limited: https://www.usa.lighting.philips.com/consumer/smart-wifi-led

I’ve been tempted to pull the trigger on a Hue setup but I’m scared it’ll be a pain to use without installing switches or using a voice assistant.