Last year, Signify, the company behind Philips Hue, unveiled a new lineup of bulbs and strip lights intended to make it more affordable to start installing smart lighting in your home, and lower the barrier to entry – but just how good are they, and how do they compare with the company's full-price smart lights? To find out, I put both types to the test against one another.
Philips Hue bulbs, strips, and lamps have consistently held the top spot in our roundup of the best smart lights here at TechRadar, and for good reason. They provide excellent color reproduction with smooth transitions, brightness up to 1,600 lumens, compatibility with all the major smart home ecosystems, a feature-packed mobile app, and lights for pretty much everywhere, including regular screw-fitting bulbs, spotlights, and outdoor fixtures.
The Hue Essential series gives you almost all the same features, but with a maximum brightness of 806 lumens, and fewer design options. You can choose screw-fitting or bayonet bulbs for lamps and pendant lamps, B22 spotlights, or a five-meter LED strip. However, they're also less than half the price, so those differences are easy to justify.
To see how well they compare in practice, I fitted an 800-lumen White & Color Ambiance bulb and a Philips Hue Essentials bulb in identical table lamps, and used the Hue app to add them to the same zone so I could control them together.
Although the more expensive bulb can display more colors, and uses a different LED system that means it can shift between them more smoothly, in real life I couldn't see any noticeable difference between the two. It might well be a different story if you wanted to sync your lights with a TV screen or PC monitor, but since they're not compatible with a Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, that's a moot point.
The Hue Essential bulb did. however, have a warmer cast when set to one of its white light settings. I'd advise against using a combination of Essential and regular Philips Hue bulbs in the same room to avoid a mis-matched appearance.
The other big difference was dimming. The Hue Essential bulb could only be dimmed to 2% of its maximum brightness, whereas the regular bulb could drop to just 0.2%, which makes the more expensive bulb a better choice for situations where you want very low light levels, for example when setting a lamp to wake you up with a virtual sunrise in the morning, or providing just enough light for you to find the bathroom at night without waking anyone else.
In all other respects, the two bulbs were strikingly similar in performance, and I'd definitely use the Hue Essentials ones for things like basic ceiling lights in hallways and bathrooms that don't require anything too elaborate. They're also great value bundled with the Philips Hue Bridge, making them perfect for newcomers to the world of smart lighting. Take a look below for today's best offers on Philips Hue Essential lights and starter kits.
Today's best Philips Hue Essential deals
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➡️ Read our full guide to the best smart lights
1. Best overall:
Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance
2. Best budget:
Govee Wi-Fi LED Bulb
3. Best for parties:
Govee Curtain Lights
4. Best for bedtime:
Philips Hue Twilight
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