Design & Construction

Philips Hue has for the most part been dominating the lighting market since the start of time and the Hue Starter Kit A60 is one of the first thing a potential smart home buyer will get when tey are interested in building out their smart home lighting setup. The Hue Starter Kit includes 3 white and colour ambience E27 bulbs alongside a Hue Bridge to get everything going. Each individual bulb features a plastic build that keeps it lightweight yet durable against potentially drops. The design is of a sultan bulb shape and there is your E27 screw at the bottom. There are also no controls on the Hue bulb itself so set-up will only be done using the Philips Hue app. The Hue Bridge on the other hand requires a plug-in Ethernet connection to your Wi-Fi router to keep working and there are 3 LED light indicators to indicate the working condition of the lights. In the centre, there is a button with the Philips logo and a blue ring LEd around it that acts as a pairing button to add new lights to the system.

Lighting Performance & Quality

Moving on to lighting performance, each Hue bulb features a 9W output with 806 lumens. The projected lifespan of the bulb is around 25,000 hours and the colour ranges from 2000-6500K. Out of the box. the lamp needs a Hue Bridge to connect the lamp to Wi-Fi. To set-up the lamp, you will require the Philips Hue app, which will guide you through the process and register the bulbs for you. The app is available on both the App and Play Store. In the app, you may hook up your Hue bulbs by pressing the Hue Bridge once to enter pairing mode. You can then eventually add it to any of your room and set it up to work together with other bulbs as well as Entertainment Areas. When used with the Hue Sync app, the bulbs will flash to change colours according to the movie or video lights and elevate the watching experience. It simply works flawlessly and syncs up quickly with no lag at all. In the app, there are lighting presets that you can choose from and you can find more in the Hue Labs tabs. You can also fine-tune the brightness and colour ambience to your liking. If you are into setting up routines, you can make customs to turn on lights at specific timings or when you arrive home. There is also the option to do software updates and link it to a Hue Dimmer Switch. After set-up, you can link your Hue account and add the Hue bulbs to your preferred smart home app of Apple Homekit, Google Home or Amazon Alexa.

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Connectivity & Portability

In terms of connectivity, the Hue Bridge supports up to 50 bulbs without any compromises to the connection. I am glad to report that the Hue bulbs work as intended and elevate the smart home experience.

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PROS​

• Modern & Minimalistic Design

• Multiple Light Recipes

• Stable Software Updates

• Dimmer Switch Compatibility

• Customisable Brightness & Colour Change

• Google Home, Amazon Alexa & Apple Homekit Compatible

 

The Bottom Line

Overall, the Philips Hue Starter Kit A60 is a great way to elevate the smart home lighting needs for any potential buyers. The Hue Starter Kit has everything you need to get started and encourages you to continue adding to your Hue ecosystem.