Philips Hue Buying Guide (2023)

Philips Hue has a large catalog of smart lighting and accessories, but they don't come cheap. Here are our top picks.
Products featured in this video 👇
Gradient Light Tube: cnet.co/3jknlyV
Gradient Signe Floor Lamp: cnet.co/3FCBRcG
Tap Dial Light Switch: cnet.co/3v3x92L
Gradient PC LED Lightstrip: cnet.co/3v2u1nV
Philips Hue: cnet.co/3VL4TgV
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More lighting videos:
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Chapters:
0:00 - Best of Philips Hue
0:43 - Light Tube
3:12 - Gradient Signe Lamp
4:27 - Tap Dial Light Switch
6:21 - Monitor Gradient Light Strip
7:25 - Festavia String Lights for Xmas
9:11 - Hue Lightguide Bulb
9:36 - More Smart Lighting Incoming

[@Justin_tech]

What are your favorite smart home light fixtures? 👇

[@soberanisfam1323]

What do you suggest as a first Philips hue purchase: Signe or light tube? This is for a bedroom. Thanks!

[@ParkerPoses]

AMAZON WAREHOUSE

[@bblande]

Justin, which kidney should I sell first to buy Hue products?

[@Janus1000]

Left. Or, someone else’s.

[@Undertakerfan700]

$100 per rgb bulb in my country

[@Banaaani]

Both obviously

[@jacobneale3985]

Left first. Right after.

[@MillenniumFalcon]

I love the light sabre/uh tube lamp and the floor lamp the mos (remote is a bonus). Great dancing/jammin' skills my man. Thanks for the helpful review.

[@Arthur_StJohn]

hey Justin good to have you back reviewing Phillips Hue products again!

[@mykelv9693]

I have a question about the light tube. Since it lights up the whole wall behind tv, does it interfere with the gradient lightstrip ? I mean specifically when both lights being in sync mode. Or do they compliment each other?

[@josephj6521]

I like the outdoor range to brighten up my yard. Works great with a hue switch so anyone can turn them on or off without a phone.

[@infj2177]

Hello Justin! Can the colors, gradients and brightness of Goovie floor light be controlled through Philips Hue remote or a smart plug? Or just turn on and off functionality

[@cbrown1472]

Can you mount the gradient light tube vertically? Or does it only work in the app horizontally below or above the tv. I would love to use it in the corners of my room with the sync box

[@richarda3764]

I always felt Hue lights were overpriced, and I still think they are if you just want a bulb that you can change color and turn on and off with a schedule. But I moved into a new house and wanted a dark hallway to light up based on motion from either end of the hall. I also wanted different colors and dimming levels based on the time of day. Hue was the only one that had the correct type of light fixture that I had in the ceiling, plus motion sensors that work together, plus the color and dim levels. It works flawlessly and I'm really pleased with the look and function even though it cost an arm and a leg.

[@DJ.EJ.]

I have a piano that Id love to sync with lights when music plays from it.. (I don't want to hook up a computer) it has a speaker in it.. what do you suggest?

[@tiffany5071]

I had a lot of issues with the HDMI sync box, had to return it. Not sure if the box would just turn off or lose connection, tv screen would go black like it's switching input. Then one day it just lost connection for days and would blink. I only had it for about two weeks, sad I really liked watching movies using it.

[@ForGodAndTheEmpire]

Great video, Justin! Glad to see you back on KZbin - have missed you on Justin_tech!

[@Claudius2k]

Thanks Justin. Unfortunately music synchronization on the Hue is merely volume level sync. Pulsing to music. Very cheap. True music sync technology is 4 decades old (color organs) and are simple frequency responsive bypass filters. Color bands are chosen for different frequency bands blue lows and red or yellow highs. It's mesmerizing. Hue is missing the boat, it would be so easy to filter the frequency spectrum by color and send the corresponding hue colors out to the devices. They have 90% of the solution already.

[@AskAW]

What product offers music sync technology?

[@K0zMoS_000]

@@AskAWdid you find out ?

[@Luuksleventje]

7:21 The Philips Hue Sync app is available for Mac for syncing with you’re screen. It works for mine M1 Mac :)

[@seyidb1879]

True 🎉

[@evan]

The light guide bulbs do look so sick. I just wish they’d come out with a sync box with hdmi 2.1 alreadyb

[@isaacblackmore6719]

There is a solution. I can’t remember the company that make it tho. There’s an hdmi splitter so you can send hdmi 2.1 to your tv and a lower version to the sync box. Although I believed Phillips have an 8k box in the works.

[@rkn989]

I'm a huge fan of the Philips Hue Playbars! I have 4 of them in my home office and find them super flexible for ambient lighting and moving them around as needed.

[@weforgot]

My go to also!! I have 6 😂

[@jcre2000]

I hate that everybody assumes that we are all gamers

[@castor652]

Could you please shine your light on the CRI value of Hue in comparison to the cheaper Wiz? The more expensive Hue lights have CRI of 80. The cheaper Wiz lights have a CRI of 90. Isn't that ironic? On paper, the Wiz bulbs have better light quality than the Hue bulbs, at least here in Europe. What's behind that?

[@Marri12345]

“Adhere to the wall”

[@Null94]

rip to those display handhelds that could be in a pair of hands playing a game

[@Underhills]

Looks like your pretty vulnerable with lighting that only works with a mobile phone? Is that smart lighting? Could think of many situations where that could mean trouble. If I have forgotten my phone at work for instance, or if the wi-fi is down etc.

[@PRS-0317]

The hue hub is local - your phone talks to it over the local wifi - not over the internet. you can also do that from any browser (again, local network, not LAN), or you can use Alex integrations or other control systems like Home Assistant, SmartThings, etc etc.

[@Underhills]

So, whatever happened to the wall mounted button? Or the independent remote not owned by Google or some other nosy agent? I have bad experiences with replacing tactile and always reliable functions with fragile tech. Keyless locks etc. What a nightmare. As long as the tech is an ADDITION it's quite allright, but never as a substitute. I wanna be able to control everything without a phone or an owned device. My router went down just yesterday as an example. When it comes to nosy "services" such as Alex and HA I'm no fan to say the least. That's a chapter on it's own 😱@@PRS-0317

[@thinde88]

Govee vs Hue? That is the question. I’m running hue but have been thinking of switching to govee. Just seems like a better bang for buck.

[@MattTaylor7]

yes better bang for the buck but how to control them? app only? Thats why Hue is king is because of the hardware ecosystem that enables you to have better physical control over your house.

[@rolldeep3444]

I got one word youtube wled

[@YouAndImpact]

Cool 👍

[@BrandonDoyleMN]

Glad to see you’re creating more content regularly again

[@shane864]

Does anyone know if the Gradient sync box can handle 120hz 4k Gsynch yet?

[@daehwa_kim]

Missed your Hue vidoes! A "hue"ge thank you for the walkthrough ;)

[@Fresh2Death890]

I have windows and Mac. The Philips hue app works just as well for Mac as it does for windows. It works for games, videos, and even music.

[@Justin_tech]

Are you using it with the gradient strip? Oddly the light fixture is sold for PC only. I too have Hue Sync on Mac.

[@Fresh2Death890]

@@Justin_tech I have not tried using it with the gradient light strip yet, but the Mac app works well with the Philips hue lightbulbs. There are some annoying features though, such as not being able to customize the entertainment area on the computer. You have to use the app on a smart phone to do that.

[@saurabhdeoree]

Lights for visually impaired person.🤔

[@Novilicious]

I’m a LIFX fan. Hues are good tho 😊

[@Winston0Boogie]

I like Philips Hue but wow that's all so expensive

[@harram110]

I personally feel like Philips Hue lights are really overpriced. I have yet to see a product and feel it is worth the price tag, especially since every product I have seen has a cheaper option that works on google, apple, and amazon ecosystems. Also it looks like when the lights are trying to match games/video it is not actually getting information from the media saying show this color it seems it just takes the color shown the most on the screen and lights up that color making me feel like regular light strips that change color with music work really close to the same. I have that for my gaming set up and feel it gives the same level of immersion at least. once media is made that tells the lights what colors to do so that way lightning can be separate or if you come out of a cave the light would go from dim to really bright back to dim if it did then that it would be worth the price to me.

[@mappyuk]

Pretty sure Hue sync does work with Mac. Am using it with the iMac right now.

[@MrJohnnyklef]

Even at 2x he’s talking too slow. Ugh.

[@haroldward8305]

CHRIST

[@SecretOfMonkeyIsland784]

I have tonnes of smart home tech at my house and no Philips Hue due to their products being overpriced. Smart tech isn't new or niche anymore, so Philips need to get with the program and be competitive in the market price wise.

[@estusflask982]

Hue Sync Box needs HDMI 2.1 before I buy one.

[@rjw705]

Honestly? These things look cool, but I can't justify the price. I have a lot of smart lightbulbs throughout my house which are great, I just wish they weren't so expensive.

[@rolldeep3444]

KZbin wled

[@NoGattsuNoGlory]

I find it weird that a blind person would like to set lighting and there's buttons to help them.

[@TheDontbestupid]

Me thinking the same thing.

[@SecretOfMonkeyIsland784]

And me, i am sure blind people really care about turning on light switches

[@iTotofogo]

Visually impaired =\= blind

[@cherrypop4675]

Many blind people have light perception

[@gp6254]

They also have guests come over who they want to turn the light on for lol

[@BR-ip5pz]

Hue is a rip off 😂

[@GAYSHLUT]

what is the name of the game you’re playing on the ps5 please?

[@TaylorRobinson93]

Darude Sandstorm