Philips Hue vs Lifx: which smart lights are right for your home?

Date:
Sun, 18 Jul 2021 07:00:00 +0000

Description:
Philips Hue and LIFX are big names when it comes to smart lighting, but which you should choose?

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The best smart lights are one of the easiest ways to automate your home -
they can be controlled by your smartphone, even when youre miles away, and allow you to pick from millions of different colors or tones of white light.

So, its no surprise theyve rocketed in popularity - according to market research firm Statista , the smart lighting market is projected to be worth $105.2bn by 2023 - up from just $8.68 billion in 2018.

Philips Hue and LIFX are two of the biggest names dominating the smart lighting market right now, and if youre considering kitting your home out
with smart light bulbs, it makes sense to plump for one of these brands.

However, it can be hard to decide which is best suited to you - not only do the bulbs connect to the internet in different ways, some of the features
they offer differ too. It really depends on the type of lighting effect you want to create in your home - do you need simplicity or are you thinking
about a long-term project to really build smart lighting throughout your life?, as to which one of these smart lighting systems you choose. Best Philips Hue and LIFX deals

Read on to discover how these two smart lighting systems compare or, if
youve already decided which of the two you wish to buy, check out the best prices right now for these smart lights: (Image credit: Philips) Range

Before we begin, lets talk about light - specifically in terms of how much comes out.

The brightness of LED bulbs is measured in lumens, unlike incandescent bulbs which are measured in watts. The higher the wattage, the brighter the light but the more energy an incandescent bulb used.

However as LED bulbs are more power efficient, more wattage doesnt
necessarily equate to a brighter light. As a guide an 800 lumen LED bulb
gives off the same amount of light as a 60w incandescent bulb, while to replace a 40w bulb with light of a similar brightness, look for an LED option that offers 450 lumens.

Both Philips Hue and LIFX offer plenty of choice for your smart lighting needs, so theres sure to be a type of bulb or creative lighting option for
all rooms in your home.

Lets start with Philips Hue: the brand offers a range of smart LED light
bulbs designed to replace your existing bulbs, along with LED table and floor lamps, wall lights both for inside and outdoors, ceiling pendants,
lightstrips and light bars, along with accessories such as motion sensors, dimmer switches and even a smart plug . In terms of brightness, Philips Hue bulbs and lights range from 500 to 1,600 lumens depending upon the particular model chosen.

Initially, Philips Hue lighting needed the Philips Hue Bridge for everything smart. This hub relayed commands from your smartphone to the cloud and back
to the bulbs so they could be controlled even when you werent at home, as the bulbs didnt have Wi-Fi built into them.

Now Philips has added Bluetooth to its smart light bulbs so if youre in the same room as your Hue bulbs, you dont need a Hue Bridge and can use the built-in Bluetooth instead, making the setup cost cheaper.

However, youll still need a Bridge if you want to control lights in more than one room at a time, use accessories such as motion sensors to trigger the lights automatically or activate voice control, which might irritate when rivals like the LIFX dont need that extra step.

That said, the Philips Bridge creates a mesh network to connect the bulbs to the inter, which means they should suffer from less connectivity problems
than bulbs like LIFX that connect directly to the Wi-Fi network - as those that are far away from the router may struggle to stay connected, and cant be controlled when they have no internet access.

Philips Hue smart light bulbs come in both Edison screw fitting (E27) and Bayonet fitting (B22) and are available in three color options. White is a static 2,700K (a unit of color temperature called Kelvins), fairly-warm light that cant be tweaked, while White Ambiance allows you to adjust the shade of white the bulb illuminates, from 2200 K (a warm, bright white) to 6500 K (a cool clinical type glow).

Alternatively, Philips Hue lighting also comes in the Color and White
Ambiance option, which as well as the different hues of white, also offers 16 million different colors to choose from too. (Image credit: LIFX)

LIFX also offers smart lights designed to replace your existing bulbs but lacks the range of side and table lamps, as well as wall and ceiling lights offered by Hue. LIFXs smart lighting uses the wireless protocol Zigbee so theres no need for a bridge or Hub to control it when youre not at home, as
it connects directly to your home Wi-Fi network. But, as weve already mentioned, this can mean that bulbs positioned further away from the router struggle to remain connected.

There are also three different options when it comes to the colors offered; White is a warm hue of 2,700K that cant be tweaked, White to Warm can be
tuned from 1,500K (a really warm amber hue) to 9,000K (a shade so cool, its almost blue). Theres also Color, which offers 550 billion shades. While this is more than Philips Hue, its worth noting that it's not a larger spectrum, theres just a clearer difference between each of the shades - and means LIFX bulbs offer greater versatility when it comes to selecting a specific shade.

What about the top sellers? Well, LIFX A19, which is known as A60 in the UK and Australia, comes in both E27 and B22 fittings and offers 1100 lumens.

These bulbs are 4.5 inches / 11.5 cm tall compared to non-smart light bulbs which are around 3.9 inches / 10 cm - meaning LIFX bulbs may protrude from lamp shades or side lamps.

Theres also a Nightvision version of the A19/A60 that enhances the night vision of the best home security cameras through infrared light and LIFX Clean, which can disinfect surfaces and items through High Energy Visible (HEV) light that isnt harmful to humans and pets, unlike UV light, as well as acting as a stand smart light bulb.

For side lamps, LIFX also offers more compact light bulbs at 2.4 inches/ 6cm high that are 800 lumens, in both E27 or B22 fittings, known as Color, White to Warm, and White.

Theres also LIFX Candle, which are candle-shaped bulbs in Color and White to Warm, along with lightsrips in 1m and 2m lengths, as well as a 1m extension pack. Finally, LIFX Beam is the brand's own take on smart light wall art.

In our eyes, the Philip Hue range makes it easy to install smart lighting in all rooms in your home, no matter what your decor is like. If you have lamp shades and side lights that you love, you can simply replace your existing bulbs with smart versions, while Hue also has a range of stylish wall, ceiling, and side lamps that are already smart. This makes it easy to redecorate without worrying that youll need to purchase new bulbs if the lights you choose use a different fitting to the smart bulbs you currently own.

However, if youre looking to dip your toe in the smart lighting water, the LIFX bulbs are the simplest to set-up, as theres no fiddling with your router involved. Find out how smart lights work Check out the best Ambilight alternatives: smart lights worth connecting to your smart TV Find out more about the Philips Hue app update that improves using smart lights for home security (Image credit: Philips) Price

So just how much will you have to spend if you want to automate the lighting in your home? Philips Hue is slightly more expensive than LIFX when it comes to the price of the smart light bulbs, but the bulbs are more reliable and they offer some features that LIFX doesnt, which in our eyes makes them worth the extra investment.

Philips Hue White bulbs are priced $14.99 / 14.99 / AU$34.95 , while the
White Ambiance single bulbs will set you back $24.99 / 24.99 / AU$54.95. The colored versions are priced at $49.99 / 49.99 / AU$99.95 . Starter kits,
which come with two bulbs and a bridge, cost $69.99 / 119.99 / AU$159.99 for the white version and $119.99 / 129.99 / AU$179.99 for the color options.

Side lamps are priced from $69.99 / 69.99 / AU$164.95 while wall lamps will set you back from $64.99 / 64.99 / AU$164.95 . Lightstrips cost from $69.99 / 69.99 / AU$134.95 .

Whereas LIFX bulbs start from $9.99 / 14.99 / AU$29.99 for a non-tuneable white option and rise to $34.99 / 34.99 / AU$59.99 for the color version. The A19/A60 smart light bulbs are priced at $49.99 / 54.99 / AU$69.99 , while lightstrips cost from $69.99 / 64.99 / AU$99.99 and LIFX Beam is priced at $149.99 / 179.99 / AU$249.99 (Image credit: LIFX) Features

When it comes to what you can do with these smart lighting systems; both Philips Hue and LIFX are evenly matched on the most basic functions. Both the Philips Hue bulls and the LIFX smart lights we tested responded instantly
when we switched them on and off from the relevant smartphone app, as well as when adjusted the brightness or changed the color they illuminated.

You can also create groups of lights that can be controlled at the same time; in the case of Philips Hue thats 10 lights or 50 lights if youre using a Philips Hue Bridge. LIFX also allows up to 50 lights to be grouped together
in one go.

On test, we found both apps easy to use and integration with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and HomeKit means no matter which voice assistant youre
using in your smart home, the smart lights will integrate easily allowing you to use your voice or the smartphone app to control them.

However, each has some features the other doesnt offer - Philips Hue lights can be synced with the image playing on your TV, although this does require
an additional sync box, which is priced at $229 / 229 / AU$499 Theres also a multi-user geofencing, so the app will check to see if others are home first before activating location-based automations. This is joined by stacks of customizable scheduling options - for example you can set outdoor lights to come on at sunset but go off at 2am, rather than waiting for sunrise. Finally Hue Labs provides access to features created by third-parties for the Hue lighting system.

LIFX also offers some third-party apps that can expand what you can do with the smart lights, but the volume cant match what Philips Hue offers. However, there are some effects in the apps that can be applied to your lights to make them pulse in time to music, or flicker like a real candle would. Verdict

Both Philips Hue and LIFX are effective and easy to use smart lighting systems. Philips Hue has a more rounded offering when it comes to the type of smart lights available, and offers a more stable internet connection, as well as far more customizability when it comes to home automations. For those looking at really making the most of smart lighting, these are the bulbs to opt for.

Meanwhile, LIFX is the slightly more affordable option, and is more
simplistic to set-up as it doesnt require a bridge, and offers more choice when it comes to tweaking the color or shade of white the bulb illuminates, which is all many new smart-light lovers will be after. Check out these great smart home device deals



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/philips-hue-vs-lifx-which-smart-lights-are-righ t-for-your-home/


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