Deleted User 298457
Deleted User 298457
You haven't offered anything up other than Hue bad?
Smart Bulbs
- Thread starter K.C. Leblanc
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Sep 2020
- Posts
- 5,141
Oh no, your super helpful posts are going to be a massive miss to the thread.
Seriously though please provide some actual useful information that will help inform everyone. Just saying I seen a video on YT (hinting it took ages to find) to say the bulbs aren’t the best. Not providing a source or even an alternative and maybe even a decent reasons why they’d be better. You’ve just said hue costs more because it’s a big corp that makes and markets them like apple.
You did say they lock you in and force you to use their stuff and theres this mythical update thats coming soon which is going to lock out everything. Think about that for a second, they advertise that they work on all the major home assistant systems and you think they’re going to stop that? Seriously? I’ve said realistically if you’ve done one room and have that system, like it and it works it’s not really that big a of a deal. Others have said it’s not locked in and given examples of their set up, again showing how good the system is.
You then just result to saying anyone who disagrees is either a fan boy or too stupid, so i’m not going to tell anyone about the best.
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I did not say they are bad, i said they were not the best and that is my personal opinion.
I did however say i would not recommend any of the smart bulb companies and i am sticking with that. I think they all have up sides and downsides'
For instance the brand i see winning a lot of the comparisons are Lifx but they are apparently a terrible company and i have no experience of the software so i wouldn't recommend them at all.
Some people on here do not like personal opinions and think you should agree with their opinion.
I tried to explain my opinion to to Reuben for instance but he has his own opinion that does not align with mine so we got nowhere. I am fine with that and even said we should just agree to disagree on this point.
I also did not call anyone stupid, i was using that phrase as an example of why i was not going to argue the point anymore. But yes i do think some people on here are fanboys and that is just another personal opinion and nothing to get annoyed about
Soldato
- Joined
- 21 Sep 2020
- Posts
- 5,141
No, it's a free app. Just add all smart stuff into it, and makes the manufacturer irrelevant.
How can you have a personal opinion on something you've never tried
You've repeatedly said there are better bulbs than Hue. You've repeatedly and explicitly been asked "what are those bulbs", and every time your response is a load of waffle, combined with insults towards people who have recommended Hue.
I expect the insults are going to come my way now, because I'd be very surprised if you do actually have a "personal" opinion on any "better" bulb than Hue, and are simply parroting what you've been told to believe by these alternative tech YouTubers, i.e. anything "not Hue" (probably solely for the reason that Hue is the big player in the game, and some people invariably need to "stick it to the man" to gain popularity).
I'm not for a moment saying that Hue definitely make the best bulbs, but as others have said, the entire ecosystem is definitely up there, coupled with their popularity meaning they are easy to find on the high street, plenty of accessories, and easy to find advice and troubleshooting online.
Personally, I've got a mix of Hue, IKEA, and some random off-brand ZigBee bulbs, running through a Hue hub. The non-hue bulbs are fine for the standard white, but for colour, the Hue ones are significantly better for colour range and reproduction. They were also much easier to set up (add serial no. to the app, done, vs having to mess around switching the others off and on multiple times, failing to pair, trying again, having to move the bulb closer to the hub, failing to pair, resetting them with the IKEA remote... you guessed it, failing to pair, and then finally rebooting the hub, repeating all of the above and finally they connected). The app is also far easier to use and more intuitive than the IKEA one.
I also have Hue bars on the back of my monitor for ambilight, and they work flawlessly, having taken less than a minute to set up, which is a significant improvement over the multitude of other options I tried.
If I was going to get any more bulbs, they'd almost certainly be Hue, just because of the much better overall experience.
Maybe this makes me a fanboy, but I'd rather be a fanboy than the kind of fool who is prepared to make life significantly more difficult for themselves just for the sake of "being different" (and maybe saving a few ££)
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Soldato
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
- Posts
- 2,809
- Location
- Chelmsford
I ran with TP-Link Kasa bulbs for a few years and during that time, I gave some Hue bulbs a go.
I didn't find the software as good although the UI was better. The bulbs themselves were awful and provided a pathetic amount of light when compared to the Kasa bulbs. The Hue ones went back.
I then had a Kasa bulb fail and discovered that TP-Link had seemingly stopped the Kasa line and gone down the Tapo route.
With that, I gave some Wiz bulbs a go.
Once I had the Wiz set up, I ordered some more Hue bulbs, this time the brighter lumen variety. That gave me an opportunity to try all 3 bulbs together.
The Wiz software was ok but just ok. TP-Link brilliant and Hue unchanged.
What was again apparent though was just how dim the Hue bulbs were and so they went back and I purchased some more Wiz bulbs.
Hue isn't all that especially when the purpose of a lightbulb is to illuminate something.
I didn't find the software as good although the UI was better. The bulbs themselves were awful and provided a pathetic amount of light when compared to the Kasa bulbs. The Hue ones went back.
I then had a Kasa bulb fail and discovered that TP-Link had seemingly stopped the Kasa line and gone down the Tapo route.
With that, I gave some Wiz bulbs a go.
Once I had the Wiz set up, I ordered some more Hue bulbs, this time the brighter lumen variety. That gave me an opportunity to try all 3 bulbs together.
The Wiz software was ok but just ok. TP-Link brilliant and Hue unchanged.
What was again apparent though was just how dim the Hue bulbs were and so they went back and I purchased some more Wiz bulbs.
Hue isn't all that especially when the purpose of a lightbulb is to illuminate something.
Deleted User 298457
Deleted User 298457
Yeah this is fair. The default bulbs are 800 lumens which until it gets to winter is fine. My wife upgraded two of our main lamps to 1600 which are significantly better. The ceiling lights are 1100 which are fractionally better.
This is basically what i wanted to say in my original post.
Clearly i messed up the way i said it and apologize to everyone