Philips hue white and color starter kit review

Philips' hue range has become the must-have for connected lighting. With a very complete range, both inside and out, Philips was able to convince by the quality of its products, but also by the functionalities they integrate!

In this article, we discover the Starter Kit Hue White and color so keep your eyes open (not too much, you might be dazzled)!

Presentation

The Philips Starter Kit is sold in a colorful box. It presents a lot of information, such as possibilities or power.

Inside, we also have many devices:

• 3 Bulbs Hue White and Color
• A Wifi and Zigbee Hub
• A wireless remote control

Philips has chosen to use the Zigbee protocol for its Hue products. You will therefore need a Hub (included in this pack) to be able to control your bulbs with your phone.

The advantage of Zigbee over WiFi is that it consumes much less and is a mesh network. The other devices can therefore be used as repeaters.

But the disadvantage (even if he's not really one) is that you need a gateway. An additional device to integrate into our house, you might say. Yes, but the latter hardly consumes any power (about 1.6 W) and its design is quite convincing.

The included remote control is quite good. Its design is in the image of the Hub, very modern, and it can be fixed to the wall like a switch. The big positive point of this remote control is that by fixing the bracket to the wall, you can still take it elsewhere because it has a magnetic fixing! Extremely practical (well done Philips!)

Installation

The installation of Philips Hue bulbs is very simple. First, connect your Ethernet Hub to your router and power it with the included power cable.

Then download the Android or iOS "Hue" application. The latter will serve as a control center to control all your equipment.

First, the application will search for your Hub. So make sure you have connected it to the network that broadcasts the WiFi you use on your phone.

Once the HUB has been found, updates may take place. Don't worry, these are not too long 😉

Once this is done, you can start creating your first piece! Inside you can configure its name but also the devices that compose it.

And that's all! When your part is created, you have immediate access to the associated bulbs.

The Bulbs

What are the Hue bulbs worth? What do they have more than RGB bulbs from other brands? Well, they're very good! The customization of the whites (either warm white or cool white) is incredible, you can move from one atmosphere to another in no time and the IRC is really very good (especially in cold whites)! To adjust the white you want, simply move the bulb on the wheel and choose the shade you want.

On the top right, you also have the color wheel to choose from 16 million colors! Very intuitive, the application allows you to easily create an atmosphere that suits you. No need to exit the interface to choose the color of another bulb! All those present in the room can be adjusted at the same time! It's very practical and very intuitive.

It is also possible to choose predefined scenes, such as sunset or playback, but also to create them! Very useful when you have found a color/ambiance that you like and want to apply it with a single click without having to do it again next time.

It is also possible to choose predefined scenes, such as sunset or playback, but also to create them! Very useful when you have found a color/ambiance that you like and want to apply it with a single click without having to do it again next time.

But also the leisure space! This last one is a little jewel signed Philips and which makes it possible to synchronize your bulbs with multimedia content! Whether it's a photo, a video, a game or music, your bulbs will adapt either to the colors of the screen or to the rhythm of the music!

The image synchronization feature is very useful because it gives a real atmosphere when watching a movie. The piece will then take on the hue of the scene environment and the immersion will be total.

There are several ways to have this: A Philips TV compatible with Hue Sync, or a computer. Being complete and interesting, we will develop this feature in another article 😉

Conclusion

Philips Hue bulbs are very, very good. Probably the best RGB bulbs on the market today. The colors are rich and the customization of the color temperature of the whites offers great possibilities to change the atmosphere of the room.

The application is very intuitive and full of features and Hue Sync which allows you to synchronize your lighting with multimedia content promises great things!

Hue bulbs are certainly at a rather high price, but the promise is there: Beautiful, bright, colorful and incredibly connected.

Aqara 1080P IP camera

I have already told you on the site about several Aqara brand devices: wireless switch, opening detector, etc. So far I have always been satisfied with the products of this brand, which offer a very good price/quality ratio and great ease of use. So it was only natural that I wanted to test the IP camera from Aqara. I asked my partner GearBest to get a model in test. Of course, as usual, this test was not paid for. Here is my review on this Aqara 1080P IP camera.

Features of the Aqara 1080P IP Camera

• Brand: Aqara
• Definition: 1080P
• Viewing angle: 180°.
• Connectivity: WiFi (802.11 b / g / n 2.4 GHz)
• Night vision
• Motion detection
• MicroSD slot
• Gateway function with Aqara equipment
• Power supply via microUSB port (5V 1A charger)

Testing the camera

It is now time to test this camera itself, to see if it is the deal of the century or not. And yes, we must remember: it is only sold for about forty euros!

Buy the Aqara IP camera

If my test convinced you (you are not very demanding... 😀), then you will find this camera at GearBest around 40€. And, if you are looking for an IP camera but this one doesn't suit you, then you can look here and there for better quality cameras!

Xiaomi Aqara: Build a smarter home

The Asian giant, Xiaomi, is in constant personal evolution by its services, increasingly covering more and more aspects of daily life of users. Showing us a wide repertoire of options, each with its own charms, adapting incredibly, improving and facilitating the most tedious tasks of the home, such as sweeping, we have the Xiaomi Mi Robot Vacumm, a robot vacuum cleaner that is on offer. Looking a little deeper, brushing our teeth is now a revolution, with the Soocas X3 Sonic, an intelligent toothbrush. With all the above presented we have a new line that will debut in the market, it's time to know the products Xiaomi Aqara.

The Xiaomi Aqara products are a new line focused on various aspects of the home, offering us a more sophisticated, futuristic and innovative life. The products Xiaomi Aqara for now most are in pre-sale, being a total of 7, very likely this number will increase over time, but for now we will focus on each of them, to know them thoroughly.

Xiaomi Aqara: Temperature and humidity sensor

The Xiaomi Aqara temperature and humidity sensor has a nice, simple but elegant design. It has dimensions of: 3.60 x 3.60 x 0.90 cm and a weight of: 0.011 kg, so it is quite small, only available in white. It is made of plastic, in the center we can see the figure of a thermometer, below is a small LED that lights green and at the top we have a single button to turn it on and off. Leaving it pressed for a few seconds this will get ready to synchronize with our Smartphone.

We can synchronize it with our Smartphone through the Xiaomi Home application, which we can download from the Apple Store or the Google Play store. Its function is simple but practical, depending on where we locate the will be responsible for detecting temperature levels and humidity, if we have other devices linked to the Xiaomi Home, such as an air conditioner or heater, this will automatically send a signal depending on whether to cool or heat the place.

Xiaomi Aqara: Light control

The Xiaomi Aqara light control is a white device with dimensions of: 8.50 x 8.50 x 4.20 cm and a weight of: 0.123 kg. It comes in 2 versions, a single button and 2 buttons, the difference between the two is minimal so either of the 2 will serve us quite well. The Xiaomi Aqara light control is an intelligent switch that we must connect to the wiring of the bulb or lamp we want to control, once this is done we will proceed to turn it on to synchronize it with our Smartphone through the application of Xiaomi Home.

Xiaomi Aqara: Door and Window Sensor

The Xiaomi Aqara sensor for door and window is a device that comes in pair, are white with dimensions of: 4.10 x 2.20 x 1.10 cm and a weight of: 0.015 kg. It has a slightly rounded design and has a small LED on the front that indicates that it is on. It is easy to install as it comes with stickers that allow us to adhere it on both a door and a window, each one goes at one end and detect when the door or window opens.

Xiaomi Aqara: Wireless Switch

The Xiaomi Aqara wireless switch is designed to be a comfortable device, easy to use and practical. It has slightly rounded edges, a classic in Aqara products, maintains the typical white color, has dimensions of: 4.20 x 4.20 x 1.20 cm and a weight of: 0.018 kg. Its function is clearly oriented to synchronization with other devices, we must download the Xiaomi Home application to synchronize it with our Smartphone, from there we can synchronize it with other devices, allowing us to turn them on or off through it, just pressing the button in the center.

Xiaomi Aqara: Intelligent Curtain Motor

The Xiaomi Aqara intelligent curtain motor has a very elegant design, being completely white, with dimensions of: 26.70 x 7.00 x 5.00 cm and a weight of: 1,301 kg. Its function is dedicated to provide a more pleasant experience in our home, controlling the open or close our curtains, we can do this remotely through our Smartphone, synchronizing with the application Xiaomi Home.