Did Smart Bulbs Just Get Better?

Hands down my favorite new entry. The Festavia weatherproof globe string lights gave me the biggest upgrade to my little balcony that I’ve had in years. They come in 22-, 45-, and 91-foot options, can be plugged into any standard outlet, and pair seamlessly with your existing Hue ecosystem. Each of the bulbs on the string shines at 50 lumens and can glow in its own color. This makes dynamic scenes (where the lights change colors based on the scene you select or program using the app) especially appealing. The wire that connects them is strong and each bulb has its own plastic loop, giving you a lot of different ways to attach them, and there’s a long lead running to the power supply, too.

I tested the 22-foot version, which has eight bulbs, and I strung them up on the ceiling above my balcony. It instantly transformed it into a vibrant place where I actually want to sit and hang out at night. I chose a spooky color scheme for Halloween and then blue and gold for when the Warriors were playing. When I needed to rummage through a storage box at night, I just turned them to full brightness and I realized it was the first time I’ve been able to do that without a headlamp in the five years that I’ve lived in this apartment. They can also sync with music if you’re having a party. They are by no means cheap, but I absolutely love them.

My second favorite among the new products, the OmniGlow strip light, is a massive upgrade from the brand’s Gradient Lightstrip. The most obvious advantage is that the individual LEDs are now hidden, whereas they were prominently visible in the previous version. The OmniGlow uses MicroLEDs at a density of 840 per meter, up from just 144, making the strip look like a cohesive, glowing piece of material — it’s simply a much smoother, more refined look. The last generation of light strips could look a bit cheesy if they weren’t fully hidden. This one also has more than double the maximum brightness (4,500 lumens, up from 1,800), and it’s a bit longer, too.

Really, the only disadvantage from the previous version is that the strip is a bit wider and thicker, coming in at 17 millimeters wide and 8.5 millimeters tall. While it has a self-adhesive backing, I actually needed to use a few dots of superglue to help affix it to the underside of my counter. That said, I actually found that this light strip bends and flexes better than the old Gradient Lightstrip and it felt a lot more durable, too. It really looks so much better than the last version, and I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a light strip. It finally brings the light density of theGovee COB Strip Light Pro that has been the Strategist’s top pickbut with the better responsiveness and ecosystem of the Hue.

Arguably the biggest release here, if only because the last Hue Bridge (V2) was released in October 2015, the Bridge Pro brings a number of significant upgrades. For starters, a single Bridge Pro can now control upward of 150 lights (up from 50) and more than 50 accessories. It’s more responsive, too, with a much more powerful processor and 15 times the amount of RAM. While the V2 needed to be hardwired into your router via ethernet cable, the Bridge Pro can use ethernet or connect wirelessly via Wi-Fi, giving you more placement options. It’s also black now, which will likely blend in better with your router.

The Bridge Pro has a wild new trick where it effectively turns your grid of lightbulbs into a giant motion detector for your home. Called MotionAware, it leverages the Zigbee protocol, which connects all of your Hue bulbs together into a mesh network. Basically when something large (like a person) passes between two or more bulbs it disrupts the electricity field just enough for the bulbs to report the deviation to the Bridge Pro, and that can be used to trigger an event you program such as turning certain (or all) lights on, alerting your phone, or turning on a security camera (those latter two options require a Hue Secure subscription). I found it worked surprisingly well. It wasn’t instantaneous, but when I walked into the zone I selected the lights came on within a few seconds. The Bridge Pro also supports the Matter protocol (as did the V2, after a firmware update).

Ultimately, the Bridge Pro is a significant upgrade to the V2, but if you already have a V2 and it’s working fine for your needs, then this isn’t something you need to rush out to get. It’s a bit more responsive, but I never had complaints about that with the V2. If you’re in a larger house and think there’s a chance you might go beyond 50 lights, then definitely get it.

Last and definitely least (but not in a bad way), are theEssential A19 bulbs. Basically these offer most of the functionality of thestandard 60-watt A19 Hue bulbs, but they’re a whole lot cheaper. The standard bulbs are typically around $150 for a three-pack (though they can often be had for less on sale). The new Essential A19s are just $60 for a four-pack. Fifteen bucks a bulb is unheard of for Hue! It’s still compatible with the rest of the Hue ecosystem, it still can output a wide variety of colors (and shades of white), it still screws into your typical light socket, and it still has a maximum brightness of 800 lumen (the entry-level standard Hue bulbs are 810 lumen). So, what are the differences?

The biggest difference isn’t the maximum but the minimum brightness level. The standard bulbs can dim down to 0.2 percent, while the Essential bulbs bottom out at 2 percent. That’s still plenty dim, but it’s noticeable. For white light, while the standard bulbs can mimic full-spectrum daylight (from 1,000K to 20,000K), the Essential bulbs are limited to a narrower 2,000K-to-6,500K range. Philips claims the color quality of the standard bulbs is better, using its Chromasync technology for better color blending and more accurate, saturated colors, but in practice I could barely tell the difference. Basically if price has been the barrier keeping you from getting into the color-changing Hue lighting ecosystem, then these represent a much more approachable entry point and they’re still excellent.