


The newer bulbs shine at 800 lumens at their max, whereas the old bulbs can only get up to 600 lumens at their brightest. In example, the color red has a brightness limit hence the red looks completely similar in all the 3 bulb generations. With these hue light bulbs, they can only reach their lumen limit at specific white color temperatures and all the other colors look the same on both bulbs and that includes the brightness levels. This makes the later generations 25% brighter than the 1st generation light bulbs. The most recent bulbs glow at a maximum of 800 lumens while the 1st generation shine at a maximum of 600 lumens. The most conspicuous modification is that the newer versions are 200 lumens brighter than the gen 1. The 2nd and 3rd Gen bulbs are slightly improved over the gen 1 bulb. In October 2015 Philips launched the 2nd gen version of Hue and the Hue Bridge had some big changes. With the introduction of the 2nd generation Hue Bridge, the device received an all-new design which is more square and looked a little more polished in terms of design and finish, but under the shell the gen 2 new key feature was Apple’s HomeKit smart home platform support. Although discontinued you can still buy 1st Gen starter kits, however although they are cheaper it is better to buy a newer version which supports HomeKit and has the newer bridge. Philips Hue Lux is just another name for the first generation of the Philips Hue white kit, within the starter kit you would get a first generation bridge, and first generation bulbs. Only says PHILIPS on the front of the bulb (As seen in the photo above).The generation 3 light bulb on the other hand gives you up to 25,000 hours of richer colors which is an equivalent of 6 hours a day going up to 12 years, this shows that the generation 3 bulb is a more durable Philips Hue light bulb for anybody looking for a long lasting bulb. The 1st Gen has a life span of 15,000 hours life time. The bulb life varies with the generation to which the light bulb belongs to. One of the major noticeable improvements is that the Hue Bridge 2.0 provides support for the Apple Homekit and also enables the user to use Apple’s Siri to control the bulbs which was not possible with the 1.0. The Hue bridge 1 can function with all the light bulb generations as well as the hue bridge 2.0. Version 2.0 on another hand comes with Gen 2 and 3 starter kits and has a square shape. Version 1.0 comes with Gen 1 kit and does not provide support for Apple Homekit. The version 1.0 hue bridge has a round shape as the major difference from version 2.0. Unlike the bulb that was updated twice, the bridge was updated only once making therefor 2 versions of the bridge. When it comes to the bridge it is obvious which you have, the first gen is a round device where as the newer versions are more square.


The First gen Hue was released in October 2012 and was voted the best new gadget of the year. There have been subtle changes to the visual look of the bulbs but certainly nothing radical, there have also been changes to the specification of the bulbs making them brighter and more vibrant. This image below shows the different visual changes of the Hue Bulbs. This table is a quick overview of how the different generation bulbs compare.
#Philips hue white vs white ambiance Bluetooth#
Gen 3 bulbs, as well as the newer Bluetooth bulbs released in 2019. Here we look at and compare the Philips Hue Gen 1 vs. With the use of ZigBee other third party smart bulbs are supported and will work with Hue too. The bridge enables the user to communicate or control the Philip Hue light bulbs by use of an app and achieves this by using ZigBee technology to talk to the bulbs. Philip Hue has two different products which are: Philips Hue Bridge and Philips Hue Light Bulbs. Each generation displays minimal improvements in technical specs which include intensity of colors, the brightness, and the dimming options on the bulbs.īluetooth was added to Hue bulbs in 2019 allowing you to use them without a bridge, you could control them via your phone using Bluetooth. Generations 2 and 3 were introduced in 20 respectively. Their smart bulbs were originally released in October 2012 with the 1st generation. Over the last 6 years, Philips Hue has released four generations of light bulbs.
