Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Philips 468926 Hue White Ambiance E12 Decorative Candle 6W Equivalent Dimmable LED Smart Bulb (Compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Assistant)

Top positive review

A luminous delight, as always.

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2020

PROS:
* Fits standard sockets, in this case E12 candelabra.
* Works with SmartThings for full home automation.
* Can still be controlled by a physical switch.
* Ambiance functionality allows you to light your space according to the use.

CONS:
* Philips is always on the pricey side for smart LED lighting. But, you get what you pay for, and you're paying to buy into an ecosystem that is widely supported by many smart home platforms, a quality product, and something that works well.
* The E12 bulbs are a tad too long and wide for many E12 applications. Thankfully, in my case, they still work thanks to the lamp holding them.

Philips Hue has reigned supreme with their LED series of smart lights. I love them.

In this case, I had a nice swap lamp I ordered that I wanted to offer "ambiance" level control. I'm already heavily invested in Hue platform as well as SmartThings. While Alexa does integrate directly, as well, I find it easier to just expose devices from SmartThings to Alexa, instead. It prevents duplicate devices and enabled more consistent behavior and functionality. The lights operate on scenes where they turn on bright white, then slowly dim as the evening progresses, until they finally shut off. I leave one bulb on and dimmed to 10% as a night light for that corner of the living room.

Top critical review

Critical reviews›

Bimmergirl

The product was great until it came to the warranty...

Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2019

The bulbs are great except one of them no longer works. At this price I would expect better from this company. The four E12 bulbs have been connected to the same fixture since I received them and one does not connect and is not recognized by the hub any more.

After finally getting through to Phillips (email went unanswered for weeks, finally got a response and tried their fix that didn't work and I am still waiting for their response after several months- well, I'm really not waiting any more because clearly their customer service is lacking) I spoke with someone on the phone. As he went through his questions I could tell that the script was going to eventually lead to them not taking responsibility for their product, and that it did. So, one of the four bulbs doesn't work and they've told me it's not their product that is the problem but what I did that caused the problem (the bulbs are on a fixture that is connected to a wall switch that is on/off with a dimmer that is never used because I have Google home).

I think that no matter what answers I gave to customer service they would have continued asking until they found a reason not to provide warranty support.

I am asked for my opinion on tech by friends and family and I will be steering them clear of Phillips for their smart home needs and after how difficult it was to get any response from their customer service about a replacement for an expensive bulb theday should not have stopped working.

I note there are other negative CS reviews about Phillips. Too bad because they had a lot of potential but I see other companies taking over the market if this continues.

12 people found this helpful

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From the United States

KRA

A luminous delight, as always.

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2020

Verified Purchase

Helpful

Michael Vezza

Perfect! Works with my Ikea wall lamps over my bed

Reviewed in the United States on July 22, 2017

Verified Purchase

For the past year I've had the Hue Philips lights in my apartment. They range from the super basic 1 shade of white to the full color ambiance lights and strips. However, where I was always disappointed was that I have the Ikea Arstid wall lamps over my bed and I've had to use a zigbee connected device to remotely turn them on/off. So in my bedroom I could control all the lights through the Hue app (or my Google Home device) except for the two wall lights over my bed.

So much to my joy they've finally introduced a candelabra sized Hue Light bulb. These don't do the full color range, but they do do the whole range of white light (so intense orange candlelight to bright unreal blue light.) So now when I go to bed I can dim the lights in my room and set them to that beautiful warm candle glow and let them dim out slowly over the course of an hour.

The package was easy to open and the lights were easy to screw into the light base. They were immediately findable through the Hue app and I quickly was able to add them to my custom bedroom set-up. They are just as bright as the other Hue Lights and their intensity can always be adjusted through the Hue App or any other smart home hub app that works with Hue Philips

Helpful

Phil in Magnolia

Nice Candelabra LED Bulbs - Plus a Basic Introduction to LED Lighting and the Philips Hue System

Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2019

Verified Purchase

I recently decided to install ‘smart home’ lighting and other devices in my home, and after some research I decided to give the Philips Hue system a try. I also have quite a few basic non-smart LED bulbs in my home.

I’m very happy with the Hue system so far although it takes time to fully understand all of the ways it can be varied and used. I use Hue bulbs with the Apple HomeKit system, and the integration with HomeKit has been automatic and without difficulty.

These candelabra style bulbs are installed in my office ceiling fan, which has a light fixture with four bulbs. I decided to spend the extra money for the Hue bulbs because they'll give me the ability to adjust not only brightness but also the color 'temperature' - the Hue bulbs can be varied from 2200 Kelvin ('warm white') to 6500 Kelvin ('cool daylight'). These candelabra bulbs provide 450 lumens of illumination and draw 6 watts at maximum brightness. When I'm working at my desk, I generally want the daylight color that I can get from these bulbs, but at other times I'll go for the warmer light as well as dim them down. I don't know that there are many other LED bulbs that offer this flexibility, along with the 'smart' home integration.

These are slightly larger than standard candelabra bulbs, but for my particular application the difference is not an issue. The additional length is due to a plastic outer bulb that I assume is to protect the glass inner bulb.

There is a huge difference in the price of individual LED bulbs, both from Philips and from other suppliers, depending on what they are capable of. At the most basic are LED bulbs that don’t provide for varying the light intensity (dimming), to bulbs that can be integrated with the Hue system (for remote operation and programming), and continuing to bulbs that are a part of the Hue system and have features including full color control (most expensive).

The Philips Hue system requires the use of a Hue hub connected to your home Wi-Fi system to connect and control Hue specific bulbs and accessories, and there are starter kits to obtain the hub together with two or four bulbs.

Initially it took some time to understand the differences between the various Philips bulbs, both Hue and non-Hue LED, so here is a quick intro. The comparison below refers to standard style bulbs and not the candelabra style that is listed on this page.

There are five basic Philips LED bulb types (both Hue and non-Hue bulbs). ALL ARE 60W equivalent, Dimmable, E26 type (standard light bulb):

- 1. (NOT Hue) 800 lumen Warm 2700K
- 2. (NOT Hue) 800 lumen Daylight 5000K
- 3. Hue 840 lumen Warm 2700K
- 4. Hue 800 lumen White ambiance 2200-6500K
- 5. Hue 800 lumen White and color ambiance 2000-6500K plus ’16 million’ colors

All of the bulbs above use approximately 9-10 watts at maximum brightness

There is a huge difference in prices for the 5 types listed above, from about 2-3 dollars per bulb (1 & 2 above), to 10 per bulb (3 above), 20 per bulb (4 above), and finally 40 per bulb for all the bells and whistles (5 above).

I quickly learned that if I don’t need to vary the ‘warmness’ of the light in a certain room or area, then all I need is the basic LED bulb, either warm or daylight, and it doesn’t necessarily need to be a Hue bulb if I don’t need to control the bulbs from an App. The brightness can always be controlled from a LED compatible wall mounted dimmer switch or other smart home dimmer that can integrate into the smart home system.

If I want lighting in a certain area or room to have the flexibility to change from warm white to bright daylight, in addition to dimming, then the White ambiance style Hue bulb works great.

Finally, if I want to add special effects, varying colors and everything imaginable about the lighting, then the White and color ambiance bulbs give that capability.

Starter Kits

The Hue system requires a hub, which you only need to purchase once. You can purchase the hub by itself or there are several kits that include the hub - I started with this basic kit, which includes four of the White ambience bulbs plus the hub:

Hue Starter Kit 4 x 800 lumen White ambiance 2200-6500K plus hub

Other starter kits are available, either with two or four basic white Hue bulbs, or with two of the White and color ambiance bulbs.

Lightstrips

I’ve installed the Hue lightstrips under the counters in our kitchen, and they are terrific. I've also installed them under the sides of the bed in our bedroom, to provide night and ambience lighting. They are great, but like everything else in the Hue system, they are a bit expensive:

Hue LightStrip 1600 lumen White and color ambiance 2000-6500K plus ’16 million’ colors

The lightstrips have turned out to be one of the more enjoyable parts of the system and are very easy to install.

Accessories and Control Options

All of the Hue products can be controlled using the App, and there is a huge amount of flexibility available in how the lights are programmed. They can be organized by room or in other ways, and controlled in groups or separately.

Hue bulbs are not intended to be used with a wall mounted dimmer switch unless the dimmer is specifically intended to be used with the Hue system. Once a light is turned off using the wall switch, then it can’t be turned back on using the Hue controls (power needs to be supplied to the bulb at all times in order for the bulb to be controllable by the Hue system, even if the bulb is turned off. This is not intuitive at first and is a part of why installing these kinds of bulbs in a home requires considerable thought about how you will use them and what is most convenient for any particular situation).

The Hue dimmer switch / remote is a handy accessory to have, if you want to be able to control lights without using the App:

Hue Smart Dimmer Switch
Hue Smart Dimmer Switch plus 1 800 lumen White ambience 220-6500K

I have two of these dimmer switches and use one to control the undercounter lights in our kitchen. For those particular lights it is the only way they can be controlled all at the same time since they plug into different outlets and the outlets are not controlled by any wall switches.

There is also a ‘tap switch’ available, and a motion sensor. I have not tried either of those products yet.

There is a lot more that could be said about this Hue system but my intention here is only to give a quick introduction to the types of lighting available and some of the ways in which they can be used.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Albert Moy

Easy to set-up. Will need Phillips Hue Smart Bridge to utilize. You can program it to wake you up in the morning

Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2018

Verified Purchase

I got these bulbs with my Phillips Hue Smart Bridge.

The set-up was stupid easy. It took me less than 10 minutes to connect and sync everything to the app on my phone. I use these with my Amazon Echo (Alexa) and they work great! I can use Alexa to turn on/off my lights, dim the lights, and even change the shade of white (from a warmer yellow to a more cool blue-light white).

The other great feature of these bulbs is the kind of white you get from the light. The traditional warm white is the default. I've always been a fan of the electric/blue hue that's usually brighter.

Tip: you will need to buy the Phillips Hue Smart Bridge to use it with Alexa/Apple HomeKit/Google Assistant. Without it, it would just be a regular bulb.

Tip #2: with the app, you can schedule the lights to gradually turn on in the morning (to wake you up) or to gradually turn off at night (to remind you to go to sleep)

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

RPL

Great E12 bulb for Hue and Homekit users

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2017

Verified Purchase

I have been using the Philips 468926 Hue White Ambiance E12 Candelabra 6 Watt Connected LED Bulb for the last few days and it works great. I have two use cases for this bulb: First, a few years ago, I was given a vintage lamp that only takes an E12 bulb. My whole house is Apple Homekit enabled, so I placed an iDevices switch: iDevices Switch - WiFi Smart Plug w/ Energy Monitoring, No Hub Required, Works with Amazon Alexa , on this lamp to turn it on and off. Since I wanted to dim the bulb, and I also have Lutron in my house, I tried the Lutron lamp dimmer: LUTRON P-PKG1P-WH Caseta Wireless 300-watt/100-watt Plug-In Lamp Dimmer with Pico Remote Control Kit, White, Works with Amazon Alexa . This worked better, since I could buy an LED E12 bulb and dim it using this lamp dimmer.

The 2nd use case is that I have an older house that have a Victorian sconce on the wall that takes an E12 bulb. The sconce is controlled by a small nob, under it, that needs t be turn clockwise to turn it on, and then counter clockwise to turn it off. In this case, removing the current nob switch and replacing it with something else will ruin the look of the sconce. Also, even if I wanted to remove the nob, it would be difficult, since the nob is integrated into the sconce. It's would simply be too hard to remove the nob and replace it with a Homekit light switch.

Since I wanted the ability to not only dim, but change the light temperature based on the time of day, I bought this new Philips Hue bulb to use in these two places. I already had the HUE Homekit hub, light strip, and motion sensor, so adding this bulb was a no brainer. Setup is easy as you just need to click search in their hue app, and then tap the button on the hue bridge. Once that is done, the bulb is discovered. Since the Hue app only operates on rooms, and individual devices, I don't use their app much. I use one of the many Homekit apps to control each device. The light quality is really great, and having the ability to change the color temperature of the bulb, based on the time of day is great.

So, for my use, I create a bunch of Homekit triggers, that range from warm to white color temperature, and execute these triggers based on time, motion, ambient light levels, or a combination of all them. I have the Elgato Motion Sensor, as well as the Fibaro Motion sensor and the iHome SmartMonitor. All of these are Homekit devices. Both the iHome and Fibaro products have motion and light sensors. Each of them have their a few issues, but, for the most part, they work.

I find using the Homekit products much more flexible than using the Hue motion sensor, since you are boxed into pre-programmed times with the Hue motion sensor. You can go to Hue Labs and download additional times, but again, you have to depend on Philips to create those additional slots. With Homekit triggers, you can create motion sensor triggers, with as many time slots, that contain light intensity conditions as you want.

This Philips E12 bulb is a very good bulb. I like the brightness, and the quality of light it produces. Dimming is very smooth. Very much recommended, given the Homekit caveats mentioned above.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

BurbankMike

Longer than your standard candelabra bulb...

Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2017

Verified Purchase

Summary: It's another great bulb for the Hue system, but I wish I could give it 4.5 stars because it's slightly longer than any of our existing candelabra bulbs and sticks out of the lamps in a funny way where our old bulbs didn't... If you have a different lamp with a slightly bigger shade, then this is definitely a 5 star product for you.

When I bought my starter pack of hue bulbs a few years ago, I had no idea how much I was going to fall in love with the system. Slowly, room by room, I've been converting the house to Hue. However I've been waiting years for Philips to release a candelabra base bulb in the US, and I ordered as soon as they were available. They just arrived and I was eager to swap them out so I could finally get some smart dimming into the bedroom...

Setup:
I ordered three bulbs and all of them were synced to the app within a minute. Setting up Hue bulbs is always the easiest smart device setup- no changing wifi networks or entering passwords. You just open the app, tap on Search, and a few moments later they show up. I'm pretty sure the longest part of the process is me figuring out what to name the bulb.

Light Quality:
Right out of the box I saw that this was another excellent Hue product. They have a unique double-diffuser over the LEDs that really does make for a very soft and even light coming off of the bulb. It looks outstanding behind a lampshade. It's a much better quality of light than any of the other candelabra base bulbs in the house (I think we have some IKEA and some Feit bulbs).

Bulb Shape:
The bulb is almost an inch longer than the IKEA one it was replacing, and the shade is short, so it sticks out of the light fixture slightly. It really bugged me at first, but now that I've walked in and out of the room a couple of times, I quickly got used to it and I don't really notice it anymore. So what I initially thought was going to be a deal breaker turned into not a big deal. But I think it's worth noting because this might be an important point for some users.

Color Adjustment:
Like all other Hue bulbs, the bulb is brightest on it's middle settings- if you want to use the warmest and coolest settings (which are very warm/cool) the light will be noticeably dimmer than the colors in the middle of the spectrum. Honestly, I stick to these middle settings and I'm quite happy with the range of colors and brightness. It really does make a difference to be able to switch to the cooler colors of white for during daytime and then the warmer colors at night.

The App:
The app makes it easy to adjust the color, set timers, group bulbs together.

133 people found this helpful

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The AR

Great for the kitchen / dining room.

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

A bit expensive, but that’s the price we pay for getting in on newer technology. This is a lower cost alternative to the full color bulbs in places where you don’t need purple light. Installed 8 of these in our kitchen / dining room. They provide plenty of light, and it’s nice to be able to change the brightness, and especially the kind of light. For cleaning, I like the bright white light, but when we’re having dinner, it’s nice to have a softer, warmer light that’s more relaxing. And being able to tell ‘Alexa’ to turn on the lights when we walk in the door with hands full of groceries is a really nice thing.

One person found this helpful

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Cassie

Love Love Love

Reviewed in the United States on September 22, 2019

Verified Purchase

I replaced my outdoor porch and driveway lights with these bulbs, and so far they are working perfectly. One of these bulbs gives off as much light as three of the traditional bulbs, and I love that these can be programmed to automatically turn on at dusk and off at dawn. They also can be dimmed/brightened and have a range of soft yellow to bright white light.
They are marketed for indoor use, but they have survived 3 Minnesota winters outside (actually all 4 seasons including a particularly hot summer).

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Harmon

Plays well with Apple.

Reviewed in the United States on February 17, 2019

Verified Purchase

I bought several Hue products to act as a system for automating my household lights in certain rooms for daily use, & also to give the illusion that someone is at home when no one is. The products included the one for which I am posting this review, and I will be posting the identical review for the other products I bought. The products involved are the White Ambiance Decorative Candle 40 W dimmable, the White Ambiance 60W Dimmable, the Dimmer Switch with Remote, the Motion Sensor, and the Hue Hub. I use these products over an eero based WiFi system, with the Apple HomeKit app operating on my Apple TV4. I control them remotely from my iPhone and my iPad, using the Home app from Apple and the Hue app. (You really need to use both to set the system up, because it maximizes your options to do so.)

Setting up the system was quite easy, and all of the accessories work as one would expect. Nevertheless, there is room for improvement, which is why I’ve rated all of them, together, as 4 rather than 5 stars.

The biggest problem I have with the system concerns our chandeliers. Both of the ones we have are dimmable, and one of them is controlled by switches at two different doorways. Both of them take 3 light bulbs, and neither of them will function reliably if all three of the bulbs are Hue bulbs. The problem is that when all three of the bulbs are Hue bulbs, they flicker on & off, rendering it impossible to use the chandelier at all. This is a known issue with certain light fixtures which are dimmable, and Phillips is upfront with the likelihood that this could occur. Unfortunately, you won’t know if you have the problem till you try it out. The best solution is to rewire the chandeliers so that they are not dimmable. But pending having that done, I discovered that the living room chandelier works just fine if one light socket is left empty. Not true for the dining room chandelier, but for that one, I discovered that if two of the bulbs are Hue, and the third is a refrigerator light bulb, the flickering does not occur. The problem is that in order to use the scheduling & remote features for the Hue bulbs, the socket the bulbs are in have to be switched on all the time, which means that in the dinning room, the refridgerator light winds up being on all the time.

A minor problem I have with Hue lights is that they are all 60 watts (or less). This is not bright enough to read by. For instance, I had three 100 watt bulbs in both our chandeliers, and even when I get three Hues to operate correctly in them, it’s not quite bright enough. I’m hoping that Phillips is working on higher watt versions of the Hue bulbs.

The remote device and the motion detector work just fine. Oddly, the motion detector also gives the temperature at the place where it is positioned.

For what it’s worth, the ordinary Hue bulbs will work outside even when the temperature drops as much as 20 degrees below zero. At least, that’s been my experience after about a month of use involving a lot of subzero temperatures.

Helpful

Hamish

Another good Hue product, but too pricey to be functional

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2019

Verified Purchase

Let me preface this by saying that I love all of Hue’s products. They make high quality bulbs, offer amazing support, and frequently update their products with new features and functionality. They’re in it for the long haul, and it shows. They’re dedication to this technology is unprecedented, and because of this I have dozens of bulbs of theirs throughout my house.

I was happy to see that they released candelabra versions of their bulbs to put in a few fixtures I had. As other reviewers have pointed out, it’s a little bit bigger than standard sized candle bulbs. It wasn’t a big deal for me since it fit my lamps well, but I could see it being a problem for others.

Aside from that, these are way too expensive to be practical for any household. These were $30 a pop, and many fixtures that use candle bulbs use 6+. I’m a big Hue apologist, but these are a little too rich for my blood. The sweet spot would’ve been $15-$20 in my opinion. However, if you can afford it, you can’t beat these bulbs.

2 people found this helpful

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Philips 468926 Hue White Ambiance E12 Decorative Candle 6W Equivalent Dimmable LED Smart Bulb (Compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Assistant)

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Philips 468926 Hue White Ambiance E12 Decorative Candle 6W Equivalent Dimmable LED Smart Bulb (Compatible with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Assistant)

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