Smart bulbs are an easy way to start with smart homes and over the years they have become a lot less expensive. Philips was one of the pioneers in the segment and its initial Hue smart bulbs required Zigbee based Hue bridge to be operational. This added to the cust and puts hue bulbs at a disadvantage against cost-effective Wi-Fi enabled smart bulbs from brands like Xiaomi, Wipro, TP-link, etc.
In comes Philips Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb that’s powered by Wiz Connect, a company Signify (Parent company licensing Philips brand) acquired last year. These Wi-Fi LED bulbs don’t require a bridge and can directly connect to Wi-Fi.
So, should you buy one? How does the Phillips Smart Wi-Fi LED bulb compared against Xiaomi’s Mi LED Smart bulb? Let’s answer these questions and more in our review.
Philips Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb 9W Review: price and specifications
| Product | Philips Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb Wiz Connected |
| Luminescence | 9W, 825 lumens |
| Colors | 16 million |
| Base Socket | E27 (Threaded)/ B22 |
| Dimensions | 5 x 5 x 10 cm |
| Wi-Fi | 2.4GHz |
| Platform | Android/ iOS |
| Price | Rs. 900 |
Philips Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb 9W Review: Design
The Philips Smart Wi-Fi LED bulb looks like a regular LED bulb and that’s great. Last generation Wi-Fi bulbs and even the Xiaomi Mi LED bulb are extraordinarily heavy, which at times makes them unsuitable for table lamps.
The Philips Wi-Fi bulb, however, will assuredly fit-in anyplace were a regular LED bulb would. It’s extremely light and doesn’t wobble as much when connected via a B22 adapter.
The bulb retails in both B22 and E27 bases. We are testing the E27 model affixed in an external b22 connector.
The Philips Wi-Fi bulb is rated to last for 10,000 hours and comes with a 2-year warranty.
Philips Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb Review: How to setup and pair with Alexa or Google Assistant
Setting the bulb up is quite simple. Just connect it to a power socket, download the Wiz app from Play Store or App Store and follow the instructions.
Once paired, the bulb has to be added to a ‘room’ in the Wiz home. And you may invite other family members and share light control with them.
The bulb pairs over the 2.4GHz band. If you use a dual-band router with separate SSIDs for 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands (as most people in India do), you will have to switch the controlling device to 2.4GHz band.
However, this can be a problem with mesh-routers that merge both into one band. Having said that, this is a limitation with all affordable Wi-Fi LED bulbs that we know of, so it would be unfair to particularly point out Philips smart bulb.
To pair with Alexa, you will need to download Wiz skill and key in 6-digit security PIN listed that you’d get while enabling ‘Alexa’ in Wiz app settings>> Integrations.
Google Home app could automatically detect Wiz and pairing worked more seamlessly.
Apart from Google Home and Alexa, Philips smart Wi-Fi LED bulb also pairs with IFTTT, Samsung Smart Things and Apple’s Siri.
Also Read: 10+ Best Alexa Skills to try on Echo devices in India
Philips Smart Wi-Fi LED Bulb Review: Performance and App
We were totally satisfied with the brightness of the LED light. On paper, the 9W Philips Wi-Fi LED bulb is brighter than Xiaomi’s 10W Mi LED smart bulb. In practice, the brightness was almost similar.
The Wiz app makes all the difference, though. It’s thoughtfully designed and has all options in the right places. It’s not particularly snappy and syncing between the bulb and the app is often laggy. But, yes, we find the app design very appealing.
As is customary, the app lets you adjust brightness, colors and color temperature. The bulb mimics the chosen colors with reasonable fidelity.
The pre-defined scenes in the app aren’t the same as those in the Hue app, but what we have here works fine. The set Scene lighting will be followed by all Philips Smart LED bulbs in the same room.
The app also has a feature called WizClick. When turned on, the bulb alternates between two chosen favorite ‘Scenes’ every time it is powered on. So, users can switch on and off the power button and alternate between two lighting profiles.
These scene controls don’t work once you turn on ‘Rhythms’. These Rhythms set lighting based on the time of the day. The Scene changes gradually from the time you wake up until sleep time. Users can design their own Rythm or make moderate changes to the pre-defined ‘Circadian Rhythm’.
Some user reviews on Amazon point out frequent connection drops and the need for repairing after a power outage. We haven’t encountered any such issue on our review unit.
Also Read: Xiaomi Mi LED bulb review
Verdict: Should you buy it?
The Philips LED Smart bulb makes perfect sense for the price. It is light and well designed, comes with both B22 and E27 base options, connects via a very appealing proprietary wiz app, and reliably connects to Apple, Google, Amazon & Samsung IoT ecosystems.
The overall experience is better than Mi LED smart bulb that’s also relatively more expensive. So, if you are looking for a low-cost Wi-Fi enabled smart bulb to add to your smart home ecosystem, we can recommend the Philips LED smart bulb as an option.
Philips LED smart bulb FAQ
How to reset the Philips Smart LED bulb?
You can not manually reset the bulb by powering the bulb on and off in quick succession. You will have to delete the bulb from the Wiz app settings.
Q) How bright is the Philips smart LED bulb?
The 9W bulb is rated for 825 lumens.
Q) Does Philips smart LED bulb support IFTTT pairing
Yes, it does.
Q) Does Philips smart LED bulb support 5GHz Wi-Fi?
No, it does not. This could be a problem if you have a mesh router that combines 5Ghz and 2.4GHz SSID.
Q) What is Wiz Click? How does it work?
Once Wiz click is enabled from app settings, the bulb will alternate between two set colors every time it’s powered on (From power switch, not from within the app).
Q) Is the hue bridge needed for Philips Smart LED bulb?
No. Only Wi-Fi connectivity is required.
Q) What is the warranty fpr Philips smart LED bulbs?
A 2-year warranty is offered to consumers in India
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