On this blog post, we will compare two smart lighting systems: Lifx and Philips Hue. We will go through all pros and cons we can find for each brand on luminous power, colorful, power and consumption, price, connection, service compatibilities and remote control. Who will be the winner? Keep reading...
People probably have heard about Philips Hue and Lifx as two of the best smart lighting solutions at this moment. They are right! Here at Netbeast, we have been working with these lights for two years. We have integrated both brands on our application Yeti so that we think we can show you all pros and cons of both brands.
We will go through all main features we can find in a smart lighting system today.
Luminous Power/Flux
We will define luminous power or luminous flux as the measure of the perceived power of light. The unit of luminous flux is the lumen. Then,higher lumen number means higher power of light (more luminosity perceived by your eyes).
Some examples:
- 1 W high-output white LED → 25–120 lumens
- Metal halide floodlights → 8000 lumens
According to the official Philips Hue website, the color started kit lights has 800 lm (lumens).
On the other side, Lifx claims to have 1100 lumens.
Winner: Lifx
Colorful
When you try Lifx and Philips Hue you will realize that Lifx has better and more intense colors than Philips Hue.
Winner: Lifx
Power and consumption
According to the power of each light we can know the product power in kilowatts multiplied by running time in hour. This is what you pay for when you receive the bill.
Philips Hue. This kind of light run with 60W
Lifx will run with 75W
Winner: Philips hue
Price
You can find Philips Hue and Lifx lights in a lot of stores. We have selected the same which is located in the USA and also in Europe. These are the prices:
Philips Hue Starter kit white & color (3 bulbs and bridge) → 169.19€ or 199.99$
Lifx 3Gen A19 (1Bulb) → 75.27€ or 59.99$
Winner: Philips Hue
Connection
Philips Hue lights have two kinds of connections. On the one hand, you connect the Philips hue bridge to your router with the ethernet connector. Then, when you connect your mobile to your local network and you want to control your lights you will “talk” to the bridge through that connection. On the other hand, the bridge will send your orders using the Zigbee technology. So when you control your Philips hue lights you don’t control them directly, you do that using the bridge.
On the contrary, Lifx has only one kind of connection, wifi. Lifx lights don’t have a bridge, they connect to your router using the wifi technology. So that, you will be controlling your lights directly using your phone.
Winner: Tie
Services compatibility
Both lights are fully compatible with mostly home automation service like:
- Alexa
- Google home
- Siri
- Yeti
Winner: Tie
Remote control
You can access to the lights and control both brands remotely. You will be able to turn them on/off or change the color even if you are not at home.
Winner: Tie
The best?
It’s hard to pick up a winner in this battle. From my point of view, I would choose Philips Hue if you want your home full of smart lights and you only want to create some basic ambients. They are cheaper but you need to place a bridge near to your router and their colors are not really deep.
If you only want to put two or three lights in the main rooms I would select Lifx for sure. You don’t need any bridge, you will only need a wifi connection. They have more and better light colors and also, you can use only one light per rooms because of their high luminous power.
