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Add to SafariWhen comparing Philips Hue vs GE Link, the Slant community recommends Philips Hue for most people. In the question“What are the best smart bulbs?” Philips Hue is ranked 1st while GE Link is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose Philips Hue is:
The Hue app comes with default color pallets, but you can take control and customize the colors any way you want. The bulbs support up to 16 million different colors covering all areas of the spectrum.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Wide range of colors
The Hue app comes with default color pallets, but you can take control and customize the colors any way you want. The bulbs support up to 16 million different colors covering all areas of the spectrum.
Pro Supports IFTTT recipes
There are many fun IFTTT App Recipes that you can sync with your phone and Websites. If THIS happens then do THAT to the lights, i.e. IF your team scores a touchdown(ESPN), THEN turn the lights the color of your team.
Pro Tons of utility and customization
Philips has released the Hue API, allowing individual developers to create their own apps that utilize the Hue bulbs. These apps are often more robust than Philips' own app, letting lights change color in sync with music, flickering whenever you get a tweet, or can change colors to reflect the stock market. The possibilities are nearly endless.
Pro Compatible with Philips Ambilight TV
If you have a Philips Ambilight TV, you can hook your Hue lightbulbs up with the TV and the bulbs will change color with what is on the screen, making for a very immersive experience.
Pro Cost-effective
Pro Easy lighting management
Once you get the Wink App working, controls for the bulbs are simple. Whether you are modifying one bulb at a time, or grouping them to adjust many all at once, the controls are simple and work fairly well. Automating bulbs is just as easy - from basic scheduling (turn on in the morning, off when you go to bed for example) to recognizing when your phone is near and turn on by themselves.
If you want to go deeper, you can use the Robots feature, which allows you to craft your own automation recipe and dip into external triggers.
Pro Great color range
These bulbs can manage to display 90% of the color index - more than any current RGB LED bulb. It scores very well in all colors, expect pure red (about 60%) and pure blue (about 74%). Different shades of these colors all perform well.
Pro Compatible with many products
The GE Link is part of Wink's smart home platform standard, and are compatible with other products that utilize Wink (Honeywell, Dropcam, Philips Hue and more).
Cons
Con Bulbs aren't super bright
The first gen bulbs (what are available right now) have a maximum brightness of 600 lumens - similar brightness to a 50-watt bulb. The second gen bulbs will have an increase to 800 lumens, which is in-line with the amount of light that 60-watt bulbs produces - however these aren't available quite yet.
Con Requires a central hub
The Hue bulbs need to be connected to a hub which needs to be wired into your router. This adds another device to the mix, and also increases the cost (it's $60 on its own, but it is also included in some of the bundles).
Con Some colors can be difficult to create
Blue tones tend to come out purplish, and green tones tend to be more yellowy than they should be.
Con Buggy software
Between installing, registering, and connecting, the setup process is very slow and buggy. Even once connected, changing the colors or settings takes longer and appears more choppy than competing bulbs.
Updates can fail to install properly multiple times in a row (even with restarting your phone and unscrewing the bulbs).
Con Hub required
To access any smart features, you will require a hub. There are different hubs available, with more to come. Currently there is the Link Hub ($30) which will handle lighting, or the Wink Hub ($50) will be able to work the lights as well as other smart home systems. There's also the coming-soon Wink Relay ($300) which will have a touchscreen and act as a wall mounted smart hub.
Con Inefficient compared to other RGB bulbs
The GE Link requires 12 watts to produce 800 lumens - the TCP LEDs and Belkin WeMo provide the same lumens at 11 watts and 9.5 watts, respectively, and the Philips Hue provides 750 lumens using only 9 watts.
The GE Link is one of the most inefficient RGB LEDs available, however it is still many times more efficient than incandescent bulbs.
Con Limited dimming
While other Smart LED bulbs can dim right down to 0.5% of their total brightness, the GE Link will only go down to 10.2% brightness before it turns off. While this is still fairly dim, it would be nice to have an even larger range to make transitioning to bedtime more effective.
