For a start, while the original Bloom – positioned more as a standalone lamp – came with a bundled remote control, the new hue variant doesn’t it’s assumed you’ll be using the full hue apps. In fact, Philips has been offering the lamp for some time now, also as the Bloom, though there are a couple of changes this time around. Pairing the app is a case of running it and then pressing the button on the base station, then waiting for them to register.Īlthough freshly granted “Friends of hue” status, the LivingColors Bloom isn’t actually a new product. Philips offers free apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android, and you can have multiple devices all controlling the same hue system one hub can command up to fifty individual bulbs and lamps. Connect the base station to a spare ethernet port on your router with the supplied cable and plug in the power, and after a few seconds the three blue LEDs light up to show you’re good to go. The regular hue bulbs screw into a standard lamp fitting and come pre-paired with the hub out of the box. Neither comes with the ZigBee base station required to bridge the hue system with your home network for that, you’ll need the hue starter kit which we reviewed last November, which for $199.95/£179.95 gets you the hub and three of the original hue bulbs. You’ll need to be already onboard the hue train if you want to use either a LightStrips kit or a Bloom lamp.

Philips hue lightstrip