Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Justin Tech and a lot of you may know me as the Hugh guy. I did a lot of Phillips HU videos before I came over to CNET and that is what I'm doing for you today. I wanna show you a bunch of Phillips HU accessories and light fixtures that I'm using around the house that have really stood out to me this year and hopefully I can inspire you to get some upgrades going on at your smart home. I'll be looking at lights that can sync to your music and movies on your tv, some shine indirect light for [00:00:30] some accent colors and one of my favorite HU accessories that I'm using around the house. And don't worry, I've got links to all these products that I talk about down in the description. So let's get into it.
Speaker 1: Let's start with what I think is one of the coolest fixtures from Phillips hu and that is the gradient light tube. This light shines a maximum 1800 lumens of light against walls and is mainly meant for use with TVs and I'm sure there are so many other ways that this [00:01:00] can be used. What do you think? The light tube and sometimes light saber is super sleek. The tube twists at the angle that works best for its location and creates a nice source of indirect light to brighten up a room and it can sink with your tv. The gradient tube comes in a couple colors. This is white, it also comes in black and there's also two sizes. This is the complex size. It's 34 inches long meant for TVs, Phillips Hu says for 42 inch to 50 inches. I have it on my 55 inch and I'm, I'm [00:01:30] fine with it.
Speaker 1: There's also a larger one that is 55 inches long meant for TVs, uh, larger than mine. Also, you're meant to put it either on furniture like so, or you can adhere it to a wall. Obviously here I wasn't able to do that cuz the wall is inside, but that is also an option for you and you reflect it off the wall. Now here's the kicker. It doesn't come with the screws needed to adhere it to a wall, which is a bit disappointing when you're investing so much money into a light. You'd hope it comes with the two screws, but you're gonna have to pick [00:02:00] those up on your own.
Speaker 1: Using the Hue app, you can create different styles of gradients to decorate the room with color. There are also dynamic scenes which you can activate to transition between the set colors. You can adjust the speed of dynamic scenes as well as set them to automatically play when a scene is turned on. Now this fixture was designed specifically to work alongside your TV using an H Dmmi sync Box. The Hue Sync box allows you to sync your Hue lights to the content you're playing [00:02:30] or watching on your tv. You just plug in the devices to the sync box and the sync box plugs into your tv. Yes, that does mean that you can't use like smart TV apps because there's no way to have those go through the sink box. It needs to be a gaming console or a streaming device that's separate from the tv. In order to sync the light, you need to add it to an entertainment area on the HU app. You can adjust the height, location, and direction of the tube in correlation to the tv. The gradient tube [00:03:00] looks great under my TV in conjunction with the Gradient Light strip that I have on the top three sides of my tv. If you wanna learn more about that fixture, there's a video on YouTube where I reviewed it, so go check that out.
Speaker 1: Next up is another fixture that looks great syncing to any content on a TV in the corner of a room and that is the Gradient Sign lamp. This 57 inch fixture stands in the corner of a room and shines over 2,500 lumens of light. It comes [00:03:30] in white and black as well as a new oak model. I like the white model the most because it blends into my room when it's turned off. Candlelight and fireplace effects look great, but it does feel like this light is lacking a bit. When it comes to effects, there are only two and it's definitely lacking, especially when you compare it to Gove's Lira Lamp, which is a similar fixture which has a ton of effects, which I've actually reviewed on this channel and a link that video down below the Gove lamp also comes with an RF remote, which is super handy [00:04:00] for picking up and changing the color and the brightness. The Phillips Hu sign lamp doesn't have this and I hope it does get one in the future.
Speaker 1: While I love the sign lamp and how well it syncs with my Hugh setup, I lived with the Gove Lira lamp for months. Now in order to control the Gove lamp alongside my Phillips HU Lights, I'm able to do that with the Amazon assistant or using certain accessories like the flick button or this next one that I'm about to get into and that is with one of my [00:04:30] favorite light switches. The light dial switch, it's a circular controller that comes in white or black and it's magnetic so you can stick it to metallic surfaces and it even comes with a plate that can be adhered to a wall. The controller has four buttons and a dial. Each button has physical dots on them that could help those who are visually impaired. I have a ton of Phillips HU light switches and accessories and I made a whole video of them on YouTube, but I've gotta say that this one is my favorite because of all [00:05:00] the customization and abilities that it has.
Speaker 1: You've got the dial around it that can dim and brighten the lights. You can customize whether or not when you dim it all the way down, whether it turns the lights completely off or if it just reaches its minimum brightness. Then you've got the four buttons, which you can assign scenes to each of them. You can also assign multiple scenes to a button based off just how many times you press it and you can also customize it so that when you press a button, depending on the time of day, that's what scene will come on. You [00:05:30] can also press any of the four buttons, hold it down and it'll turn all of the lights off. And for even more control of your smart home, you can connect this light dial switch to either Amazon or series home kit. That way you can control like your nano leaf lines like I have above my desk or another product that's not Phillips Hu, like that Gobi Lira lamp with your hue lights. My favorite part about this light switch is the ability to set actions based on the time of day. This is helpful for choosing different [00:06:00] types of white light from cool to warm throughout the day to help with your body's circadian rhythm. The white light that you're experiencing throughout the day can really play a role with your mind. So for example, in the morning you want to have that cooler white light, but later in the evening that warm light really helps you relax and sooth into your evening.
Speaker 1: Now let's take a look at my desk here. I've installed a Gradient light strip like the one on my tv, but it's a smaller one meant for a monitor. Yay. This one fits monitors [00:06:30] 24 to 27 inches. Mine's 27. It creates a great source of indirect light to use throughout the day and it looks awesome with dynamic scenes cycling through colors. This device is first and foremost geared toward gamers. Using the Hue Sync app on pc, you can sync the computer screen to the lights in the room. No H D M I Sync box is required like it is with the TV. Video games literally come to life when you're using this because they're changing the entire color of my wall. I'd say that if [00:07:00] you don't have a white wall behind your monitor, this may not be the best option for you or it may be worth moving where your computer is. All of the customization controls that you have on the Hussy app for the TV are here on the computer. That way the brightness can change and the different intensities. Unfortunately, the sync capabilities with the computer screen are only available on pc, not Mac, and there's no word on if or when that will ever come.
Speaker 1: Next up, it's time to get festive with Phillips [00:07:30] Hughes FTA string lights. These string lights are first and foremost meant for a Christmas tree, but really they can be used in so many different ways. Unfortunately, though they aren't waterproof, the string lights come in one length, 65 feet with 250 L E D lights. I was able to wrap this one strand around my six foot tree, but a lot of people may want to have a more full look with their lights and may need two boxes of these. There are three different style types. There's linear, which creates a gradient [00:08:00] using three colors from top to bottom. There's mirrored, which also uses three colors, but creates a gradient from top and bottom that meet in the center. And then there's scattered, which lets you choose up to five colors. You can double up colors by dragging them on top of one another.
Speaker 1: The string lights have the same candle and fireplace effect that I showed you on the sign lamp as well as one new one called Sparkle. Unfortunately though you can't adjust the speed of these effects or the color, which feels a bit limited, especially [00:08:30] when you compare them to their competitor twinkle, which has a ton of different effects. The string lights also have the dynamic scenes that I've shown you before, which I've set to autoplay when I activate certain scenes. And just like the other Hue products, you can sync this with either music or your tv. While I think this is a cool feature, I probably won't be syncing this to my TV very often at all because I like having it be static when I'm watching content, but I probably will have it synced to music when I [00:09:00] have people over. I did review the Fabia lights on our channel, so you should check out that video. I go more into detail on all the effects and how it works, so I'll put that right up here and I'll throw it down in the description.
Speaker 1: There is one more fixture that I do wanna bring light to. It did just come out so I haven't tested it out yet. And those are the light guide bulbs. Stay on the lookout for these. They have an inner tube with diffused light in white or color, and they have a sleek design. The bulbs are sold alongside a [00:09:30] pendant cord and metal holder that's available in either black or white and can be used with a single bulb. Now I wanna hear from you, what are your favorite hue fixtures or just smart lighting fixtures in general? Let me know down the comments because maybe I'll review one of them. If you enjoyed this video and you wanna see more smart lighting and smart home, keep it here at CNET by subscribing. And if you enjoyed this video, be sure to give it a like, I'm Justin and I'll take you later.
