Do you use smart bulbs in your home?

I have these weird switches on my walls that turn the lights on and off. I just slap my hand on them and the lights come on. No password required.

yeelight have gone up 30%, thanks linus

Me: *buys a Philips hue bulb* 1 day later Linus: RIPOFF

like the features, setup was difficult for some of my devices (August Door lock, kzfaq.infoUgkxhB5YOMNj04GuoAosExygP4cH-dKeb4aB Bose speaker)... but all switches and outlets (5), thermostat, tankless water heater. Unfortunately all I can do is turn on/off Bose. It doesn't support volume or changing channels, but I believe that is due to the particular speaker I have.... Worth getting if you already have other devices to use it with... I don't sit around and ask Alexa questions much so that doesn't really matter to me....

I have my hue lights, connected to my Razer PC app, and having the lights change as you play games is pretty amazing,

I’ve never ever had an issue with Hue. It works every time. By comparison, I’ve worked with other smart bulbs integrating into other systems… and those occasionally have issues that require I delete, re-find and install, and then rebuild all the routines involved. And Hue can often be purchased at discount; just last week, I got a pair of Hue strips on sale for $20 less per strip than usual. So this is less about ‘ripoff’, and more about “you get what you pay for”.

Man, this really needs an update. Hue has Global settings now for a some time already and all the 3rd party support for Hue plus the sync features make it worth it way more. Also Hue are on sale often, I only buy them at half price.

It's nice to see that the "rgb" lights in the backround are in the correct order.

Yee.

have my hue connected to my pc. goddamn do the flashbangs look real **.**

Honestly the HUE platform is great and the light quality and integration with other platforms is super dope as well. It is premium but I have replaced all my lights in the house and the connectivity is nice.

Linus discovered that chinese knockoffs cost less? mind blown

You forgot the TRÅDFRI line from IKEA, similar prices to Yeelight AND HomeKit integration. And much better support from popular home automation software suites.

Best moment in this video 01:49

I'd be interested in seeing an update on this one. I use the basic Phillips Wiz bulbs, I think I paid maybe $10-$15 each a few months ago, w/ no hub required. Not as bright, but gets the job done for me using just an app and Wifi.

I guess you could say it's a HUEge ripoff

An unknown difference is security. We keep adding devices to our home network and it’s nearly impossible to know which of these is the most secure. You should do a video on securing your home network from “IOT” devices.

One thing that is awesome about Yeelight is that it has a developer mode with exposed API so you can write an app to control it in your local network. For example, you can sync your Windows theme colour with your light.

1:50 oof. Right in the tech tips.

As a security focused person by profession and hobby, the fact that the YeeLight bulbs require an account for *local* connections to the phone is a HUGE red flag for me. Allowing it for convenience is fine in its own right, but there is zero excuse to ship a product and require the end user to make an online account for a device that will almost never need a connection to the open web. Think about it - this is in your home, permanently installed to the socket - are we going to start requiring accounts before we can use our "Smart Toaster?" Of course not. That would be ridiculous. In addition to that, the fact that the product comes from China, and that the devices themselves are so much cheaper than the competition (sort of, I'll get to that), really makes my hairs stand on end. Requiring an account at all suggests that they need API keys to perform basic functions, even if the connection from the phone to the bulbs are *mostly* local. If this is true, it ultimately means they're constantly phoning home. Huge no-no. I've worked on developing products like this, and you can actually set up a sort of "cloud hub" to serve the purpose of the physical hub like the hue bridge. I think that's what they're doing here - likely with the same server software I worked with. Mind you, this approach is STUPID, and certainly not the kind of architecture I would design and ship in a product, but it does exist. This begs a few questions: 1. Where is the main server? In China? How much latency would that cause? How much info on home networks could potentially be sniffed and sent to the Chinese government? You can learn a LOT about a network by simply being connected to it. 2. What happens when my internet gets knocked out? Do my bulbs work? 3. What happens when they discontinue their cloud service? 4. What the hell is this thing *doing* on the network? How "chatty" is it? This isn't the first time I've seen LTT glaze over very glaring concerns like this. It's as though not a single one of your writers or editors know a thing about basic home network security - I wouldn't trust this thing on my network, and yet you're not only recommending it to us, but going further and saying the main competing product is a "ripoff." Did you even do any security tests on this thing? I doubt it, since you'd have mentioned it if you had. You typically get what you pay for with IoT products, and the security of these products certainly follow the same rule. I'm sure I'm not the only member of your audience who would like to get more security insight into gadgets like this, especially if you're going to recommend people to put this on a home network, where the most sensitive of people's data is. While it would be very "tinfoil hat" of me to suggest that EVERY device like this would be intentionally malicious, stuff like this tends to be inherently insecure. It could very well be "punching holes" in your network, or be vulnerable to an exploit that leaves the rest of your network at risk. If you're reading this, please consider hiring a consultant or writer with a heavy security background. Someone who knows what they are doing and can quickly research and/or pentest devices like this before they show up on the channel - someone who would be horrified that this video was produced and released as it currently is. I would like to see more security-minded product tests and data in the future. Back to the pricing. The only prices you seem to quote in your video is the AliExpress ones, which doesn't at all account for overseas shipping costs. Yes, stuff from China will be cheaper, but the customer either fronts the bill for the shipping, or pays no shipping and has to wait 2 weeks to a month to receive the product. That's unrealistic. Meanwhile, on Amazon, the price for a colored bulb is $30. Still cheaper than Hue, but not by much. Why? Shipping and storage costs to stock and ship the product from the U.S. and Canada. You didn't even cover this at all, likely to give false credence to your whole "pHilIpS hUe Is a RiPoFf!!1!1!1" nonsense. At that price point, if Hue is a ripoff, so are the YeeLights. I'm overall pretty disappointed in this video. To call Hue lights a "ripoff" and completely glaze over everything I've mentioned is entirely uncharacteristic of the LTT I've been following for years. I've always known you guys to have a little more integrity than this. I hope this isn't the beginning of a never ending downward trend in quality. I very much look forward to your videos, and I love everything LTT has done and accomplished over the years. You guys are awesome. I hope I haven't come off as someone who wants to see you fail - I don't. All the best.

Yee... Light?

Inspecting hackability would have been interesting. Hue has an easy to use API for control from computers. Especially control via Raspberry Pis or microcontrollers is interesting as they offer a wide range of sensors.

Under the hood, Yeelight runs on the Tuya platform , thats basicly an open invitation into your digital life for the Chinese government.

5:02 why is Linus's WiFi named _no u_ lmao

As an electrician who understands how color temperatures work, I have to say that LIFX's displaying of the color temp is a huge pro for me. I can't stand when I can't enter a color value directly and have to use that ridiculous touch map.

I'd love a smart bulb round-up like they did with wireless earbuds. I've been using C by GE stuff and while the Android app acts weird and requires an account, the hardware is excellent for the price.

might be old but i think the best option when you pick your smart home equipment is pick your ecosystem first so you can control everything with one app in the end so you do not have 20 apps and some equipment that only works with your phones Bluetooth. best to pick stuff that can work together with something like your assistant of choice.

Yeelight also has an ecosystem of motion sensors and stuff.

where is the color comparison between the different lights??? this should have been in the video! is one of the most important points...

I have the same bulbs I bought over 4 years ago. I haven't bought a single CFC or filament bulb in 4 years since I had my Hue. Moreover, it's really easy to write your own manager that interacts with the Hue Hub using a Rest interface. That means it can easily be integrated with custom home systems using something as simple as an Arduino.

Four years later and I'm totally sick of all wifi switches and plugs. They constantly disappear from my network. From kasa to lifx. WiFi was an easy choice, but not a smart one. In contrast, my lutron switches have never disappeared in the same timeframe. Not once. I'm switching to hubs and not looking back. More security and reliability goes a long way for a few extra bucks.

3:43 The corners are cut off on the phone, seriously Linus!

Smart lightbulb? Nah man, just install a clapper

"Cheap Chinese Yee light requires an account" Hue it is then. Huehuehuehue.

I love my Hue lights. I have them in nearly every fixture. It is great to be able to control everything from an app. I know knock-off lamps have quality and reliability problems. I've not had any lamps fail since converting my old leds three years ago. You should do an update on this.

You know what else is a ripoff a cheap circumcision.

YEETLight

You should check the price of yeelights right now. More expensive than Phillips 😂

I have been using smart bulbs in my apartment for a couple years now, and had several brands until last month. I had LIFX and a couple value brands from Amazon. It was fine until I had to change my router password and had to reprogram all 21 of my bulbs. If was frustrating enough that I bought Hue lights to replace all of the bulbs. To save some money, I went with all white bulbs since the functionality of the RGB was never utilized on the LIFX bulbs. The software compatibility is what is now a high priority and Phillips Hue works pretty well with Alexa for voice control. After spending 450 bucks, lighting has been finished and I am pretty satisfied.

what about third party Philips hue compatible bulbs? Innr or IKEA bulbs are a great example

Do check ikea trådfri as well. Not expensive and homekit support

Personally I use the govee ecosystem and it’s really cheap and offers independent control, white support and a microphone for crazy lights and it has its own themes with diy lights customization. It has stuff like Alexa strip lights normal light,bulbs and water proof car strips. And they also sell more obscure things like thermostats etc. but I really enjoy them!

Recently bought the Hue HUB, should’ve done that much sooner. Anything else is actually crap. More and more brands start to sell compatible Hue products, yes all Zigbee, but the “Friend of Hue” gives guarantee it will work. Now I convert my house slowly from a unknown brand to Hue compatible light bulbs etc etc…

As a lighting professional I have to caution you, Linus. There are other factors than just efficiency and promised lifetime that is just a promise either from a reputable company or not. Three of which are very important for your kids eyes: Flicker index(mainly a problem while dimmed), the blue peak issue, that affects your night sleep and color rendering index CRI, (or nowadays we have CQS for LEDs or even TM-30. There is alot of knowledge about these available on Asensetek website, it is a really good light diagnostics device that connects to your phone. Don't be fooled by Chinese marketing. Hue can also connect to Logitech Harmony One set. Also, Philips lamps really outlive any promises they give. Others sadly struggle to stay in one piece after half of the promised time. In every two years there is the worlds largest lighting fair at Frankfurt. At that fair, Chinese have their own houses, and last time there was thousands of manufacturers, each having their own smart home system with bulbs and stuff.

0:19 This. It' still true today. I won a Google Home and was looking for stuff I could use it for. "Smart lights? Why not?" I thought. Well, looking at the price, I see why.

Whenever I want to add some color in my living room I just drop my disco ball from the ceiling. Weird dancing is optional

Everything is a ripoff when you compare the price to Chinese knockoffs.

I didn't know Kanye made light bulbs

4:45 How can you mess up an iPhone THAT bad? The screen recording is not even on a notched iPhone.

I came back to this after testing every other brand. Hue by far was the easiest to setup and use. Every other brand always ended in frustration and headaches.

Gotta say, as a Belgian myself I like that you put Eddy Wally's "wauw" in there xD.

You skipped IKEA. I love their setup! Cheaper than Philips, yet still no account required. And they'll work with all three major voice assistants.

Yee Yee 🤠. I want to be able to walk into my house, scream “YEE YEE” and have my house light up like the grizwalds house in Christmas vacation.

My cheap alternative smart lights always disconnect and have to be reconnected and i have no nerves for That. Is it better with Hue?

Would love to see an updated version of this with more brands like the Govee and Kasa smart bulbs.

I’ve used Philips Hue with HomeKit for awhile now and there’s no turning back. The fact I can run automation and use my phone to turn my lights on before I get home is great. Is it expensive? Yeah probably. Do I care? Absolutely not.

Phillips Hue isn't cheap, but the system is very reliable and easy to setup/manage in my experience (i have loads of hue kit). Once you have smart home stuff e.g. lights controlled via app or voice assistance like an amazon echo or google home you'll wonder why you didn't get it before. The colored hue bulbs are quite pricey, but the regular white dimmable bulbs are under £20.

I know this video is a bit old, but how could you ignore Philips Hue's Sync app on PC? Sync your lights up to your movies and games? It's honestly the most immersive way to watch movies/play games.

I’d like to point out that hue has a heap load of 3rd party apps, thanks to local rest access to your hub. hue also has some awesome features like being able to sync lights to your desktop screen for an enhanced movie or game experience. You also can setup your lights on routines such as simulating a sunrise to make waking up more natural for those who have blackouts.

I just ordered a clapper on Amazon for $17

xiaomi and xiaomi owned companies have an overwhelmingly comprehensive consumer programable devices (smart home) ecosystem; however, they are only focusing on Chinese market as of now. As a result, UI is only intuitive for Chinese consumers. Translation to English and Alexa support is really just a cherry on top.

Question - I have a single lamp I use to light my full bedroom with a standard bulb. It works great, and provides good light for the entire room. Will one Yeelight provide equal lighting to a bog standard bulb, and light my full room, or is that Hue territory with bulbs that emit all around?

Yeeyee! 🤠

HueHueHue

IKEA Tradfri also uses ZigBee and are interchangeable with hue. IKEA also have motion sensors that link well.

PS with that Hue app, cant you make a setup with all those lights in the same group. It does need an extra group, but will allow you to controlled multiple areas

The only reason why I use Philips Hue is that it has Hue Sync. Show me another company that does that and I'll switch in an instant. Also, Philips Hue has zones now, for global scenes.

Me: Wait, where was the bit about the spons- Linus: *SURPRISE SPONSOR WITH NO TRANSITION*

I guess you could say it's a huege ripoff...

I have 8 Hue color bulbs, 1 White Bulb, a Motion Sensor, a Switch, and a HueGo. I LOVE the whole architecture. Got the bundle on Xmas for $140 which included the hub. Had had them for over 3 years and still love them.

I have Hue and Feit. The only real difference seems to be: Hue has better color saturation, and the hub makes it more forgiving if someone accidentally turns off the wall switch. There's a longer delay on the Feit bulbs if someone turns off the wall switch to when they respond upon turning the switch back on, and I did have one or two bulbs need to be manually added back in (but that only happened once and could have been due to impatience). Considering the price is in line with that Yee brand I also consider Feit a win over Hue. I did have a non-rgb light fail from Feit and they sent me a replacement, and that process was very easy.

Using yeelight over the year and it's insane and if someone won't know it's the subbrand of Xiaomi

Automatic subtitles think you're speaking in Dutch 🤔🤔🤔

I've got full house setup with Tapo/TP link coloured dimmable bulbs and lighting strips. Full house done for less than £250. Mobile phone software is really only used for one time setup as I've setup all scenes, moods and routines with IFTTT and Alexa. Exterior lights switch on automatically when one of our phones enters within 100 yard range of home if it's near or after sunset. My co-worker tried to do the same with Philips Hue and ran into limitations on the number of aplets his hub could manage.

Hi we have Hue and it is expensive but there are 3rd party manufacturers which are a bit cheaper, the hub as i understood it took the burden off your router. Its very stable and easy to use and the PIR and remotes are great its very simple to add and change. There is one thing that is still an issue is the wall switch all these things need permanent power on, so if like me you had switches and dimmers you still sometimes reach for the light switch. This was very hard to memory muscle not to switch off your lights at the wall. There are some 'friends of hue' that make switches but they are very expensive (kinetic) and not like the switches we have which match the power sockets, brushed nickel, satin this or polished that, very limited ranges and companies. We noticed that each light is a seperate device, so, as we did recently, we replaced the lamps in a chandelier, but unlike a single lamp side light which you might describe as 'TV Room lamp' the chandelier has 5 lamps and i need to find out if i can group these into single 'TV room chandelier' . I've tried internet direct lamps and due to 2.4 and 5.0 router signals they are less than reliable as they seem to get confused and drop out. My partner is disabled and these have been a fantastic help, in that if a door is opened the lights come on using a tiny PIR with a magnet and or screw fixing and if you've forgotten to turn off the phone can do it, so you don't have to use the stair lift to go there and manually do it....But this has to be reliable and the Hue is very stable so it is the one we chose ... Personally i wouldn't retrofit the whole house straight away you need to start with want you want to do and then discover what else you need and change areas in incremental steps. These lights change the way you use lights a lot and you need to think about how you will and want to operate the lights and how having these will change the way you do it now, unless you buy new wall switches you can't just go turn them on at the wall (You need a compatible light switch) we use a voice assistant (Google) and the app as the cost of the light switches and the lack of options was a major factor so seriously you don't need switches but you need to think about and plan the change ... maybe if you were building your new house yes but if you are retro fitting, bit by bit is best IMHO and it not so painful money wise but you need to really think about it. Great videos as always thanks

yee

No mention of colour quality, variability of bulb styles, the enhanced security aspects of having a single hub, alternative very well supported apps and regular offers on bulbs. The Hue system can be expensive but if bought carefully the cost is much lower than you think. Also you can install a PC app that will adjust lights based on video output on the PC screen.

5:40 That has changed as of current, You can now add "Zones" that combine lights from multiple rooms. (for ex "whole house zone" you can put all lights in and make scenes that occur with the whole house, or "just my lamps" scene eat.)

I bought some Wiz bulbs made by Philips that seem to offer the same features and don't require a central hub.

Nowhere do we talk about CRI or color rendering index of the 3 systems (at least for the "W" in RGBW). this is the real "quality" control of those lights.

>Phillip's Hue is a ripoff >works with RAZER It all makes sense now.

The Kasa/TP Link bulbs are an awesome alternative. They are often on sale for like $15-$20 each and don’t need a hub, just a WiFi connection. App works well, Google/Alexa compatible, consistent and bright. I use the scheduled lighting every day to turn all my lights on with my alarm to help me wake up. Lights turn off automatically twice a day just in case I leave them on. I’ve bought a few over the last 2-3 years and love them. Solid recommend.

Hue is great. Just buy that if you want something easily expandable and with a warranty from your local retailer. Newer bulbs no longer requires the hub and integrates perfectly with pretty much any chosen hub, although I recommend Home Assistant.

Philips HUE bulbs can only be used with a Philips Zigbee hub. But IKEA bulbs are cheap and open. So got me a Zigbee hat for my Rasberry PI uses IKEA and Xiaomi zigbee stuff and opensorce tools to control it. And also some WIFI devices from XIaomi, Amazone (Alexa) and Broadlink. Opensource rocks and when you want somthing you find a good tool on Github look at its compatily list and then find the sweet price. ;)

I really dont see the appeal of smart lights. On the other hand, I would love to see you review *smart* radiator *thermostats* . You know, when I want to heat the bathroom up before I spend an unnecessarily long time there because of my smartphone :P

Great (and funny) video! My house has many hue lights and the hue bridge, but I'm looking to add more lights that are more affordable. Can you give me a short synopsis on the prospects of mixing my Hue system with a bunch of new Yee lights?

How does a company this big and popular miss the most blatant points to cover in EVERY video. In this video how do you not compare the colour quality output for all the bulbs. Sure yeelight might be cheaper but if your white is not white and blue is not blue then what's the point? That was just an example and I'm not saying Yeelight is bad, I honestly don't know but how does that not get covered?

bought one. *returned*

One thing I would have liked to see is a comparison of the colours. I own hue lightbulbs and have always been a bit disappointed with the richness of each colour especially the green. In saying that, I know Philips have dedicated white an amber LED’s to give the best whites possible even in their RGB lights. I would assume the cheaper lights use a mixture of RGB to achieve the same result which isn’t as natural.

Can we get an update video to this? The landscape on this has changed alot in just 2 years, and I would love to hear your new opinions on it.

I do miss Luke videos, linus is great but I kinda miss Luke too

I have an alternate brand, after 6 months the bulbs didn’t work the same. None of them can hit their max brightness setting. There’s a preset apart from the regular colors for like a florescent type glow or a standard glow, both presets are broken, the florescent is not bright and comes off more purple, and the standard one, which was the brightest, almost turns off the bulb it produces virtually no light and habitually flickers. Other colors still work fine, but just thought I would mention my experience with an alternative brand

With HUE the hub and zigbee is a pretty cool thing, that avoid overloading your router with tons of bulbs connected and there are many more advantages like reach that is determined by the mesh network that the lamps end up creating.

The thing is, Hue builds on decades of lighting experience. The colours and quality are above many of the others. That, and since I switched to Hue they haven't disconnected once!

What about Ikea's wireless light bulbs?

thumbs up for the nads shot alone

It’s so cool how far we’ve come in only three years; I just bought two LED lightbulbs from Philips for only $30. They don’t need a hub, they don’t need an account, and it works over WiFi.

this damn video made me want to watch 'yee' again, which in effect sucked me into going through the entire 'important videos' playlist i have no regrets

I got the hue lights because they're the leaders on the market. So many apps only have integration with hue lights and no other lights. Sleep as android and flux is two examples. I also use Tasker and have the Autohue app as a plugin and it works really well. Because of this the lights are worth it in my opinion. And I kind of view it as future proofing. Phillips is a big company that ensures quality in their product and if somethings not working you got warranty and support. It cost a bit of money upfront but now I don't have to spend anything on bulbs for a long time. Just my two cents