this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2025
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"it just works!"
I've had a similar setup, and bluntly, their not the brightest bulbs, and they're not the best bulbs, but they are one of the easiest to set up and get working. They mostly just fire and forget....
I hate the saying "it just works", but hue, despite all of its shortcomings, just works.
I've had at least one bulb fail outright, started illuminating "white" as an off purple color? It's hard to describe. I have no idea why, but that went into the bin. I also had one bulb that was in-between uses, fall and smash, I think it still works but it has sharp glass on it, so that's probably going to the bin. I have one other bulb that's failing right now... This one is... Different. It blinks. You'll have it at a steady, full brightness (or whatever) and the bulb will just shut off for 1/10th of a second every few seconds. No idea why. It's probably headed to the bin. Luckily it's in my hallway, so I don't see the problem most of the time.
They're expensive, and you don't get a lot of light per bulb considering what you pay for them, but they are easy. That, in and of itself, would be the main reason I would suggest to anyone who isn't a complete nerd, to get hue. Anyone with enough technical prowess and the willingness to set up home assistant, should probably go to different options. Anyone too busy to bother with their lights and just wants something that they can control with their Google home/Alexa/Siri.... Hue is a good option.
Not saying there aren't other good options, but hue is the one that I know and would suggest.
How’s the security on those light bulbs is a weird but valid question
Depends on what aspect you're referring to. I'm sure the online accounts are following standards, and the hue bridge can be used locally or via the cloud account. Local LAN generally doesn't have any restrictions on usage, anyone on your net with the app can control stuff from my experience. Maybe that's changed.
The bridge goes out to the Internet, it works without port forwards, so no exposure to the Internet there.
The last point I would think about with security is local bridge-to-bulb security which.... Probably isn't great. But someone needs to be within range with a specific skillset to take advantage of that.
I work in tech and maybe know one guy who might be able to pull that off?
Not sure, it's ZigBee, and I don't think they have encryption turned on at all.
Quick Google search shows that ZigBee is encrypted. So it may not be that insecure.
Yep, I see that too. Looks like it's baked into the protocol.
Zwave will let you disable encryption or run without it. But it's definitely still an option for zwave.
Both use AES 128, so there shouldn't be any significant difference in security between them.