With more and more people going for smart homes technologies to make their homes more comfortable, the demand for smart LED lights increased as it is the most basic smart home gadget.
One of the pioneers to the market with this technology is Philips Hue, introducing better features with each generation launched. On the other hand, now you can find the new brand on the market “Yeelight” with almost the same specifications at a more affordable price.
If you are thinking of installing smart lighting and thinking about which brand to go to, you have to set your priorities and check the difference between the 2 brands to know which is the best for your home.
Philips Hue vs Yeelight
We tried to test as many aspects in both essential lighting and ambient lights categories.
We choose to test Philips Hue and Yeelight E27 light bulbs in the essential lighting category. And for the ambient lights category, we choose the Philips Hue Lightstrip and the Yeelight Lightstrip Plus.
Although there are many accessories available for the Philips Hue range such as the Philips Hue Motion Sensor and the Philips Hue Dimmer Switch, it can cost you more for the extra features.
We will compare the 2 brands from 5 aspects:
- Setting up
- Connectivity
- Brightness and Colour
- Lighting Controls
- More Smart Features and Integrations
- Setting up the Philips Hue vs Yeelight
Philips Hue
In case you are thinking of installing Philips Hue coloured bulbs and accessories, you will have to have a Bridge to control remotely. Although you can control the Philips smart lights through a Hue dimmer switch, you will lose some features like color control, geofencing and more.
In case you decide to use this range through a Bridge, you will need to connect your Bridge to a LAN point or router, then you will need to download the Philips hue app and connect the lightning by pushing the blue button on the Bridge.
In case your lightings are at a distance, there may be a problem with the connection; as the Bridge won’t be able to detect the Hue bulb and you will have to input the serial number in the application manually.
Yeelight
When it comes to installing, you may find that the Yeelight collection is way easier.
The Yeelight system uses Wi-fi to connect and communicate, and you can easily set up your lightings through the Yeelight app.
You will have to alter the light source key in your home internet network, it then becomes easier, just follow the steps mentioned in the app. Your lightinings won’t be tied to a set area due to connectivity issues. And as a bonus, you can connect any number of lights you want, the sky is your limit.
Philips Hue vs Yeelight
Who wins?
All this puts Yeeling first when it comes to installing and setting up the system, offering more convenience and better connectivity.
Connectivity
Philips Hue
Although you may face a problem connecting when the lighting is far from the Bridge, you won’t find a problem with the Hues’ response unless the commands overlap. The Philips Hue bulbs respond quickly, and you can easily switch between light shades and brightness levels using the app.
The same applies to the motion sensor, which is sensitive to help switch the lights on/off with a simple move from your hand.
Yeelight
Although Yeelight bulbs react quickly to commands made through the app or the remote control, it’s slower compared to the Philips Hue. Also, you may notice a scrappy performance when switching from one lighting scene to the next.
However, it ‘s performance while constantly toggling was good.
Who wins?
For this aspect we outbalance the Philips Hue, for the faster reaction time and smooth transition between different commands.
3. Brightness and color
For this aspect, it’s hard to set which is better. When it comes to the color bulbs, both systems offer a color range of 16 million and up to 800 lumens of brightness, and you won’t be able to tell the difference in the amount of colors.
However, when saturation levels are amped up to the max, you may find that the Yeelight system provides a much richer colour tone.
We can say for sure that both systems provide almost the same ample colour variation and brightness levels.
4. Lightning colors
Philips Hue
Philips Hue gives you many lighting control features to explore via the well organised and easy to navigate app.
Features include:
- Group lights into areas
- Switch lights on/off remotely, whether individually or by area
- Through a colour map, you can toggle brightness and hue
- Pre-schedule lighting
- Assign preset scenes, based on the mood or the color scheme you want
- Create lighting scenes based on your motion detection, like leaving or arriving home
- Pre-schedule lights to switch on/off based on sunset timings
Yeelight
Like the Philips Hue, you can use the Yeelight app to:
- Organise lights
- Toggle power
- Set color and brightness
- Pre-set schedules and create scenes
Yet, you can find more cool features such as:
- Allowing users to customize whether it’s the color, brightness, temperature or the duration
- Combine multiple frames to form a looping set
- ‘Image Capture’ function on the Yeelight app allows you to pick a color from your surroundings in real-time
Who wins?
If you are going for the basics, go for Philips Hue. However, if you want a more fun lightning system, the Yeelight system won’t let you down.
5. More Smart Features and Integrations
Philips Hue
The Philips Hue has a couple of cool smart features, such as:
- Can be integrated with most smart home platforms
- Voice-control via Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit
- You can choose from a broad range of apps, downloadable lighting scenes and smart commands
- It allows you to synchronise your Hue lights to your music, movies or games via the Philips Hue Sync app on PC/Mac feature
Yeelight
Yeelight also has some cool features in its sleeves:
- ‘Music Flow’ function
- Compatibility with major voice assistants such as Alexa, Google Assistant and Mi Home
However, some noticed that the ‘Music Flow’ function was a little fickle when transitioning, and certain color changes were not well assigned with the music played.
Also, the Yeelight system is not fully integrated with other third-party smart home products like Nest or Ring.
Who wins?
In the meantime, when it comes to integration, Philips Hue surpasses Yeelight, as it can integrate with most smart home platforms, unlike Yeelight.
At the end…
If you are new to the whole smart home and smart lighting thing, you may stick to the affordable Yeelight range, which offers convenient connectivity and control.
However, if you are looking for more features and wide integration with other third-party smart home products, the Philips Hue is your way to go.
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