Philips Hue Play Smart Light, 2 Pack

TLDR: competition blows them out of the water, even without looking at price, and the main reason is that the designers intentionally made them inferior to what they could and should be. Yes, they're beautiful. Once you get them up and running, they make the room look nice. That is everything good I can say about them. Everything. To get them working, you need the $60 bridge, sold separately. That's fine, whatever. I firmly believe in buying high quality things that last long and are more than the sum of their parts. I bought them separately and paid $190 and didn't sweat it, but you can get a starter pack that includes the bridge for $150, so I am going to review them as though they were actually $150 instead, because that is an available option. This price doesn't even come close to saving this horrible product. In order to use the function where they sync to your TV, you have to buy a separate $230 sync box, no starter pack discount available. And to be clear, this separate device's only function is to enable these lights, that you already bought, to do one extra thing. Clearly this is only for people who have already sunk cost into these lights and all of the associated devices who need to justify their purchase somehow and also who don't like money. Whatever, this isn't a review for that, but it does give you an idea of how the business model of the entire line of Hue products operates. It traps you and makes you get more expensive gadgetry for one off features that should exist by default. Anyway, in order to use this product you need the bridge and your phone to be connected to WiFi. You cannot control the colors, or even TURN THEM ON AND OFF without WiFi. The only way it's possible is by physically going under your desk or wherever you've elaborately set them up and unplugging them. But when you plug them back in, it doesn't save the colors you had them set to, and just defaults to a plain yellow light, the only color that you can use without being connected to WiFi. If you're interested in a plain yellow light, I would recommend you get a $10 lamp. If you actually want to use the features of this product, be prepared to have a bad time whenever your internet goes down. Or whenever someone is borrowing your phone. Or if your phone is dead. Or if literally anything else has happened to it, because it's not possible to control these lights, or again EVEN TURN THEM OFF AND ON without it. Not even using the bridge that's taking up shelf space and it's own outlet next to your router. Every time I see it I am reminded that it doesn't need to exist. There is literally no way to turn these lights off physically while retaining their color. If you'd like that luxury, you need to buy a $25 dimmer switch. And no, it doesn't work without WiFi either. Using these is annoying and tacky, and it will constantly remind you both that you really should have spent more to get basic features and simultaneously that you are a fool for spending this much on lights with so much baggage. For comparison, I have some other light bars that were $50. No hub required, no switches required. I use Bluetooth to set the colors and then never have to open the app again unless I want to change them, which I don't. I turn them on and off at my desk with the button on the switch it comes with. I could also use my phone to do this if I wanted to, but I find it more annoying to open an app than I do to press a button. I've never had to fathom unplugging them from their single outlet. If I did, though, and plugged them in somewhere else, they would light back up how I had them saved. I genuinely cannot switch to the Philips lights after experiencing this convenience. It would have been so easy for them to implement at least some of them. At LEAST saving the color you set when plugging and unplugging them. Why can't I use Bluetooth? Seriously. It would make the hub unnecessary. It would make the app optional instead of mandatory. Okay, fine. Yes, obviously, in terms of price and diminishing returns, this sucks. But you don't care about price. You also cannot imagine yourself spending one second without both your phone and a WiFi connection. Look, it's philips. It's quality, right? Take a look for yourself. I've got the ones I mentioned earlier and these sitting right next to each other for comparison. Anyway, the only person I would ever recommend this product to is someone who is unfortunate enough to already be trapped in the Hue ecosystem and has a debilitating cash allergy.