Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip Review, Pros & Cons and Specs 2022

THE BOTTOM LINE for Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip

The Philips Hugh Play Gradient Light Strap adds a fun, vibrant tone to the area around your TV, but its high value makes it ideal for those with a keen interest in home theater.

Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip PROS

Bright and colorful lighting

Supports automations, custom scenes, schedules, and sleep routines

Works with Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and IFTTT

Relatively easy to set up

Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip CONS

Expensive

Requires Hue Hub and Sync Box

PHILIPS HUE PLAY GRADIENT LIGHTSTRIP SPECS

Connectivity                                             Wi-Fi

Integrations                                             Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, IFTTT

Base Type                                             Strip

Light Color                                             Color

Light Color Temperature                     2,000K to 6,500K

Output                                                     1100 lumens

Wattage                                                     20 watts

Mfr. Est. Lifespan                                     25000 hours

Requires Hub                                             Yes

Dimmable                                             Yes

Geofencing/Location Services             Yes

Scheduling                                             Yes

Starting at $ 229.99, the Play Gradient Lightstrip is an expensive addition to the Philips Hue Smart Lighting family, though a fun one. The flexible strap attaches to the back of your TV and is synchronized with on-screen action. It creates an in-depth viewing experience, and will be appreciated by home theater enthusiasts and big screen gamers, but it is far more expensive than basic backlights. You'll also need some accessories, including the Philips Hue Bridge ($ 59.99) and Hue Play HDMI Sync Box ($ 229.99), so be prepared to spend big. If you're already on the Hue system, a gradient light strip is a great way to pump up your home theater and impress guests. If you can stay with the basic backlight, we recommend that you use the TP-Link Casa Smart Multicolor Light Strip instead, as it does not require a center and costs only $ 69.99.

Gradient light strip size and features

As with most Philips Hue products, Play Gradient Lightstrip Light requires a hub, allowing you to connect and control up to 50 lights and accessories. If you don't already have one, the Hugh Bridge costs $ 59.99, and needs to get started. The LightStrap also works best when paired with the $ 229.99 HuePlay HDMI Sync Box (opens in a new window), which tells what's playing on your TV so that the colors are properly synchronized. Could be This is a fancy trick that is not only beautiful, but also beneficial for your eyes, as having some ambient light behind your TV reduces stress while watching in another dark room.

The Play Gradient Lightstrip measures 0.67 inches wide and is tall enough to fit 55-inch ($ 229.99), 65-inch ($ 249.99), and 75-inch (9 279.99) TVs. It is made of flexible silicone so that the strip can bend and wrap around the edges of your TV without damaging the LED circuit inside. LightStrap is not extensible, so make sure you buy the right size for your TV.

No matter the size, Play Gradient uses color-changing LEDs to provide a range in the visible spectrum. It supports 16 million different colors, and can be set as a white light at temperatures ranging from 2,000K to 6,500K. It produces 1,100 lumens, receives 20 watts of power, and has an estimated lifespan of 25,000 hours.

The vibrant range of colors naturally flows into each other, blends in and blends along the wall behind your TV for a unique effect. It's fascinating, and the Philips Hue app for Android and iOS has a number of preset gradient schemes for you to choose from. The defaults are the usual Energize, Nighttime, Reading, and Rest settings that you get with other Hue Lights, but you get different visual vibes from around the world, such as Aurora Borealis, Lake Placid, and even SoHo and Tokyo Street Lights. I can also choose from. .

Installing and using a gradient light strip

Installing Play Gradient is relatively straightforward. The box comes with five mountable clips, all with arrows indicating where to place them on your TV. Clips run using the command brand adhesive strips, included. The light strip easily clicks on the clips. I set it up on my TV in a few minutes.

There is a small power adapter at one end of the strip. It connects to the included power adapter, which is suitable for standard power outlets. Once it's plugged in, you'll use the Hue app to sync it with your tower. From there you can set the room in which you have installed it, and give the gradient a custom name and icon. As with physical installation, app setup is painless. Once you have it ready, you can change the name if you like, or set the color and brightness. If you have other heavy lights in your home, they can be synchronized together to create an integrated, dynamic lighting scheme.

The light strip worked well in testing, providing excellent color quality and brightness. It also did a great job of answering my on / off requests using the app and Google Assistant voice commands, and it's nice to see colors flowing from one scene to another.

To get the best use of the light strip, you need to connect it to the Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box. Properly named, Sinkbox Lights lets you synchronize with what's happening on your TV, with separate lighting options for video games, movies and music. With the app, you can adjust the speed, brightness and intensity of the lights. This is a great feature that works well, although movies with constant scene changes cause the colors to change a bit chaotically, especially on more intense settings.

You will also need to feed the contents of the Sync Box for this to work. If you only watch media on a smart TV without an external device to go through the Sync Box, it is of no use - the lights will have no way of knowing what is on the screen. The sink box is intended to sit between your Blu-ray player, media streamer, or game console and your TV. It analyzes incoming video and changes the colors of matching lights.

This shouldn't be a problem for home theater enthusiasts using standard media streamers and 4K UHD disc players, or gamers connecting to the PlayStation or Xbox. Sync Box supports all the formats you can think of, too - Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, and HDR10 + all go well. But this means that if you use your TV's built-in apps for streaming, or cast them directly on its screen, you won't get matching lighting.

Amusement lighting with a serious price

Even if you've already started Philips Hue Lighting, the Play Gradient Light Strip is a huge benefit. It's fun, no doubt about it, and if you spend a lot of time watching movies or playing games on your TV, you might consider it worth your time. There is no question about the wow factor of seeing the reaction of lights on onscreen action. It also has a practical benefit - putting some light on the back of your TV reduces eye strain when viewed in a dark room, without adding any glare to the screen.

The initial cost is the main barrier to entry. You have to budget between $ 230 and $ 280 for a strip of light depending on the size of your TV, and $ 230 for the Sync Box and $ 60 for the Hue Bridge. Ultimately, that's why we're proposing a more basic, and affordable, light option for humans. The winner of our Editors' Choice, the TP-Link Kasa Smart Multicolor Light Strip (KL430), does not match the content on your TV, but the asking price of. 69.99 is very tasty.