Philips Hue White Ambiance Starter Kit

First the good: this thing has been rock solid reliable. I've not had to reboot the hub even once, and I've never tried to turn on a light and had it not work. At least in my house, I've found it runs just like everything is hard wired together, which is frankly critical for a product like this. Even when the internet goes down, the switch I bought still controls the lights without missing a beat, and I like that I can string together a bunch of table lamps in the same room and control them all, including dimming, with one master switch. I also like that I can set the color temperature of these bulbs, as I am one of those people that hates the overly harsh, blue light that makes you feel like you are in a hospital waiting room. These bulbs let me set a color that was warm without being too yellow, just where I wanted it. Having said all that, now let me burst your bubble on this product a little bit. In the real world, nobody wants to go into an app on their phone just to turn the lights on and off. If you just take a second to honestly think about that, you will realize how patently absurd that is. Home automation is supposed to improve on existing technology, not go backwards. So here is how you will use this product in the real world: You must buy the Hue light switch or switches to physically control the lights you want to automate. You will program those switches to control your lights, and once programmed, those switches will be how you interact with the system day-to-day, because you are not insane. Yes, the first day you own it you will play around with various "scenes" in the app, and those will seem kind of cool, but the reality is that you will pick the one you like best, program it to your switch, and then probably never change what that button does, ever again. So if you want to do lots of different scenes and more complex lighting effects, you likely will want the round, hockey puck switch, not the rectangle switch that just allows you to select a single color setting and then dim or increase its brightness. The app is basically for controlling the lights remotely when you are away, programming the physical switches, and programming automated on-off times. Do not think of the app itself as your new light switch, that is just silly. Now, there are definitely situations where adding this new level of control and customization to your lights is quite handy, but the very high cost of each individual bulb means you are probably not going to want to automate very many of your lights. You also have the issue that any non-standard bulb can't be automated in this system, and even the candelabra bulbs they do sell are kind of ugly, with a big white base that will look really bad in many exposed fixtures. So I don't see replacing my kitchen lights, my hallway lights, light in the laundry room etc. with this. And even in places where you might otherwise legitimately want to add automation, you may not be all that excited by the bulb choices you get with this system. Now, if you go into it with reasonable and modest expectations, you will not be disappointed. I have found that it can be a very nice upgrade, particularly in rooms where you are currently walking around every evening and turning on a bunch of individual table lamps today. And if you have a multi-purpose room like a home theater or a dining room where you'd like multiple, different light settings, it can be useful there as well. But no, it is not going to change your life, and it ultimately offers a modest set of useful features, for which you will pay a lot of money. This would be a no brainer to recommend at half the price. But it is a little harder to recommend given what they are charging for it.