There are several smart lighting brands available today but you need to make the right choice when you have to take one for your home. Two of the best smart lighting brands are- Philips Hue and Osram Lightify Sylvania. Both are the leading brands and this makes it more difficult to choose between them.
After testing both the products for over a week, we have tried to give you an honest review of both these products. We have listed down all the important features of both these brands to help you decide between the two. After reading it, you can easily get to know which of these two would be the most suitable for your home.
Our Verdict
However, if you are going for a low- budget plan then Osram Lightify would be a more suitable option for you. It is comparatively cheaper than Philips Hue and its installation is easy. It does not necessarily need a separate bridge. You can easily connect it to your smart hub or Wink 2. It would be an easy option for the integration of smart devices in your home.
Comparison Chart Between Philips Hue Gen 3 And Osram Lightify
| Category | Philips Hue Gen 3 | Osram Lightify |
|---|---|---|
| Technology | Zigbee | Zigbee |
| Wi-Fi router requirement | Ethernet Port for Hue Bridge | NA |
| Lumens | 806Lm | 800Lm |
| Colour Range | 16million | 16million |
| Dimming | Yes | Yes |
| Requires a Hub | Yes | Yes |
| Storage Capacity | 4GB | 4GB |
| Google Assistant | Yes | Yes, depends on the hub |
| Amazon Alexa | Yes | Yes, depends on the hub |
| Apple Homekit | Yes | Yes, depends on the hub |
| Microsoft Cortana | Yes | Yes, depends on the hub |
| Dimensions | 2.4*4.3 in | 2.4*4.3 in |
| Full Brightness | 10 watts | 10 watts |
| LED Lifespan | 22.8 years | 18.2 years |
| Beam Angle | 160 degrees (A 19) | NA |
| Bulb Types | E26, E12, BR30, GU10, PAR16 | E26 |
| Warranty | 3years | 2years |
| Price | Check Price | Check Price |
Differences Between Philips Hue Gen 3 And Osram Lightify
1. Connectivity
To make Philips Hue smart light bulbs work, you need to connect it to the Philips Hue Bridge. It will only be connected to its own brand bridge and no other smart hub. In the case of Osram Lightify Light bulbs, there is Lightify Bridge to connect it but it can easily connect to other smart hubs like Wink or Smart Things Hub. Buying Lightify Bridge with these smart lights is not necessary. It is also considered more energy-saving than Philips Hue.
2. Brightness
In terms of brightness, there’s only a slight difference between the two. The Philips Hue smart light bulbs are slightly brighter with 806 Lm than Osram light bulbs with 800 Lm. Osram has a wider range of color temperature than Philips.
3. Lifespan
Philips Hue has a longer lifespan of approximately 22 years if used properly while Osram has lesser lifespan than Philips with approx. 18 years. It depends on your usage. Even though both these smart light bulbs offer a pretty long life but in actual, they do not last that long because people use these light bulbs more than the average times it should work to stay for that long.
4. Application
Philips Hue light bulbs would be more suitable for indoor use whereas the Osram Lightify bulbs can be used outdoors as well. Osram offers a lot of smart bulbs for outdoor use like- standard A19, BR30 bulbs, and LED Landscape lighting, LED flex strip.
5. Entertainment
In terms of entertainment, Philips Hue offers you Philips Hue Entertainment that can be found on the Hue Sync App. This app has got 16 million colors of these bulbs with which you can enjoy different kinds of color schemes. You can turn your room into a disco with the help of these different colored light bulbs. You can also add these bulbs to your media like T.V and smart speakers and set the lighting of the room as per your choice.
Osram Lightify lacks in this feature. Although its bulbs have a lot of smart features and have brightness almost equivalent to Philips, it doesn’t have any smart entertainment features.
6. Color- Changing
Both Philips and Osram Lightify have white as well as colorful light bulbs. Although both of them have the same color-changing features, Osram Lightify offers a better range of green and blue lights. In this case, we would ask you to go for Lightify than Philips.
7. Warranty
It is very important to check the warranty period of any product that you buy. There is a huge difference between the warranty periods of both the products. Philips Hue light bulbs offer a 3 years warranty while Osram Lightify offers only 2 years warranty. If you want a smart home set up where you want to buy lots of smart light bulbs for your home then Philips Hue Light bulbs would be more convenient for you than Osram Lightify bulbs.
8. Fitting
Philips Hue light bulbs support different light sockets. It is compatible to work with E26, E12, BR30, GU10, and PAR16 sockets. This bulb can work with any kind of home set up.
The Osram Lightify light bulbs only work with E26 sockets which limits its compatibility. You need to make changes in your home set up if you do not have E26 sockets to get these light bulbs.
Similarities Between Philips Hue Gen 3 And Osram Lightify
1. Color- Range
Both the products offer you a total of 16 million colors. These different colors give you a lot of options to customize your home lighting the way you like. You can set the lighting according to your choice.
2. Technology
These two products can work on Zigbee technology to connect to their respective hubs and transmit data among the smart devices. Zigbee provides a lot of advantages over another type of connection as it does not interfere with the Wi-Fi connection and works on a separate path which fastens its speed. Zigbee connection is easy to install and it is expandable. It also lets you access the smart devices remotely.
3. Voice Assistant
Both Philips Hue and Osram Lightify support the voice control system. The Philips Hue can easily work with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, etc. it just needs to be connected to Philips Hue Bridge.
The type of voice controller in Osram Lightify depends on the type of Zigbee Hub that you have. This connection will decide whether your Osram Lightify light bulb will have the voice controller facility or not. It uses the third-party bridge and that’s why it has to depend on Zigbee connection.
4. Connected App
You can access both these light bulbs through separate apps. Both, Philips Hue and Osram Lightify have their individual apps with different features and benefits and you can control them through your smart phones easily.
5. Light Bulb
Both these brands offer same light colors. The light color options that these products provide you are White, White Ambiance, and White Color Ambiance that would give you a nice lighting experience.
Features And Technical Specifications Of Philips Hue Light Bulbs
- VOICE ACTIVATED: The Philips Hue White and Color A19 Light Bulb works with Alexa for voice control (smart hub required ,...
- LIMITLESS POSSIBILITIES: Choose from 16 million colors to instantly change the look and atmosphere of your room or...
- TAKE CONTROL: Control your Philips Hue color lights with your voice using Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or Google Assistant....
- It provides 87 lumens per watt
- It can work with the products of “Friends of Hue” brands. These include companies like Nest and Razor comprising of a wide variety of brands and smart devices.
- It provides away from home control
- It has the facilities like scheduling, comfort dimming, ambiance creation, and wake-up feature, etc.
- It can easily sync with music and movies
- These light bulbs are easily expandable. These can expand with other smart devices of this brand.
- Philips has a big family and offers a wide range of products like Light Strip, and the lamps like Go, Beyond and Blue.
- It has a separate app called the Hue Sync App where you can find a lot of entertainment features that it offers like different colored light bulbs.
Features And Technical Specifications Of Osram Lightify Light Bulbs
- Tune, dim, and control your lights from anywhere from your smartphone or tablet
- Download the Lightify app and install the bulb in standard household sockets
- Schedule automated timers, program you bulb to gradually increase or decrease in brightness over time, and enjoy...
- It provides 89 lumens per watt.
- Osram bulbs have to be connected to a hub that you have to connect to your router through wires.
- It also has smart phone control and away from home control
- Additional features like scheduling, comfort-dimming, and ambiance creation.
- It offers products like RGB flexible LED Lights and two other cheaper bulbs without RGB Lighting.
FAQ’s
If you want to go for a budget-friendly smart bulb with all the new features then you should go for Osram as it provides you almost the same features as Philips Hue but at a lower price. You would get a well-advanced smart light bulb at a budget-friendly price.
Both the products are known for their great quality but if you ask us to choose one between them then we would go with Philips Hue as it comes from an older lighting family of products and has developed its quality significantly overtime to maintain the importance of their brand name in the market.
You can easily control these devices through your smart phones. Both of these devices have a separate app where they offer new features. Their programming is very easy and makes life convenient.
Bottom Line
Both Philips Hue and Osram Lightify have their benefits. They both have got different facilities and programming. You can easily choose the one which you find would be the most suitable for your home or your office. We hope that we helped you by giving the details of both these products and citing the differences and similarities between the two to help you make a well informed decision.
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