Top deals for quality products

Easy to install and with the grouping, scheduling and automatic control functions we expect from Hue lighting products, Signify's Philips Hue's improved Lightstrip Plus can easily and effectively add accent lighting, stairs, home theaters and other indoor spaces to kitchen counters . 

Following in the footsteps of its latest smart bulbs and lights, the new Lightstrip Plus supports Bluetooth and Zigbee, which means that newcomers to the Hue ecosystem can try to use 80-inch light strips without investing in Hue Bridge (one of the trade-offs is the ability to use Bluetooth Operate up to 10 Hue bulbs in your home).

However, by its very nature, the LED strip is a delicate creature, and lo and behold, the original Lightstrip Plus test unit failed shortly after we started the test. The alternatives remain good, but we still have questions about the reliability of Lightstrip Plus.

The new $80 Bluetooth-enabled Lightstrip Plus replaces the previous Zigbee-only version, and there is a new 40-inch Lightstrip Plus extension that costs $25 unless the product is linked. The Lightstrip PlusRemove non-product link 80-inch outdoor only costs $90 for the Zigbee model, while the 197-inch version retails for $160. Remove non-product link. Of course, Lightstrip Plus is also a member of the powerful Hue ecosystem, which includes an astonishing number of bulbs, lamps and accessories.

With a rated duration of 25,000 hours and 50,000 on/off cycles, the new Lightstrip Plus, like the previous generation, emits an impressive 1,600 lumens. This is enough to illuminate the work area, in fact, the light strip can easily illuminate my kitchen counter.

The 1,600 lumens Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus is bright enough to illuminate my kitchen counter.

The white light of the light strip can be adjusted from a very warm 2,000 Kelvin to 6,500 Kelvin, which is equivalent to the sun at noon on a foggy day. The LED of the light strip can also emit 16 million colors.

The light strip itself is about 0.57 inches wide and 0.22 inches high, and it has a peel and stick adhesive. At one end of the strip is a 6-inch integrated power cord that snaps into a small module with its own adhesive backing. In turn, the module is connected to an approximately 7-foot-long power cord that terminates in a thick wall wart that is (unfortunately) large enough to block the socket below it. There is a (exquisite-looking) six-pin connector at the other end of the light strip, which is used to connect one or more 40-inch Lightstrip Plus extension cables.

The first step in installing Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus is to decide where to put it. A quick Google image search revealed many interesting possibilities. Some Lightstrip Plus owners use them to illuminate stairs and corridors, while others place them behind the TV cabinet to make their home theater alive. I chose one of the most popular Lightstrip Plus locations: under the kitchen cabinet, which is perfect for projecting a bright light on my counter. (Another popular Lightstrip Plus is placed above and below the kitchen cabinet.)

The actual installation only needs to peel off the plastic film that protects the Lightstrip Plus adhesive backing, and then stick the strip on a smooth and flat surface. You can bend the light strip at the corner, provided that the bend is not near the LED. If Lightstrip Plus is too short to meet your needs, you can connect one or more 40-inch extension cords. These extension cords can be connected in a daisy chain, with a maximum length of 33 feet. You can also cut the strip to fit, but you can only cut along one of the several specified lines of the strip, which are about one foot apart.

You can cut the Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus to make it fit, but you need to make sure that the cut is in the correct position.

This brings us to one of the new Bluetooth-enabled Lightstrip Plus innovations: the ability to reuse the clipped part of the strip. (It is also possible, as evidenced by dozens of YouTube videos, to reuse cuts from the old Lightstrip Plus model, but only informally.) You can use a small plastic bracket that snaps tightly to reconnect the two cuts The end of the light strip (only one is included in the Lightstrip Plus base package). I tried it myself, yes, it works, but someone told me that the optical strip connector is only available for the new Lightstrip Plus part, not for the earlier version.

The included plastic connector allows you to reuse the clipped part of Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus, but it does not work with earlier versions of light strips.

After installing Lightstrip Plus to your liking, you need to pair it with the Philips Hue Bluetooth app (if you don't have Hue Bridge) or a mature Hue app (if you have a bridge)). In both cases, the respective Hue apps quickly discovered and connected Lightstrip Plus without any problems.

The menu of available functions of Philips Hue Lightstrip depends on whether you choose Bluetooth or Hue Bridge control.

Using the Hue Bluetooth app to control the Hue light used to be limited to turning it on and off and changing its brightness and color temperature, but recent updates have added more options, including the ability to set a one-time wake-up and sleep program (gradually tilted or adjusted at a specific time). Dim light), and a timer that can turn the light on, off, or pulse after a set time interval. The Bluetooth application can also connect your Hue light to Alexa or Google Assistant (but not HomeKit that relies on Hue Bridge) for voice control.

Despite recent improvements, the Hue Bluetooth application can still only control a total of 10 Hue lights, and it lacks the ability to group light bulbs into different rooms or schedule more complex routines. You also need to be within Bluetooth range (about 30 feet or so) to control your Hue lights, including Lightstrip Plus.

The Philips Hue Bluetooth app can easily transfer control of Lightstrip Plus to Hue Bridge.

Fortunately, you can always expand your Hue control options by adding Hue BridgeRemove non-product links (approximately $60 alone, although they are usually included in the Hue light and accessory bundle). The Hue Bluetooth application can guide you through the transmission process, just press the round button on the bridge and wait for a minute or so, the bridge will find the light strip.

After connecting Hue Lightstrip Plus to the bridge, you will have more choices, first of all being able to control the light strip from anywhere in the world via an internet connection. The bridge also allows you to control up to 50 Hue lights and group them into rooms and areas, create more elaborate routines (including geofencing "home" and "leave" modes), and set custom schedules ( At a specific time or at sunrise or sunset). You can also use the Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box to synchronize the light strip with the TV, which is an increasingly popular option to add beautiful lighting effects to movies and TV shows. Last but not least, Hue Bridge is required for Apple HomeKit control and support for Siri voice commands.

One feature that Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus strangely lacks is the ability to select animated lighting modes, just like using competing LED strips. In fact, the only way to pulse Lightstrip Plus is to set a jingle timer or connect the light strip to the Hue Play HDMI sync box.

In most of my tests, Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus performed perfectly—that is, except when our initial sample unit failed completely.

First, let us introduce the good things. Generally speaking, Lightstrip Plus responds to my commands quickly through Bluetooth and Hue Bridge control. As I mentioned before, the 1,600 lumens light strip can easily illuminate my kitchen counter. I can easily combine the light strip with other Hue bulbs in the kitchen and use the Hue dimmer switch to control them. I even set up an Alexa program. If my kitchen motion detector does not detect any motion within 30 minutes, it will turn off all my kitchen lights, including Lightswitch Plus.

When I unplugged the connector on our original Lightstrip Plus test unit from this small power module and plugged it in again, the light bar stopped working.

So far, everything is fine, but when I temporarily disconnected the six-inch cable at the end of the light strip from the low-power module with adhesive backing, a problem occurred. When I plugged in the delicate six-pin connector (the pin body is in the module, the rectangular connector has a matching hole to connect to the light strip cable), Lightstrip Plus refused to turn it on again, in fact it never lights up again. Did you damage the connector when you unplugged the connector from the module? Maybe, although I don't think I tried that hard.

In any case, Signify sent me a replacement (I sent the damaged light strip back to the Hue headquarters, and if their engineer manages to find the problem, I will update this comment), and the new light strip works smoothly. A Signify spokesperson told me that the company has not received any similar complaints about Lightstrip Plus, so maybe the failure of our first light strip was a fluke. It is worth noting that Lightstrip Plus does come with a two-year warranty (remember to keep the receipt); however, it is worrying that our initial Lightstrip Plus test unit failed within a few weeks of use.

If you are looking for smart, bright and easy-to-install LED lights to add accent lighting to your kitchen, hallway or other indoor areas in your home, then Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus may be the best choice. We are fans of its wide selection of smart control and automation features, especially when paired with Hue Bridge, and newcomers to the Hue ecosystem can choose to skip the bridge (they can add it at any time), thanks to the Bluetooth support of the light strip. However, although Signify’s two-year warranty did give us a certain degree of comfort, the failure of our initial test unit did stop us.

Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus is an excellent and simple way to add accent lighting to kitchen counters, stairs and other indoor areas, but the failure of the initial test set stopped us.

Ben has written about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. Ben became a contributor to PCWorld in 2014 and joined TechHive in 2019, responsible for smart home and home entertainment products.

TechHive can help you find the best points of your technology. We will guide you to choose the products you will like and show you how to make the most of them.

Copyright © 2021 IDG Communications, Inc.