Rate your lights

Hardware
1

Sorry if this is posted in wrong section.
Just wanted to hear what experience you guys have with different brands of lights.
I post mine below.

Philips Hue 4/5
I use 5 led strips and 6 bulbs

The good

  • Always works
  • Easy setup
  • Decent colors
  • Works with HA, Apple home, Google and many more

The bad

  • LED density
  • Expensive

Lifx 2/5
I use 2 led strips

The good

  • great colors
  • great led density
  • works with HA, apple, google and more

The bad

  • nightmare to setup
  • hardly ever works, I’ve returned the strips and got them exchanged for new pair 3 times and still doesnt work 50% of the times

Yeelight 1/5
I use one 1S led strip

The good

  • cheap
  • Works with HA (sometimes)

The bad

  • works sometimes
  • Horrible colors

Deltaco 2/5
I use 1 led strip

The good

  • cheap
  • supposedly works with google (I never managed to get it to work)
  • decent colors and led density for the price

The bad

  • doesnt work with anything else but deltaco app
  • unreliable, stops working sometimes even if its uncommon
2

I use Milight. With custom Milight controller.

19 gu10 bulbs
5 e27 bulbs

good:

  • fully supported by ha
  • cheap
  • nice colors
  • always working
  • create groups

Bad:

  • just 10 effect (lmost look the same)
1 Like
3

Mi-Light (Miboxer)

I use several types made by Mi-Light

FUT103 - GU10 4W RGB+CCT
FUT106 - GU10 6W RGB+CCT
FUT014 - E27 6W RGB+CCT
FUT012 - E27 9W RGB+CCT
FUTT04 - 20W RGB+CCT floodlight outside
and also use Mi-Light controllers for my ledstrips

The good:
Price/quality is excellent
Colors and brightness very good
Very nice wall controllers available
In 4 years none died yet
Works fine with HA
Own communication protocol between lamps and controller, faultless

The bad:
Effects are not controllable from HA
No status report back to HA (never needed than anyway)

Overall:
It has been a good choice to start with this brand and I will stick with it as long, as possible…

4

Lifx A19, mini, A19+, BR30 and GU10

Good:
Great colours
Great brightness
Good CRI
Parameter changing while off (e.g. set the brightness before turning the light on) - only with Lifx integration
Easy setup, Lifx or Homekit Connect integrations.
3 Effects (breathe, ping, strobe, color-loop) built in to the Lifx (not Homekit) integration.
IR illumination for the + models for security camera lighting
Trouble free operation for 4 years and counting

Bad:
Not the cheapest but are on sale regularly
Wifi not the strongest