Illuminate & Connect Your Home with Philips Hue & Netgear at Best Buy

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

I’ve always had a thing for lights with dimmer switches.  I love being able to decide exactly how bright the lighting in my home will be, and I love the flexibility:  when I’m cooking, I want lots of bright light, but when movie night rolls around, I want something dim and cozy.  That’s all well and good, but if you don’t have dimmer switches and compatible lighting in your home, that’s an installation project you might not want to embark upon.

I have a solution that not only gives you complete control over the lights in your home, but it also lets you control it from a push of a button on your phone.  The Philips hue lighting system allows you to connect all the lights in your home via your already-existing Wi-Fi network. And the really special thing about hue is that it doesn’t just manage brightness, but also colors – 16 million of them, to be exact!

When I started using the hue system, I was really excited to learn that the hue light bulbs can be used in any A19 light fittings, which means you can use these bulbs in pretty much any fixtures or lamps already in your home.  I absolutely love that changing my home’s lighting system is as simple as replacing a bulb, with no need to hire an electrician to go change all my fixtures and switches.

The hue system is all controllable by an app on your smartphone (it’s both iOS and Android compatible), and hue bulbs have a variable lumen output, which means they can be dimmed and brightened at the touch of a button.  Not only can you adjust brightness, but you can choose colors to add a little mood lighting to your home.  There are several preset “scenes” to choose from, but if none of those suits you, you can customize any color you want (literally – there are 16 million color options).  Want to match colors to your favorite palettes?  Want to change the colors to work with your child’s birthday party theme?  Want to make your home lighting look and feel like a spa?  Want to set up some “party lights” to make boring chores like vacuuming more fun?  You can do all that.  There’s even a disco app and strobe light setting, so if you want to turn the kitchen into a disco while washing the dishes, I won’t tell anybody.  Crank up the ABBA and get busy scrubbing.  I’ll probably be doing the same thing.

You can also use timers to make sure lights turn on or off at a certain time every day, and you can use the gradual lighting feature to simulate the rising sun for a gentle way to wake up each morning. The options are nearly endless!  The hue system can link up to 50 lights, so your whole house can be covered, and it’s also OpenHome and PEQ-compatible, so you can create your own “ecosystem” of automated devices.

The hue system also features a hue Go multicolor personal light, which you can carry with you and use indoors or outdoors.  It features the same 16 million color options and gradual light settings. It works via the hue Bridge (which comes with the hue system starter kit), or it can be used as a standalone light and controlled with the Philips hue app.  It’s portable with up to 3 hours of battery life, and it’s also built to withstand high levels of humidity. It’s perfect to use on the patio at parties, or inside as customizable lighting on movie night.

The hue Go, which I affectionately refer to as Hugo, is my favorite part of this set up because it really is my own personal light.  It goes where I go and has a light setting for every occasion.  Hugo is the perfect reading light, he puts me to sleep at night with my favorite “Blue Rain” scene, and then he wakes me up in the morning with a beautiful “Sunset”.  I’m becoming quite attached to that little bugger.

As I mentioned earlier, the hue system is all controlled via your existing Wi-Fi network.   You probably already know the importance of having a good router.  Gone are the days when a router’s primary job was to keep your laptop connected.  The average U.S. household connects up to 7 devices to a single router, and it’s easy to see how. Between laptops, smartphones, and tablets, the numbers add up.  Add in movie streaming, online gaming, and smart-home features, and your router may struggle to keep up.

To make sure your home stays connected at the best speeds, check out the Netgear Nighthawk DST Router and DST Adapter, which is available exclusively at Best Buy and includes Geek Squad assistance.  The Nighthawk comes with a DST, which stands for Dead Spot Terminator.  You know those Wi-Fi dead zones in your home?  They’re a thing of the past with a DST adaptor.  The Nighthawk was also designed to support 10+ devices, which will cover everything in your house, and it also has a prioritization feature. This means you can assign priority to your devices for streaming videos or music, as well as provide lag-free gaming.  This router is top of the line and handles an entire household of devices with ease.  If you get this router, you’ll also get Geek Squad Set Up and Support via phone and internet for a full year (phone and web support is 24/7, which is a real lifesaver when an internet crisis comes up).

The Philips hue lighting system, hue Go, and the Netgear Nighthawk router are available now at Best Buy, both in stores and online.  If you’re ready to transform your home with totally customizable lighting and a Wi-Fi network that won’t let you down, go check them out today!