Philips Hue Bloom vs Iris Review | Smart Home Accent Lighting

Philips Hue Bloom features

Philips Hue Iris Review

The Hue Iris is a large wall light that can output a huge amount of light. Many people buy this if they want to wake up slowly with a whole wall or ceiling, gradually getting brighter over time.  It’s the perfect alarm clock to wake with light. This can be set to a set time or motion trigger within the Hue App. It’s the ultimate in-room mood lighting.

There are 2 versions of the Hue Iris. One works with all Hue Products which is called “Friends of Hue” and one that is standalone which is called the “Living color range.” If you have other Philips family friends of hue products then get the Hue Iris as it will sync seamlessly.

Friends of Hue Bloom and Iris -Smart Home TV Accent Lighting

If to want to create some really cool lighting in your home, the Philips Hue Bloom and the Iris are the perfect products to do this. Many people like to do LED accent lights behind their TV and this can make watching movies so much more interesting and enjoyable.

The 3 main options for behind TV accent lighting is Hue light strips, the Iris, and the Hue Bloom. Each has its pros and cons, but for a totally easy move-anywhere product, the Philips Hue Bloom is the best for behind-TV lighting. You will only need one Bloom as it does throw out a lot of light. If you would like 2 different colors then you can easily add in a second Bloom light source angle to the side.

If you decide to use the Philips Hue light-strips for accent lighting they will be fixed on the back of your TV and give just as much light as the Hue Bloom, I can recommend these as well. At least with the Hue Bloom it’s able to be moved around your home. There are even Philips Hue outdoor lights now.

We use our Philips Hue Blooms behind the TV as mentioned earlier as well as in the bathroom to create a nice night-light to help our children transition from their room to the bathroom at night. Coupled with a Philips hue motion detector you can have automatic lighting, but at a predetermined night dimmed color.

The Iris is designed to throw out a lot more light. So it’s more for whole-wall lighting effects. Still, it’s a wonderful cool product behind the TV accent lighting. Not to mention the Bias lighting is good for your eyes.

Sync Philips Hue lights with Movies and Music

You can also sync you Hue Bloom and Iris lights, to your favorite music and movies. This is done from some third-party apps and enjoy every beat and scene to the fullest. Any room can now become a state-of-the-art movie theatre or a dance floor, and see the results on how light reacts to your best music.

Syncing Philips Hue Bloom With the Television

There are a few apps needed for amazing Hue Lighting effects. One of the really great startups is the Hue Camera. It creates an ambient color effect using your Philips Hue lights and your phone or tablet’s built-in camera.

How this works is by an algorithm that continuously analyses each individual pixel on the TV. It looks at saturation, luminance, brightness, and many more details, to able to determine which specific color to send to each light, to achieve the overall ambiance.

You can place your Hue Bloom or Iris in or out of sight, as it will blend seamlessly with your interiors. Because they are a mains outlet product, you can easily move them around your home and place it wherever a power point socket is available.

You will be up and running in no time after adding Bloom and Iris to your current Zigbee network. The Philips Hue app will help you add in your new Bloom table Lamp with ease. Being able to choose from over 16 million colors to match your lamp to the moment will make your night complete.

Being able to turn down the brightness and blend soft colors for a smooth light effect across your room is what the Hue Bloom does best. You can even use your favorite picture from your phone or tablet to generate the perfect color scene for a special occasion.

Imagine being able to go back in time and recreate those moments by setting your room color to the same color as the photos and turning the lights accordingly.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Some people have been diagnosed with SAD or seasonal affective disorder. It’s usually more prevalent during the winter months. It’s also called winter depression, winter blues, summer depression, and seasonal depression, it’s a mood disorder.

The main cure or treatment for this is usually with a strong blue or white light. There are many different types on the market, but one feature that the Hue Bloom and Iris can do is replicate these blue and white lamps.

First, work out what color your brain prefers. It may be the White light or the blue or something in between. Set the bloom to turn on in the morning to wake you up with a gradual say blue light. Your brain will sense this change in color and most probably help with the SAD symptoms.

If the blue light doesn’t work and you still feel depressed try a white light or an orange say morning sunrise color light. As Hue Bloom and Iris can do 16 million colors you won’t have to keep going out to buy a new SAD lamp.  Both will do the job well but the Hue Iris is brighter and larger so it should help with the SAD symptoms, and trick your brain.

A lot of sufferers have had success with using a Sunrise alarm clock. This simulates the sun coming up in the morning and is great for the winter months in an area that have less sun. Check out our review on the Philips sunrise wake up alarm clock.

Philips Hue Hub 2.0 Maximum Light Bulbs per Bridge.

You can connect up to 50 bulbs or lamps to your Philips hue bridge. This should be enough for most users. Simply begin with any of the available starter kits for easy setup, and start adding in any combination, Philips Hue bulbs, Philips Friends of Hue Bloom, Iris or Light-strips.

There is also a huge range of accessories like the click and tap. With a tap of your finger, you can now control any connected lighting in your home. Remember that each accessory will also take up one of those 50 free allocated spaces on the Hub. If you need an extra Hue bridge or just need to upgrade your old version 1 hub you can check out our installation instructions here.

Philips hue is based on the ZigBee communication protocol. This is a low-power, safe, and reliable technology to control your lights. Each lamp will communicate with it’s neighbor lamp if the base station Hub is out of range. This will extend the reach of each Bulb.

Philips Hue is constantly upgrading the firmware on each lamp and accessory to make improvements and add new features to the system. These get rolled out over time and will be displayed to you as updates to both software, and firmware within the Philips Hue App. All updates are done wireless and automatically directed to your friends of hue products.

Bring Disney stories to life with Philips Hue Bloom

Disney StoryLight is a Hue Bloom wrapped in mickey mouse ears, it is a cool concept that brings your favorite Disney stories to life. Story Light interacts with the Disney Storytime app. Flip a page on the Disney e-book using either your tablet or smartphone and your Philips Hue lights will change color, to match the mood and drama on the page.

Included in the Disney Story Time app are 3 fun stories:

• Toy Story Starry Night
• Tangled: Rapunzel’s Story and
• Monsters, Inc: Always time for a laugh.

You are able to purchase extra e-books within the app, up to at the time of writing 40 stories.

You don’t need to buy the more expensive Disney-branded Hue Bloom, to get all the features of the Storytime app. All you need are a Philips Hue starter kit with the Hub and some lamps. If you buy the standard Hue Philips Hue Bloom you will get the exact effect as with the Disney version.

Can You Use the Philips Hue Bloom Without the Hub?

Short answer is yes!. But there are some issues. For one it will just stay white and you will have to turn it on and off at the wall switch. Better to just buy a normal incandescent light bulb it’s cheaper. The other thing is you won’t have any control over dimming.

You can if you want to use the Hue Dimmer Switch if you have less than 10 bulbs. You’ll just miss out on a few features.

Now, if you want to blanket your entire house in Hue bulbs and you may need more than ten bulbs to do it. You can always get more Hue Dimmer Switches and assign them to specific rooms. We use a few along with the Hue Taps to get easy control of all our lights. Using less than ten bulbs per switch, all without needing a Hue Bridge hub.

Pairing Philips Hue Bloom to a Dimmer Switch

The Dimming Kit comes with a switch and bulb already paired and ready to go. If you need to add more hue lights to the dimmer switch, you will have to do the following procedure.

• Turn on the Hue lamp,
• Place the Hue Dimmer Switch very close next to the bulb,
• Press and hold the ON button on the Dimmer switch until the small LED light in the top-left corner of the Hue Dimmer switch turns green.
• The Hue Bloom will blink momentarily to confirm the pairing.
• You will have to do this for each Hue lamp you want to add-on.

For the reasons mentioned above, it is best to get a Philips Hue Hub. They are cheap on eBay as lots of people often buy a Hue Starter kit, keep the lamps and sell the Hub. Make sure you buy the 2.0 Hub as it’s the newest. Once the Hub is installed you can still use the dimmer switch for your selected Lamps but it will open up a whole new world of lighting possibilities. Check out our Hue dimmer full review here.

Philips Hue Bloom vs Iris

Both the Hue Bloom and the Iris are similar products but serve slightly different markets. Where Bloom is nice and small the Iris is quite large and as such will output so much more light. If you need to paint a whole wall with light, go with the Iris. If all you need is some subtle TV backlighting you won’t be disappointed with the Hue Bloom.

What’s is Best? Bloom vs Iris	Bloom	Iris
Best for accent lighting	Corners/Behind TV	Full Wall Coverage
Best Design	Discreet	Large Bulb
Can you hide it?	Yes	Maybe
Brightness	120 Lumens	210 Lumens  (brighter)
LED Bulb Type	8-Watt LED	10-Watt LED
Dimensions (W/H/L Rounded)	5” x 4” x 5”	9” x 6” x 7”
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