Philips Hue Gradient Lightstrip review: The best lightstrip you shouldn't mount on your TV

The Hue Gradient Lightstrip is a fantastic general-purpose smart light strip

Standard smart bulbs are a good first step when it comes to smart home technology for beginners. However, if you really want to turn your home into a smart lighting paradise, you’re going to need a light strip, and the Hue Gradient Lightstrip is one of the best options on the market today. The sturdy design, ease of use, and bright colors make for an excellent experience, which it better be given the high price.

High price is common for most Philips Hue smart lights and for good reason. The massive ecosystem of bulbs, strips, lamps, and other smart lighting accessories provides an excellent, streamlined setup process and plenty of features like scenes and Assistant integration, and the Hue Gradient Lightstrip follows that trend to a tee, priced at $180. There are a few obstacles outside price, including some understandable issues with voice commands and the requirement for a Hue Hub, but overall, you’d have a hard time finding a gradient light strip better than this one, although finding a cheaper one wouldn’t be hard at all.

Design, hardware, what’s in the box

As an avid user of Philips Hue devices over the years, I was pleasantly surprised by the Hue Gradient Lightstrip right out of the box. I’ve had a standard light strip for the last five years, and this new Gradient Lightstrip is sturdier, cleaner, and generally better looking than its predecessor. The more opaque top cover feels like it provides more complete lighting in the room—up to 1800 lumens available—and the lengthy cord means you have more freedom when mounting.

You can adapt the Hue Gradient Light Strip to your space. There are a few indicators—approximately 10 inches apart–where you can shorten it with a trusty pair of scissors without breaking it.

The downside of the sturdy design, however, is that mounting is not easy. The light strip comes with an adhesive on the backside, but because it’s heavier than past versions, mounting to a TV is not a stick-and-forget process. Actually, this lightstrip is not officially built to be mounted to the back of a TV—Hue makes a Gradient Play Lightstrip that comes with mounting hardware and is designed to wrap around the sides of your TV set. We’ll go a bit deeper into that below

In the box, you get the 80-inch Gradient Lightstrip (a 40-inch option is also available) along with the power cord and an adapter for international plugs. You’ll also find the obligatory manual for setup, which you really won’t need unless you’re a beginner, as the setup process is delightfully simple. You need to connect Hue's Zigbee-based Hub to your router for full functionality, which can be a bit of a hassle, but it saves you from having a ton of Wi-Fi devices slowing down your network.

Software and smart home features

If you’ve used Hue products before, you know the software and performance side of things is pretty nearly perfect. The setup process is easy and functions well with smart assistants like Alexa, Google Assistant, and even HomeKit. It has a capable app and responds promptly to voice commands, integrating (almost) seamlessly with the rest of your smart home.

The one frustrating caveat is that due to the nature of the Gradient Lightstrip, it was hard to use basic voice commands to change the colors. For example, you can’t say “change the lightstrip to a red-orange-yellow gradient” and get the results you’re hoping for. However, this problem is easily solved with the scenes feature, which allows users to predetermine certain lighting combinations for simple voice commands. So, you could say something like “turn on the lightstrip to the Hot Stuff scene” and you’d get the preset lighting combination you see below.

As I mentioned earlier, this Gradient Lightstrip is not ideal for TVs and the Hue Sync experience. Hue has two types of lightstrips: the Ambiance Gradient Lightstrip (this one) and the Play Gradient Lightstrip. The Play Gradient Lightstrip is specifically built for TVs, as the software is built to match the specific colors on each section of the TV. The Ambiance Gradient Lightstrip does not do this, unfortunately.

You can still use this lightstrip with Hue Sync app, but there’s a catch: You can only run it along one side of the device. We tested this out on a PC, which you can set up without the notably expensive Sync Box. The lighting was certainly enjoyable and seemed to accurately and promptly match the color on the screen, but definitely didn’t match the overall immersive experience displayed by Play Gradient Lightstrips. Simply put, if you’re looking for a lightstrip to enjoy Hue Sync on your TV, this isn’t it.

Should you buy it?

Maybe, but it depends on what you need it for. If you’re looking for a high-quality light strip to improve your overall smart lighting experience, you can’t do better than this. It’s bright, sturdy, and works well with most smart home setups. Yes, it’s a bit expensive, but as with all Hue products, the cost is well worth the investment.

However, if you’re looking for a light strip that you can mount to your TV and enjoy the immersive experience of Hue Sync, this is the wrong light strip. The Play Gradient Lightstrip from Hue is what you’re looking for, as it is specifically designed to work with TVs and comes with five TV mounts for an even easier setup.

Buy it if…

• You need a great gradient light strip
• Sturdy design is a priority

Don’t buy it if…

• You’re on a budget
• You want to mount it to your TV

Q: How does the Hue Gradient Lightstrip compare to the Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip?

This is an important difference to understand when it comes to buying a gradient lightstrip from Philips Hue. The one in this review is great for lying along a wall or behind a couch, as it provides bright light and a sturdy design. However, if you want to mount your lightstrip to the back of your TV and, more importantly, connect it to Hue Sync for an immersive smart light experience, that's where the Play Gradient Lightstrip comes in handy. It's specifically built for the back of your TV, as the color-matching is coordinated with your display and it comes with five mounts for easy installation.

Q: How does the Hue Gradient Lightstrip compare to Hue Bluetooth Smart Lightstrip Plus?

The big difference here is the "gradient" aspect of our lightstrip. While most other light strips provide a single color at a time, the Hue Gradient Lightstrip offers a multicolored array that can gradually move between three different colors at once. Additionally, thanks to this feature, the Hue Gradient Lightstrip is also compatible with Hue Sync, which can color-match with your TV or PC, as long as you only lay it along one side of the device. This gradient array comes at a higher price, but once you see it in action, you'll agree it's worth the investment.

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