I’ve had hue bulbs for years. I do a few things with them for example there connected to my alarm, if the house alarm is triggered the lights start flashing red which I quite like. I also have a motion sensor in my hallway that brings on the hallway lights at night at a really dim setting, useful for kids trips to the loo at night 
I have automated schedules as well for bringing the front door light on at night to make it look like someones home etc. Definitely useful when you’re aware from home!
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I don’t think Phillips have released the UK switches yet have they?
There are other smart switches you can get, but that required an electrician to come out!
Oh, also @anon92074566, you’ll benefit from the motion sensor.
I have one in my hallway and in the kitchen - It’s amazing!
It’s like walking into the future.
Obviously, you’ll need to walk into the room and do one of the following for it to really be spectacular…
• Pretend you have a wand a say “Lumos”…
• Wave your hand and say “Illuminate” (this is my favourite)
• Click your fingers, point to the ceiling whilst saying “lights”…
You get the drift… Many different styles of awesomeness…
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@nickh Sounds awesome! For the motion sensors, I assume they need to be plugged into a plug socket?
Nope! Battery powered so completely wireless!
Mine have been up for 4 years and still going strong…
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@walderston Interesting with regard to the colours, any other pros or cons or even personal preference with respect to the bulbs?
I would definitely expect the bulbs to retain their settings when turned off at the wall.
@nickh Looks like they have a tap switch & a dimmer switch. Strangely the motion sensor on the Philips site is ‘Available Soon’ 
The main thing for me is that I’ve run out of ports on my router and plug switch by my router to use a bridge hence my interest in LIFX to not require a bridge, but I do like the idea of the motion detector which means I could get a third party motion sensor to use with the LIFX bulbs, I’d just need to find one that works with Google Assistant & IFTTT…
I think that one’s my favourite! 
That isn’t the biggest issue (for me) - It’s more that you can’t control them from your phone/voice when they are turned off at the wall.
And any motion/scheduled lights won’t come on.
You are missing a trick with “illuminate” like some old Jedi…
In my view, if you value the gimmick, then it’s worth it.
Back when low energy bulbs first came to the mass market, I bought a dozen or so for £1 each. It was a special deal at the time, and I haven’t looked at bulb prices since. But I basically replaced all of the bulbs in my house for considerably less than the cost of one Hue bulb at today’s prices (let alone the cost of the bridge).
But what price do you put on fun and convenience?
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Hue system is fantastic and you can get them to work with Innr, OZRAM and IKEA bulbs easily.
Kitting my house out with Hue is one of the best home-related decisions I’ve ever made. I’ve got two light strips (one for the kitchen, one for my bedroom), and all the lightbulbs are colour Hue bulbs. It is a large cost, so I split it up into a bulb or two every few months until I had the full set.
In winter, I have the lightstrip in my bedroom set to slowly fade in to natural light in the morning for work so that my body wakes up naturally.
In the bathroom I have a motion sensor - the best bit of that is that it’s set to turn to a cool blue (same colour as the tiles) in the middle of the night so there’s no harsh light to blind you for your 2am pee. During the day, the motion sensor has a daylight threshold, so it will only turn on the lights if it’s darker than the pre-determined light level that you set.
In the living room we have it set to turn the lights on automatically to a lovely combination of baby pink and soft white when sunset hits.
If you want to make your house look inviting, impress any guests, be able to customize the look of your house without having to change the furniture, and save your eyes from harsh colours, Hue is absolutely what you want to go for.
And definitely get the colour bulbs. When you start messing about with colours you’ll be so glad you didn’t choose otherwise.
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I got 4 of these don’t have Alexa or Google home have them on times from the mobile app 
had them just over a year got them as no bridge required also
We’re Hue users.
Here are the benefits for me, personally, that more than make it worth it.
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I’m autistic, and I can change the light colours and brightness to suit my sensory needs at any time. Granted, that’s not a selling point for most, but certainly will be to some.
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I work nights currently, and I can sleep in the dark through the evening and set the lights to slowly turn on in the 15 minutes before I wake up, so I get the benefits of sleeping in the dark but don’t have to wake in the dark to go for work. The same would apply for early risers, up before the sun.
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There is nothing better than standing at the front door, shouting “Hey, Google! Turn off all lights!”, stepping outside and locking the door behind me. Saves checking them all individually. In fact, shouting at Google to turn the lights on and off at any time is very useful, and sort of fun.
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I like that I could use IFTTT for all sorts. I resisted setting it up to make the lights turn red every time I spent money…
The benefits for my 4 year old:
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When she’s being Elsa, she can use her ice powers to turn any light blue as long as Mum or Dad are in the room with their phones.
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She can use her Harry Potter magic wand and cast ‘Nox’ and ‘Lumos’ spells to turn the lights on and off, and she feels like a real Hogwarts student.
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At night, we can dim the lights to the perfect level to get her to sleep, then switch them off once she’s settled.
The benefits for my husband, ironically since he was the one that battled for many months to convince me that we should buy Hue, seem significantly less. He keeps the lights on one main colour and even turns them off using his phone when he’s going out, so there’s still a manual activity for each room there. He seems happy with his purchase still, many, many months on, but I’m not sure I understand why it’s worthwhile from his perspective.
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Just to let you know… Both those points (Elsa included) work just as good if you are a fully grown adult 
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I have had Hue for 7 plus years. I have them in main rooms and bedrooms all hooked up to Alexa. The family now use voice to turn lights on and off as needed. I have never had any issues, it just works. When you are away from home you can set them to come on and off at random times giving the impression someone is in. You can also link them to your phone location, as you get close to home your lights will automatically come on for you.
Lastly, I also have them hooked up to Nest smoke alarms. If the alarms go off hue turns on all the lights automatically so you can see the way out
When it’s the kids bed time mine have a schedule to go on and once they are in bed I shout to the wife “lights out in the cells” as I am shuting the last bedroom door 
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Hahahahaaa that’s brilliant! 
I don’t think smart bulbs are worth it. As mentioned they’re very expensive individually so to get a whole room done will be costly - nevermind the entire house 
Changing colour would be nice but more of a gimmick and the novelty would wear off quite quick imo.
What I’ve been doing is buying smart light switches. They’re about £15 each, support IFTTT, timers and everything else you’d expect. So you can do your whole house for a fraction of the cost, including dimmers 
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That’s not too dissimilar from the price of a smart bulb… (depending on brand of course).
I don’t know the difference in lifespan between a “normal” bulb and a smart bulb, but I haven’t had to change a lightbulb for 7 years!
I have 10+ spotlights in my living room, so I’d need to spend over £150 just to do the one room.
Instead I have a 3 gang smart switch that now does it. I can now control my normal LED bulbs that also last forever 