Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me first begin by saying that I have been invested in the Philips Hue ecosystem since the very beginning. I have 5 Light Strips, 8 Hue Color Bulbs, 4 Lux, HueGo, Tap, and a few other compatible Zigbee products made by GE. When Philips first announced the Hue Bridge 2.0 I was super excited and knew I'd have to buy one. I did, and I thought I'd share some of my experience with you... When I ordered the new hub, it arrived next-day just as Amazon promised. It arrived in the frustration free packaging and was in excellent condition. I had already updated the Philips Hue App on my iPhone ahead of time and was ready. I plugged then new one in, leaving the old one connected to the network as well, and launched the App. It has a migration assistant built in! It literally moves everything over for you! (Linked Lightbulbs, Accessories, Settings, and Scenes) This was FANTASTIC because on my original Hue Bridge, about a year ago it lost connectivity for control from outside the home on meethue.com. This was an absolute nightmare! It took a tremendous amount of troubleshooting both by myself and by Philips to finally get it working 5 months later! So, to say the least, I was apprehensive about something similar happening upon transition to HB2.0. But nothing out of the ordinary happened at all! YAY! It was as if nothing had changed in that regard! What did change, was the fact that I now have the capacity to control all lights, individual lights, color/hue, brightness, etc. all with Siri on my iPhone!! That requires iOS 9, but does not require any additional charges or downloads in order to get HomeKit (Apple's Home Automation Platform). Best of all I can be asleep in bed, wake up, and without lifting a finger... I can say "Hey Siri? Set Scene "Morning All"" and everything just springs to life! I can also raise my wrist and use the Apple Watch to do the same. It even works via Siri if you are outside your home. In order for that to work, however, you'll need an Apple TV. That is because the Apple TV acts as the Siri relay interface to your hue bridge from outside. Don't fret though, if you do not have an Apple TV you can still control everything via the Philips Hue App so long as you are registered with meethue.com. As for my original Hue Bridge, that I simply gave to my brother with two of the Lux bulbs. Once the migration is complete, you no longer need it. Disconnect it from the network. Hue Bridge 2.0 is all around faster, more reliable, feels to be better build quality, the transition was seamless, and now I have Siri compatibility! I could not be happier with this product! I absolutely recommend this to everyone from a fellow Hue Addict to someone just getting started in the Hue ecosystem. Plus... who doesn't like the appeal of controlling your lights via speech?! Very Star Trek. Thanks for taking the time to read my review! Hope it helps!