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Review: Amazon Echo is the smart robot friend you always wanted

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Last updated: 12/07/2015

Our Amazon Echo rating:

stars_4

Amazon Echo at a glance

amazon_echo_review_main_hardware_and_remote

It’s voice activated! It plays music on demand! It lets me control my Hue lights without touching anything!

It hardly needs an introduction, the way Amazon’s been advertising it. Amazon Echo is an interactive voice-controlled hub that can do a lot of things, like look up information, play music, and control other home automation systems you might have.  It’s always doing more, too, because Amazon rolls out regular updates.

Here are the things I mostly use it for (but there are way, way more things it can do than this).

  • Control connected home automation technologies, including Philips Hue smart lights and WeMo smart switches
  • Play music from your Amazon Music library
  • Set a timer (alert you when time is up), or sleep timer (stop playing music in X minutes)
  • Manage your (cloud-based) to-do list and shopping list
  • Request audible traffic and weather reports
  • Enable Skills, which are sort of like “apps” for Alexa (they give it even more specialized capabilities)
  • IFTTT support adds even MORE stuff Echo can do: see popular IFTT Echo recipes here

This 30 second clip by Amazon shows it in action.

(PS: The Glitch Mob puts on the best live show I’ve seen in years. Good choice of music, Amazon!)

Pros

  • It understands me better than I expected, despite my usual struggles with voice-interactive technology. There’s even a “Voice Training” section in the app for fine-tuning its ability to understand you.
  • Pretty good music player: the sound is better than I expected, and the convenience of controlling it by voice means I use it for routine playlists pretty much every day (“Alexa, play playlist Sleepy Time”)
  • Unobtrusive design: the Echo looks nice, has a small footprint, ships with a long power cord, and the adapter isn’t huge (it doesn’t block the outlet next to it on the receptacle)
  • Easy setup: plug it in and it finds your network. Setup time start to finish is only a few minutes, and if it’s too loud or too quiet during setup, just twist the ring on top
  • Optional remote (sold separately) has proven more useful than I expected, allowing me to issue commands quietly from anywhere in my apartment
  • Amazon frequently patches in more capabilities, so there’s some hope that the hardware won’t be out of date in a month
  • Voice control over Hue lights! “Alexa, turn the lights to 20%” and “Alexa, turn the lights on” are now words I say daily
  • Voice control over devices plugged into a WeMo smart outlet! “Alexa, turn the fan off”
  • Bluetooth pairing: pair your phone to Echo over Bluetooth so you can play music, including Spotify, from your phone

Cons

  • Limited capabilities with home automation systems: once you want to go beyond on/off, there isn’t as much you can do. IFTTT support?
  • Amazon Prime Music is limited in its offerings: your mileage may vary, but I couldn’t find a lot of the songs I went looking for in here. And when I did, they were often arbitrarily “free” to stream as a Prime user or only available if I purchased them, and there didn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to which songs were which
  • Starting playlists by voice is awesome, but it’ll take some time to set them up as playlists in Amazon Music if you aren’t already using the program for your music sorting
  • Not as good a speaker as similarly-priced offerings from Bose: my Bose Mini definitely sounds better, with richer bass being the most noticeable difference. However, the Echo ends up being my default music player by merit of being able to start it by voice
  • Must be plugged in to operate: you can’t charge it up and take it somewhere else for a little while like you can with Bose Mini
  • You have to call it “Alexa” or “Amazon” and for some reason, it just irks me that I can’t rename it
  • Doesn’t work with Spotify or iTunes (yet?): alas, that’s where I get my music from (and in the case of iTunes, I’m pretty entrenched with 10 years worth of playlists and music purchases). You can pair with your phone over Bluetooth to get access to these services, but it’s not built-in to Echo.

Hands-on Amazon Echo review

TL;DR: It’s great! If you love tech toys you’ll love it. I you can find it on one of Amazon’s occasional promotions for $149 grab it, it’s worth it.

» Check current Amazon Echo stock and price on Amazon.com «

I’ve had my Echo for nearly two months now and I’m still discovering new tricks and learning new routines to use with it. This isn’t a piece of technology you set up once and forget – Amazon is keeps adding new abilities to the Echo, and to get the most of it you’ll want to stay current on what it can do. You won’t learn (and make habit of) everything it can do in an afternoon.

amazon_echo_review_top_ring_and_remote

The blue ring lights up in response to you saying, “Alexa…” to indicate the device heard you.

What’s gone well

Ease of use

It’s just easy to use, simple as that. The setup was fast and controlling it with my voice is a snap.

Judging by many of the earlier reviews of the Echo online, it has an enthusiastic following among people with disabilities and/or limited mobility and I can see why. The Echo has significantly reduced how often I have to flick switches and fumble around in the dark for a light switch or my phone. I don’t have to walk across a room or lean over a table or perform any potentially tricky maneuvers to operate light switches, and I never have to walk around in the dark.

Voice activation

I was initially hesitant to bring home an Amazon Echo because I’ve had a not-insignificant amount of trouble with voice-navigated stuff in the past. I’ve struggled with phone menus, Siri, and speech to text to the point that my attitude towards all things voice-activated is closer to, “Ehh, f— it” than anything else at this point in my life.

The only thing that convinced me I would be able to reliably interact with an Echo was trying out a friend’s Echo. (I do try to enunciate when I speak to my Echo.)

For anyone wanting more info on my “accent”: I grew up west of Chicago (as did my parents) and my upbringing was in English. I am female, but no one’s accused me of having a high-pitched voice. My friends here in Seattle tell me I have a slight accent. Alexa understands me about 80% of the time, and (if Alexa’s history is any indication) the most common misunderstandings are song titles, which are (often) outside normal speaking patterns anyway.

So, yeah, I’m impressed on this front. I don’t know how reliable it is with other accents, but I’ve been surprised at its accuracy with mine.

Philips Hue integration

Hands-free control of my Philips Hue lights (link to my review) was probably the biggest reason I got an Echo.

hue-transparant-logo

I wanted to walk in the door and say, “Alexa, turn the lights on” and boy howdy, is it great. (I do the same when leaving). I also love crawling into bed and saying, “Alexa, dim the lights” and then, when I’m ready to fall asleep, say, “Alexa, turn the lights off”. It’s such a pampered, lazy thing to admit to liking, but I grew up with Star Trek and I love this stuff. 🙂

Setup was easy: just say, “Alexa, discover my devices” and hit the button on the Hue bridge. It was easy to group my lightbulbs into a single group (named “lights”) via the Alexa app.

Audio capabilities better than expected, but not Bose quality

Traditionally, I did (or do) most of my idle music listening through my portable Bose Mini speaker, and the Amazon Echo is definitely not as good a speaker. The weaker bass is the most noticeable difference.

However, as soon as I set up a couple playlists on Amazon Music I found myself using my Amazon Echo for music more than I thought I would. “Alexa, play Sleepy Time playlist” is so easy, and I can follow that up with a sleep timer, “Alexa, set a sleep timer for 45 minutes” so that it shuts off sometime after I fall asleep.

I find myself starting and stopping music all the time, and it’s definitely more convnient than opening my app, turning on the Bose, and selecting the playlist I want.

Easy to mute it

Just press the mic button on top of the device.

I found this out when I got a phone call while my Echo was busy DJing. I had to mute the Echo quickly and without saying, “Alexa, stop” into my phone call.

amazon_echo_shhh_mode

Shhh, Alexa. Glad I could shush you without having to issue a vocal command.

The Alexa app is great

The “Alexa” companion app (available on iOS and Android) is polished and fully featured. Nearly everything you can do over voice you can do or access through the app.

You can use the app to:

  • manage Echo settings
  • group devices (like Hue bulbs) and name those groups
  • pair over Bluetooth
  • get tutorials / tips on things you can ask Alexa to do
  • view, cancel, pause in-progress timers
  • give feedback on Echo and the app

The app also keeps a history of every command you’ve given it. In this history, you can mark whether a command was properly understood by Alexa. Presumably, Amazon will collect all this data, swizzle it around in a big data vat, and use it to further improve Alexa’s voice recognition.

Optional Echo remote is useful

The optional Echo remote is also very useful, allowing you to issue commands quietly and from places the Echo wouldn’t normally be able to hear you. Just hold the mic button and speak into it (you don’t even have to use the wake word). You can also use the remote buttons to raise and lower the volume, pause the currently playing song, and navigate backwards and forwards in a playlist. The remote comes with a magnetic mount, so you can keep it tucked away somewhere convenient.

amazon_echo_extra_remote

The Amazon Echo remote is sold separately, but was worth the extra cost. I keep mine near my bed.

The only downside to the remote is you can only have one per Echo (but maybe Amazon will change that someday).

amazon_echo_remote_in_action

What’s the bottom of the Echo look like?

It’s flat, rubbery, and has a cut-away for the power cable. The bottom makes a nice grip on most surfaces, but it has a tendency to collect lint.

amazon_echo_review_bottom_of_hardware

What hasn’t gone well

Just a few things…

The first Echo I got was damaged (but Amazon made it right)

My first Echo arrived dented! Boo, hiss. This unit also seemed to have problems identifying what direction my voice was coming from.

echo_dent

On the bright side, Amazon shipped me a replacement within a day of requesting a return.

However, Amazon shipped me a new one immediately (with 1-day shipping!) before I even sent back my first one. The seamless transition from my dented Echo to my replacement Echo was great and went a long way to easing my annoyance.

First Echo I got was set to deafening volume by default

The setup voice was LOUD. Sorry, neighbors. 🙁

When I first unboxed my Echo I didn’t know I could twist the top ring on the hardware to lower the volume. I ended up trying to wrap towels around it to survive the setup process and lower the volume the only way I knew how with, “Alexa, turn it down”. I don’t know why Amazon even lets an Echo use the max volume during setup.

In the grand scheme of things this isn’t a huge flaw, but it made a very poor first impression. My neighbors would have been right to bust down my door and throw the Echo through the nearest window.

Amazon Prime Music is somewhat limited in selection, takes setup to switch over from another service/program

There are a lot of good things to say about Amazon Prime Music. I like the already-created playlists (so you don’t have to scramble to assemble a Christmas playlist one hour before your party), no ads, unlimited song skips, and no apparent restrictions on when you can play what. Sweet! If you already have Prime, you have Prime music, so that’s nice, too.

But when it came time to find my music, things got a bit trickier. Maybe I have more eclectic taste than I realized, but I struggled to name songs that Echo would a) recognize and b) play in full (not 30 second preview). When it does find a song I know, it’s like, aw yiss! because the audio is pretty good and controlling it through voice alone is sweet. (Carbon Based Lifeforms, if you’re reading this… add more of your awesome music to Amazon Prime!)

I had to put in a bit of work upfront to download Amazon Music application onto my PC, upload songs I’ve already paid for because I bought them on iTunes (thank goodness these could be uploaded without DRM grief or I’d be pretty mad), and build them into new Amazon Music-based playlists. Once I did that setup work, though, I could then tell my Echo to play those playlists by name, which is super awesome and works great once it’s all set up.

But then I found Prime Playlists Recommends for Me… Go to Amazon Prime Music in your browser and Amazon will recommend playlists based on songs you’ve purchased in the past! I haven’t bought much music off Amazon, to be honest, but these are pretty good playlists so I wish the Echo had made more of an effort to surface them for me. I only discovered them while doing research for this article. 😉

prime_playlist_custom

For random songs, though, it can be fun to see who can name the most ridiculous song to see if Echo will play it. (It has the Spice Girls’ “Wannabe” in full… just putting it out there.)

Buying albums over Echo doesn’t work for me for not-obvious reasons

I can’t get “Buy this album” to work on my Echo at all. I can preview an album, but there’s something wrong with my Amazon billing info (which works for everything else I buy on Amazon and has One-Click shopping enabled), but neither Alexa nor Amazon’s billing interface can tell me what the problem is.

At this point I’ve sunk enough time into trying to decipher the root cause and I’ve given up on making purchases through Echo for now, which is too bad because I think Amazon was hoping I would buy a lot of things through my Echo.

I wish I could rename it

Mostly because I’m vain and want to personalize it. But also: I might be the only person on Earth who regularly Skype-chats with another Echo owner, and it does start to get old after I turn off my friend’s lights on accident through video chat (haha).

To get that last star…

stars_4

Almost there…

I rate my Amazon Echo 4/5 and to get that last star, I’d want to see at least a few of the following wishlist items added either to the software or a new generation of the hardware:

  • More sophisticated control over my home automation systems. I’d like to say “Alexa, I’m leaving” (or some equivalent) and have her do a number of things at once: stop playing music, turn Hue lights to off, and turn my WeMo device off.
  • Integration with Spotify and iTunes, since those are the music services / programs I’m already significantly bought into and I’d love to control them with the same voice commands I use with the Amazon Music playlists
  • Better bass in the speaker: not quite a Bose Mini replacement, but oh so close
  • Bigger selection in Amazon Prime Music: it’s not even close to Spotify’s and the randomness to which songs can be streamed and which have to be bought is irritating
  • A rechargeable battery: Maybe I’m just getting greedy now, but I love the portability of my Bose Mini (I bring it everywhere)

More Amazon Echo reviews, questions & answers

The bottom line

The Echo is awesome, and I think we’re only at the beginning in terms of what this device will someday be capable of. Don’t let my bad experiences with a dent and not finding my eclectic weirdo music in Amazon Prime get you down, it’s absolutely worth its price. It’s a ton of fun to play around with in the first few weeks, and the usefulness only improves as you learn more commands for it and add supported home automation systems.

If you have Hue lights, WeMo switches, or any of the other numerous systems Echo intergrates with, you’ll love controlling everything by voice. If you love doing anything with music in the background, you’ll love the ease of starting up a playlist by voice. If you have mobility limitations or an awkward home layout, you might find the Echo plus a few smart home devices makes routine tasks a lot easier.

I suspect I’ve still got more to discover about my Amazon Echo, and I’m looking forward to it.

amazon_echo_and_remote

Should you get it? If you’ve got Prime and a love for current technology, I say go for it, especially if you catch it on discount (Amazon occasionally drops the price to $150).

» Check current Amazon Echo stock and price on Amazon.com «

» Check current Amazon Echo remote stock and price on Amazon.com «

Review: Anker Astro E7 external battery pack 26800mAh is like adding 10 more batteries to your phone

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Last updated: 8/3/2016

Our Anker Astro E7 battery pack rating:

stars_5

Anker E7 battery pack: 5 stars out of 5!

Anker Astro E7 battery pack at a glance

anker_e7_battery_pack_review_charging_multiple_devices

The Anker E7 battery pack charges all the things, with plenty of power left to spare! Shown here with an LG G4, iPhone 6, and iPhone 4S for size comparison.

Powerful and portable, this just-a-bit-bigger-than-pocket-size battery pack recharges your phone, tablet, camera, several times over. Typical use sees up to 10 full recharges for an iPhone 6 and 2 full recharges for an iPad Air.

Super useful!

I didn’t realize how many uses I had for a portable Anker battery pack until I saw it in action.

  • Car trips – especially in cars that have just one (or zero) USB ports
  • Charges via USB: (alas, you cannot plug it into itself to charge it indefinitely)
  • Away from home – small and light enough to bring to school or work in your backpack
  • Airports and airplanes – I’m looking at you, Chicago O’Hare and your painful lack of terminal outlets (and you, old airplanes, and your lack of on-board outlets)
  • Holds a charge for a long time– take it camping!
  • 3 USB ports so you can charge multiple devices simultaneously
  • Charges devices as fast as a wall charger – modern smartphones charge at a rate of about 1% per minute

We’ve had our Anker for nearly a year now and it still gets a ton of use any time we travel or stalk Pokemon in the local park.

» Check current Anker E7 Astro price on Amazon.com «

anker_e7_battery_pack_iq_ports

Pros

  • 26,800 mAh capacity is enough, depending on your device, to charge it up to 10 times (for comparison, the iPhone 6 has a 1,810mAh battery)
  • PowerIQ technology discovers and replicates each device’s charging protocols, for extra reassurance that it won’t render your phone into a slag heap
  • Won’t overcharge your device: it stops when your device reaches 100%
  • 3 USB ports for simultaneous device charging
  • Max charging speed: 4 amps, but it adapts to your device’s limitations
  • Safety features: auto shutoff sleep mode, output voltage surge protection, output current stabilizer, low voltage protection, and short circuit prevention
  • Anker is a reputable brand: Over 10 million units sold in North America (fun fact: 1 in 3 chargers sold on Amazon.com is an Anker)
  • The FAA allows it onboard: long flights just got a bit more tolerable

Cons

  • It’s another thing to remember to bring along, and it only works if you remembered to charge it in advance.
  • No wall charger included!! (Anker’s PowerPort 4 40W charger has you covered – charge your battery pack and your devices from a wall outlet with this one cool charger. There’s also an Astro with an included wall charger, but I think you can get a better wall adapter by buying separately.)
  • It takes 11-12 hours to charge the battery pack to full
  • A bit heavy at just over 1 lb (453 grams)
  • You can’t use it while it’s charging
  • It’s a fingerprint magnet that may inspire you to constantly buff it back to perfection

Anker E7 Astro battery pack review

What’s in the box?

  • The Anker battery unit itself
  • USB to Micro USB charging cable (about 12″ long)
  • Instruction booklet
  • Cinch-bag to protect the battery from scratches
  • 18 month warranty card

Sturdy and stylish physical design

It’s sleek and small, but it’s got a fair bit of heft to it (the Anker pack weighs about a pound). I wouldn’t carry it in a purse, but it’d be unnoticeable in a backpack or carry-on luggage. Alas, its shiny black case will be a mottled canvas of fingerprints by the time you’re done fondling it for the first time.

The 4 on-unit LEDs indicate how much power remains in the battery pack and their meaning is pretty straightforward:

  • Four LEDs lit means fully charged
  • Three LEDs lit means 75% battery remains
  • Two LEDs lit means 50-75% battery remains
  • One LED blinking means less than 25% battery remains

It even has a flashlight! There’s a button on the side that turns the flashlight on and off (hold it for a full second). This is a nice touch if you’re one of those people who is prone to turning the lights off first and then struggling to jam the plug into the USB port up, down, up, down…

anker_e7_flashlight_feature

Which brings me to one final point about the Anker’s USB ports: they’re really stiff. You gotta push to get your USB cables plugged into this thing. Once I got used to it, I decided I liked it. The Anker plays for keeps with your USB cables, so there’s less chance of them falling or getting pulled out of the charger.

Smart charging features

The Astro E7 features a fully automated power on/off system. The Anker’s battery turns on when a USB plug is connected, and turns back off automatically when the last USB plug is removed (so you don’t have to manage it).

The IQ ports determine the maximum appropriate charging speed for a connected device and deliver charge at a safe speed for that device.

3 USB ports and the oomph to power them

Most battery packs just don’t have the capacity for charging multiple devices at once, but the Astro E7 has more than enough power to go around. As a group, the USB ports are capped at 4 Amps of total power output. A power-hungry device like the iPad charges at 2.1 Amps, but that leaves enough Amps left over to plug in another couple of phones and get full-speed charging for all three devices simultaneously.

(As an aside, this is an interesting article on why iPad charge time varies so much by charge method.)

Charging speed: just as fast as the wall outlet

Charging my iPhone 6S and my friend’s LG G4 went at about a rate of 1% and .08% per minute, respectively, which is about the same we get when charging from our wall chargers. In both cases, our phones were doing other things, like browsing the web (the iPhone 6 test) and streaming Spotify (the LG G4 test).

Crazy capacity

You might’ve noticed the battery pack has a 26,800 mAh capacity and the example device, the iPhone 6, has a 1,810mAh battery. So why does Anker say you only get 10 charges instead of 14.8 charges? That’s because, as with any battery pack, about 30% of the battery power is expended in heat and voltage conversion and powering the device itself.

(Pro tip: to charge your phone faster, put it in Airplane mode so it doesn’t sit there receiving emails and push notifications while you’re trying to fill it up.)

Still, 26,800mAh is a friggin’ beast of a battery. For comparison, here are some common devices and their own battery capacities:

  • iPhone 6S 2,750 mAh
  • iPad mini 4 5,124mAh
  • iPad Air 2 7,340mAh
  • iPad Pro 10,239mAh
  • Samsung Galaxy 6S 2,550mAh
  • LG G4 3,000 mAh
  • Kindle Fire HD 4,400mAh

Pro tip: Get a case

If you love your Anker as much as we love ours, you’ll be taking it lots of places. The Anker’s shiny body is prone to scratches and fingerprints, so we recommend getting a case for it. This hard-body travel case by Khanka is both cheap and great.

The bottom line

Anker set the new standard for portable battery charger packs with the Astro E7. They’ll undoubtedly raise the bar again in the future, but for now, this is the battery pack to buy. Astro E7 is missing only a single thing: a wall power adapter like this one. (You can also buy the Anker E7 with a battery pack included.) With an unbeatable battery size and the ability to charge up to 3 devices at once (and most or all of them at their fastest-possible charge speed), Anker Astro E7 is the current best choice in portable battery packs.

» See the Anker E7 Astro on Amazon.com «

Review: NETGEAR AC1750 Smart Wi-Fi Router bathes your entire home in sweet, sweet WiFi

by 3 Comments

Last updated: 11/22/2015

Our Netgear AC1750 router rating:

stars_5

Netgear AC1750: 5 stars out of 5!

Netgear AC1750 at a glance

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Fresh out of the box: it’s everything I wanted in a router, and even some things I didn’t even know I wanted!

This router – the first router that I can really call my own – beats the pants off any combo router/modem device I used to rent! There’s no discernible signal degradation over WiFi, no deadzones, I never get disconnected while gaming, and heck, it’s even better-looking than my previous routers.

Why I didn’t just rent another router

For years, I just accepted whatever combo router/model device my ISP would rent to me for about $10 a month and called it good. In my Frontier FIOS house, this meant I had a large dead zone in the kitchen and dining room (which I tried to fight with range extenders, but they all fell short in various ways). In my previous Comcast Xfinity apartment, this meant frequent disconnects while playing Wii U and PS4 games in the living room and slow uploads from the bedroom furthest from the router.

BUT THOSE DAYS ARE GONE NOW!

In my current Wave G apartment, I was given the choice of renting a router or supplying my own. I decided it was time to buy a performance router and see if any of my usual grievances went away. There was a lot to pick from, but I chose the Netgear AC1750 because of it’s price point and 4.5 star rating on Amazon – and oh wow, it is ever awesome.

» Check current Netgear AC1750 price on Amazon.com «

Pros

  • Excellent range: I get signal down the hallway and even pretty outside my apartment – the range on this thing is huge
  • Instant guest network: a completely separate network (with or without a password of its own) for guests so they aren’t on “my” network, for that added bit of peace of mind and privacy
  • Beamforming technology “locks on” to every connected device to focus signal strength in the direction of the device, even as I roam around carrying the device
  • Simultaneous dual band: two side-by-side networks for speed and less interference (one is 2.4GHz, the other is 5GHz)
  • Prioritizes certain types of network traffic to reduce occurrences of video buffering, gaming disconnects
  • Price point is pretty sweet: if your broadband provider charges for router rental (or a combination router/modem), this router will likely pay for itself in about a year
  • You can disable almost all of the on-unit LED lights!!
  • 802.11 AC: AC is the latest wireless standard and 3x faster than wireless N (your older wireless stuff is still supported)
  • Built-in ReadySHARE makes it easy to share a USB printer and/or a USB external hard drive over your network
  • Well-organized admin control panel looks modern and even has an easy-to-remember url (routerlogin.net)

Cons

  • Higher upfront cost than taking whatever your ISP will rent you, at least for a while (I’ll break even in about 15 months)
  • It’s a bit bigger than your typical router (or router/modem combo) at 11.2″ wide
  • Few real cons, this router is a beast

Netgear AC1750 Review

Setup

Unboxing and setup took about 5 minutes and was completely effortless on my part, aside from plugging things in and finding space for the router.

I use my NETGEAR AC1750 with Wave G (formerly known as Condo Internet), so I don’t actually have a modem in my apartment – just an Ethernet port in the wall to plug my router into. If you already have a combo router/modem device from your ISP, you can disable the router features on your combo device and use your combo device as a modem.

netgear_1750_installation

Note: my apartment is on Wave G, so I don’t have modem hardware in my unit. In my case, the router plugs right into the Ethernet port in the wall.

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All the ports and antennas are on the back: 4 Ethernet ports, a USB 2.0 port for a shared printer, power button, power plug.

Look and feel

It looks cool (in my opinion, anyway) and its design allows for wall mounting. It’s a bit large at 11.22″ at its widest.

The best feature here, though, is the feature that lets you turn off all the LED lights across the front. I sleep in the same room as my router and I want those lights OFF! (Actually, I just want them off no matter where the router is placed in my home. I hate seeing the little flickering lights out of the corner of my eye no matter where I am.)

I used to cover my router with a bag to cover the lights, which I didn’t like doing because most routers tend to get very warm when covered. The ability to turn lights off is just a win all around.

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If I could turn the power light off, too, I would!

WiFi Range

A router’s WiFi range depends on a lot of things, including interference from other devices nearby or on the same network and the construction materials that exist between your router and your device.

In my current 480 sq. ft. studio apartment, it’s easy to say that this thing has excellent range – but I haven’t forgotten the dead zones I used to struggle with in my 2200 sq. ft. home or my U-shaped 1100 sq. ft. apartment.

I can go several hundred feet from my window outside and up two floors in my building before I see my WiFi signal drop off. I’m on my network as in the parking garage under my unit, where presumably there is a bulk of concrete between me and the router.

Mostly what I care about is not losing signal as I move about my apartment, which my previous apartments/routers had trouble with. With this router, I can go all the way into the bathroom (with the kitchen and all its walls/appliances between the router and me) and not lose any signal strength.

Beamforming+

Most routers just emit signal in all directions. Netgear’s “Beamforming” technology locks on to connected devices and focuses signal in their direction, even as the device moves around. The result: a faster, more stable connection. Netgear’s own 4 minute video below explains it nicely:

Netgear Genie app

Here’s an unexpected plus: Netgear offers an iOS and Android app called “Netgear Genie” so you can manage your network through your phone. As I increasingly use my phone for more things (and my computer for fewer things) this app is a nice bonus.

The app (which is free) is well laid-out and has all the menus I’d expect to find by logging into my router through my desktop. My only gripes here are minor: the graphics are dated and the app is somewhat slow to populate its data, but these things are forgivable in light of the convenience of having all this stuff on my phone.

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Two networks in parallel

This router emits two “parallel” WiFi networks: one is 2.4GHz (which is better at range) and one is 5GHz (which is better at speed).

Generally speaking, the 5GHz band experiences less noise, faster speeds, and fewer disconnects, but the tradeoff is a shorter wireless range.  The 2.4GHz band is often described as crowded because many devices, like wireless keyboards/mice, cordless phones, and microwaves operate on that band. The 2.4GHz band is still (usually) better at wireless range, though.

For many environments, the best choice is to put all devices on the 5GHz network and enjoy. However, in doing this research I found that for some people in some environments, performance can actually be worse on 5GHz (for a variety of reasons). This is why I think it’s good to have a router that offers both, so that if one band doesn’t work out you can switch to the other band.

In my own home, I put my phone on the 2.4GHz network so that I can roam around with little fear of losing signal. My gaming systems, though, are on the 5GHz band because they sit right next to the router and wireless performance is important to their use.

More articles on the 2.4GHz/5GHz topic:

Netgear AC1750 vs. Netgear Nighthawk AC1900

Somewhat confusingly, Netgear offers two pretty similar router models: the AC1750 and the AC1900, also called the “Nighthawk”.

I debated the Netgear AC1750 vs. the similar-looking and cooler-named Netgear “Nighthawk” AC1900 before I ultimately just went with the 1750 because the additional $50 in price (at the time) only netted two real differences over the 1750:

  • Nighthawk has a slightly faster processor (1GHz vs. 800 MHz)
  • Nighthawk has a slightly faster max WiFi speed (1900Mbps vs. 1750Mbps).

That’s really all that is different (besides the cooler name). Those things didn’t really sway me into paying an additional $50, but the price on the Nighthawk fluctuates, so if you see it at a price you like you might as well grab it and enjoy the slightly faster processor and WiFi speeds.

The bottom line

It’s a fantastic router, hands down. I would recommend this router to anyone who has been frustrated by slow wireless speeds or dead zones in their house. I wish I had one of these a few years ago when I lived in a larger house. Setup was painless and the thing seems designed to handle the demands of multiple devices trying to simultaneously stream video and play online games.

» Check out Netgear AC1750 on Amazon.com «

Note to readers: Some links on HomeUpgraded.com are affiliate links. Read our full disclosure policy here.

Review: Philips Hue Connected LED Lightbulbs starter pack makes you hate ordinary lightbulbs

by 11 Comments

Last updated: 4/6/2016

Our Philips Hue hub & LED lightbulbs A19 starter kit rating:

4.5 out of 5 stars

Philips Hue: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Hue hub & bulbs at a glance

Turn the lights off without getting out of bed! Turn your bathroom pink! Wake up to an indoor sunrise! These are just a few of the things you can do with the Philips Hue “smart” lightbulb starter kit.

starter-kit-a19-products

I’m going to guess that Google brought you here after searching for something like, “is Philips Hue worth it?”. I mean, come on, $200 for lightbulbs? That’s pretty crazy, right?

The short answer: it’s a little crazy, but they are awesome. Why live with boring bright white lights? Hue is easy to set up, convenient for day-to-day use, and there are only a few hiccups to be aware of. There’s a reason the Hue Philips starter kit is one of Amazon’s most popular home automation products!

HUE bulb rainbow

Rainbow bulbs, see the shining light! 🙂

Just be warned: the starter kit is like a gateway drug. Don’t be surprised if you soon finding yourself lusting after more Hue bulbs…

Pros

  • So FUN! Sunset colors, all bulbs to soft pink, and deep blue/purple are my favorites.
  • LEDs are immortal – supposedly good for 15,000 hours and 15 years. This will be ancient tech before the bulbs burn out.
  • Easy setup, even by 2015 standards
  • Save energy – Use 80% less power than traditional incandescent bulbs.
  • Remote control lights – you don’t even have to get off the couch to dim the lights for movie time.
  • All the whites are here, too – just in case you miss those slightly yellow or slightly blue bulbs you’re currently using, there’s even a special section in the color picker for what we would call “white” lightbulbs
  • Bulbs still work if your network is down – they’ll glow their default white color
  • Group bulbs by room, purpose, etc and control them en masse 
  • Cool “timer” effects: create a gradual, soft “wakeup” or “dimming” effect
  • Home automation ready – use with Amazon Echo or Apple HomeKit (+ Siri) for that Star Trek feel. Also works with Zigbee, If This Then That (IFTTT), and a whole slew of other home automation systems and apps.
  • Public development APIs – this means many developers can make apps that hook into the Hue system, creating almost endless possibilities for the bulbs

Cons

  • $60 light bulbs! Sticker shock is probably the biggest downside of the Hue system.
  • Incompatible with dimmer switches – put the switch in the 100% position, then use the app for dimming and try to break the habit of using the slider
  • Any lamp or fixture you use a bulb in should be left on at all times and only controlled remotely… might be challenging to get used to, or inconvenient for certain fixtures
  • The official Philips Hue app is somewhat limited in features, but there are plenty of other apps to pick from for a fuller feature set (some are downright great, like Hue Pro for Android and iOS)

I didn’t find enough wrong with the Hue bulbs to stop recommending them to everyone who shows the slightest interest in home automation or making their home prettier. Philips will continue to update the app and roll out updates to the system, too, so it will only get even better.

» Check current Philips Hue price on Amazon.com «

The Philips Hue family

The Philips Hue family is a collection of bulbs and hubs you set up in your place, hook up to your WiFi network, and control from a smartphone all. The central piece of equipment called a “bridge”. This review is for the set I own, the Philips 456210 Hue White and Color Ambience Starter A19 Kit.

philips_hue_starter_kit

Philips Hue A19 starter kit manufacturer photo. This is what’s in the box, plus some printed instructions and a power cable for the bridge.

This starter kit, first made available in the US in early October 2015, can be distinguished from its predecessor by its square-shaped bridge design (as opposed to the previous starter kit’s circular bridge). The new bridge adds Apple HomeKit support. If you have the old bridge and want HomeKit integration, Hue will sell you the new bridge at a discount through the end of 2015. The Hue bulbs themselves are compatible with either bridge.

Terminology note: “A19” is the bulb design.

Hue starter kit review

I’ll admit it: when I first heard of Hue bulbs, I thought $200 was ridiculous for lightbulbs no matter how smart they might be. My mind was changed by a friend with an apartment full of Hue bulbs (and an eagerness to show me how cool they are). Apparently, the novelty hadn’t worn off in the year that he’d had them. Mood lighting at the touch of a screen! Turn lights off from bed! Set up lights to turn on as you arrive home! Control the lights through Echo!

Okay, fine, I wanted some of my own. 😀 I bought the Philips Hue starter kit for my own apartment, set it up, and tried it out for about a month before starting this review.

In short, I love them. I love tinting my apartment various colors to suit my current task or whims. Dimming everything to 15% or so is that sweet spot between “total blackness” and “probably won’t trip on the clothes I left on the floor”.  I definitely want more bulbs!

What’s in the box

The starter kit includes:

  • 1 Hue bridge and power cable
  • 3 Hue A19 bulbs
  • Setup booklet
  • Power adapter for bridge
  • Ethernet cable

Mine arrived safe and sound. Here are a few unboxing photos:

Three Philips Hue bulbs and bridge in their original cardboard shipping box.

Tucked in: three Hue bulbs and the bridge encased in cardboard armor.

Philips Hue starter kit unboxed

Unpacked: everything in the starter kit box, plus a brief printed setup guide.

Hue Setup

Setup was painless, even by modern standards. You’ll need your smartphone on hand to complete the setup process.

Bulbs: just screw ’em in and flip the switch on your lamp or wall to “on”. It’s that simple.

Bridge: the included printed booklet covered all the steps, and for me it was about as simple as plugging the bridge in and pressing the big button.

Philips hue bridge in action

My Hue bridge doing as bridges do.

App: searching for “Philips Hue” on your device’s app store will reveal a multitude of options. For completing installation, though, you’ll need the official app.

That’s it, it’s that simple.

At this point, the next thing you’ll probably do is turn all the bulbs to your favorite color and start playing with scene designs. 😀

Wins

Instant ambiance

Lighting has a powerful effect on one’s mental state. I thought my apartment instantly became 1000% more welcoming when lit with a mix of soft red and yellow lights (the built-in “Sunset” setting is great). Set fairly dim, this combination is reminiscent of a late summer sunset and I just love being in it.

For TV time, I have a custom palette set up to that turns the three bulbs a dim pink, purple, and blue – just enough to offset the TV’s bright glow, not too much to detract from the screen. It’s beautiful.

For bedtime, I dim everything to 10% or so as I get into bed and leave it that way until I’m ready to fall asleep. I like this much better than having a 40W bulb next to me on my nightstand and then plunging directly into darkness when it’s time to fall asleep.

Automatic brightening / dimming with “Alarms & Timers”

Want the lights to gradually brighten starting at 7:00am and reach your desired brightness by 7:20? You can do that! I found this to be a very humane alternative to an audible alarm and it was effective at waking me by a particular time.

Lazy mode *on*

It is really, really nice to control the lights from bed. I’m not even that lazy, but it’s just so wonderful.  also love leaving for work with the place nicely lit, knowing they’ll turn off once I’m outside the geofence radius, and coming home to my apartment already lit up.

“Alexa, turn the lights on” (Echo integration)

With an Amazon Echo, you can step in the door and announce, “Alexa, turn the living room to 80%” or “Alexa, turn the lights on”. No fumbling for a light switch or phone.

I recently added an Echo to my apartment and so far the two systems are getting along like old pals. The only complaint I have is I can’t change the colors or scene through Echo, but I’m hoping that’ll come in a future update.

Gripes

Official app has limited capabilities

First off, let me point out that you aren’t limited to using only the official Philips Hue app to control your lights. Hue made it possible for anyone to develop apps/systems that hook into Hue, so there are already a number of good alternatives, like Hue Pro for iOS and Hue Pro for Android (Hue Pro is the best, and it just became available on iOS in addition to Android).

In the official app you get the basic stuff, of course: you can turn the lights on/off, set timers, group lights, name them, set up geofencing, etc., but the app falls short in some noticeable ways.

  • No “preview” on your saved scenes built from the color picker. Hue Pro on Android gets this right, showing a set of colored dots to represent a saved scene, but the Philips Hue app just defaults to a rainbow spectrum icon for every saved scene.
  • Can’t color match to Hue Lux bulbs. That’s kinda poopy if you have a mix of Lux (white) Hue bulbs and rainbow Hue bulbs and you’re trying to get all your whites consistent.
  • Geofencing radius is in arbitrary units (small, medium, etc). I’d rather know the geofence sizes in feet, miles, hot dogs, whatever, if for no reason other than to know what it’s supposed to be doing for diagnostic purposes, which brings me to…

Geofencing kept flaking out on me!

Geofencing: when I’m inside the “fence” radius the lights are on; when I’m outside it, the lights turn off. I loved geofencing when it worked, but it seemed like 1 time out of every 5 or so I’d come home to a dark apartment. The geofencing just seems to fail every once in a while.

I run a lot of errands on foot near my apartment, so I have a theory that I’m just too close or dipping in/out of radius too much. The Hue app lets you adjust the geofencing zone through arbitrary sizes like “small”, “medium”, “large”, and “maximum” and switching to “small” didn’t seem to make a difference.

How does it work with home automation systems like HomeKit and Amazon Echo?

Half the fun of having smart things around the house is in controlling them with your voice and/or as part of a larger collection of smart things. For this review, I tried Hue with a few different popular home automation hubs to get a feel for how well integrated Hue is with each of these systems.

Hue + Apple’s HomeKit

The new square-shaped Hue bridge adds Apple HomeKit support, which means that if you have the new bridge and a recent version of iOS, you can control your Hue lights using Siri. (Siri setup instructions can be found here, for the interested.)

This feature works about as well as Siri ever does, with some notable shortcomings.

First off, there’s only a few supported commands:

  • Turn on my lights
  • Turn off my lights
  • Dim my lights to X%
  • Dim my lights
  • Set my lights to [color]

Most notably absent: there’s no way to control lights by room. There is, however, the ability to set lights to a color, which isn’t supported by Amazon’s Echo at the time of writing, so that’s neat.

Second, scene support is finicky at best. I had good results with my test scenes named “Sunset” and “Concentrate”, but Siri couldn’t figure out “Purple party” (she kept trying to Google it for me). To set the lights to a scene, all you’re supposed to say into the phone is the scene’s name.  No wonder it’s kinda flaky – maybe a future update will let you qualify the command, such as: “Set my lights to ‘Sunset'”. (For more help with this, How To Geek has a helpful guide on using Siri and Hue together.)

All that said, I got the most use out of the “Turn on my lights” and “Turn off my lights” commands. As per usual with Siri, you have to have Siri enabled (which I don’t always like to have on) and you have to have your phone in your hand. This leads me to…

Hue + Amazon Echo

Hue and Echo together is pretty friggin’ sweet and I preferred it over Siri. My apartment is small enough that I can just bark, “Alexa, turn the lights off” as I leave my unit and it works. It also works faster than Siri, which had a noticeable few-seconds delay on every lights command.

At the time of this writing, you can’t use Echo to set a room to a particular color palette or scene, so I guess Siri’s got the edge there, but most of the time I’m only trying to turn lights on/off or dim them.

Hue + IFTTT

I couldn’t get this to work at all. Granted, all I tried was a recipe for blinking the lights whenever I got a Facebook message, but it just didn’t work. Didn’t work for my Android friend, either. Too bad, we really wanted this one.

What other cool stuff can you do with Hue bulbs?

As if in recognition of its own shortcomings, the official Hue app includes a list of other Hue-compatible apps for your consideration. I tried a bunch of apps to see what creative things other developers came up with for the Hue bulbs. Some of these were pretty good, but I still do most of my Hue control via the official Hue app.

Other Hue apps: 

The best Hue app choice on iOS and Android is Hue Pro. Seriously, just move the official app to a junk folder and use Hue Pro. ( Android | iOS )

Ambify – (iOS) Syncs the dimming and color shifting of the lights in tune with music from your own phone. My nested iTunes playlists didn’t display in order but I managed to find them. The gradual shifting of the lights is pleasing (turn down sensitivity and other settings to soften the strobing effect). I’ll use this app again but it’s a novelty, not something to use every day.

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Hue Plus – (iOS) Bare bones, super simple control over individual lights and their colors. A+ for simplicity.

hue_plus_lights

Hue Disco – (iOS | Android) Make your lights strobe! It’s a novelty, but it’s a well-done one. The lights seem to sync a little better with this app than they do with Ambify but there’s a little bit more of a learning curve.

IFTTT – “If this, then that” statements are useful for automating simple digital tasks. I tried getting mine to make the lights flicker anytime I got a Facebook message, but it never worked. Boo, hiss. I included it here anyway because I think there’s a lot of potential in IFTTT + Hue.

facebook_ifttt

Other Hue products

hue_white_kit

The Hue white kit is an affordable alternative to the rainbow bulbs set. They do everything except colors. Kit includes a bridge and two white bulbs.

Philips HueWhite Starter A19 Kit – This kit is the “white bulb” alternative to the one I own. It includes a bridge and 2 LED bulbs that  glow a soft white similar to incandescent bulbs. These bulbs don’t do colors (just dimming/intensity) but you can control them through an app and put them in the same network as any rainbow Hue bulbs you might own. This bridge can also control the rainbow bulbs, if you decide to add some later (you can add up to 50 Hue-system bulbs to a single bridge).

lux_solo_white_bulb

You can also buy solo white Hue Lux bulbs. Get some of these for the places in your home you want smart, app-accessible bulbs but don’t really need to have rainbow light effects. They’re about a third the cost of the rainbow bulbs.

hue_tap_switch

Completely wireless and battery-less, the Hue tap switch is like a little remote control for your Hue bulbs.

Philips Hue Tap Switch – Place it anywhere (no wires needed, wall-mount capable) and control your Hue lights with the tap of a button. You configure the buttons yourself via the app, assigning scenes or behaviors to each button. Philips say it’s good for 50,000 clicks, so make ’em count.

hue_bloom

Hue Bloom: A small lamp that can be used to cast a soft light on a wall. It must be plugged in.

Philips “Friends of Hue” Bloom – I think it’s gone off the market. We got a Bloom in late 2016 and set it to a dark red color with the Hue app. At 1% brightness, it makes a nice soft light for our baby’s room.

More Hue Reviews

The bottom line

Philips Hue bulbs are a great way to jump into home automation. The general ease of setup and daily use make them perfect for anyone who can operate a smartphone. For apartment dwellers, they offer a wonderful splash of color that may otherwise be absent in a basic, white-walled unit. There’s enough useful functionality here to justify the cost and elevate Hue above “novelty” status.

» Check out Philips Hue on Amazon.com «

Note to readers: Some links on HomeUpgraded.com are affiliate links. Read our full disclosure policy here.