Televisions from Philips are equipped with Ambilight. This is a built-in light strip behind the TV that displays the colors of the screen. This is technology from Philips, so you won’t find those lights on other TVs. You can then use the Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip for that. What is this, how does it work and does it work just as well as Ambilight?
Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip
Number of colours: Sixteen million
Maximum amount of light: 1100 lumens
Color temperature (white light): 2200K to 6500K
Support for: Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, Homey, IFTTT, Nest, Philips Hue, Samsung SmartThings
Price: From 179 euros
Website Philips Hue website 8 Score 80 
- Pros
- Added value
- Beautiful color reproduction
- Support smart home platforms
- Negatives
- Does not work without Sync Box
- Expensive
- Cumbersome
The Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip is a silicone LED strip for behind the television. When you have installed it, the strip can display colors that can be seen on the screen. This mainly concerns the colors at the edges (excluding any black bars). Do you see green grass? Then the wall turns green. Will there be one more in the picture? Then part of the wall turns blue. The sun shines? Then you also see some yellow appear. At its core, this is an external Ambilight variant of Philips’ own televisions, but with a little more snags. The LED strip is available in three sizes, namely for TVs of 55, 65 and 75 inches.
Philips Hue Play Sync Box
Before we can actually talk about the Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip, we must first mention another product: the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box. With this device it is possible to have your other Philips Hue lamps respond to the dominant colors in the image. Once connected, your living room will be colored with it. This only applies to the content that you watch via one of those four HDMI ports. So if you mainly watch media apps on your smart TV, the Sync Box, costing 250 euros, will not work. Then you are soon dependent on an external media player, for example. If you don’t have one yet, it can result in extra costs.
In addition, the system does not work without wireless connection with the Philips Hue Bridge and the Hue app, available on Android and iOS. You also need to download the Philips Hue Sync app. Thankfully, the apps are all free, but obviously you’ll have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it all going. Moreover: if you do not yet have a Sync Box or even a Hue Bridge (because you do not want to connect your other lamps to the TV or because you do not use Philips Hue lamps), then you will have to spend hundreds of euros on the two necessary boxes . And all this to hang an LED strip behind your TV; no, this isn’t exactly plug-and-play, unfortunately.
Jump through hoops
Of course, the above only applies to people who have not invested a cent in the Philips Hue ecosystem. If you already have a Sync Box and / or the Hue Bridge, for example, the minimum investment is of course lower. This means that the Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip is quite a niche product. Due to the nature of the creature (the lack of plug-and-play), the LED strip is mainly interesting for people who have all those two cabinets at home. Otherwise, as a consumer, you simply have to jump through way too many hoops to get everything done. Apart from the monetary investment, you also have to install everything of course.
Because we did not yet have a Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box, an extra step was added for us. We first had to connect the box to the TV and then also to the WiFi network, via the Hue Bridge (which fortunately was already there). Linking to the network is done via another app than the standard Hue app, namely the Hue Sync application. Fortunately, the installation for the box is very simple: with a few steps to follow on the screen and a push of a button on the Hue Bridge, it is all done. If you only have to connect the LED strip, then that is no problem either. You follow the steps within the app and you can get started within 15 minutes.
There are two things you have to take into account: the elements that you stick to the back of your TV, where the strip rests, and the fact that you have to deal with a lot of wires. For example, there is an (included) HDMI cable from the Sync Box to the TV, there is a power cable for that box, a connector is needed for the LED strip to the Box and there is another power cable for the strip (which fortunately you can plug in the same adapter as that of the Sync Box. And then of course you also have the maximum four HMDI cables that can go in the Box. So you have to have reasonably good cable management, but when everything is behind a TV cabinet, then you will not be bothered by it.
In addition, you would also do well to read about the Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box. Of course, this only applies to people who get that product for the first time. For example, some users report that some HDMI ports stop working, although we did not experience this during testing. There is also support for things like 4K, HDR and Dolby Vision pass-through, but only if your TV supports it. It is also true that not every HDMI port is equivalent, as only two of the four ports offer the mentioned support. Fortunately, it is still possible to connect your soundbar, just like you would on your TV.
Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip
Then we can finally talk about the product in the headline of this review: the Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip. We immediately get straight to the point: the Gradient Lightstrip is not as good as the built-in Ambilight on a Philips television. The undersigned has been using Philips TVs in his own living and gaming room for four years and can say so with conviction. Don’t misunderstand the comment though – that doesn’t mean this system is worthless or malfunctioning. Because basically it complements the experience on TV. It doesn’t matter whether you play a game or watch a movie: the colored wall around it just remains cool.
It has been the main reason to buy a Philips TV for years: Ambilight. The LED lights on the back react just as quickly as the image itself, so that the experience is actually taken to the next level. If you’ve never seen Ambilight in operation, it’s hard to imagine. Basically, the Gradient Lightstrip system is the same as Ambilight: here too the external strip reacts to the images of the screen. The system does this with dozens of LED lamps, divided over several zones. Those zones are not present within Ambilight, so there is indeed a difference. The question now is: to what extent is that difference important and, not entirely unimportant, do users really notice?
The answer to the first question is one we can answer for you. The difference between the strip and the normal Ambilight is small. Where Ambilight reacts directly to the colors, the Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip does not. There is really a few milliseconds of delay in it. The delay is so short that most people probably won’t notice it. The undersigned probably stands out, because the TVs here have been providing a pleasant experience for years with all those cool colors on the wall. However, if you are not used to such additions, chances are that the delay will not be noticed. A grumpy ear that pays attention to that, perhaps.
Colors, brightness and options
Despite the fact that the light strip is built up in different zones, you hardly notice this while watching or gaming. Apart from that very slight delay, the LED strip presents cool colors that often correspond to the colors that Ambilight presents. The system is able to present sixteen million different clothes, in four different brightness levels. You can also adjust the strength of the LED lights using a slider in the Hue Sync app and choose from three modes: film, music or games. The default settings are adjusted per mode, but you can also adjust the settings yourself. So in that respect it is good.
If you have several lamps in your house that work with Philips Hue Play – and that are also connected to the HDMI Sync Box – then you should take into account that you choose one setting for all lamps. So you cannot give the LED strip a different setting than other lamps or vice versa. In addition, it is important that your TV is in a good place. For this review we took an old (too small) TV and placed it flat against the wall for the best effect. That is probably the setup that you use yourself (the undersigned in any case).
During daily use, we always ran into the same irritation. When we switch off the TV and no image is active, the Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip remains on. To solve this problem, you have to set your own commands with your own remote control; the Sync Box has an IR sensor, so your remote should be supported. And otherwise you can arrange such matters via, for example, Google Home or the Google Assistant, via voice commands. After registering your Hue account, the LED strip will automatically appear in your smart home.
Conclusion: buy or leave it?
Let’s face it: you don’t need the Philips Hue Gradient Lightstrip. It is not an essential product. And if you are interested in Ambilight, you will undoubtedly already have a Philips TV at home. But it may of course be that you have a TV from a different brand, find this interesting and do not actually feel like buying a new TV. In that case we can say: if you are even slightly interested in the colorful, added value of the LED lamps on the back: go for it. Despite that tiny bit of delay, the sometimes cumbersome way of operating and the expensive installation, the Gradient Lightstrip takes your viewing experience to a higher level.
Basically, this is not very different from what Ambilight does. The only question then is: how much are you willing to spend? A quick calculation shows that you need a Sync Box (250 euros), Hue Bridge (50 euros) and of course the Lightstrip (minimum 180 euros) to supplement your TV. That is 480 euros in equipment. If you already have the Box and the Bridge, it is still not a tender amount. In any case, we are convinced of the value of Ambilight and now also the Gradient Lightstrip: it works as advertised and once everything runs, it runs well. The only thing that really throws a spanner in the works is the potentially high investment you have to make.
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