If you have Philips Hue equipment in your home, you might have seen there is 2 generations of the Philips Hue Bridge. It is actually quite easy to detect what version you have.

The primary unit in a Philips Hue setup is the Bridge. This is the device that all Hue devices connect to. The Philips Hue Bridge has been sold in 2 different generations. It is very easy to identify if you have the 1st or 2nd generation of Philips Hue Bridge. The 1. generation is round (to the left) and the 2. generation is square shaped (to the right).

1st Generation Bridge

The 1st generation of the Philips Hue Bridge was released back in October 2012. It was a big success and was even named Best Product of 2012 by Forbes magazine. Philips was one of the first company to offer smart lighting products for home use.

2nd Generation Bridge

The Philips Hue Bridge 2nd generation was released in October 2015 in a new design. It supports all features of the 1st generation plus some new features. It was the first bridge to support Apple HomeKit and Apple’s Siri control. This is not possible with the 1st generation bridge. That is why you should make sure that you don’t buy the outdated generation 1 anymore.

4 Generation of Bulbs

Now that I have covered the 2 different generation of bridges it might also be on its place to tell that there is also 4 different generation of Hue light bulbs.

Gen 1 (October 29, 2012), model LCT001

• 600 Lumens at 4000K
• Bad colors (greens and blues are almost impossible). Are using Gamut B to show the colors
• lifetime: 15,000 hours (7 years based on 6 hours daily usage)
• consumption: 8.5W
• Efficiency: 70 lm/W (at 4000K)
• weight: 117g (4.13oz)
• top cover: glass

Gen 2 (October 4, 2015), model LCT007

• 806 Lumens at 4000K (33% brighter)
• Same bad colors as the Gen 1
• faster network reaction (when controlling from smartphone/Siri/Alexa for instance)
• lifetime: 25,000 hours (12 years based on 6 hours daily usage)
• consumption: 9W
• Efficiency: 90 lm/W (at 4000K)
• weight: 117g (4.13oz)
• top cover: glass

Gen 3 (October 2, 2016), models LCT010, LCT014

• 800 Lumens at 4000K
• Great colors – using Gamut C
• Ability to dim to much lower values
• again, a little faster network reaction (when controlling from smartphone/Siri/Alexa for instance)
• lifetime: 25,000 hours (12 years based on 6 hours daily usage)
• consumption: 10W
• Efficiency: 80 lm/W (at 4000K)
• weight: 133g (4.69oz)
• top cover: plastic

Gen 4 (December 5, 2017), model LCT015:

• colors are more saturated
• lifetime: 15,000 hours (7 years based on 6 hours daily usage)
• consumption: 9.5W
• Efficiency: 85 lm/W (at 4000K)
• weight: 74g (2.61oz)
• top cover: plastic