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I have previously reviewed the excellent Paulmann Velora Zigbee Smart LED Panel, which is an excellent alternative to the Philips Hue light panels.
More recently, I have been checking out the range of Paulmann Zigbee bulbs, which can be integrated into a Philips Hue system just as easily as a normal Hue bulb.
I have been impressed with these bulbs. For a start, the Paulmann filament bulbs are RGBW, giving you a better range of options than Hue has to offer. Then, the GU10 bulbs are significantly cheaper than the Hue equivalent.
Paulmann RGBW Filament Bulbs
All the filament bulbs I have been sent are basically identical, just different shapes. I think they look good. The larger bulbs look a bit more impressive, and I prefer the globe-shaped bulbs, but it all comes down to personal preference and what looks best with your light fitting.
There were no build quality issues that I could see, and the overall performance has been excellent.
LED Globe G125 E27 – 29162
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paulmann 29162 Filament 230V Smart Home Zigbee LED Globe... |
£38.53 | Buy on Amazon |
- Colour: RGBW
- Watts: 6.3W
- Incandescent Equivalent: 40W
- Rated luminous flux (Lumen): 470lm
- Colour Temperature: 2200 – 6500 K
- Rated Life: 15000 h
- RRP: £38.95
LED Globe G95 E27 – 29160
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paulmann 29160 Filament 230V Smart Home Zigbee LED Globe G95... |
£30.37 | Buy on Amazon |
- Colour: RGBW
- Watts: 6.3W
- Incandescent Equivalent: 40W
- Rated luminous flux (Lumen): 470lm
- Colour Temperature: 2200 – 6500 K
- Rated Life: 15000 h
- RRP: £35.95
LED Corn ST64 E27 – 29158
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paulmann 29158 Filament 230V Smart Home Zigbee LED Corn ST64... |
£28.28 | Buy on Amazon |
- Colour: RGBW
- Watts: 6.3W
- Incandescent Equivalent: 40W
- Rated luminous flux (Lumen): 470lm
- Colour Temperature: 2200 – 6500 K
- Rated Life: 15000 h
- RRP: £35.95
LED Pear E27 – 29156
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paulmann 29156 Filament 230V Smart Home Zigbee LED Bulb E27... |
£24.84 | Buy on Amazon |
- Colour: RGBW
- Watts: 6.3W
- Incandescent Equivalent: 40W
- Rated luminous flux (Lumen): 470lm
- Colour Temperature: 2200 – 6500 K
- Rated Life: 15000 h
- RRP: £32.95
Paulmann LED Reflector GU10 Bulbs White 29147 & Black 29148
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paulmann 29147 Standard 230V Smart Home Zigbee LED Reflector... |
£9.95 | Buy on Amazon | |
| Paulmann 29148 Standard 230V Smart Home Zigbee LED Reflector... |
£17.63 | Buy on Amazon |
These two bulbs are the same, just a different body colour.
- Colour: RGBW
- Watts: 4.8W
- Incandescent Equivalent: 32W
- Rated luminous flux (Lumen): 350lm
- Colour Temperature: 2200 – 6500 K
- Rated Life: 15000 h
- RRP: £ 20.95
I haven’t used the Philips Hue GU10 bulbs, so I can’t comment on how these Paulmann bulbs compare, but considering they are less than half the price of the Hue bulbs, these make much more sense, especially if you have a room that requires a lot of GU10 bulbs.
Paulmann Remote Gent 2
- Direct control of Zigbee 3.0 lighting products using Touchlink
- Easy switching, dimming and adjustment of white and coloured light
- Practical use of existing and individualised pre-sets
- Controls Zigbee 3.0 lighting products from Paulmann and other manufacturers via Touchlink without an app or Gateway
- White light control from 2000 to 6500 Kelvin
- Enables customised adjustment of warm white and cool white tones as well as switching through five presets
- Detailed RGB colour control with adjustable colour saturation
- Stores seven individualised presets as well as adjustable dynamic colour gradient
- Can be connected to the smik gateway for parallel control via app, voice and Gent
- Control of max. 30 devices in up to four groups; groups can be controlled individually or in combination
- Certified Zigbee 3.0 product
- RRP: £31.95
This is an interesting product as it is a Zigbee remote control that has extensive control over your lights. However, as far as I am aware, this is not compatible with the Philips Hue Bridge. You can still use it to control lights via Touchlink, which passes the Bridge and controls the lights directly.
In order to control the lights directly, you are supposed to be within 10cm of the light. I found the remote paired reliably with the Paulmann bulbs but seemed to have problems connecting to some of the Hue bulbs I used.
Paulmann vs Philips Hue Bulbs Comparison
Edison / Filament Bulbs
Philips Hue doesn’t actually have any filament bulbs that directly compete with these Paulmann bulbs.
Philips has the Ellipse E27 smart bulb, which is one of their Lightguide bulbs. It is priced at £90 and can produce 500 lumens. Filament bulbs are designed to be attractive and work well with exposed lighting, but the Lightguide bulbs take this concept to the next level; whether or not they are worth the very high price is subjective.
The normal Hue A60 White and Colour Ambiance E27 bulb has an RRP of £50 and can produce 806 lumens, but it is not really designed to be on display in the same way as a filament bulb.
Philips Hue then has a range of filament bulbs, which are all either soft white light (2100K) or white ambiance (2200-4500K). There are quite a few options within this range, but a couple of examples include:
- ST72 Edison white ambiance with 550 lumen output and an RRP of £45. The smaller ST64 Edison is the same spec but £40.
- The soft white light ST64 variant can do 580 lumen and is priced at £30 RRP.
Looking on Amazon, the Hue bulbs get discounted semi-often with deeper discounts than the Paulmann bulbs, but the ST64 white ambiance has only over dropped down as low as £30, so there is not much price difference between that and the full RGBW Paulmann options.
GU10 Bulbs
As much as I love Philips Hue, I just can’t bring myself to buy their GU10 bulbs as the White and Colour Ambiance bulbs cost £60 RRP each or £95 for a two-pack.
Amazon regularly discounts the three packs down to around £100, which is much better, but all the rooms in my house that have GU10 bulbs have 8 bulbs minimum.
Paulmann is much more affordable; at the time of writing, the white-bodied Paulmann 29147 was just £19.48, and it has been as low as £14.95.
Both brands have almost the same specs, though Hue is listed as having slightly higher power consumption.
Overall
Overall, I think these Paulmann bulbs are superb alternatives to Philips Hue.
In general, I’d normally prefer to stick with Philips Hue products as I have always been happy with the quality, and you know that the bulbs will work together. But, I am tight fisted so it is hard not to be won over by Paulmann.
With the filament bulbs, you have a range of options that Philips Hue doesn’t have a like-for-like alternative. You can pick up the Hue filament bulbs for around the same price, but these are all white or white ambiance. If you are not bothered about the RGBW colours, then it may be worth sticking with Hue, but I would personally opt for the Paulmann bulbs.
As for the GU10 bulbs, it is hard to recommend the Hue bulbs over Paulmann because there is such a big price difference. Even if the Hue bulbs are better, they’d need to be significantly better for me to justify paying more than double.
One criticism I have seen online with third-party bulbs in a Hue system is that the bulbs often don’t have the same responsiveness as Hue or quite the same colours. I haven’t confirmed this with the GU10 bulbs I have used, as I don’t have the Hue equivalent. However, I would recommend sticking to the same bulbs per room to ensure even performance.
Paulmann Zigbee Filament & GU10 Smart Bulbs Review
Summary
I think these Paulmann bulbs are superb alternatives to Philips Hue. The filament bulbs offer RGBW colours for around the same price as the white filament bulbs from Hue and the GU10 bulbs are less than half the price
Overall
95%-
Overall - 95%95%
I am James, a UK-based tech enthusiast and the Editor and Owner of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Passionate about all things technology, my expertise spans from computers and networking to mobile, wearables, and smart home devices.
As a fitness fanatic who loves running and cycling, I also have a keen interest in fitness-related technology, and I take every opportunity to cover this niche on my blog. My diverse interests allow me to bring a unique perspective to tech blogging, merging lifestyle, fitness, and the latest tech trends.
In my academic pursuits, I earned a BSc in Information Systems Design from UCLAN, before advancing my learning with a Master’s Degree in Computing. This advanced study also included Cisco CCNA accreditation, further demonstrating my commitment to understanding and staying ahead of the technology curve.
I’m proud to share that Vuelio has consistently ranked Mighty Gadget as one of the top technology blogs in the UK. With my dedication to technology and drive to share my insights, I aim to continue providing my readers with engaging and informative content.
Last update on 2024-04-28 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
