Planning an investment in Phillips Hue before the end of the year, so I bought the Echo Plus
This is the same size as the Echo but comes with a built in smart home hub.
Can always find space for another Echo
and it came with a free Hue bulb (a crap white one that only does soft white) also the hue bridge costs £50 so it was worth a punt.
I took home a hue colour strip light we had a work when we were testing Echo to see if it could be used to start meeting rooms, this project was shoe string in that we borrowed the required hue bridge from a guy in the dept for testing!
So I set it all up and go into the Alexia App then into the Smart Home section, the strip light is there but functionally is disappointing. All I can do is dim and turn on and off there, no options to set colour.
With Echo voice control there is a bit more, I can change the strip to primary colours, as well as soft and cool white and dim it.
What is missing are scenes, this are built in colour configuration such as "Hawaiian sunset" using a Hue bridge and Echo there would be 40-50 of these to choose from, not something for daily use but annoying its missing.
Also missing is the ability to add hue sensors, this let you switch lights on based on conditions when the sensor detects you.
So if you want to have white lights and on\off and dim then this is fine and you don't need a hue bridge.
If you want colour scenes, and sensors and other hue devices then you need to buy a hue bridge.
I may send this back if I find the smart home hub in the Echo is one thing too many when I get a hue bridge and cause complexity.