Philips Hue A19 LED Starter Kit, Color

Pros; The color capabilities of these are WOW, the built in dimming is also a fantastic capability! Bright and vibrant. Cons; App is slow, clumsy and you NEED it to have these work. Integration with Alexa / Siri etc. is stilted and they cannot use the full range of Hue's features. If you've turned 'off' the lights and say your phone dies, other people like maids / repairmen etc. CANNOT turn the lights on. Expensive and the user experience isn't fine tuned. Note: that serial numbers are on the base of the bulbs (they don't have it in the manual) and I HIGHLY reccomend writing that down somewhere before installing. I actually purchased these specifically because I figured investing in a more expensive product from a big brand like Phillips would be less hassle. I had hopes I'd love this product, that they would coordinate with Siri/ Alexa/Google Home better than my TP bulbs, install easily, and preferably all match. NOPE! Small details aren't part of the experience and that was dissapointing. The bulbs perform impressively but both installation, compatability, and the app all were lackluster considering I could've paid far less and got a similar experience using TP or another competitiors bulbs. Three of the four bulbs were visably older models, and the forth was definately newer and lighter. Absolutely bizare- as I would've thought all of a package would be the same gen.Phillips Hue App leaves A LOT to be desired- it's clumsy and slow moving. The colormodes are nifty, but it doesn't tie in particularly well with making Siri, Alexa, or Google Home change them (I tested all three as I have the benefit of a apple sibling, a google sibling and a amazon sibling). Also it ate my phone battery ( a iphone 6) quicky and that makes me doubt long term use. They only have a handful of default settings which are mostly very 'loud' color harmonies (sahara reds, artic blues and tropical sunsets). More variety in pre-set colorways with some subtler options would sweeten the deal and help me validate why I'm spending so much for what amounts to lightbulbs with a wifi receiver transformer and a microchip. I was looking for sophisticated accent lighting, but those colorways felt more juvenile and not entirely useful outside of a luau/ pool party. Very basic three step setup and all bulbs paired with the base; However, three of the four were unresponsive! We had to go through and find the serial number for each bulb and manually type it in to pair the bulbs to the base/app.... which would've been easier had they included the bulbs serial number on the packaging or a slip of paper, somewhere... Anywhere where you aren't blinded by light trying to look at it or have to pull the thing out of the lamp to get at it would've been great. Climbing ceilings suck. Installing these took me back to my first wireless router back in the early 2000s. Understanding that smart homes are in their infancy I can forgive the awkward pairing procedure, but at almost 200 bucks I expected something more from the user experience. I'm hopeful that as tech evolves this is only going to become smoother, but I probably wouldn't shell out another $50 for a lightbulb if this is the heck I gotta go through especially if who knows what gen. the damn thing is.