Unboxed: The new E14 drop-shaped light bulbs

A week’s holiday in the Netherlands is over, back in the office a package from Philips Hue is already waiting for me. Included in it: The two new variants of the E14 chandelier bulb, which is now available not only as White, but also as White Ambiance and White and Color Ambiance.

The biggest difference to the E14 candle lamp, which has been available for some time, is the design. The chandelier bulbs are only 77 millimetres long and thus significantly shorter than the 106 millimetre long candle bulb. The difference of 2.9 centimetres can make the difference in the end: does the bulb fit in the luminaire or not.

My small table lamp serves as a small example. The design makes it impossible to use an E14 candle lamp. The small chandelier bulb, on the other hand, can be screwed in without any problem. And maybe you feel the same way at your bedside table or desk? Perhaps you also have an open ceiling lamp, where the chandelier bulb fits much better because of its round shape.

From a technical point of view, there are no big surprises with the lamps. The maximum brightness at 4,000 Kelvin is 470 lumens for both White Ambiance and Color, and 370 lumens for Standard White. This makes both versions a touch darker than the Hue White E14 chandelier, which achieves 470 lumens at a fixed 2,700 Kelvin. For me personally, however, the advantage of the adjustable colour temperature would outweigh this.

Finally, let’s take a look at the prices of the three models:

• 1-pack White: 21.99 euros
• 2-pack White: 34,99 Euro
• 1-pack White Ambiance: 34,99 Euro
• 2-pack White Ambiance: 59,99 Euro
• 1-pack White and Color Ambiance: 64,99 Euro
• 2-pack White and Color Ambiance: 109,99 Euro

Especially the price for the coloured version is really high from my point of view, here you are on the level of the with more than 1,000 lumens much brighter E27 bulbs – and from my experience they are also much more often on offer.

It remains to be seen how the street price of the new chandelier bulbs will develop. In any case, it is positive that there are now two more models in addition to the simple White variant and that the product portfolio has been rounded off.