I was perusing the Hue site yesterday and noticed they now have some bulbs in their 'essentials' range that are a fraction of the cost of the their normal range. As an example the White and Colour's are under £50 for a pack of four. I've looked at the comparison and there's little that deters me (minimum 2% dimming compared to 0.2%) so I was wondering if anyone here has any experience with them?
I am using them in 2 of my bathrooms, since the fixtures take 6 bulbs each. They work great.
"The biggest difference between the two bulbs is the dimming range. Hue Essential bulbs can be dimmed to 2% brightness (just what you need for relaxing), but flagship Hue bulbs are dimmable all the way down to 0.2% brightness, offering you a truly personalized light experience."
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I don't have them, but I'd use them for white light where I just need automation control and don't need color. I think the bathroom example is a good one.
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Thanks @bobbyD that's good to know. Most (actually all) of my rooms have dimmable downlights that I'm using with Fibaro Z Wave dimmers. The dimming isn't great and dimming even to 2% would be a great improvement. I've looked at switching across to Hue for some time but due to the number of bulbs have been put off a bit by the cost. I'll give them a try in one room and see how I get on.
I couldn't resist buying some to try since they're cheap (by Hue standards) and I was curious. They do fine with typical warm or cool white and any color I've tried. But they were noticeably poorer at super-warm whites like the "Relax" scene, despite this color temperature (something around 2250 K) being within the range of the specs listed on the product page. It's more pink than orange, and it looks out-of-place next to the flagship Hue bulbs. They've been relegated to basement duty and other areas where I don't care as much -- but I was still happy to have an excuse to use Hue, and all the integration and reliablity that comes with it compared to other solutions I've used, there.
Nitpicking: the product line is "Hue Essential," but I've seen a lot of people say "Hue Essentials," possibly as an intentional plural but probably also a subconscious analog with "Nanoleaf Essentials" or (this is the confusing part) the longstanding third-party "Hue Essentials" app. 
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Title edited - I don't mind being nitpicked and prefer to be accurate!
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For locations where you just need white light, these (if they are available in the UK) are good and relatively inexpensive, at least here in the US...
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Yeah we have those here. The downlights I'd be replacing have an integrated LED; the replacements would use a 230V GU10 bulb (as they go in a 75mm/3" cutout)
The white and colour 'essential' GU10's work out at around £12.50 a unit; the white ambiance Hue GU10 is about £16 a unit. So the 'flagship' white is just a little more than the 'essential' colour bulb. Which makes me wonder why they don't do an 'essential' white only as that'd be cheap as chips!
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...because "That is not the way?" 
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