Smart Lights / Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) vs Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK)
Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7)
$189.99
VSNanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK)
$134.99
Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) vs Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK)
Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7)
The best-built accent bar in smart lighting, and the only one that is useless without a hub.
Wins overall by 0.2 points
Quick Verdict
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) wins by 0.2 points, which is not enough to settle it. A Thread border router disguised as wall art — and at 100 lumens a panel, it is only wall art. Pick on the specs that matter to you, not the overall score.
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) and Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) are both closely matched smart Light models, and the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) is $55 cheaper than the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) ($134.99 vs $189.99). On Setup & Hub Burden, the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) leads (7.0 vs 3.5/10) — what extra hardware you must buy and how painful commissioning is. On Value, the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) leads (5.5 vs 3.0/10) — what you pay per light for the light and features you actually get. On Colour Quality & CRI, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) leads (8.0 vs 6.0/10) — colour rendering, white-point accuracy and how convincing saturated colours look. Overall, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) scores 6.1/10 across our 8 scoring categories versus 5.9/10 for the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK), though the gap is close enough that your specific use case should decide it. Below, we break down the full spec sheet, category-by-category scores, and exactly who should buy which one.
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Spec | Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) | Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $189.99 | $134.99 |
| Release Year | 2018 | 2020 |
| Brightness (white) | Sources conflict: 500 lm at 4000K and 490 lm at 2700K per bar on Signify's own US spec table, versus the 530 lm quoted on Best Buy's listing and repeated by most reviews | 100 lm per white hexagon — about 700 lm across this 7-panel kit. The Black-finish hexagons are rated 10 lm per panel, a tenth of the light |
| Brightness (saturated colour) | Not published by the manufacturer | Not published by the manufacturer |
| Colour Temperature Range | 2000-6500 K | 1200-6500 K |
| CRI (colour rendering) | Not published by the manufacturer for the Play bar | 80 |
| Radio & Protocol | Bluetooth + Zigbee; Matter reaches it only through a Hue Bridge | 2.4GHz Wi-Fi (Nanoleaf states 5 GHz is not supported), Bluetooth required for setup, built-in Thread border router, Matter |
| Hub / Bridge Required | Yes — Signify's own product page bullet reads 'Philips Hue Bridge required', and Best Buy's listing repeats 'Requires a Hue Bridge (sold separately)'. The $69.99 Bridge is not in the box | No hub for the Nanoleaf app, but Nanoleaf's own 'Works with' index marks Matter as 'Compatible Matter Hub Needed' and Thread as 'Required: Thread Border Router' |
| Works in an Internet Outage | Yes with the Bridge — 'WiFi: Works without Wi-Fi' | Panel touch control and the physical controller always work; Nanoleaf publishes an open local API, but Screen Mirror and the PC integrations run from a computer or phone |
| Lowest Dimming Level | Not published by the manufacturer for the Play bar | Not published by the manufacturer |
| Behaviour After a Power Cut | Configurable per light in the Hue app | Not published by the manufacturer |
| Rated Life & Ingress | 25,000 h nominal lifetime, IP20, indoor only | 25,000 h LED lifetime, IP20, indoor use only |
| Lights in the Box (units) | 2 | 7✓ |
| Price per Light ($) | 95 | 19.28✓ |
| Warranty | 24 months | 24 months |
| Colors | White, Black | White, Black |
Category Scores
Brightness
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) leads clearly here, 5.5 against 4.0 — a 1.5-point margin on usable light output for the room size the product is sold for. If that is what you are buying for, the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) does not close the gap elsewhere.
Colour-Output Honesty
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) and Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) are level here, at 5.0/10 each. how much light survives at a saturated colour rather than at 2700K white, and whether the maker publishes that figure at all is not what separates these two — look to the categories where the scores diverge.
Colour Quality & CRI
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) leads clearly here, 8.0 against 6.0 — a 2.0-point margin on colour rendering, white-point accuracy and how convincing saturated colours look. If that is what you are buying for, the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) does not close the gap elsewhere.
Dimming Range
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) leads clearly here, 7.0 against 5.0 — a 2.0-point margin on how far down it dims before it cuts out, and how smooth the bottom end is. If that is what you are buying for, the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) does not close the gap elsewhere.
Ecosystem & Matter
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) leads clearly here, 8.5 against 8.0 — a 0.5-point margin on alexa, Google, Apple Home, SmartThings and how much of the product actually crosses over via Matter. If that is what you are buying for, the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) does not close the gap elsewhere.
Local Control
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) leads clearly here, 8.5 against 7.0 — a 1.5-point margin on whether control, schedules and automations keep running with the internet down. If that is what you are buying for, the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) does not close the gap elsewhere.
Setup & Hub Burden
The Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) leads clearly here, 7.0 against 3.5 — a 3.5-point margin on what extra hardware you must buy and how painful commissioning is. If that is what you are buying for, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) does not close the gap elsewhere.
Value
The Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) leads clearly here, 5.5 against 3.0 — a 2.5-point margin on what you pay per light for the light and features you actually get. If that is what you are buying for, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) does not close the gap elsewhere.
Best For
Choose the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) if…
- • Colour Quality & CRI matters most to you — the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) scores 8.0/10 here (colour rendering, white-point accuracy and how convincing saturated colours look).
- • Dimming Range matters most to you — the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) scores 7.0/10 here (how far down it dims before it cuts out, and how smooth the bottom end is).
- • Brightness matters most to you — the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) scores 5.5/10 here (usable light output for the room size the product is sold for).
- • Your main use case is works-offline.
Choose the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) if…
- • Setup & Hub Burden matters most to you — the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) scores 7.0/10 here (what extra hardware you must buy and how painful commissioning is).
- • Value matters most to you — the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) scores 5.5/10 here (what you pay per light for the light and features you actually get).
- • You want to spend less — it's $55 cheaper.
- • Your main use case is no-hub-needed.
Pros & Cons
Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7)
Pros
- +The only accent light here that runs on Zigbee, so a Hue dimmer switch or motion sensor drives it without a phone or a cloud
- +Genuinely small and well finished, with wall, foot and TV-clip mounting all included in the base kit
- +Signify publishes lumen output at two separate white points (500 lm at 4000K, 490 lm at 2700K), which most accent-light makers do not
- +Sits in the same Hue scene and Entertainment system as Hue bulbs, so a room dims as one
Cons
- −$95 per bar, the highest price per light unit in this table, and it is the only product here that flatly cannot be used without buying a hub
- −One power supply for two bars, with a hard limit of three bars per supply — a third bar needs an extension kit, a fourth needs a second supply
- −TV colour matching is not in this box: it needs the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K, listed at $384.99 on Signify's own store, or a subscription-based desktop app
- −Signify's spec table says 500 lm; Best Buy's listing and most published reviews say 530 lm. Nobody publishes a colour-mode figure at all
- −No CRI is published for the Play bar anywhere on Signify's US site
Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK)
Pros
- +The only product here with a built-in Thread border router, which quietly improves every other Thread device in the house
- +Nanoleaf publishes a real spec sheet: CRI, per-panel lumens, PSU headroom, panel weight and maximum panels per supply
- +Touch control on the panels themselves means the wall works when the phone, the router or the cloud does not
- +Genuinely modular — the same controller and PSU carry Hexagons, Triangles and Mini Triangles up to 21 hexagons per 42 W supply
Cons
- −100 lm a panel is decoration, not illumination: the whole 7-panel kit puts out less light than one $12 Hue Essential bulb
- −The Black-finish panels are rated 10 lm each against 100 lm for White — a tenth of the output, for a finish most buyers choose on looks alone
- −42 W power supply caps you at 21 hexagons; a bigger wall needs another supply, and the screw-mount kit is sold separately (only adhesive plates are in the box)
- −2.4GHz Wi-Fi only, with 5 GHz explicitly unsupported, and Bluetooth is mandatory for setup
- −$19.28 a panel before you have lit anything, and the layout is effectively permanent once the adhesive is on painted drywall
Shop by Need
FAQs
Is the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) or Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) better overall?+
Based on our 8-category scoring, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) comes out ahead overall. See the full breakdown in the scores section above — the right pick still depends on which categories matter most for your use case.
Which is better for Setup & Hub Burden, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) or the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK)?+
The Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) scores higher on Setup & Hub Burden (7.0/10 vs 3.5/10) — what extra hardware you must buy and how painful commissioning is.
Which is better for Value, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) or the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK)?+
The Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) scores higher on Value (5.5/10 vs 3.0/10) — what you pay per light for the light and features you actually get.
Which is better for Colour Quality & CRI, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) or the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK)?+
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) scores higher on Colour Quality & CRI (8.0/10 vs 6.0/10) — colour rendering, white-point accuracy and how convincing saturated colours look.
Which is better for Dimming Range, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) or the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK)?+
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) scores higher on Dimming Range (7.0/10 vs 5.0/10) — how far down it dims before it cuts out, and how smooth the bottom end is.
Is the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) worth the price difference over the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK)?+
The Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) is the cheaper option at $134.99 versus $189.99. Whether the pricier model is "worth it" depends on how much you value its lead in Setup & Hub Burden.
Which is better suited to my use case?+
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) is the better fit if you mainly care about works-offline. The Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) is the better fit for no-hub-needed.
What's the warranty on the Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) vs the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK)?+
The Philips Hue Play Light Bar Base Kit, White, 2-Pack (7820230U7) ships with a 24-month warranty; the Nanoleaf Shapes Hexagons Starter Kit, White, 7 Panels (NL42-7003HX-7PK) ships with a 24-month warranty. Always confirm current terms on the manufacturer's site before buying.
Should I wait for the next model instead of buying either of these?+
If either model is more than two years old, a successor may be close — check the "Latest Model" link on each product page. Otherwise, both are current, well-supported options and there's no strong reason to wait.
Cheaper Option
Govee Floor Lamp 2 (H607C) — $127.99
Specifications and prices for both products last verified . Scores are calculated from published specifications — see how we compare products.