In short, this comes down to your budget and which body areas you want to treat. Here’s our recommendation:
The Lumea Prestige
This is Philips top-of-the-range model safe for light to dark skin tones. It’s fast, packed with premium features and designed for all body areas and face. Therefore, confidently choose it for any body area but it’s especially perfect for fast and precise whole-body hair removal sessions.
The Lumea Advanced
This is Philip’s mid-range home IPL safe for light to medium skin tones. It’s corded, compact and light-weight and the design and performance are best suited to smaller body areas (bikini line, forearms, underarms and face).
What’s the difference between the Lumea Prestige & Lumea Advanced?
There’s loads more detail in this round-up. But to start, here’s a quick summary comparison of the most important info:
| Philips Lumea Prestige | Philips Lumea Advanced | |
|---|---|---|
| Models & our score |  Models: BRI954/3/6/0 |
 Models:BRI923/2/1, SC1999/7 |
| Price range | Price from £300 to £500 | Price from £200 to £300 |
| Suited to | Face, small & large areas Full body |
Face & small areas |
| Safe skin tones | Safe for light to dark tones I to V. |
Safe for light to medium tones I to IV. |
| Effective hair colours | Works on dark hair. |
Works on dark hair. |
| Lamp lifetime | More flashes than you’ll ever need, lasting 15+ years of use. It’s one of the best. | The flashes last 15+ years of monthly treatments. It’s one of the best. |
| Ease of use | Most intuitive & comfortable, fast, corded & cordless, advanced sensor. Love the curved flash windows. | Quality, intuitive gun-shape, precise & comfortable, plus specialist flash windows. Average speed sessions. |
| Results | Powerful IPL for longer-lasting smooth after 4 to 5 sessions, 1 every 2 weeks plus top-ups every month or so. | Lovely & smooth after 4 to 5 sessions, 1 every 2 weeks plus top-ups every month or so. Medium power IPL. |
| PROS |
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| CONS |
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Let’s dig deeper with the full comparison.
Safe skin tones
The Lumea Prestige:
(Fitzpatrick types I to V)
The Lumea Advanced:
(Fitzpatrick types I to IV)
Therefore, if you have light to light medium skin (Fitzpatrick types I to IV) you can choose either. But if it’s medium to dark (up to type V) you’re better off with the Prestige, or another device safe for darker skin tones. Both have a skin tone sensor which protects skin that’s too dark.
Related: The best home IPL devices for dark & black skin
They both are effective on dark blonde to black hair and won’t work on red, blonde and grey/white hair.
Lamp lifetime
Both the Prestige and Advanced give excellent value from their IPL lamps. Here’s how they compare:
- Prestige: gives a total treatment area of 1,025,000 cm² (250,000 flashes x 4.1 cm2 body flash window)
- Advanced: gives a total treatment area of 1,000,000 cm² (250,000 flashes x 4 cm2 body flash window)
Based on our standardised calculations, this is enough for 200+ whole-body sessions (face, underarms bikini line, full legs). This works out at 15+ years of monthly full body treatments after the start-up stage (Philips say up to 20). They’re amongst the best and give many more flashes than you’ll ever need to stay smooth.
Shape & design
The Advanced and the Prestige look similar and have the same exceptional materials and build quality you expect from Philips. Both are very comfortable to hold because of their distinctive gun-shapes. Their intuitive, no-strain grip is easy to manoeuvre and precise to position. The trigger flash button is perfectly placed for a comfortable, secure grip. And the simple controls are easy to see on top.
But they feel quite different as the Advanced is slightly smaller and much lighter than the Prestige. That’s because it works on mains-power only, whereas the Prestige has a rechargeable lithium battery inside to use it cordless as well. It weighs 560g, but it’s perfectly balanced and comfortable to work around your body.
Mains-power vs cordless
The Lumea Prestige and Advanced both work on mains-power. Their cords are around 2 metres long, thick, flexible and good quality. They’re easy to wrap-up but don’t twist or tangle during use.
The power cords for each fit securely in the base of each handle. The extra length on the handle of the Prestige means its cord is kept well out of the way as you move it around your body. The Advanced handle is a bit shorter so the cord occassionally gets in the way.
However, the Prestige also works cordless. Just remove the cord for harder to reach areas around your body. Or for zapping your face or private bits in the privacy of your bathroom. But note, the flashes are slower when used cordless and the battery lasts only 30 minutes. So, cordless operation isn’t suited to legs or other large areas. Regardless, I love the flexibility this dual operation gives.
5 intensity levels
Both devices have 5 intensity levels to choose from depending on your skin tone. 1 is low and 5 is high. The Prestige is slightly more powerful than the Advanced. This means if you have fair skin and can use the highest intensity levels, you’ll get faster, longer-lasting hair-free skin from the Prestige (but you still need top-up sessions with both!)
- The Lumea Prestige has a power intensity range of 2.5 to 6.5 J/cm²
- The Lumea Advanced has a power intensity range of 2.5 to 5 J/cm²
With the Advanced you must manually choose your intensity level. With the Prestige you can either choose manually or use the Smartskin sensor. More on that next.
Safety & skin tone sensors
Both models are clinically tested safe for home use and area CE certificatied. They have in-built UV filters and skin contact sensors to stop accidental flashes near your eyes.
They also protect darker skin tones. To recap, the Advanced is safe for light to medium skin tnes (Fitzpatrick types I to IV) and the Prestige for light to medium dark (types I to V). Each has a skin tone sensor that won’t flash if your skin is too dark. However, the Prestige’s Smartskin sensor is more advanced because it also recommends the best of the 5 intensity levels for your skin tone.
This is a neat feature if you have varied tones across body areas. It removes any guesswork. And on more sensitive areas you can still manually lower it a notch or two.
Specialist flash windows
Both the Advanced and Prestige have flash windows to match different body areas. The Advanced models come with flat attachments in different sizes. They do a good job.
However, the Prestige has curved windows matching your body contours for easier flashes. Here’s what you get with both models:
The Philips Lumea Advanced flash windows:
- large flat 4 cm2 body window
- small flat 2cm2 face window with integrated red filter
- small flat 2cm2 precision window (bikini & underarms)
The Philips Lumea Prestige flash wndows:
- large 4.1 cm2 curved-in body window
- small flat 2cm2 face window with integrated red filter
- medium curved-out 3cm2 precision window (bikini & underarms) adjusts IPL for more comfortable flashes on stubborn hairs
All Prestige and Advanced models have their large body and a small face flash window. The precision windows you get with select models.
So, are the curved windows with the Prestige any better?
After testing, I think so. I love the large curved-in body window. It hugs your skin so it’s much easier to get continuous flashes and precise accurate coverage on most of your legs, knees and tummy (but shins and ankles are still tricky). It also fits my underarm area very well.
The curved-out precision window perfectly fits in your bikini line/leg crease, and I like the idea of the tailored IPL for these thicker hairs. The curved windows mean there’s so much less faff so you’re finished quicker with the Prestige.
Which is fastest?
Both the Advanced and Prestige have the standard stamp mode (position, press, release) for a single flash. And both have glide mode for continuous flashes (position, press and hold, glide).
However, the speed of flashes between the two is very different. And sessions are considerably faster with the Prestige.
- With the Lumea Advanced it flashes every 3.5 seconds. On the highest intensity level, I can do a thorough full leg in close to 20 minutes, and my full body takes over an hour. Yawn.
- With the Lumea Prestige the flashes come every 2 seconds (used corded). On the highest intensity level, I can do a thorough full leg in around 10 mins, and my full body in under 40 mins.
There’s a big difference. The Prestige is one of the fastest high-power IPL devices you can choose. Therefore it’s an excellent choice for small and large body areas, and especially whole-body hair removal.
I don’t recommend the Advanced for large areas or whole body sessions. True, you can divide treatment areas across days so it’s less tedious. But, the Prestige is a far better choice for full body sessions done in one quick session.
Customer support
Both devices are from Philips, so you get the same attentive customer service. Philips have an excellent reputation and give friendly, expertly and prompt responses.
They give advice and assistance via online chat, phone and email. You also get a 2-year warranty and an online support service. There’s a helpful treatment calendar App with ‘how to’ guides too. Plus, a reassuring and easy to use 100-day money back guarantee from Philips for both models (check local Philips policy outside UK & Europe).
Effort & Results
Home IPL devices demand effort and commitment. There’s a start-up routine to get you to smooth, and then top-up sessions maintain your results. Your overall effort depends on the number of start-up sessions and how fast each session is. Therefore, we’ve calculated this effort based on our controlled tests, so you can compare and decide which is right for you.
It’s the same treatment schedule for both the Prestige and the Advanced. You’ll need about 4 to 5 treatments (taking 8 weeks) to see significant hair reduction results. A wholebody session with the Prestige takes around 40 minutes, and over an hour with the Advanced. The overall start-up effort is shown in the table below:
| Device | No. of sessions (start-up) | Time per session | Total effort during start-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prestige | 5 sessions over 8 weeks | 40 minutes | 3 hours 20 mins |
| Advanced | 5 sessions over 8 weeks | 1+ hour | 5+ hours |
The Prestige is one of the lowest effort home IPL devices for large areas and whole-body sessions. The Advanced is almost double the effort but feels like much more because it’s boring and tedious on large areas. Therefore, the Advanced is much better suited to your face and smaller areas.
After the start-up, with both you’ll need touch-ups sessions every 4 to 8 weeks. Start monthly, then after several top-ups, you’ll likely need them even less frequently.
So, what results can you expect?
Philips share results from the clinical tests for both the Prestige and Advanced, so you can easily compare them. First, they show they both work quickly to get you smooth within a few weeks. And then that both give long-lasting results after several top ups.
| Device | Hair reduction | After 12 sessions |
|---|---|---|
| Prestige | 92% in 3 treatments 27/55 women reached 92% or higher on legs |
78% median hair reduction Lasts for at least 6 months |
| Advanced | 85% in 3 treatments 67/45 women reach 85% or higher on legs |
71% median hair reduction Lasts for at least 3 months |
Both results are impressive. However, the slightly stronger IPL from the Prestige has the higher and longer-lasting results after the same number of sessions.
Results shared by online reviews and our user trials matches the recommended start-up schedules for both.
After 2 to 3 sessions most see a noticeable hair reduction. This means less hairs and finer, lighter, softer growth. After 4 or 5 sessions hair reduction is usually significant and many are totally smooth.
For some people it takes a few sessions more to get the same results. And they need top-ups more frequently too. Also, if they stop after a few top-ups, hair does grow back. This highlights how important the top-ups are for long-lasting results.
Related: learn how crucial top-ups are
Which is best: the Prestige or Advanced?
Here’s a quick summary of the pros and cons for each.
The Lumea Prestige is a superb all-rounder, it’s perfect for large and small body areas. I love it for fast, easy and accurate whole-body sessions.
- Fast full body treatments
- Your highest & longest-lasting hair reduction results
- Low effort schedule
- Intuitive gun-shape
- Unbeaten quality & feel
- Convenient corded & cordless operation
- Curve-hugging flash windows
- Advanced skin tone sensor suggests best intensity
- 100-day money back guarantee
- It’s quite big & heavy
- Expensive at full RRP
- Not FDA-cleared in the US
Read the full Prestige review with video here, or check deals below.
The Lumea Advanced is a super design and a sound choice if you want to be fuzz-free on smaller areas like face, bikini and underarms.
- Speed suits small areas
- Very good hair reduction results
- Low effort (face & small areas)
- Intuitive gun-shape
- Robust, mains-powered build
- Specialist flash windows
- 100-day money back guarantee
- Large area & whole-body sessions are slow & tedious
- Power cord can get in the way
- Skin tone sensor doesn’t select your intensity level
- Not FDA-cleared in the US
Read the full Lumea Advanced review here, or check deals below.
View Philips Lumea deals
Found this review helpful? Please support future reviews and shop via these links. I earn a small commission if you shop via these links, but your price stays the same.
View Lumea Prestige deals £269.99 to £500:
🇬🇧 Amazon.co.uk, CurrentBody UK
🇦🇺 Shavershop, CurrentBody AU
🇺🇸 CurrentBody US, Amazon.com
View Lumea Advanced deals £200 to £300:
🇬🇧 Amazon.co.uk, CurrentBody UK
🇦🇺 Shavershop, CurrentBody AU
🇺🇸 CurrentBody US
