The reliability issues still exist. See the following, for example:
Are there any known issues currently with SmartThings? Since the beginning of the week I’ve been having an extraordinary amount of problems which is strange considering I normally have none.
Currently my devices are ‘sticking’ when turning them on / off via the app e.g. When I click ‘On’ the button changes to ‘Turning On’ and stays like that, until I press it furiously!
Clicking into individual devices e.g. to change colour of a bulb, and I’m faced with a message that says “Device currently unavailable”
Trying to turn on a simple bulb tonight via Alexa, I’m told 'Sorry… Sofa Lamp is currently not available".
Looking at the ‘Recently’ tab of various devices sees a stupid amount of polling by Amazon Alexa e.g. “Amazon Alexa (UK) sent refresh command to Sofa Lamp”. This happens tw…
With regard to the Phillips hue bridge, it forms its own mini network, so while you are right that it uses zigbee,it will not affect any of your other devices and will not act as repeaters for them.
With regard to choosing one protocol or another, different people make different choices in these regards. See the following for my own recent answer to the same question.
Just one between Z wave and zigbee?
For many of us, myself included, the primary reason for selecting SmartThings was that it supports multiple protocols. I like to choose the protocol based on the specific device placement and use. So at my house, we typically use Lutron Caseta (which is neither zigbee nor zwave) for light switches, zigbee for smart bulbs and sensors, and Zwave for door locks, plug-in pocket sockets, and in wall micros. We also have some Bluetooth devices which are used with HomeKit.
If I had to pick just one, personally I wouldn’t give up the hue bridge, and I really like zigbee sensors, so it would be zigbee, but I know that I might have some issues with Wi-Fi interference with fixed location devices like door locks. I have a pretty good technical background and…
