Philips Hue lights get larger, brighter, and cheaper with a significant product refresh

Good lighting firm Philips Hue debuted a bunch of latest merchandise this week on the IFA tech present in Berlin, Germany, and most of them can be found now. The launch, which is the most important within the firm’s historical past, consists of cheaper good lights, a brand new bridge for its Zigbee ecosystem, a redesigned line of sunshine strips, and new software program options and connectivity capabilities. Hue additionally launched its first video doorbell and an upgraded camera to its Hue Safe line.

Hue’s third-generation bridge arrives

The Hue Bridge Professional ($89.99 / €89.99) is a complete redesign of the ecosystem’s central hub and the primary improve to Hue’s bridge in 10 years. It connects to Hue’s Zigbee bulbs and equipment so as to add options like lighting scenes, dynamic results, schedules, and out-of-home management. Sporting a brand new black look, it has a quicker processor, extra reminiscence, and elevated capability. Designed to attraction to Hue super-users, it could possibly join 150 lights and 50 equipment (a comfortable restrict) — that’s 3 times the capability of the V2 bridge, which isn’t being retired.

Moreover, the Professional can retailer over 500 customized lighting scenes and supply quicker response instances, in accordance with Signify, Hue’s guardian firm. Its Hue Chip Professional allows the company’s new Hue MotionAware feature, which turns your present Hue lights into movement sensors for motion-activated lighting and safety features. The Professional lastly brings Wi-Fi (2.4GHz) to a Hue bridge, so it doesn’t have to sit down subsequent to your router.

There’s a migration device that may switch all of the settings of your present Bridge with a couple of faucets. The corporate says help for combining a number of bridges right into a single Bridge Professional will arrive earlier than the tip of the 12 months. The Hue Bridge Professional is offered now for $89.99.

New line of low-cost lights

Well-known for being one of many pricier, premium good lighting corporations, Philips Hue has introduced a new entry-level lineup of smart lights, which it says is designed to attraction to new good residence customers.

Beginning at $25 per bulb, or as little as $15 in a multipack, the brand new Hue Important lineup consists of A19 bulbs ($24.99, or a four-pack for $60), BR30 downlight ($24.99, or a two-pack for $40), and GU10 spotlights ($24.99, or a four-pack for $60). An RGB colour Important Strip Mild prices $59.99 for five meters and $99.99 for 10, and an Important Flex Strip Mild, a brand new neon choice for Hue, is offered for $99.99 for five meters and $169.99 for 10 meters.

These lights are appropriate with the Hue Bridge (V2 and Professional) and have all the identical capabilities and connectivity options as the corporate’s higher-end lights, simply with decrease specs. The important thing variations are that they don’t dim as low, have a narrower vary of white (2200–6500K), and supply extra primary colour high quality.

The Important bulbs (not the sunshine strips) may also support Matter-over-Thread connectivity, as a part of a next-gen connectivity chip for all its new bulbs. This will probably be alongside the “core applied sciences” of Bluetooth and Zigbee.

This implies you may join them on to Apple Dwelling, Amazon Alexa, or any Matter platform. (You’ll want a Matter controller and Thread border router for setup.) Beforehand, you wanted a Hue Bridge to connect with Apple Dwelling, however you would connect with Alexa by way of Bluetooth or Zigbee with the proper Echo Hub.

The bulbs can be found now, with the sunshine strips slated for December. There will probably be a number of starter equipment choices that bundle lights with Hue Bridge V2, beginning at $79.99.

Together with the launch of its lower-cost line, Hue is revamping its flagship bulb, the Philips Hue A19. The corporate says the brand new mannequin is 40 p.c extra vitality environment friendly in comparison with its prior bulbs, and may dim to 0.2 p.c brightness. The colour-capable variations keep Hue’s prime color-matching high quality, which the corporate is now calling ChromaSync, to distinguish from the Necessities.

All the brand new Hue bulbs even have the next-gen connectivity chip, which helps Matter-over-Thread connectivity to connect with any Matter-compatible good residence platform. They’re out there now, beginning at $59.99 for white and colour ambiance, $44.99 for white ambiance, and $15.99 for white.

Hue’s present bulbs won’t be upgraded to Matter-over-Thread, and the Bridge Professional doesn’t help Thread, however present Hue bulbs could be bridged to Matter by means of the Bridge V2 or Bridge Professional.

A number of love for gentle strips

The corporate’s line of sunshine strips is being expanded and can characteristic seven fashions, that are set to launch within the US in March. The flagship mannequin is the brand new OmniGlow strip gentle, which Signify’s John Smith says is “the perfect gentle strip we’ve ever made.” It makes use of superior chip-scale-package (CSP) know-how to do away with the spottiness generally discovered on most gentle strips, packing collectively 170 tiny LEDs in every sq. centimeter. It may possibly dim all the way down to 0.5 p.c and pump out as much as 4,500 lumens of brightness.

Together with the 2 new Important gentle strips, Hue is introducing a cheaper model of its white and colour gradient ambient gentle strip. The Hue Flux Strip Mild prices $70 for 3 meters and $99.99 for five meters. An Extremely Vivid model that may additionally attain as much as 6,000 lumens is slated to launch later subsequent 12 months.

The brand new gentle strips will all work with a brand new line of equipment from Hue, which incorporates corners, blackout cables, and extenders that may attain as much as 20 meters, offering extra flexibility when inserting the strips. Outside, a brand new gradient gentle strip and neon strip are becoming a member of the lineup. All the new lights, apart from the Necessities, characteristic ChromaSync know-how however function over Zigbee and Bluetooth solely, with out Thread.

Right here’s a rundown of the brand new gentle strip lineup:

Hue is increasing its already sturdy out of doors lighting choices with everlasting patio lights and everlasting out of doors lights. The Festavia Hue Globe string lights begin at $159.99 and have colour and tunable white gentle, the identical results as the present Festavia string lights. They’ve a putting design much like Hue’s high-end LightGuide bulbs.

Hue is getting in on the craze for everlasting out of doors lights fastened to the surface of your home with the Festavia Everlasting lights (beginning at $119.99). These are white and colour ambiance lights designed to be fastened to your own home “completely” alongside a roofline, for instance. They’re out there now in a number of lengths.

Total, it’s a formidable rollout for the corporate, which has confronted mounting strain from cheaper rivals.