Philips Hue announces new vintage style smart lamps

Philips Hue has one of the widest and most popular smart lighting ranges on the market, but its portfolio has some shortcomings. Or at least, because this fall, Hue is launching a new line of connected LED bulbs, including new candle bulbs, upgraded projectors, an updated portable smart lamp, lighting fixtures and more. Edison bulbs of vintage style and friendly.

As of September, Philips is launching a range of E12 white candle bulbs, a brand new addition to the Hue family. Priced at $ 33 for a two-pack, they are one of the cheapest Hue bulbs available, and like all new and redesigned Hue bulbs, they support Bluetooth connectivity and Hue bridge matching. standard. However, these bulbs are only available in white. Therefore, if you want to change the temperature or color of the bulb, you will have to look elsewhere.

Then, Hue also refreshed its line of $ 55 GU10 projector bulbs, supporting Bluetooth technology, increasing the maximum light output from 250 to 400 lumens, and adding to the range of white and white ambience options. white atmosphere and color.

But the Hue lamp that got the biggest improvement is the new $ 80 Hue Go, now bundled with Blue support. So you can use it as a portable smart lamp in places where the wifi can not reach. Available in November, Philips also gave the Hue Go a dramatic increase in battery life from two to three hours to 18 hours on a single charge. And as its projector bulbs, the brightness of Hue Go has also increased from 400 to 520 lumens.

Meanwhile, to support its expanding catalog, Hue launched in October a new smart button at $ 40 and a smart button at $ 20. The former can be used to convert old fixtures or other gadgets into connected devices, which can then be programmed and controlled via the Hue application.

The smart button, on the other hand, is designed to make it easier to control your lights, allowing you to configure various routines at the touch of a button. For example, in the morning, pressing the button can change your lighting to a bright, slightly blue-tinged light to wake you up and revive your mind, while a simple nighttime press would change your lighting to a quieter shade and more yellow. to help you fall asleep more easily. Like Hue's smart cards, its smart buttons can be configured and configured in the Hue app. They also come with mounting plates to help you easily position them in your home.

Finally, in order to meet the demands of those looking for lighting with new-school technology but with a more traditional appeal, Hue offers a new range of vintage-style incandescent lamps available in three variants from October: A $ 25 A19 bulb, a $ 28 ST19 tube and a $ 33 G25 globe. All three can be used on Bluetooth or connected to a Hue bridge, and have a sufficient brightness of 530 lumens. However, like the new Hue candles, the color temperature is not adjustable, as vintage Hue bulbs are locked at 2100K.

While I secretly hope some companies could make a range of Edison RGB-adjustable bulbs, the latest additions to Hue should give smart home fans even more options to customize their homes this fall.