New Philips Hue dimming switch will work slightly differently than its predecessor

At the beginning of the week I already told you that there will soon be a second generation of the Philips Hue dimming switch. As I could now find out, Signify has not only slightly changed the design of the switch, but also adapted the way it works. I'll tell you exactly what that will look like in this article.

Until now, the button assignment of the Philips Hue dimming switch has been unchanged for years: With the top button, you could switch on the light and change through up to five scenes. This was followed by two buttons for dimming the light and one button for switching it off. Apart from the selection of the five scenes, there were no other options for the dimming switch in the Hue app, here you had to resort to third-party apps such as iConnectHue or Hue Essentials.

The second generation Philips Hue dimming switch will behave a little differently when configured via the Hue app. The button at the very top will now act as an on/off switch. In addition, similar to the Smart Button, there will be an option to automatically turn on the light with a selected scene depending on the time of day.

The off button becomes the Hue button

The two buttons for dimming are functionally unchanged, but have been merged into one rocker. Things get interesting with the button at the very bottom, which is no longer labelled with an off symbol but bears a Hue logo. With this “new” Hue button, you will be able to switch between the four preset light scenes Read, Relax, Energise and Concentrate. In addition, you will also be able to set your own scenes on the Hue button with the Hue app.

There was a lot of criticism online for the brand name labelling. With regard to the clearly different button assignment compared to the dimming switch of the first generation, I don't think the logo on the switch is bad. It is not an off button, but a Hue button for selecting Hue light scenes.

I assume that the new Philips Hue dimming switch will be presented in January together with the Hue Appear in stainless steel look and a new outdoor light bar and will be available soon.