It has been requested for many years, now it is finally here: the Ambient Gradient Lightstrip. A light strip from Philips Hue that can display several colours at the same time. It is joined by another newcomer, the new Play Gradient Light Tube, and the two well-known luminaires from the Signe collection get a gradient upgrade. And not to be forgotten: The Play Gradient Lightstrip for the TV, which has already been available for a year, will also receive all the new software functions.
The surcharge for the Gradient technology seems enormous at first. Signe floor lamp and Signe table lamp cost 30 euros more each. Compared to the normal Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus, the Ambiance Gradient Lightstrip even costs 70 euros more. Of course, this is all based on the recommended retail price – and we all know that most products will be on sale sooner or later.
Other manufacturers are much less intuitive
Of course, there are numerous other lighting solutions on the market that offer similar functions. For example, I can think of the light strips from LIFX or Twinkly – also both brand products, but much cheaper. With the Twinkly Line, each individual LED can even be controlled separately.
But do I want that at all? I, for one, don’t want to bother with choosing the colour of each individual LED so that a fancy colour gradient comes out in the end. I don’t want completely different colours with hard transitions. And that’s exactly what the Philips Hue development team must have thought, as I’ve already been able to report.
In the meantime, I have been able to see how the individual colours of the new gradient products can be set and how easily and intuitively matching colour gradients are created on the light strip from the respective colour selection. You can’t find this comfort and simplicity in apps from other manufacturers.
Personally, I find it really exciting what Philips Hue has achieved despite the limitations of the ZigBee network, where you can’t act nearly as freely as if you simply controlled the individual products via WLAN. Even if we have to dig deep into our pockets for the new gradient lights, I think it will be a really exciting thing.
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