FabianIt had already been revealed, and now the time has finally come: the new Philips Hue Play Wall Washer is now available. I’ve already had the chance to try out the new mood lighting and have compiled my impressions in a short review for you. If you have any specific questions that aren’t answered in the following lines, feel free to write them in the comments.
Let’s start with the prices, which are in line with the usual Hue prices. A Philips Hue Play Wall Washer in black or white costs $219.99 (Philips Hue Store). A double pack in a color of your choice costs $384.99, but only one power supply is included. And this is exactly where we start with our few points of criticism.
These points bothered me a lot
Once again, there is only the usual standard power supply that we know from the Hue Lightstrip Plus and many other products. It is large and clunky, absolutely not sexy, and only delivers 20 watts. The double pack includes the familiar 3-way power supply from the Philips Hue Play Lightbar, but due to the maximum power output, only two Philips Hue Play Wall Washers can be connected.
Philips Hue continues to supply us with a power supply that has existed in this form for around ten years. Why on earth is there still nothing modern, compact, and practical available?
And in my opinion, the manufacturer has not covered itself in glory with the almost two-meter-long power cord that is permanently connected to the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer. It is an absolutely standard cable that could definitely not have been any less sexy. This surprises me, because the significantly cheaper Philips Hue Iris Special Edition came with nylon-braided cables that matched the color of the housing.
The Philips Hue Play Wall Washer scores points with its high-quality aluminum housing
All this is even more surprising when you look at the design of the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer itself. In its press release, the manufacturer even writes: “With its high-quality design made of matte aluminum and transparent projection window, the Wall Washer clearly stands out from conventional plastic entertainment lights.” And that’s no exaggeration.
The housing is made from a single piece of aluminum and looks absolutely elegant. Weighing in at around 700 grams, it makes a real statement, and three small rubber feet ensure that it stands securely and slip-free. Even though you don’t touch the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer, which is just under 16 centimeters high, very often, it feels great.
Through the “projection window,” you can clearly see the three LED elements, which are aligned at different angles and can cast a large cone of light onto the wall. And this is where the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer scores further points.
How bright and effective is the lighting?
According to the data sheet, the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer is up to 1,035 lumens bright in cool white at 4,000 Kelvin. That’s about twice as much as the Philips Hue Play Lightbar. Even with indirect lighting, such as on a bedside table, the brightness is easily sufficient for reading a book in comfort.
Even more impressive, however, is the Color Cast technology, which we already know from the Philips Hue Twilight. Due to the wall washer’s open design at the top, it really comes into its own here. Thanks to the three LED modules, which can be controlled separately from each other, wonderful color gradients can be conjured up on the wall.
Of course, this works not only with pre-designed scenes from the Hue light scene gallery, but also manually via the color wheel. Here, you can freely set three points and the software creates the appropriate transitions. It looks great and works more easily than with any other manufacturer. The connection to the Hue Bridge is made as usual via Zigbee, and a direct Bluetooth connection is also possible.
The three light zones of the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer are also used with Hue Sync, for example with the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box. However, it should be noted that the light in the upper areas, further away from the LEDs, is projected more broadly onto the wall and therefore does not appear as powerful. Overall, the effect also looks good next to the TV.
It all comes down to the right positioning
Very important: the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer must be positioned correctly. It definitely needs a little distance from the wall; you can’t just place it directly in front of it. It should be 20 to 30 centimeters away so that the light can spread upwards properly.
If you like the design of the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer and can find a suitable place for it, you will get one of the best mood lights that Philips Hue has brought onto the market in recent years. Only the rather unstylish cable and the outdated power supply detract slightly from the very positive overall impression.
Philips Hue Play Wall Washer
$219.99 / £199.99 / €199,99
Looking to use these with hue sync. Can the lights be mounted on the ceiling instead (appreciate you’d need your own mounting gear to do it but could make placement far easier)?
The concern would be the colours displaying in the right order top to bottom and whether there’s a setting for that in the app. I did notice in the demo video the colours seem to appear in reverse (e.g. green starts at the top and moves down even though on the screen it’s moving up)
I was wondering the same thing! Cable management could be tricky but also that could open up some fun possibilities.
Just received the package from philips.
Really well built; heavy; colorful. To be tested this evening.
This was a great read the other day! Although I was heavily distracted by your amazing treasure trove of archival Apple products. I hadn’t seen that one display they made in so many years… brings back memories.
Ah yes, but back to the wall washer lights! Not that I needed a whole lot of convincing, but this led me to pick up one of them (I don’t really have room for two, plus I have so many other Hue products that it may start to look ridiculous, haha). I do like that this new product takes the best part of the Twilight lamp, in how it can “throw” such a wide, beautifully-blended spectrum of color onto a nearby wall from such a short distance. Plus, the 1,000 lumens rating is impressively bright for when you really want to light up your space in a big way!
You definitely bring up some important criticisms that I wish Signify would listen to — these power supplies are just awful and increasingly ridiculous to remain unchanged year over year. There is so much newer tech that could allow for them to either dramatically reduce an external power brick in size, if not integrate it into the light unit itself (Anker has impressively done this recently, via GaN-related tech, on their Thunderbolt 5 dock). Not only is the external power brick so large, but as you have noted, the basic cord does not suggest that it is a proper high end product offering, which it should. Especially considering how much attention they have spent on materials and aesthetics used for the light unit itself. Truly strange design choices. It is always a pain to have to hide these oversized Hue power bricks with each and every product I add to my home setup!
I’m really looking forward to experimenting with this new wall washing light, once it arrives in a couple days. I have a feeling it is going to look amazing when used in tandem with the Hue sync box for Apple TV content! Maybe some day I will cave in and upgrade to the 8K sync box so that I finally connect my PS5 Pro through a sync box as well, for use with my 4k blu-ray collection.
Anyways (sorry this comment is so long)! Thank you for posting what I believe is the first review as well as video on this brand new product! We all love to see your first look at an exciting new launch!!