No matter whether new bulbs from Philips Hue or smart lamps from other manufacturers. We always take a look at new accessories for your smart home.
The E14 luster lamp, which is only available here in Germany and the rest of the world as Hue White, has also been available in Japan for over a year as White Ambiance with a marginally larger E17 base. This will change in the coming weeks, as models with White Ambiance and White and Color Ambiance are about to be launched.
It wasn’t really a secret anymore, now the final details have been revealed. Signify, the manufacturer of Philips Hue, has presented the first indoor camera of its budget brand WiZ. Just like the WiZ lights, the camera relies on a WLAN connection and is not directly compatible with Philips Hue. Compatibility is a good keyword.
Before I get back to more exciting topics tomorrow, I would like to share a little side note with you today. On Amazon, the Hue White E27 bulb is now sold with an alternative packaging. Functionally, however, nothing should have changed. While there are two smaller logos for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant on normal Philips Hue packaging, we see a large “Works with Alexa” logo on this variation.
The Lightguide collection from Philips Hue, which was officially launched in September 2022, has not exactly gone according to plan so far. After the first models had just gone on sale, sales were stopped again a short time later. Our own experience and numerous reader reports showed that the light sources fogged up inside.
From my point of view, it was already a big step forward when Philips Hue added White Ambiance models to its filament collection in late summer 2021. The different shades of white are a real added value, because previously you had to rely on 2,100 Kelvin with the Hue White Filaments and thus on a very warm light setting.
Approval documents have already suggested it earlier this year, now we can deliver the first pictures. The French manufacturer WiZ, which was taken over by Signify a few years ago, will probably soon bring a surveillance camera onto the market. The first product photo shows the packaging of the “Home Monitoring Starter Kit”.
After the rather small novelties in January, the next new products from Philips Hue will probably be available in June. Here, too, the market leader in smart lighting will apparently concentrate on model maintenance, at least that’s what the first products that I was able to find for you on the web suggest.
In recent years, Ikea’s Trådfri products have become a popular and, above all, affordable alternative to the originals from Philips Hue. Now the Swedish furniture store has launched a new light source. The new addition is a filament lamp with a globe form factor and a diameter of 95 millimetres. The colour temperature is fixed at a warm 2,200 Kelvin, and the maximum brightness of the dimmable lamp is stated at 470 lumens.
A fortnight ago, the Philips Hue Tap Dial was released with the new mini mount. While nothing has changed on the switch itself, you get to enjoy a new mount. While the previous mounting plate with its dimensions of just under 8 x 8 centimetres (in Europe) fit on common empty flush-mounted boxes, the new alternative is limited to a small mini mount with a diameter of only 4.8 centimetres.
In summer 2018, Philips Hue launched its low-voltage outdoor series. Starting with Calla and Lily, the portfolio has now grown to dozens of different products, even the officially indoor-only Hue Festavia light chain uses the same cables and connectors. But it is precisely with these cables and connectors that Philips Hue seems to have at least minor problems with quality.
Fabian