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.
A successor to the popular Philips Hue Smart Button had already been announced, and it is now officially available. The new model of the small switch has been listed in the Philips Hue online store since this morning, for €21.99 or very high $32.99. While nothing has changed in terms of functionality, the Hue Smart Button has been given a new, modern design.
At the beginning of the week, I was able to share the first information about the upcoming Philips Hue Play Wall Washer with you—the first product details were published early on the British Amazon website. However, marketing images are always somewhat different from impressions from everyday life—and this is where a lucky coincidence comes into play.
Philips Hue has once again not been very careful about keeping its products secret. A successor to the Philips Hue Play Lightbar has appeared on amazon.co.uk: Significantly better, but also more expensive than before. I have gathered the first information for you. The new Philips Hue Play Smart Wall Washer is 15.7 centimeters high, 9.1 centimeters wide, and 7.6 centimeters deep.
It’s incredible how quickly time flies. Almost exactly ten years ago, Philips Hue introduced its still current Bridge (see header image). Back then, it was a modern piece of technology that was even made compatible with Apple HomeKit shortly afterwards. But one limit has never changed since then: The maximum number of connected lamps.
I currently only have a wired Hue Secure camera in use, which performs its tasks reliably within the limits of its capabilities. However, I keep reading about problems with the battery-powered Hue Secure cameras in the comments and on social media. What is particularly interesting is that not all cameras seem to be affected by the problems, some of which are considerable.
Equipping a second TV in the house with a Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box is not as easy as it might sound. The big problem is not even the price, after all, even the “old” Sync Box costs at least 200 euros and then there’s a good 150 to 200 euros for the Play Lightstrip on top of that.
In my last published list of the five oldest Hue products that are still being sold, the Hue Smart Button did not appear. The small switch was released on October 21, 2019 – so it’s already five years old. While the Hue Dimmer Switch and Hue Tap have received updates in the meantime, the Hue Smart Button shown in the cover image above has so far been left empty-handed.
This text could be quite short in principle, but I’ll try to expand a little anyway. It’s about the new USB-C cable for powering the Hue Secure Camera, which the manufacturer has been offering for €19.99 in its own online store for a few weeks now. With this USB-C cable, you can retire the supplied power cable, which is also three meters long and has a permanently connected transformer.
Philips Hue was one of the first partners to offer official Matter integration. Since November 2022, it has been possible to connect the Hue Bridge to the Matter smart home standard, at that time still as a beta. The official launch followed in September 2023. Now it seems that something is happening again with Philips Hue and Matter.
The Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K has now been on the market for around six months and is particularly pleasing to console fans, who can now finally use 120 hertz at a 4K resolution. I don’t use a Hue Sync Box myself, but in recent weeks I have repeatedly read on social media about problems with it suddenly switching off.
Fabian