When we moved into our small terraced house with a garden eight years ago, I naturally took care of the lighting in the garden right away. Calla, Lily, and Outdoor Lightstrip have always been part of it, and now Impress wall lights and the classic Hue Festavia string of lights are also on board.
The new Hue Bridge Pro was unveiled less than a week ago, and the first devices have been in use in your homes since the weekend. If you’re on the go with your iPhone and iPad and rely on iConnectHue to configure or control your Hue system, there’s now an important update.
Over the course of the year, Philips Hue will launch seven new light strips for indoor and outdoor use. They will replace the previous models, such as the Hue Lightstrip Plus and the Hue Outdoor Lightstrip. To help you keep track of all the new models, I have compiled the most important facts and figures for you.
I have a quick note for all readers in the US. The Hue Bridge Pro seems to have been particularly popular there, as the new control center for our favorite lighting system has been sold out since the weekend. After about four days, there is now good news again: the Hue Bridge Pro is available again in the official Philips Hue online store at a price of $98.99.
Last Thursday, Philips Hue presented seven new light strips, which can be confusing: Flux, Flex, Neon, Omniglow – there’s a lot to choose from. I’ll give you a detailed overview in the coming days. We still have some time, as the new light strips won’t be available until November. But today, we want to address another question: What will happen to the previous Philips Hue light strips?
Some of you have already received the new Hue Bridge Pro, while others may still be considering purchasing it. After returning from Berlin, I took half an hour this morning to start transferring data from one of my old Hue Bridges to the new Hue Bridge Pro. I have summarized exactly how this worked in this short guide for you.
Philips Hue really set off a real fireworks last week, and I’m glad that all the new hardware isn’t available all at once, but will be released over several months. Philips Hue isn’t just concerned with new hardware, but also with software. On Thursday, the Philips Hue app 5.50 was released.
It was announced several months ago that Philips Hue was working on an adaptation of SpaceSense. The light bulbs from sister brand WiZ have been able to be used as motion sensors for some time now. With the new Hue MotionAware, this is now also possible with 95 percent of all Philips Hue lights.
This week, Philips Hue has been busy unveiling a whole bunch of new products. These include the new Hue Bridge Pro, new bulbs and light strips, the doorbell with chime, and two new Festavia models. The new products will be available in Europe by December, but in the US, some will not be available until March 2026.
Today, Philips Hue not only introduced numerous new products, but also updated its app for iPhone and iPad. For Android, the update to version 5.50 should be available in the coming days. I’ll take you through it and tell you what’s changed. Behind the scenes, Philips Hue has already been working on implementing the new devices over the past few weeks, including new icons in the color wheel for the Hue Festavia Globe string of lights.
Fabian