Slick smart lights headline Signify's IFA announcements
Signify has taken the covers off of the Philips Hue Lightguide; perhaps the most stylish smart light bulb from the market leader yet.
Or, rather, light bulbs as the new Lightguide bulbs come in three different shapes: large globe, ellipse, and triangular.
The bulb itself isn’t actually the smart light – within it is an inner tube that diffuses light in the color of your choice, with the bulb then reflecting the light around while still displaying the striking line of light.
Philips Hue guides
- Learn: How to connect and set up Philips Hue
- Do more: Philips Hue sync explained
- Go further: Best Philips Hue apps
It’s a great effect and Signify states that these are showcase lights for adding style to particular areas of your home – you won’t be changing all of your regular Hue bulbs for these.
If you did, you’d bankrupt yourself pretty quickly anyway as the new Lightguide range doesn’t come cheap: ranging from $75/£75 to $90/£90 a pop.
Plus, you might want to throw the new Hue Lightguide pendant cords (in black or white) into the mix too, to complete the look and these are $50/£50 each.
All of the new Lightguide stuff will go on sale in Q4.
Signify also used IFA 2022 to reveal the new Philips Hue Play gradient lightstrip for PC which, like the Hue TV gradient lightstrip, creates a light display behind the action you are watching/playing.
Unlike the TV version that requires a separate Sync Box, your PC (and the Hue Sync desktop app) does the legwork of splashing light behind the action to mimic the display.
The Hue Play gradient lightstrip for PC comes in 24/27-inch for $169.99/£129.99, 32/34-inch for $189.99/£149.99, or a 3 screen 24/27-inch pack for $279.99/£219.99. It’s on sale from 13 September in the UK.
Sticking with Hue Sync and there’s also welcome news that the Sync app will be killed and merged into the regular Hue app, so no more faffing around is separate apps.
Signify also revealed a partnership with Cosair for gamers, as well as a new music sync feature for SmartThings users.
Finally, it was revealed that a new Hue Mimic presence automation will go live in the Hue app, a feature that has been a long time coming – essentially a security feature that will turn lights on and off while you’re away, to create the illusion that the home is populated.
