We’ve known for some time that there was major news on the way from Philips Hue, and the company has now announced all of the details.
One of the headline features is a new Bridge Pro which turns your existing smart bulbs into motion sensors. Bulbs also get more affordable, light strips get brighter, and there’s support for Matter-over-Thread. Finally, the smart doorbell leaked earlier in the year is now official …
Plans to turn existing Philips Hue light bulbs into motion sensors were leaked at the beginning of this year. We also discovered there was a smart doorbell on the way through an update to the Hue app.
Turning existing Hue bulbs into motion sensors
Although you won’t need to update any of your bulbs to get this new functionality, you will need to swap out your existing Hue Bridge for the new Bridge Pro.
This is a $90 purchase, but there are some other new features to help ease the pain. The Verge reports that It can support three times as many devices and store over 500 lighting scenes to provide faster response times.
[It adds] features like lighting scenes, dynamic effects, schedules, and out-of-home control. Sporting a new black look, it has a faster processor, more memory, and increased capacity. Designed to appeal to Hue super-users, it can connect 150 lights and 50 accessories (a soft limit) […]Additionally, the Pro can store over 500 custom lighting scenes and provide faster response times […] The Pro finally brings Wi-Fi (2.4GHz) to a Hue bridge, so it doesn’t have to sit next to your router.
If your head aches at the thought of reconfiguring all your Hue devices to swap bridges, the company says that a migration tool will transfer all of the settings for you. If you have multiple bridges, then you’ll want to hold fire for a while as there will be support for migrating these to a single Bridge Pro by the end of the year.
Hue Secure smart doorbell
The new Hue Secure Doorbell is intended to compete with Ring and Nest by offering a higher resolution 2K fisheye camera. Engadget reports that it also includes 24-hour video history without a subscription.
It of course pairs with Hue lights so that you can set it to automatically turn on outdoor lights as somebody approaches the front door, as well as the option to trigger interior lights to supplement the chime with visual alerts.
It will go on sale in the US, Europe and the UK next month for $170. However, Apple Home support won’t be available at launch, the company instead promising that this will arrive at an unspecified later date.
Cheaper Hue lights
A new range of Hue Essential lights are being launched with prices starting at just $20 each when purchased as a pack of four. Hue Blog has the details.
With the new Hue Essential series, Philips Hue will in future offer simple light bulbs with E27 and GU10 sockets at an affordable price. The Essential series is based on the same software and connectivity as the main Philips Hue product range, but with a smaller white spectrum, slightly less brightness, and less deep dimming.
But the prices are impressive. The colored bulbs cost $24.99 each, and multi-packs are even cheaper. Four bulbs in a pack cost only $59.99. The new Hue Essential bulbs are available now.
The Hue Essential portfolio will be expanded in December 2025 with two new light strips, each 5 or 10 meters long: the Hue Essential Lightstrip (starting at $59.99) and the Hue Essential Flex Lightstrip (starting at $99.99). The latter appears to be an adaptation of the previous Hue Ambiance Gradient Lightstrip.
Five new light strips
There will also be five new light strips, with the first of these available from next month. These have closer LED spacing to provide brighter and more uniform lighting. The company also promises that they are more flexible, making it easier to turn corners and flow curves.
- Hue OmniGlow Lightstrip (3/5/10 meters) from $139.99 – launching in November 2025 (EU&US)
- Hue Flux Gradient Lightstrip (3/4/5/6/10 meters) from $69.99 – launching in October 2025 (EU) and March 2026 (US)
- Hue Flux Ultra Bright Gradient Lightstrip (3/5/10 meters) starting at $99.99 – launching in October 2025 (EU)
- Hue Flux Gradient Outdoor Lightstrip (5/6/10 meters) starting at $149.99 – launching in October 2025 (EU) and March 2026 (US)
- Hue Neon Gradient Outdoor Lightstrip (3/5/10 meters) starting at $139.99 – launching in October 2025 (EU) and March 2026 (US)
Finally, there will be new outdoor Festavia Globe string lights.
- Hue Festavia Globe with outdoor power supply in 7, 14, and 21 meters starting at $159.99
- Hue Festavia Globe without power supply in 7, 14, and 21 meters starting at $129.99
- 2-pack replacement bulbs for $19.99
- The 7-meter short versions will be available in September, and the longer string lights in December 2025
Check out the video below for a look at all the new products.
Highlighted accessories
Image: 9to5Mac collage with images from Philips and Codioful on Unsplash
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