Philips expands smart lighting lineup with Hue Go portable lamp
Announced on Thursday, Philips' new Hue Go lamp introduces portability and autonomy to the company's iOS-connected Hue smart lighting range of products.
Adding to a quickly growing stable of Wi-Fi enabled LED lights, Philips Hue Go is a small, translucent hemispherical lamp that boasts a built-in rechargeable battery good for a guaranteed three hours of cordless use.
Designed to complement smart home lighting, the lamp is capable of reproducing more than 16 million colors, each selectable via onscreen controls in Philips' iOS app. Another 300 third-party apps are capable of controlling Hue bulbs, lamps and accessories using the Hue API.
Thanks to its portability, Hue Go is capable of creating instant ambiance in any room, positioned against walls, on desks or even as a table centerpiece. In addition, users can now bring Philips' "light notifications" with them anywhere in their home. Light notifications provide users with subtle visual cues when an event is triggered, such as incoming email or change in weather.
Unlike the similarly shaped Hue Bloom Lamp, Hue Go sports a physical control button on its rear for cycling between one of seven light themes. Users can select warm or cool white light, as well as "natural dynamic effects" that flow through a mix of colors. Philips provides five effects including Cozy Candle, Sunday Coffee, Meditation, Enchanted Forest, and Night Adventure
Philips Hue Go will start showing up in U.S. Apple Stores, Best Buy locations and Amazon between the end of May and early June for $99.99.
Adding to a quickly growing stable of Wi-Fi enabled LED lights, Philips Hue Go is a small, translucent hemispherical lamp that boasts a built-in rechargeable battery good for a guaranteed three hours of cordless use.
Designed to complement smart home lighting, the lamp is capable of reproducing more than 16 million colors, each selectable via onscreen controls in Philips' iOS app. Another 300 third-party apps are capable of controlling Hue bulbs, lamps and accessories using the Hue API.
Thanks to its portability, Hue Go is capable of creating instant ambiance in any room, positioned against walls, on desks or even as a table centerpiece. In addition, users can now bring Philips' "light notifications" with them anywhere in their home. Light notifications provide users with subtle visual cues when an event is triggered, such as incoming email or change in weather.
Unlike the similarly shaped Hue Bloom Lamp, Hue Go sports a physical control button on its rear for cycling between one of seven light themes. Users can select warm or cool white light, as well as "natural dynamic effects" that flow through a mix of colors. Philips provides five effects including Cozy Candle, Sunday Coffee, Meditation, Enchanted Forest, and Night Adventure
Philips Hue Go will start showing up in U.S. Apple Stores, Best Buy locations and Amazon between the end of May and early June for $99.99.
Comments
If you can't make efficient LEDs at a reasonable price, do the shuck and jive!
(Sorry... I'll let myself out now.)
If the build quality was top-notch, like Apple, I just might consider picking one up... at half the MSRP. But no higher, and it would still be a tough sell. And I LIKE the idea of toys like these.
/why yes, this is 100% anecdotal
It is portable.
Which means you have it in your hands.
Why not set the light level then?
Instead you take it out of your hands and then put your phone in your hand to control the light level.
This is called progress.
The entire Philips LED line of lamps is grossly overpriced, Hue or non-Hue. Reliability seems to be average at best, but occasionally worse.
If the build quality was top-notch, like Apple, I just might consider picking one up... at half the MSRP. But no higher, and it would still be a tough sell. And I LIKE the idea of toys like these.
/why yes, this is 100% anecdotal
Unfortunately I must agree with this post too, and as owner of 4 Hue bulbs and 3 Lux bulbs I am their target audience. I like their good, if pricey, bulbs, but rather than branching out into different sizes of bulbs we are getting one gimmicky lamp or light strip or whatever after another.
Yes it's a bit expensive but I'd only need one or two of these. I'll wait and make sure the durability is where It should be
As a Hue owner with 7 bulbs (FYI Lux bulbs are $19 at the Apple Store) I think that Philips is going to reduce the pricing of its bulbs to remain competitive with Cree and OSRAM Lightify products.
Lately their offerings have been way too expensive but this is a move back in the right direction. I just need to find out how much it'll cost me to replace a MR16 low voltage rail system with a GU10 line voltage so that I can add the Hue Bulbs there.
The rest of my home will be Lux bulbs since I don't need color.
I love my Hue, but I don't understand why Philips keeps creating these lights that sit at a weird angle.
Still waiting for Homekit versions before plunging into smart lighting...this gen will be outdated soon?
I think Philips has said that's coming - but one really cool thing about Hue is that the API is open and documented, so you can already do anything you'd want in terms of home automation. I control my Hue with my Mac using Applescript. And thanks to the free (and awesome!) BetterTouchTool app, it's easy to use those Applescripts to control Hue using a keyboard, trackpad or even an Apple Remote. Or, for the best option, you can buy a Flirc usb IR receiver dongle and control Hue using any remote, such as a universal remote (or whatever old remote you've got lying around) and use your remote to trigger the hotkeys that control Hue. That's what I do. It may sound complex, but once it's set up, it works flawlessly (I've been controlling my Hue with Applescripts since summer 2013).
I'm curious about Homekit, but I think Hue with a universal remote is actually a much better option. Well, it is for me, anyway.