If you’re looking for smart lighting to brighten up your home you are spoilt for choice — and Philips Hue just added a couple of very cool extras to make your lighting smarter than ever.
Not just lighting though — there’s a new security camera with a flood light available, a first for the brand which has mostly stuck with lighting prior. The camera is available to buy from today, while the lighting unit comes out in late February.
New smart lights for outdoors, and something secure
First of Philips’ new lighting is the Dymera wall light, a light that has what Philips calls “controllable beams’. Philips makes some of the best smart lights for Apple Home, so we're looking forward to seeing how these stack up. You can control them by fitting the light either horizontally or vertically for some fun lighting options, and the beams of light can be manipulated in-app. You can change the color of each beam separately, so you can have two different colors at once. Slick.
The second big launch from Hue is the ‘Secure floodlight camera’. Fix it up around your house and add it to the Hue app so that you can keep track of what goes on outside. This camera comes with new secure features within the Hue app so that the camera is more secure: “New updates are expected in the first half of 2024 and include improvements to security push notifications and the event timeline, as well as automatic light and sound alarms when motion is detected.”
Hue says that it’s working to get Amazon Alexa and Google Home support for the secure features in the app, and we’ve reached out to Philips for information about HomeKit support. This is Hue’s first foray into the camera space, so we’re interested to see what kind of hardware and software features it brings to the table. We're also looking forward to seeing how it stacks up to the best smart cameras for Apple Home.
The Dydera light costs $220/£199, and is coming to the US and the UK on February 27. The Secure Floodlight camera will cost $350/£299 and is available for purchase today.
