Skip to main content

Bathe your home in the perfect shade of white light with Philips Hue’s latest

Not all light is created equal, and no one understands that better than Philips Hue. The lighting company has made its line of White Ambiance products available to customers in the United States so we can finally enjoy light the way we want it. Thanks to the new range of White Ambiance fixtures and table lamps and the White Ambiance candle bulb, you’ll be able to set your favorite shade of white light to match any mood or time of day.

“To put it simply, consumers can have one light to support all of their daily activities,” said Mark Cieri, Philips Lighting’s vice president and general manager for home systems. “Think about all of the moments you enjoy in your kitchen. Select a cool daylight scene for your morning coffee to energize for the day ahead. Help your child focus on their homework with a bright white light. Then, create a cozy ambiance for dinner under a warm cozy light to wind down.

“With Philips Hue White Ambiance, you can personalize your lighting and truly feel at home.”

Promising varied shades of white light that can help you alternately wake up, energize, concentrate, read, relax, and go to bed, Philips Hue promises a product line that is as useful as it is elegant. Whether you need a light fixture or a table lamp, you’ll be able to bathe your rooms in soothing light. Both the White Ambiance Wellner and Wellness table lamps feature a White Ambiance A19 light bulb (800 lumens) for customizable white light to enhance any activity. And as a whole, the Philips Hue connected lighting system is compatible with 80 percent of sockets found in common households worldwide. The full range of this new lighting system will begin at $100, and will be made available in mid-June.

If you don’t need a new lighting fixture and simply want to swap out your old bulbs with this more advanced version, the Philips Hue White Ambiance candle bulb boasts a smaller E12 base, which means it’ll fit in a ceiling fan, chandelier, or decorative table lamps. The bulbs will be made available for pre-order in June for $30, or you can pick them up in stores and online in July.

Of course, all Philips Hue products can be controlled by way of the Philips Hue app, wireless dimmer switch, motion sensor, and yes, even your wearable. And thanks to compatibility with Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Home, you can also control these lights with your voice.

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
How to create spooky Halloween effects with smart home lighting and sound
spooky halloween lighting haunted house

With indoor and outdoor smart home tech readily available and increasingly affordable, it’s easy to transform your home for festive occasions and holidays. With a little help from mobile apps and some handy smart home gadgets, you can produce spooky Halloween effects using light and sound. You'll be the talk of the town if you prepare your home accordingly come Halloween time when trick-or-treaters come around.

There are a range of fabulous lighting systems currently available, with Philips Hue, LIFX, and others available from big-box electrical and home improvement stores. But keep in mind that few systems are suitable for outdoor use. If you want to transform your home’s exterior, you’ll need to do some initial research. Not to worry -- we point out systems to help get you started.
Light it up

Read more
Philips Hue vs. Philips WiZ Smart Light Bulbs
Philips Hue sync box.

If you're just getting started with smart light bulbs in your home, Philips Hue is one of the names likely on your radar. This brand has become synonymous with smart home lighting thanks to robust app support, a wide range of functions, and a routinely growing product lineup. What may confuse you when taking the plunge on a purchase is seeing another Philips brand on the store shelf called WiZ. In 2019, Signify (the lighting company spun off from Philips proper) acquired WiZ to bolster its lighting lineup. Unfortunately, WiZ and Hue smart light bulbs operate differently, so you really need to go all-in with one or the other to have a properly unified smart home lighting setup.

Hue uses a wireless standard called Zigbee, which has been around for a while as a means for low-power connections. Zigbee devices run on a different frequency than Wi-Fi and require their own physical hub. This hub connects to a Wi-Fi router, which in turn connects to your phone. The internet connection also allows for remote connectivity, so lights can turn off automatically as you leave the house, for example. Since its launch, Hue has added Bluetooth to its bulbs, so the hub isn't strictly necessary. Though the Bluetooth range is basically limited to within the same room as you, this can save the bit of time it takes to connect to the hub via Wi-Fi.

Read more
Your Philips Hue lights can now sync to the beat of your Spotify music
Philips Hue and Spotify

Smart lights have long been able to sync up with music, but it has always been through your phone's microphone. Philips Hue and Spotify have partnered to create what it calls the "first-ever deep lighting and music experience." The process works by linking the both your Philips Hue and Spotify accounts, and that's where the magic happens.

Philips Hue pulls the metadata from each song played on Spotify, regardless of what device you're playing it on. It then uses an advanced lighting script that causes the lights to shift not only to the beat, but also based on the genre and mood of the song. This means you won't run into the problem of a too-cheerful light show set to the dulcet tones of Helpless as you jam out to Hamilton for what you know is the 175th time.

Read more