Hue launches a pricey new sunrise lamp

Following leaks last week, smart lighting company Philips Hue has confirmed it has a new sunrise lamp called Twilight. The company also announced several other new products, including a less expensive light strip, new decorative Lightguide bulbs, and the Datura ceiling light. The new products are available now, except the ceiling light, which is coming on September 10th.

The Philips Hue Twilight ($279.99 / €279.99) is the company’s first dedicated smart sunrise lamp — a light designed to help with falling asleep and waking up more naturally. At $280, it’s even more expensive than the very expensive Hatch Restore 2 (although it doesn’t require a subscription). It’s surprising that Hue hasn’t had a solid offering in this space to date. While, if connected to a Hue Bridge, you can use the Hue app to set its smart bulbs and lamps to simulate sunset and sunrise, the Twilight has some more specific features designed to aid you with a more peaceful slumber.

The Bluetooth and Zigbee-connected lamp includes two individually controllable light sources — an illumination head and a back light that can cast a colorful glow on your wall. Available in white and black, the lamp is 13 inches tall and has two buttons to control the light directly, plus you can use the Hue app to set wake-up automations that gradually brighten the lights.

The buttons are customizable, but by default, one cycles through six new light scenes, including “Arise” and “Sleepy.” The other button triggers a new “Sunset Go to Sleep” automation that Hue says simulates the light of a sunset. The company says the lamp also dims to 0.5 percent brightness — which is the lowest I’ve heard of.

HueBlog.com has the first hands-on with the product and reports that you can also angle the lamp’s head almost 180 degrees left and right.

Meanwhile, the new Philips Hue Solo light strip is the company’s cheapest light strip to date. It displays white light or a single color compared to Hue’s more expensive options that feature gradient or color ambiance lighting.

The Solo comes in three sizes — 10 foot ($69.99 / €69.99), 16 foot ($89.99 / €89.99), and 33 foot ($159.99 / €159.99) — and should be useful for adding light to spaces like closets and shelves without spending a fortune. The light strip has 1700 lumens and is cuttable.

The Philips Hue Datura is a frameless ceiling light with two individually controllable lights. It’s available in two sizes — 15 inches ($299.99 / €299.99) and 22.6 inches ($399.99 / €399.99) — and features white and color ambiance light with customizable color effects, plus the option to choose between task lighting or ambient lighting.

Hue is also finally expanding its decorative Lightguide line. The full-color and white statement bulbs launched in 2022, but several models were discontinued a few months later, citing quality issues. Now, in addition to the ellipse-shaped bulb, Hue is offering a small globe ($79.99 / €79.99), large globe ($99.99 / €99.99), Edison ($79.99 / $79.99), and triangle ($99.99 / €99.99).

Also new are 3D-printed Cone table lamp bases for the bulbs, which cost €60 and come in sage, sand, and black but aren’t available in the US.

Other EU-only products launching include the Tento ceiling light — a slimmer version of the Datura with only a single light source, available in white light, white ambiance, or white and ambiance color. The Tento also comes in three sizes, starting at €69.99 and going up to €199.99. There are new slim recessed ceiling lights, too, featuring 1120 lumens and starting at €89.99.

The company is upgrading its GU10 bulbs — and spot luminaires that use the GU10 — to 400 lumens at 4000 kelvins, compared to the previous generation’s 350 lumens. The new models have a longer lifespan of 25,000 hours with 50 percent lower standby power consumption. 

Hue is also updating its recently launched Philips Hue Secure security system. This summer users will finally be able to have their lights flash and the alarm built into Hue’s new cameras go off automatically when a motion or contact sensor is triggered while the alarm is armed. Currently, you have to manually activate the alarm in the app. The system will also be able to be set to arm and disarm on a schedule.

While the new additions to Hue’s lineup feel largely incremental, they do help round out this mature smart lighting ecosystem. The less expensive light strips are particularly welcome. It always seemed a little crazy to have to spend over $100 to light up a closet just so you could control all your lights in the Hue app.

It’s very expensive, but the Twilight lamp is an interesting move. There aren’t many sunrise lamps that can also integrate with a smart home, and Hue has not had a great offering here. Its Hue Go Portable Table Lamp does in a pinch as a bedside lamp, but at 370 lumens is not bright enough. The Twilight reaches 1,380 lumens, so it should be more practical. I look forward to testing it out to see how it performs.