Hue’s Spatialaware Finally Made Me Appreciate Color-changing Lights

I’ve been a instrumentality of Philips Hue smart lights since nan early days. It’s 1 of nan fewer staples successful my ever-changing smart home. However, erstwhile nan Bridge Pro launched precocious past year, it wasn’t instantly evident why I should upgrade. The signature feature, MotionAware — which turns your lights into mobility sensors — is neat, but I already person mobility sensors. While I tally 2 of Hue’s modular bridges to accommodate each my lights and accessories, I’m not astatine a constituent wherever I request nan Pro’s higher instrumentality capacity. I for illustration nan thought of faster consequence times acknowledgment to nan precocious processing power, but that wasn’t rather enough.

Then successful April, SpatialAware arrived. This maps nan location of lights successful a room to administer nan colors and tones of Hue’s lighting scenes crossed them much intelligently. Suddenly, my existing smart lights felt caller again. While MotionAware was nan header characteristic erstwhile nan Pro launched, it’s SpatialAware that yet sold maine connected upgrading.

You don’t request a span to power a Hue light, but utilizing 1 unlocks much precocious features, including move lighting. The Bridge Pro, which launched past September, is faster and much powerful than Hue’s modular bridge. Its quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM support speedier consequence times for connected devices, on pinch MotionAware and SpatialAware, 2 features that only activity connected nan Pro.

If you’re already invested successful Hue’s ecosystem, upgrading to nan $140 Bridge Pro tin beryllium meaningful. It lets you adhd up to 4 MotionAware zones, which could switch nan request to walk $49 a popular connected Hue’s standalone mobility sensors. It tin grip much than 150 lights and 50 accessories — 3 times nan modular bridge’s limit — which is useful if you’re reaching nan limit successful your existent setup. And it promises to beryllium up to 5 times faster. The situation is nan price, peculiarly successful nan US, wherever it costs 40 percent more than elsewhere (it’s £89.99 successful nan UK/EU).

While nan interoperability modular Matter makes it easier to operation and lucifer smart ray brands, location are still immoderate bully reasons to instrumentality pinch a azygous brand. Proprietary features for illustration move lighting, intermezo syncing, and now MotionAware and SpatialAware for Hue, can’t beryllium utilized erstwhile you harvester products from aggregate manufacturers.

Still, nan modular span delivers overmuch of nan aforesaid acquisition for little money. When nan Pro was $98, it was an easier determination (and you tin still find it astatine this price — for now), but astatine $140, it gets trickier. Here’s really nan Bridge Pro’s header features performed successful my home.

MotionAware detects mobility by sensing disruptions successful Zigbee power signals betwixt Hue devices. In nan app, it useful for illustration Hue’s standalone mobility sensors, but it has circumstantial requirements — and if you request to bargain caller hardware to meet them, it mightiness beryllium easier to bargain a mobility sensor.

The large request is 3 to 4 Hue lights successful a room, and they person to beryllium powered, truthful my Hue Table lamp successful nan chamber was a no-go. I had to adhd an other powered lamp to trial it there. The bulbs besides can’t beryllium successful a consecutive line, truthful my bathroom, which has a azygous vanity ray pinch 4 Hue bulbs, was retired of nan picture.

With nan correct lights successful place, nan app walks you done leaving nan room for a fewer seconds to calibrate, past lets you take what happens erstwhile mobility is detected: Turn nan lights connected and off, group pinch different sensors to power them, aliases nonstop alerts. The past 1 is portion of Hue Secure, Hue’s information system, and costs $1 a period aliases $10 a year. For this review, I focused connected nan free characteristic that controls nan lights.

As pinch Hue’s mobility sensors, erstwhile a MotionAware area detects motion, you tin take to trigger different scenes aliases person nan lights move connected to immoderate mounting they were past on. You tin besides person them move disconnected aft a play without motion.

I group up MotionAware zones successful nan most-used areas of my location wherever I could instal capable Hue lights: my bedroom, mudroom/laundry room, surviving room, and my daughter’s room. Within a day, I nixed 3 of those.

The bedrooms were a nonstarter, arsenic location is nary play action successful nan app. I unopen it disconnected aft nan first Saturday erstwhile nan lights turned connected astatine 6AM because I rolled complete successful bed. Hue’s hardware mobility sensors besides don’t person play settings, but location are workarounds — including adding them to different platforms that support play automations. Third-party support for MotionAware zones is presently sparse, but includes Home Assistant and nan paid app iConnectHue.

In nan mudroom/laundry room area, I had much success. The lights turned connected reliably, but only erstwhile I was halfway down nan hall. This was excessively precocious if I was passing through, but okay if I was doing thing successful nan area. The layout present was besides an issue; though I person 4 lights, they aren’t successful perfect spots and are each connected nan ceiling. A ray nearer each entranceway would move it connected faster, but that isn’t imaginable successful those rooms.

I besides tried MotionAware successful my office, mounting up 2 lamps and 1 ceiling light. It was awesome astatine turning connected nan lights arsenic I approached my desk, but because it’s motion-sensing alternatively than presence-sensing, it kept shutting them disconnected while I was working. For thing for illustration an office, newer, much meticulous mmWave beingness sensing is simply a amended solution, though Hue doesn’t connection it. I besides had to adhd an other mobility sensor to drawback 1 area of nan room. This had nan advantage of bringing nan sensor’s beingness ray sensor into nan operation but emphasizes that MotionAware isn’t ever a stand-alone solution.

I recovered MotionAware worked champion successful my surviving room, a large, open-plan area that’s ever been a situation to light. I dislike overhead lighting, truthful I group up a operation of ambient and task lights. In this space, I don’t request nan lights to move connected instantly, and I really for illustration them to slice mildly disconnected if I’m sitting still for a while. Paired pinch SpatialAware, nan lights successful nan room now consciousness due and welcoming passim nan day.

Aside from nan surviving room, I don’t spot immoderate logic to switch my mobility sensors pinch MotionAware. It’s slower and little reliable, and it suffers from a nonaccomplishment constituent Hue users will beryllium each excessively acquainted with: If personification turns disconnected nan ray astatine nan switch, nan characteristic won’t work.

But for caller users, MotionAware makes much sense. It’s easy to group up, arsenic it’s built into your bulb/bridge combo; nary request to bargain small achromatic boxes to instrumentality astir nan location that request their batteries replaced periodically.

It’s SpatialAware, nan Bridge Pro’s different flagship feature, that is worthy nan upgrade if you’re an existing Hue user. Using nan Bridge Pro’s precocious processing powerfulness and your phone’s AR capabilities, nan Hue app tin representation nan lights successful a room and find nan champion measurement to administer nan scene’s colors and effects crossed them. When I saw this in action astatine CES, I was impressed. While I wasn’t capable to re-create thing rather arsenic bully arsenic nan edifice room demo successful my ain home, my lighting is noticeably amended than before.

In nan past, I seldom utilized Hue scenes extracurricular nan halfway scenes for illustration publication and energize, which conscionable usage tunable achromatic lighting (and for those, you only request Hue’s achromatic ambient bulbs, not its much costly full-color ones). I conscionable don’t find multicolored lighting each that compelling indoors, and erstwhile I’ve tried Hue’s much colorful scenes, I’ve been put disconnected by 1 bulb being reddish aliases purple and different being greenish aliases orange. But pinch SpatialAware, I’ve recovered nan scenes fresh overmuch amended successful my space, much for illustration they were designed for it. Many made my surviving room — wherever I’ve sewage nan largest action of lights — a importantly prettier space.

For example, without SpatialAware, selecting a segment specified arsenic Woodland Toadstool would consequence successful a weird show wherever 1 lamp was glowing red, different yellow, and nan ray portion was each orange. With SpatialAware, nan colour distribution crossed nan bulbs is subtler, and nan gradient lighting successful my setup (two Wall Washers) provides nan stronger pops of colour successful a much elegant way. The wide effect is much cohesive and natural. I fishy that if I had much gradient lights, it would beryllium moreover better.

Some scenes didn’t show overmuch difference, but astir were noticeably better, to nan constituent wherever I added a mates to my MotionAware zones, truthful they travel connected erstwhile mobility is detected astatine definite times of day. My hubby came location 1 nighttime and commented connected really bully nan surviving room looked, and nan only point I’d changed was nan lighting.

There’s room for improvement. Only immoderate scenes person been updated to support SpatialAware, and nan characteristic doesn’t activity pinch zones — groups that tin see lights successful different rooms, specified arsenic Downstairs aliases Night Lights. So, if I want nan aforesaid segment successful my mudroom and surviving room, which are portion of my downstairs area successful nan Hue app, I person to group them some individually. And arsenic mentioned, nan effect is champion successful rooms pinch a batch of lights, successful peculiar gradient lights that tin show aggregate colors astatine once. All of this gets costly quickly.

I’ve recommended Hue for years for its high-quality lighting, rock-solid reliability, breadth of products, and beardown way record. Other brands person cheaper bulbs and brighter colors, but astir person little range, nary dim arsenic well, and Wi-Fi bulbs aren’t arsenic reliable arsenic a Zigbee mesh.

If you’re looking for super-bright colors and flashier RGB scenes, Govee, Nanoleaf, aliases Lifx whitethorn amended fresh your needs for little money. But for dependable mundane lighting, Hue has been and remains nan golden standard. And nan Bridge Pro is nan first upgrade that’s really changed really I usage Hue lights — SpatialAware took color-changing scenes from a novelty into a characteristic I for illustration and now usage each day.

For me, that’s nan logic to bargain nan Bridge Pro, and if you’re an existing Hue personification pinch a location afloat of lights, I powerfully urge it. But if you’re conscionable starting retired pinch Hue, nan modular span remains a amended value, offering entree to each nan halfway features for nether $70. Unless you’re readying to bargain a bunch of lights up front, you won’t spot capable use from nan Pro’s header features to warrant nan other cost.

Photos and video by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge