Philips Hue White Ambiance Release Date, Price and Specs – CNET

Philips Hue smart LED lights are ubiquitous. In fact, we outfitted the whole CNET Smart Home with them. But a notable hole has persisted for some time in their product line: there is no Philips Hue color-tunable white light. The new Philips Hue White Ambiance, arriving this Spring, will change that.

The White Ambiance Starter Kit will include two bulbs, the requisite Hue Bridge, and a wireless dimming switch. The price has not been announced.

Philips

Philips Hue has taken strides toward more affordable connected white lights lately, particularly with the $15 (£10, AU$20) Philips Hue White bulbs. But color-tunability is a key feature of white-light smart bulbs, and Philips Hue White bulbs don’t offer it, nor did the pricier Philips Hue Lux bulbs that preceded them and have since been phased out.

White lights with color-tuning are important because they can imitate the changing brightness and color temperature of natural sunlight. The effects on users are significant: higher tones reminiscent of morning sunlight help you wake up, and warmer tones like those of a sunset help you relax and prepare for sleep. For users interested in daily health benefits or intentional home design, white lights like these are definitely worth checking out.

The introduction of Philips Hue White Ambiance is good for Philips and its customer base. White Ambiance bulbs will provide some competition for developers like Lifx, whose White 800 LED offers the same tunability for $40 (‎£30, AU$50). Hopefully, this will continue to encourage competitive pricing for both developers.

One feature Philips Hue has that its competitors don’t is Apple HomeKit compatibility. That means you can use voice commands with Siri to control your lights. Of course, that comes pretty naturally when you’re turning your lights on or off, or changing their colors. But I’m interested to see how the voice commands work with color-tunable white light. Color temperature is tricky. The higher the color temperature, the cooler (more blue-ish) the actual color of the light. So the language for sending commands via Siri might not be as natural as it is for sending commands to other Philips Hue products.

Another question for Philips is the price. Philips Hue White was a step in the right direction thanks to the $15 price tag. The Philips Hue Lux is $20 (‎£15, AU$25) per bulb. With a color temperature range of 2200k to 6500k, White Ambiance will likely be more expensive than both. How much more expensive it is will likely determine whether or not we can recommend it.

Features

• 800 Lumens
• 2200k-6500k color temperature range
• HomeKit compatible
• color-tunable