Philips confirms Outdoor Lightstrip, other new Hue lights on the way

Phlips has announced a slew of new HomeKit-compatible Hue lights due in 2018, including the previously leaked Outdoor Lightstrip.

The Outdoor Lightstrip will come in 7- and 16-foot versions, priced at $89.99 and $159.99, according to Philips. The difference versus the company's existing lightstrips is mainly weatherproofing, though that also means the product can't be lengthened or shortened.

Philips accidentally revealed the accessory in July, when a product page briefly appeared on the company's Dutch website. No release date has been set.

Due in October is the Ascend collection, including wall ($99.99) and table ($129.99) lights, a $149.99 pendant, and a $179.99 floor lamp. The first two will come with E12 Hue color bulbs, while the latter will ship with Hue A19s.

Philips Ascend floor lamp | Image Credit: The Verge

The Being ceiling pendant uses a unique ring-shaped bulb, but is limited to shades of white. It should launch on Aug. 20 for $249.99.

Philips Being ceiling pendant | Image Credit: The Verge

Shipping on the same day is another pendant, the $99.99 Enchant, which uses a down-facing color bulb. Potentially controversial are the company's new Adore bathroom fixtures, a mirror ($249.99) and a ceiling light ($179.99). Both are limited to shades of white, and the ceiling fixture has non-replaceable LEDs, though Philips is promising about 30,000 hours of use.

Philips Adore vanity mirror | Image Credit: The Verge

13 Comments

StrangeDays 8 Years · 12988 comments

About 6 years ago

Just start making bright bulbs, please. 60w equivalents aren’t enough... Still waiting for a great 150w equiv smart bulb.

payeco 17 Years · 581 comments

What is the warranty on these things? Unless it’s 10+ years I don’t know why you’d buy expensive fixtures with lights integrated into them. If the light goes bad now you’ve got to replace the whole fixture for a lot more than just a bulb would cost and if it’s one of the wall sconces you have the added pain in the ass of having to remove the thing.

StrangeDays said:

Just start making bright bulbs, please. 60w equivalents aren’t enough... Still waiting for a great 150w equiv smart bulb.

I don’t know how soon you’re going to see those. The market for non-smart LED bulbs at that brightness is pretty small as it is.

Check out LIFX’s bulbs. They’re rated for 75 watts equivalent and are really bright, brighter than a standard 75w equivalent IMO. Their color reproduction is also much better than the Hue bulbs. I also like them because they don't require a hub, they connect directly to wifi; and they also support HomeKit.

If you need more output for a specific light pick up something like this to add more bulbs to one fixture and increase the light output. They also make two bulb and three bulb versions. It's not the same as one large bulb, I know, but it can make a big difference. There are also some smart light sockets available if you just need the ability to turn a light on and off, which would work with a big 150w equivalent.

jeffreytgilbert 14 Years · 368 comments

you know what a great feature would be? Figuring out how to make a lightbulb for less than $50 per bulb. These are so crazy expensive and once you start adding them you have to replace every bulb in the house to get the proper effect. Worse than that is they've added new colors now for newer bulbs and theres going to be another generation with mesh networking, so you'll have to replace them all before you ever get to enjoy the longevity of them, so pricing them like bulbs and not super expensive luxury bulb computers would be a welcome change. Their software is historically really, really annoying and doesn't even have a premium over the functionality of other competing softwares. They don't even need to be charging this much for bulbs.

jeffreytgilbert said:

you know what a great feature would be? Figuring out how to make a lightbulb for less than $50 per bulb. These are so crazy expensive and once you start adding them you have to replace every bulb in the house to get the proper effect. Worse than that is they've added new colors now for newer bulbs and theres going to be another generation with mesh networking, so you'll have to replace them all before you ever get to enjoy the longevity of them, so pricing them like bulbs and not super expensive luxury bulb computers would be a welcome change. Their software is historically really, really annoying and doesn't even have a premium over the functionality of other competing softwares. They don't even need to be charging this much for bulbs.

I know this isn’t something that can be repeated but I got my LIFX bulbs, which normally retail for $59 each for $3.50 at Lowe’s about 18 months ago. Lowe’s no longer carries them so I guess they were clearing out inventory at their stores. A store about a hour from me had 17 in stock so I went and bought up everyone one they had. At the time I only needed 12 to replace every bulb I had that was A19 size. Put the other 5 on eBay for $5 below MSRP and sold them all in a couple days.

To your point though, no, they don’t need to be charging this much for them. The problem is enough people are willing to that they’re not going to lower the price until the market drops off. It’ll have to happen eventually. With these bulbs rated to last 10-20 years there are only so many people out there willing to spend $1000-$2000 to replace all the bulbs in their house with color changing smart bulbs.