The new Hue BR30 downlight at left, next to a regular Hue A19 bulb at right.
Lee Hutchinson
reader comments
79
with 54 posters participating, including story author
Share this story
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Reddit
Philips expanded its LED-based color changing Hue light system yet again today, formally launching the Hue BR30 downlight bulb. The new bulb is the fourth type of light in the Hue universe—the
original
A19 Hue lights came first, followed by the two
Friends of Hue
bulbs (a light strip and an accent light).
Enlarge
/
The contents of the starter kit Philips sent.
Lee Hutchinson
The new bulb, the BR30, is a directional light. As a downlight, the bulb is designed to be used in a can or recessed fixture; the bulb is designed such that the majority of its light is projected in the direction the bulb is pointing rather than omnidirectionally like a standard bulb (and like the first-generation Hue lights). The bulb is equipped with a US-standard E26 screw fitting, though at just under 4" wide (a bit over 9 cm) it's considerably wider than the original Hue bulbs; I was unable to fit it into a number of the smaller can fixtures in my house.
Unlike the Bloom and LightStrips "Friends of Hue" lights, which were purely accent lights, the BR30 downlights are capable of producing not just pretty colors but the full Hue range of indoor "white" lighting temperatures as well. The bulbs are rated for 2000-6500K and draw 8W (down from the standard Hue A19 bulbs' 8.5W power usage). They produce 630 lumens of illumination, which is slightly more than the standard Hue bulbs—the difference in brightness between the two isn't tremendous, with both the A19 and BR30 lights appearing to put out roughly the same brightness. The downlight's different light spread pattern is definitely noticeable, though.
Enlarge
/
The light spread pattern of a regular A19 Hue bulb at left, compared to the new downlight at right. The downlight is intended to be used with recessed fixtures, so its light is more directional.
Lee Hutchinson
Philips sent along a three-light starter kit for us to experiment with. The kit's contents mirrored those of the regular
Hue starter kit
: three bulbs, one wireless bridge, one Ethernet cable to connect the bridge to the LAN, and one AC adapter to power the bridge. The bridge is the exact same
Zigbee
controller as the regular Hue bridge, and
it comes preconfigured to work with its three packaged lights. If you don't have any existing Hue gear, the kit contains everything you need. The Hue Android and iOS apps have been updated to work with the new bulbs as well.Advertisement
Getting the packaged bulbs unpaired from the included bridge and attached to another bridge has also become a lot easier. Previously, unpairing starter kit lights and using them with another bridge was a complex exercise that required
quite a bit of fiddling
. Fortunately, Philips has revised the bulb pairing process to include a manual method—I was able to take each of the three pre-paired downlights and force them to be discovered by my existing Hue bridge using the new process. After that, they worked beautifully.
Enlarge
/
Rather than the crazy procedure previously required to add pre-paired Hue bulbs to an existing kit, the updated app provides a manual serial number-based method. We were able to add the three downlights to our existing bridge with no trouble.
Lee Hutchinson
The color and intensity of the light they produce is indistinguishable to my eyes from that of the standard A19 Hue bulbs. Tone reproduction is bright and rich, with eye-watering reds, blues, and purples, though the lights have the same problem with deep green as do the standard Hue bulbs (owing to their
non-standard LED colors
—the bulbs contain lime-green
LEDs
instead of a darker "normal" green). Transitions between colors are smooth, without any jumping or flashing to odd non-intermediate shades.
Being part of the Hue family means that the bulbs can also be commanded through the
Hue API
. Rather than being forced to stick with the official Hue app—which I've complained about in the past—the bulbs can be programmatically controlled through scripts or through the growing list of Hue-enabled third-party applications. I use bash scripts triggered by good old-fashioned
cron
with excellent results, but the RESTful API really just takes JSON over HTTP and can be utilized by authorized clients (Philips says that the previously reported
Hue security issues
have been patched).
Enlarge
Lee Hutchinson
The Hue BR30 downlights are available as of today, November 5. The three-light kit is priced the same as the regular Hue starter kit, at
$199.95
; individual bulbs are available for
$59.95
. For now, the lights are only available at the Apple Store.
