Hue’s SpatialAware finally made me appreciate color-changing lights

I’ve been a instrumentality of Philips Hue smart lights since the early days. It’s 1 of the fewer staples successful my ever-changing smart home. However, erstwhile the 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 the Pro’s higher instrumentality capacity. I for illustration the thought of faster consequence times acknowledgment to the precocious processing power, but that wasn’t rather enough.

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

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

While the 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, the modular span delivers overmuch of the aforesaid acquisition for little money. When the 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 the Bridge Pro’s header features performed successful my home.

MotionAware detects mobility by sensing disruptions successful Zigbee power signals betwixt Hue devices. In the 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 the 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 the picture.

With the correct lights successful place, the app walks you done leaving the room for a fewer seconds to calibrate, past lets you take what happens erstwhile mobility is detected: Turn the 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 the free characteristic that controls the lights.

As pinch Hue’s mobility sensors, erstwhile a MotionAware area detects motion, you tin take to trigger different scenes aliases person the 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 the 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 the app. I unopen it disconnected aft the first Saturday erstwhile the 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 the paid app iConnectHue.

In the mudroom/laundry room area, I had much success. The lights turned connected reliably, but only erstwhile I was halfway down the hall. This was excessively precocious if I was passing through, but okay if I was doing thing successful the area. The layout present was besides an issue; though I person 4 lights, they aren’t successful perfect spots and are each connected the 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 the 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 the room. This had the advantage of bringing the sensor’s beingness ray sensor into the 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 the 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, the lights successful the room now consciousness due and welcoming passim the day.

Aside from the 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 the ray astatine the switch, the 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 the location that request their batteries replaced periodically.

It’s SpatialAware, the Bridge Pro’s different flagship feature, that is worthy the upgrade if you’re an existing Hue user. Using the Bridge Pro’s precocious processing powerfulness and your phone’s AR capabilities, the Hue app tin representation the lights successful a room and find the champion measurement to administer the 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 the edifice room demo successful my ain home, my lighting is noticeably amended than before.

In the past, I seldom utilized Hue scenes extracurricular the 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 the scenes fresh overmuch amended successful my space, much for illustration they were designed for it. Many made my surviving room — wherever I’ve sewage the 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 the ray portion was each orange. With SpatialAware, the colour distribution crossed the bulbs is subtler, and the gradient lighting successful my setup (two Wall Washers) provides the 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 the 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 the surviving room looked, and the only point I’d changed was the lighting.

There’s room for improvement. Only immoderate scenes person been updated to support SpatialAware, and the characteristic doesn’t activity pinch zones — groups that tin see lights successful different rooms, specified arsenic Downstairs aliases Night Lights. So, if I want the aforesaid segment successful my mudroom and surviving room, which are portion of my downstairs area successful the Hue app, I person to group them some individually. And arsenic mentioned, the 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 the golden standard. And the Bridge Pro is the 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 the logic to bargain the 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, the modular span remains a amended value, offering entree to each the halfway features for nether $70. Unless you’re readying to bargain a bunch of lights up front, you won’t spot capable use from the Pro’s header features to warrant the other cost.

Photos and video by Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge