• Google Home is adding local Matter support for Philips Hue lights
• It should mean faster response times and offline access
• There are other improvements in the latest app update as well

There's a new upgrade rolling out for Google Home and Philips Hue lights that might not sound all that significant at first, but will actually make a notable difference to functionality — and I'm keen to get it installed on my own system as soon as possible.

The upgrade in question is local Matter support. And as per a Google (via 9to5Google) report, it means there should be faster response times if you're controlling your Philips Hue lights via the Google Home app. It should also mean the connection works even if your internet goes down, as long as the local network is still operational.

Even better, the update should be applied smoothly and seamlessly in the background, so you don't even need to repair your lights. Just look out for an update to Google Home appearing in the Android or iOS app store.

While the Philips Hue app offers more in the way of features, I like controlling my Hue lights through the Google Home app, because all my other smart stuff is in there too — so faster responses and offline support are very welcome.

More upgrades and fixes

There are a bunch of other minor improvements coming to Google Home as well, including updates for the Gemini for Home early access program. Conversations will now end more naturally, Google says, and weather temperature units will be more consistent.

Gemini is also getting better at understanding when "stop" actually means stop — as in, you're trying to stop media playback or an alarm, rather than just bringing a conversation to a close. Plus, requests for "relaxing music" or similar will now open up a proper media player app, rather than switching to ambient sounds (like rain or white noise).

The Google Home app gets a few tweaks in terms of drag-and-drop stability and more prominent smoke and CO alarm messages, while third-party controls for lights, plugs, and switches have been revamped. Various camera fixes have been added too.

With Matter more generally, Matter hubs should be more responsive and more reliable via Google Home. All in all, it seems the platform is finally starting to find its feet again, after several months of frustrating bugs and user complaints.

The mornings are just starting to draw in, and if the idea of waking up to darkness fills you with doom and gloom, perhaps it's time to invest in a sunrise alarm clock (sometimes called a wakeup light). The idea is simple: these lamps are designed to brighten gradually in the morning, to rouse you gently from your slumber in a way that mimics the sun.

They're also meant to help you dodge that groggy feeling you get when you're awoken aggressively from deep sleep, so you're more alert and better equipped to tackle the day. I've tested a few sunrise alarms, and can confirm they're a whole lot gentler and more soothing than an aggressive phone alarm bleeping you awake.

There's a wide range of options on the market. At the cheapest end of the scale you'll find wakeup lights that just have a basic, brightening setting. More advanced options let you choose the duration of brightening and can offer a range of sounds to go with the light; Lumie's priciest options offer a massive range of sounds, from rainfall to kittens purring, cafe noises, tree frogs and even ping pong. My top tip is not to pick a noise that might naturally occur in your bedroom — I chose birdsong, and mistook seagulls having a midnight chat for my call to start getting ready for work.

Many sunrise alarms also have features to help you drop off peacefully on those dark winter evenings. Look for a sunset feature — which dims gently over a period, to help you wind down — and white noise options, if that's something that helps you drop off. If you're hunting for an all-in-one solution, a number of models have radio built-in too.

Lumie's Bodyclock range is one of the most popular sunrise alarm lineups. I've tried a couple of these and was impressed, but they're not the only option on the market. Scroll down for a roundup of well-reviewed wakeup lights from respected brands including Philips Hue, Beurer and Hatch.

Rise and shine

• IKEA has launched a new range of Christmas lights and lamps
• It includes an unusual Christmas tree and a matchstick floor lamp
• Both can be augmented with the addition of smart plugs

Not everyone wants a real Christmas tree during the winter holidays, especially when getting one means cleaning up an ungodly amount of pine needles come the season’s end. If you’re one of those folks, you might be interested in the latest offering from IKEA, which takes the form of a Christmas tree made almost entirely from LED lights.

That means no branches and certainly no messy pine needles. Instead, the 150cm STRÅLA tree ($40 / £25 / AU$50) is simply comprised of a central spine and a selection of string LED lights descending from its apex down to the ground.

The result is what might be called a minimalist, post-modern take on the traditional Christmas tree, which IKEA says can be used both indoors and outdoors.

This tree, which comes with 180 diodes, might not fit into every living room or be to everyone’s tastes. But what might be more appealing is another addition to the STRÅLA range, this time taking the form of a floor light arranged as three large wooden matchsticks, with the red tips serving as soft lamps for your living space.

That potentially makes it a quirky addition to your room and an eye-catching talking point at Christmas time. It’s not trying to replace your Christmas tree and is more of a fun addition than a dedicated centerpiece.

This floor lamp is also dimmable in two steps, so you can use it as more of a cosy, accent light rather than your living room's lighting star.

Now add some smarts

While neither STRÅLA light has much in the way of smart home functionality, you can add that into the mix by combining them with a smart plug — for example, IKEA does its own with the GRILLPLATS ($8 / £7 / AU$13) range, which are compatible with the Matter smart home protocol and the IKEA Home app.

For true smart home control, you'll also need some kind of hub (either IKEA's DIRIGERA, or an Amazon Echo, Google Nest, or Apple Home hub that's both Matter compatible and acts as a Thread border router). But add one of those, and you can set your lights to a schedule or switch them on or off remotely.

That could help save you money over the Christmas period, but can also help the lights mimic your presence while you’re out celebrating with friends and family. Use automation timers and you can create the impression that someone is home at different times, even if you’re not.

When paired with a smart home hub, smart plugs can also open up voice commands (with the assistant dependent on which platform you've gone for). This is especially fun during the holiday season, when you can set up your lights to be activated by a phrase such as “Merry Christmas."

Christmas is still a couple of months away, but it’s always a good idea to get your planning started early. With IKEA’s new festive lights, you’ve got a few more options when it comes to decorating your home for the holidays.

I'm a big fan of Philips Hue smart lights, so I was pleased to see a huge selection of bulbs and lamps in this week's Amazon Prime Day sale — until I looked at the actual discounts and realized almost every product has been much cheaper before. Thankfully, there's one exception: a four-pack of Philips Hue Essential bulbs, down to $44.97 (was $59.99).

• Browse the full Amazon Prime Day sale

The Philips Hue Essential series launched as an affordable entry to the world of smart lighting, and these standard white and color bulbs are extremely impressive, even at full price. I pitted one against a full-price Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance bulb, and the only real difference was that the Essential bulb can't dim as low. In terms of brightness and color reproduction, the two are pretty much even.

With this Prime Day deal, each Hue Essential bulb costs just over $11, which is incredible value for any smart light. Whether you're new to Hue or just looking for an affordable way to extend your existing setup, these are a steal.

Today's best Philips Hue deal

More Prime Day deals in the US

• Amazon Devices: Fire Sticks & Echo from $18
• Amazon Haul: viral gadgets, tech & appliances from $1.36
• Apple: MacBooks, AirPods & AirTags from $28
• Cheap TVs: smart TVs from $69.99
• Headphones: 50% off Beats, Bose & Samsung
• Laptops: Apple, HP & Dell from $199
• Mattresses: Sealy, Serta & more from $89
• Smartwatches: up to 36% off Garmin & Apple
• Vacuums: Dyson, Shark & Bissell from $49

More Prime Day deals in the UK

• Amazon Prime: get a 30-day free trial
• Amazon Devices: up to 67% off Fire, Ring & Blink
• Amazon Haul: extra 15% off for Prime members
• Appliances: up to 40% off Ninja & De'Longhi
• Beauty: up to 60% off Philips & Oral-B
• Essentials: cleaning & groceries from £2
• Fashion: up to 50% off
• Gaming: record-low Nintendo Switch 2
• Headphones: up to 50% off Anker & Sony
• Laptops: up to £800 off Microsoft & Asus
• Tablets: up to 50% off Fire tablets
• TVs: from £129.99
• Vacuums: up to 50% off Shark & Dyson
• Wearables: Samsung & Oura from £31

IKEA is really making a name for itself in smart home tech. Its mobile app is clear and easy to navigate, its selection of smart switches (which my colleague Ruth Hamilton called "the understated hit of IKEA's new gadget range") are versatile and cheap, and its stylish smart lamps made a real splash at this year's CES technology show.

But what if you don't want to be limited to IKEA's own app? What if you like IKEA's lights, but already have a Philips Hue setup, or want to incorporate lights and devices from other brands as well?

Thankfully, there are lots of options to explore, from simple software solutions to crafty hardware hacks. Here are four ways to get all your smart lights to play along nicely.

1. Use the Matter standard

Last week, IKEA launched a new driver for its integrated lights (including the type of strips and spots you would install in cupboards and cabinets) that not only lets you control them remotely via the IKEA Home app, but is also compatible with the Matter smart home standard. That means you can combine these integrated lights into a larger smart home setup.

You can then control them using a Matter-compatible smart speaker, set a schedule, dim them, and much more. You aren't limited to IKEA's integrated lights, either. The brand also offers other Matter-compatible lights, including the color-shifting, donut-shaped Varmblixt, and Kajplats bulbs — and you can throw in lights from other brands like Nanoleaf, Govee, and (of course) Philips Hue, too.

But what if you don't want to use the Matter standard? What if you already have a Philips Hue setup and want to continue using the Hue app to control all your lights?

2. Connect everything to your Hue Bridge

IKEA smart lights (such as the Varmblixt and Kajplats) support Zigbee Light Link, which is the same wireless protocol used by Philips Hue bulbs. You can therefore connect your IKEA lights directly to a Philips Hue Bridge by following these instructions:

1. Ensure your IKEA smart light has software version 1.2.x or later
2. Keep the IKEA smart light close to the Philips Hue Bridge
3. Search for new devices in the Philips Hue app
4. Do a factory reset of the smart light by toggling the main switch six times

Connecting your IKEA smart lights this way will let you control their basic functions through the Hue app, set schedules, add them to groups, and trigger them with Hue sensors and switches.

However, you won't get the same degree of control you would through a native Hue smart light. You won't be able to dim your IKEA lights using a Hue Tap Dial switch, for example, or incorporate them into a Philips Hue Play entertainment setup. For that, you'll need to get more creative.

3. Try a hardware hack

If you like the look of an IKEA smart light, but want the full functionality of Philips Hue and are feeling brave, you could try a crafty hardware hack.

The Varmblixt lamp is a particularly popular choice for smart lighting DIYers, who have discovered that its frosted glass case is ideal for concealing a Philips Hue light strip. Reddit user K1uppy described the process of opening the IKEA lamp, removing its innards, and replacing them with a coiled Hue strip.

It's an interesting idea, and another Redditor's experiment with a non-Hue LED strip demonstrates how dramatic the effect could be with a gradient.

However, you should remember that a coiled light strip could overheat, damaging the LEDs.

4. Pick the right lamps

A safer (though less imaginative) alternative is to use Hue bulbs with IKEA lamps designed for standard light bulbs. Look out for ones that will diffuse light, such as the Fado table lamp, the ruffled Vindkast, or the striking multi-bulb Simrishamn. You can use the Philips Hue app to create a 'group' of these three bulbs, and control them together or apply a scene so they co-ordinate for an interesting effect.

There are Philips Hue bulbs for virtually all light fixtures, so you will be able to find one that fits your chosen IKEA lamp. Reddit users have suggested dialing down the brightness of your Hue bulbs to around 50% to create soft ambient lighting. You'll find a collection of suitable IKEA pendant, table, and floor lamps below.

• The Philips Hue Bridge Pro has increased in price by at least 40%
• Hue Essential multi-packs have also gone up in price
• However, a new software update supports 'Bridgeless Sync' for some devices

Philips Hue has had quite an illustrious few weeks, it’s just launched over a dozen new smart lights and accessories, but the latest product price hike could tarnish the company’s insane run of new announcements — and the Philips Hue Bridge Pro has received quite a shocking increase.

In the US, the Philips Hue Bridge Pro, a hub that unlocks advanced control features for the best smart lights, has risen in price from $99 to $139 — an increase of roughly 40%. In the UK, the Bridge Pro is £129.99 in the Philips Hue Autumn Glow-Up sale, up from its launch price of £79.99. That's an increase of around 35% (though the device is currently discounted to £90.80 on Amazon).

According to 9to5Google, the price changes rolled out in August, but it’s not just the US and UK that are bearing the brunt of these increases.

Eurozone regions are also affected, with the Philips Hue Bridge Pro spiking from €99 to €149. The device was €89 at launch and increased to €99 euros in March, so the latest change marks the second European price hike this year, and a total price increase of 51%..

Other Hue products that have been hit by unexpected prices as well. As spotted by Hue Blog, multi-packs of Hue Essential lamps and spotlights have shot up to €69.99 from their previous €59.99 price point. It’s not ideal, but at least these increases aren’t as substantial as the Bridge Pro.

The most frustrating part is that the Philips Hue Bridge Pro, together with the Hue Essential devices, are relatively new products that were only released last year. But with the rising cost of manufacturing and memory alike, it was only a matter of time before Philips Hue succumbed to this upheaval.

It's not all bad news...

Philips Hue’s latest stunt is quite the kick in the teeth if you were just about to embark on your new smart home journey with the brand.

However amid the price hike chaos, a new software update supports ‘Bridgeless Sync’ for Philips Hue lights with the Hue Play Screen Sync TV camera and Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 4K.

What that means is that both devices can now communicate with a single Hue light via Bluetooth without the need for a Bridge or Bridge Pro hub. Additionally, the new camera-based Screen Sync system works with any TV source, removing the need for a HDMI Sync Box.

Ultimately, this removes a handful of tedious steps and significantly reduces the price for setting up your own Hue ecosystem. It also comes in handy if you want to seriously upgrade your TV viewing, but aren’t too concerned about having the entire Hue smart home experience.

• The Philips Screen Sync is available in the UK and Europe in two sizes
• Unlike the Philips Hue version, it uses the Wiz Wi-Fi platform and app
• Prices start at £79.99 (about $110 / AU$150)

The Philips Hue Play Screen Sync, which launched last month, is a more affordable way to synchronize your smart lights with your TV than using a Hue Play HDMI Sync Box. However, before you grab one, you should know that it now has an even more affordable rival — and, perhaps confusingly, that rival also comes from Philips.

The new system isn't Hue, however. It's branded as Philips Smart Lighting, and the Philips Smart Lighting Screen Sync with Lightstrip runs on the WiZ platform and app over your home's Wi-Fi network.

The big draw here is the price. There are two sizes, with the smallest coming in at £79.99 (about $110 / AU$150), making it significantly cheaper than the Hue Screen Sync — which also requires you to buy a separate light strip. Here, the light strip is part of the package.

If you're looking for a syncing solution for an existing Hue setup, this isn't for you. But if you want a Hue-esque sync system for not very much money, it's definitely worth a look.

Is the Philips Smart Lighting Screen Sync with Strip Light a bargain?

It certainly looks like one, as it's more affordable than any of the Hue options or the TV strips and AI sync box by Govee.

As with the Hue Screen Sync system, the core of the setup is a camera. It's a fisheye lens to capture the entire screen, and once you calibrate it in the accompanying app it then syncs the on-screen colors on its four-sided RBGIC strip mounted behind your TV. There's also a built-in mic so you can sync the lights with music if you wish.

Other than the price, the big benefit here is simplicity: stick it on your TV, use the calibration tool, and you're ready to enjoy a more immersive viewing experience, even if you're not using an HDMI source. Whether it's a native streaming app, a PS5, or an Apple TV 4K, if it's on the screen it's extended to your wall.

There are two models of Screen Sync with Strip Light, and the only difference between them is the size of the strip. The smaller one is made for 40- to 50-inch TVs and costs £79.99 (about $110 / AU$150), and the larger one is for 55- to 65-inch TVs and costs £99.99 (about $140 / AU$190).

Last week, Philips Hue showed off a huge collection of new smart lights and accessories to decorate your home and make your TV-watching experience more immersive. There were so many new launches, in fact, that you might have struggled to keep up with them all. To help, I've rounded all the coolest new releases for you in one place — complete with links to the official Hue store so you can pick them up yourself, or register for updates when they go on sale if they're not yet available.

My personal favourite is the new Philips Hue Play Screen Sync, which lets you synchronise Philips Hue Play lights with the action on your TV screen, regardless of its source (unlike a Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, which only works if you're using HDMI input). The Screen Sync uses a fisheye camera to capture what's on screen, and then uses your smart lights to extend the colours into the rest of your room.

Philips Hue has also partnered with smart lighting company Nanoleaf to bring you two colour-shifting Wall Panel Starter Sets, which you can mount on your wall in any configuration you like, and if you want something more architectural, take a look at the new Liane 360-Degree Rope Light, and Signe Gradient Pole. Scroll on for all the details.

The newest Philips Hue launches

• IKEA has launched a new wireless driver for its integrated LED lights
• Called Dubbelkisel, it connects your lights to IKEA's Bilresa hub
• It's Matter-enabled so you can integrate it into a wider smart home setup

If you have IKEA integrated lights in your cabinets or wardrobe, there's good news — the company has just launched a new driver that lets you control them wirelessly, with Matter compatibility, so you can integrate them into the rest of your smart home.

The new driver, called Dubbelkisel, is a successor to the Trådfri driver, which allowed you to control your integrated lights via a small remote control using the Zigbee protocol. The new driver is different; instead of linking directly to a remote, it connects to IKEA's Dirigera hub, which means you can operate your cabinet lights with any of IKEA's smart switches — or even non-IKEA devices as part of wider Matter setup.

As Notebookcheck reports, news of the Dubbelkisel leaked earlier this year, when the driver appeared in a database of Thread devices, but this is the first time we've seen it on sale.

Some users on Reddit managed to get their hands on the device early, and report that it generally performs well, though the older Trådfri has some advantages.

"No problems so far," wrote one poster on r/tradfri. "It’s paired via a gateway, so there’s a noticeable delay when turning on the light. The previous Trådfri power supply was connected directly to the remote and worked instantly. Also I preferred the old, small Trådfri remote over the current Bilresa model."

The new driver is currently available in a selection of European countries, and is expected to roll out more widely within the coming weeks. It's priced at €18, which is approximately $20 / £15 / AU$30.

It's been a busy week for the team at Philips Hue. At its annual showcase event in Berlin, the company unveiled not just a new series of smart lights (including some particularly stylish additions to its Liane series), but also a whole new approach to AI, which it's using to take the complexity out of creating bespoke automated lighting setups specifically for your home. No more tinkering with toggles and timers — just tell the app what you want your lights to do and when, and the software will handle the rest.

This isn't Philips Hue's first foray into AI. In 2025, the brand introduced an AI assistant that allowed users to describe a lighting scene and would then either find a match in the library of presets or create a new scene from scratch if nothing suitable existed.

Earlier this year, it also launched SpatialAware for the Philips Hue Bridge Pro, which applies lighting scenes differently depending on the position of smart bulbs, light strips, and lamps in a room, with AI trained using expertise from professional lighting designers.

After this week's showcase, I spoke to Marco Merolla, Executive Vice President and Business Leader of Consumer Connected Lighting at Philips Hue's parent brand Signify, to find out his thoughts on the future of smart lighting and AI. I started by asking him about SpatialAware, and whether users had welcomed the new feature in their homes.

"It’s something that brings smart lighting to the next level, but also intuitiveness in getting to the result that you want as a user — to the desired ambience," Merolla said. "The reception of the base was very good in terms of adoption. This is an exclusive currently with the Bridge Pro, but the reception of the Bridge Pro was extremely good in terms of adoption, and that’s not surprising, because, as we said, ambience creation is key in smart lighting."

SpatialAware has been a success, but Merolla says the brand has now turned its focus to the custom AI automations demonstrated in Berlin.

"Really, in our perspective, [that is] the next step, because there is a lot that you could do, or may do today that is a bit limited by the system itself," he said. "By analyzing and assessing the user behavior and the consumer behavior, we create a lot of different layers with which they can create behaviors and automation."

That analysis doesn't mean monitoring the behavior of individual users, or automatically creating anything for you based on that behavior. Instead, Signify uses anonymised, aggregated usage insights and broader consumer research to understand patterns and usage, which help inform the behaviors and automation built into the system.

"Clearly there is a limit right now, but with the power of large language models, that is not there anymore, so we can give them the chance and [get them] into concepts that were completely unprecedented before — and that’s part of the things that we launched yesterday," said Merolla. "We’re super excited because the consumer experience will change dramatically in the way you can enjoy the system and create beautiful things."

Not AI for the sake of it

The Philips Hue showcase was packed with news and launches, so I asked Merolla which ones he was most excited about.

"I was super excited by three of them," he said. "Custom AI behavior is a great step because it’s not AI for the sake of it — it’s really AI at the service of the consumer experience. Not in the sense of wanting to enter into people’s lives or be intrusive, but in the sense of giving them a chance to unlock possibilities in a very intuitive way. Custom AI from this perspective is an amazing, lovely direction.

"The second key one that’s quite close to my heart is the entertainment area," he said. "You know that over the years we have worked a lot on making the lighting experience better and better, stronger and stronger. Here, the effort we made was really to make it more accessible."

Merolla explained that accessibility isn't just about price, although that is something Philips Hue has addressed with the Sync Box 4K — a more affordable alternative to the Philips Hue Play Sync Box 8K that launched in September 2024. Accessibility, he said, is also about compatibility, which is why Philips Hue has launched Screen Sync — an alternative to the Sync Box that uses a camera rather than HDMI input, so you can synchronize your Hue lights with your TV screen regardless of the source.

"In the area of accessibility, there is also the Bridgeless idea," he added, referring to the ability to use the Sync Box 8K, 4K and Screen Sync without buying an additional Philips Hue Bridge Zigbee hub. "You can have just one strip light in a Bridgeless configuration. And this is again because we believe that everyone should watch TV or watch video with at least one light connected to amplify the experience, and we don’t want to limit the user who, in that specific moment, only wants that kind of benefit [without] having to necessarily join the full ecosystem."

The final items on Merolla's list of exciting launches are the new Liane 360-degree rope and Signe pole lights.

"These are beautiful design objects — really beautiful design objects," he said. "We did not invent the archetype in the design world — that archetype is something that already exists, but of course we can create the mix between a beautiful design object and an amazing light structure. These two things very often don’t go together. Sometimes products that have a super cool design light effect, like gradient scenes and so on, are not necessarily associated with the most beautiful design from an object perspective.

"And as a direction for the brand in the future, I firmly believe that we need to put this world together — that the design of the external object and the light effect, the things that you can do with that, really need to merge. And I think Liane and the new Signe product are a strong step in this direction."

It will definitely be interesting to see how those two aspects join together in the future, and whether AI functionality begins to affect the design of Philips Hue lights, now that LLMs can remove the barrier to complex automations. I'm definitely looking forward to next year's showcase.

• The Govee Sky Ceiling Light shifts according to time, weather, and mood
• It prioritizes flicker-free blue light when you want to concentrate
• It's Matter-compatible, unlike a recent skylight-style light from Philips

Smart lighting company Govee has launched a new smart ceiling light that changes color depending on the time of day, just like a real skylight — and can even use AI to shift its settings to suit your mood.

The Govee Sky Ceiling Light, which debuted at the IFA tech show in Berlin this week, can automatically adjust the light based on time and weather (ideal for rooms without natural light), and can prioritize Govee's sky blue spectrum when you want to feel energized (particularly handy if you're working from home).

A few months ago, Philips launched a new skylight-style light fitting that changes light temperature and brightness to suit the time of day. It looked very realistic, but without true smart home integration (the skylight is operated via a physical remote control), we found its starting price of €499.99 (about $580 / £430 / AU$810) a little hard to swallow.

The Govee Sky Ceiling Light, on the other hand, is Matter-compatible, so it can integrate with your other smart home devices. It's more affordable too, with a list price of $399.99 (about £300 / AU$560).

However, the Philips lamp has a few extra tricks up its sleeve, including an integrated UV-B module designed to support your body's natural production of vitamin D, and an IP44 rating for use in bathrooms — which often lack real windows. Its rectangular shape arguably looks more like a real skylight as well, particularly in homes with traditional styling.

I can see smart skylights becoming increasingly popular over the coming years, particularly for small homes, and it will be interesting to see how else brands manage to differentiate themselves. The Philips light isn't a Hue product, but it is made by the same parent company (Signify), so I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see a Philips Hue skylight this time next year.

George Yianni is excited about the future of smart lighting, and his enthusiasm is infectious. As the Chief Technology Officer and Founder of Philips Hue, Yianni has seen smart home tech move from niche to mainstream — and he has a clear vision for how you'll be lighting your home in years to come.

On September 2, Philips Hue held its annual showcase event in Berlin, just around the corner from the IFA tech expo. There, Yianni and other senior figures took to the stage to show off the brand's latest hardware (including some particularly artistic new lights and more affordable syncing devices), and to explain how new software developments will change how we all interact with lighting in the coming months.

After the event I had the opportunity to speak with Yianni, and to delve deeper into how Hue (and its parent company SIgnify) has identified practical uses for AI that aren't just a gimmick.

"There’s a push for AI for the sake of it, and we’ve really tried to shy away from that," he told me. "AI large language models are really good at processing the unstructured information and turning it into something structured, and vice versa, and that’s really where we applied it."

The first example he gave was SpatialAware — a feature that launched last year, which creates lighting scenes and applies them based on the position of lights in your room.

"We’re applying AI as a tool to deliver functionality," Yianni explained. "So what we launched last year is, we spent quite some time with our lighting designers to produce the right set of rules, tools, and training towards a large language model to codify and scale the lighting design process."

"So it can take all the unstructured information of where lights are in space, lighting design rules, and what colors look complementary, and then expose that to the user in a general way, so they can describe anything they want, and it uses its world knowledge and this lighting design skill set we’ve given it to generate new lighting design scenes for them. It’s really not something you could have done any other way."

The second example, which debuted at this year's event, is Custom AI Behaviors. This lets you use natural language to describe how you want your Philips Hue lights to behave. For example, you can ask them to behave differently on weekends and weekdays, or change scenes automatically at sunset — all without fiddling around with complex settings.

"There are so many different diversities and details about how a consumer might want their home to behave that we cannot build a user interface with buttons, toggles, dropdown menus for every possibility, and that’s why we put some limitations around automations to this point," Yianni explained. "Otherwise, the user interface would be impossible for most users.

"But natural language is a fantastic way to just describe arbitrarily how you would like your home to behave, and then we can use AI to translate that into a special programming language we’ve developed that runs the automation in the Bridge. So it’s a fantastic way to capture intent and translate into something we can just run in the background, and again, AI is the right tool to do that.

"We think of AI as a tool to be used to solve problems, and often it’s not the right tool, and then we don’t do it that way. But there are definitely are good use cases, and I think more in the works, which take advantage of it."

Exciting developments

The Philips Hue event was packed with new announcements, so I took the opportunity to ask Yianni which one he was most excited about personally. For him, accessibility was one of the biggest draws.

"It's a little bit difficult to choose, because I think we've made some great products for users that don't have smart lights yet," he said. "I think what we've done with entertainment is super exciting, to just make it so that even if people don't want a smart lighting system, they just want it around [their TV]. Now we give you a very simple, easy to use and understand kit that gives it to you."

This system is the Philips Hue Play Screen Sync, which is designed for people who aren't using an HDMI source for their TV, and may be using a native smart TV app, for example. Screen Sync uses a camera with a fish-eye lens to monitor what's on the screen, and then synchronize those colors with a light strip behind the TV. You don't have to invest in a Philips Hue Bridge to use Screen Sync either — you can use it with a single light strip via Bluetooth if you're not interested in a full Philips Hue setup.

If you do use an HDMI source for your TV, there's now a more affordable 4K version of the Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, which also works with a single Hue light and no Bridge.

Yianni is also particularly proud of what the brand has achieved so far with artificial intelligence. "I think for our install base of users and for ourselves as users of Hue personally, the AI automations are a bit of a game changer," he said. "I now can finally have my home behave exactly the way I wanted to. I think that's a really big deal.

"So I'm a bit torn between those two, right? For me, it's AI automations, but I think for our business and for our overall mission of getting people to use lights in a in a richer way than just being on or off, I think the the bridge-less entertainment with just becomes so much easier to to step in with just that use case, which is a great way to start."

When it comes to the lights themselves, though, Yianni has a clear favorite: the Liane 360-degree rope light (pictured at the top of this article), which users can drape in any way they like, and which projects light around its whole circumference.

"I think it's hard to beat the statement of Liane," he told me. "I think it's really taking what we offer in a in a new direction, where you can really unleash a lot of creativity in users because it's really a product which has a lot of different ways of it being applied. I think it's something quite unique that doesn't exist in the world yet.

"Yeah, these as they omnidirectional rope lights exist in architectural lighting, but I really think we we add a new element of depth to it by making it controllable and having these subtle gradients that we can put on it. I think that's really exciting. It's something that doesn't exist in the world yet, and really adds something to an existing trend. I think that I think the most exciting lighting model."

I'm hoping to test the Liane rope light very soon to see whether it meets those expectations, so watch this space.

Philips Hue smart lights just got a major upgrade, with a new system that lets you sync lights with your TV screen regardless of its source. Signify, the company behind the Hue brand, showed off a new system called Hue Play Screen Sync at an event (no, not IFA) in Berlin yesterday, and it looks set to make immersive entertainment lighting a lot more accessible.

The Philips Hue Play system lets you use smart lights (including light strips and bars) to extend the colors from your screen, creating a more immersive viewing experience. However, until now, this could only be done using a Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box, which sits in between an HDMI source and your TV. If you want to watch content via a non-HDMI source, such as a native app on your smart TV, you were out of luck.

The new Philips Hue Play Screen Sync changes all that, using a fisheye camera to monitor the action on your TV screen and synchronize it with your smart lights, regardless of the source.

Similar systems already exist from rivals including Govee and Nanoleaf, so I'll be interested to see how the Hue Play Screen Sync compares. Camera-based systems usually have a few drawbacks compared to HDMI screen syncing (they can be affected by reflections on your TV screen and tend to have more latency) but hopefully the Hue system will offer performance comparable with the HDMI Sync Box.

A bright future

Another big update launched at yesterday's event is Custom AI Behaviors, which lets you use natural language to describe lighting automations, rather than having to create them manually — something that could be quite time-consuming or fiddly when done in the app. For example, you might choose to have your lights behave differently at the weekends, or activate a particular scene automatically after dark.

The Philips Hue app already contained an AI assistant the let you use text or speech to describe a lighting scene (such as 'something for Christmas' or 'a tropical sunset'), and would search the existing scene library for a match. If none existed, the assistant would create something suitable for you. This was a useful feature, but Custom AI Behaviors goes far beyond that, and should make advanced automations much more accessible, with no need to spend time fiddling with switches and sliders.

On the subject of accessibility, there is now a 4K version of the Philips Hue Sync Box to accompany the 8K version launched in 2024. The 4K Sync Box is more affordable than the 8K model, and for the first time, you can use it to sync a single light with your TV via Bluetooth, without a Philips Hue Bridge.

Third-party collaborations are coming as well, including one leaked last week, which allows you to integrate Nanoleaf Shapes lights into your Hue lighting setup, and a collaboration with Sonos that will let you control the brand's speakers with selected Hue switches.

There's a huge bundle of new smart lights too, including Festavia curtain, net, and icicle lights (ideal for Halloween and Christmas), a Philips Hue Liane 360-degree rope light, with LEDs around the entire circumference, and an OmniGlow outdoor strip light. Omniglow is a technology that uses tightly packed LEDs to create an extra smooth gradient, with no visible gaps, and this is the first time it's been available for an exterior light.

I'm hoping to test some of the new lights soon, and will bring you full hands-on reviews as soon as possible.

Philips Hue makes the best smart lights around, but installing them in every room can be seriously expensive, so I always wait until big sales events to stock up on bulbs. Amazon's Labor Day Sale is the perfect opportunity, with huge discounts on multi-packs of White & Color Ambiance bulbs, as well as strip lights and lamps to extend my smart lighting setup.

The best Labor Day deal I've seen so far is a two-pack of Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance bulbs for just $46.17 at Amazon (was $76.99). That's the kind of deal I might expect to see on Amazon Prime Day, but this time you don't need to be a Prime member to take advantage.

Looking for more options? Scroll down for my top picks in the Labor Day sale, or check out all today's deals on Philips Hue lights at Amazon.

Today's best Philips Hue deals

Shop more of today's best Labor Day sales

• Amazon: 45% off TVs, AirPods, air fryers & vacuums
• Apple: iPads, AirPods & MacBooks from $99
• Appliances: up to $1,200 at Samsung
• Best Buy: 60% off appliances, TVs, laptops & more
• Casper: up to 30% off mattresses
• Dell: laptop deals from $249.99
• DreamCloud: up to 60% off mattresses, 66% off bundles
• Home Depot: 40% off appliances, furniture, grills & tools
• Lowe's: $1,000 off appliances, patio & tools
• Nectar: up to 50% off mattresses, deals from $349
• Saatva: up to $625 off luxury mattresses
• Samsung: up to $2,000 off 4K, QLED & OLED TVs
• Target: 45% off clothing, tech & furniture
• Walmart: 58% off back-to-school, furniture, & clothing

• There's more evidence of a tie-in with Philips Hue and Nanoleaf
• An official support page appeared and then disappeared
• We could get an announcement about this later in the week

A few days ago we heard some whispers that Philips Hue would be adding support for Nanoleaf Shapes, meaning these lights could be controlled in the app — and now the integration has almost been officially confirmed.

As spotted by Android Authority, a support page for the Nanoleaf integration briefly went up on the Philips Hue website, explaining the types of light that would be supported, and explaining a little bit about how the tie-in will work.

That support page has now promptly disappeared again, suggesting that it was put up too early by mistake. According to the initial rumor, Philips Hue will be adding support for Nanoleaf integration on Thursday, September 3, which seems about right.

Put together that first leak and the brief appearance of an official support page, and it's now looking extremely likely that this will happen. However, until Philips Hue makes the announcement, nothing is guaranteed.

Nanoleaf panels behaving like Hue lights

According to the support page that has now been yanked from the web, the integration means Nanoleaf panels will "behave like a Hue light, ready to be used across your entire smart lighting setup".

There was also a line saying that Nanoleaf panels behave similarly to a gradient striplight", so you should be able to use the standard color wheel in the Philips Hue app to adjust the colors of the Nanoleaf panels you've got connected.

All of this will be made possible through a Philips Hue Wall Light Module that will connect to Nanoleaf devices. The support document lists Nanoleaf Hexagons, Triangles, and Mini Triangles as the smart lights that are going to be supported.

While there are still some questions about exactly how the connectivity is going to work — with a lot of smart home standards to account for — this seems like good news for both Philips Hue and Nanoleaf users.

• Philips Hue could be launching a light module that lets you connect your Nanoleaf Shapes to the Hue app
• You'll be able to integrate Nanoleaf lights into your Hue schedules and automations
• It's not Matter-over-Thread, but you might be able to use a Hue Bridge for third-party connectivity

We’re just one week from IFA 2026, and we already have our ears to the ground for all the pre-event announcements and rumors — and this latest Philips Hue leak is bound to make Nanoleaf users very happy.

As spotted by the outlet Smartlights, Philips is reportedly launching the Hue Wall Light Module next week, meaning that users will be able to integrate their Nanoleaf lights into the Philips Hue ecosystem — which would be a huge win, especially since Nanoleaf is an affordable alternative to the Philips Hue range of best smart lights.

The Hue Wall Light Module is said to support the Nanoleaf Shapes LED panels, including Mini Triangles, Triangles, and Hexagons, while older panels (formerly known as Aurora) won’t be supported. Philips’ new module is also expected to be announced on September 3, and will go on sale for 39.99 euros, with international prices expected to follow.

Essentially, the rumored Hue module is a small white adapter around 8cm that you can plug directly into the connectors in your Nanoleaf panels, allowing you to integrate up to 100 Nanoleaf Shapes panels into your Hue system. That said, the Hue Wall Light Module shouldn’t be confused with the existing Philips Hue Wall Switch Module, which is installed behind a standard wall switch.

Once your Nanoleaf panels are connected via Philips’ new module, you’ll be able to include them in automations, Hue scenes, and schedules in the Hue app — but whether Nanoleaf’s flagship lighting tools will be carried over is unclear.

Similar to Philips Hue, Nanoleaf offers customizable color scenes and animations, but as far as the leaks go, the product images show the Nanoleaf integration working primarily with Hue scenes and effects. The leak shows at least five points in the color selection wheel, suggesting that there’ll be some kind of multicolor control function regardless, but we’ll have to see how this will work after the launch.

The other catch is that the Philips Hue Wall Light Module isn’t Matter-over-Thread, which, considering Nanoleaf’s devices are mainly Thread- and Matter-supported, is a bit of a departure. Instead, the module uses Zigbee and Bluetooth, the main connectivity protocols Philips has used for some time.

That said, using a Hue Bridge allows you to connect Philips Hue devices that are non-Matter to hubs such as the Apple HomePod, which is helpful if you use the best smart speakers to control your home lighting system — though we’ll have to wait and see how the new Philips Hue module handles third-party connectivity once it’s launched.

Despite these gray areas, the Nanoleaf-Hue integration is an unexpected yet possibly beneficial upgrade. When it comes to smart lighting brands, their respective devices tend to keep you locked into one ecosystem or the other, so having a simple but effective connectivity tool would give users much more flexibility.

• IKEA's new 3-in-1 display is a clock, thermometer, and humidity sensor
• The display follows the release of IKEA's TIMMERFLOTTE temperature sensor
• It's only available in the UK so far, priced at £5

If you’re looking for simple, convenient, and affordable home tech, IKEA is surprisingly handy when it comes to this — and the Swedish home furnishing giant just launched a new 3-in-1 display that does more than tell the time.

As well as displaying a clock, the new ÖRNVRÅK device also shows the temperature and humidity of your home, a true triple threat. Right now, ÖRNVRÅK is available in the UK online and in-store, but we’re keeping our eyes peeled for a US rollout.

The ÖRNVRÅK’s 3-in-1 functions aren’t its only selling points, however — it costs a mere £5 — a cheap and cheerful device that’s not overly complicated. And because it’s powered by one AAA battery, you won’t have to worry about constantly charging it.

As far as its specs go, ÖRNVRÅK is a small device at just 8x3cm and incredibly lightweight, weighing just over 100g. With its IP44 resistance rating, the display can endure small splashes of water, meaning it can be placed pretty much anywhere in your home, from your kitchen to your utility room or bathroom.

It’s also multi-faceted when it comes to attachments. Its magnetic back allows it to stick to surfaces such as your fridge door, or you can use its built-in hook attachment to hang it on the wall, or use it as a stand for flat surfaces.

In recent years, IKEA has really taken advantage of the demand for cheap home devices that just get the job done. Earlier this year, the retailer launched its £5 Matter-supported TIMMERFLOTTE temperature sensor, which fits perfectly into your existing smart home ecosystem. The company also has a cheap lineup of audio devices, most notably its colorful KALLSUP Bluetooth speaker — which packs a punch for just £10.

While the TIMMERFLOTTE sensor has the smart home bells and whistles, this isn’t the case for the new ÖRNVRÅK display. Instead, it keeps things simple, swapping the smart home connectivity for the digital clock face.

If you’re all about smart home connectivity when it comes to IKEA’s devices, this might not be the product for you, but what the ÖRNVRÅK display does that the TIMMERFLOTTE sensor doesn't is show the time, temperature, and humidity simultaneously. ÖRNVRÅK removes the need to swipe through each reading individually, which gives it the edge when appealing to those who value simplicity over smart features.

If you’ve not heard of layered lighting, you’re in for a treat. Sure, a single ceiling fixture is the easiest way to illuminate a room, but adding a variety of light sources in different places in a room — a technique known as layered lighting — can completely change the way your home looks and feels, making it more inviting and more practical, without the need to redecorate.

To find out why layered lighting is worth trying, and how you to get started, I spoke experts from lighting companies Paulmann, Govee, and Philips Hue . Hue and Govee are two of the biggest names in smart lights, while German company Paulmann produces a range of rechargeable lights that attach to backplates mounted on the wall with screws or adhesive — ideal if you rent or don’t want to get involved with wiring.

“We believe lighting should do more than simply illuminate a room,” explains Jerry Lin, Product Manager at Govee. “A well-designed environment combines different layers of light to create depth, balance and atmosphere, helping people adapt their spaces for any moment of the day.”

Tom Amelung, Junior Product Manager at Paulmann Licht, agrees that lighting is about much more than just function. “It shapes mood, enhances texture and brings colors to life,” he says. “Without a considered lighting scheme, even the most beautifully designed interior can feel flat and uninspiring. When thoughtfully layered, however, lighting creates depth, adds warmth and brings balance and harmony to a room.”

Think beyond the ceiling

So what are the layers that you should be thinking about? “At its core, layered lighting is about combining four key types of light: ambient, task, accent and decorative, so that they work together seamlessly,” explains Philips Hue’s spokesperson. “The result is a home that not only meets practical lighting needs, but one that also adapts effortlessly to different activities, moods and times of day.

Your central ceiling light can be part of that mix, but you need to think beyond it. “Introducing table lamps, floor lamps, wall lights or light strips adds dimension, highlights architectural features and furnishings, and enhances the richness of colors and textures throughout the room,” adds Hue’s lighting expert.

Amelung suggests trying spotlights as well, thinking outside of the standard grid arrangement that you might already have in your bathroom or kitchen. “A uniform grid of spotlights might feel like the easy option, but it often creates flat, overly bright spaces,” he says. “Instead, position lights based on how the room is used.”

That doesn’t mean placing lights directly above seating, though — lights placed directly over your sofa can be harsh and uncomfortable when you’re trying to relax. The same is true in a bedroom, where softer lighting is a better option to avoid making the space feel clinical.

“Place lights above worktops, not behind you, to avoid casting shadows while cooking,” adds Amelung. “Directional options, such as Paulmann’s directional recessed and spotlight options, are ideal for targeting key areas.”

Smart ideas

Smart lights are particularly effective for layering thanks to their versatility. Using connected light fittings lets you transform a space throughout the day without moving anything around. Want to use a corner of your living room as a study during work hours, then use the whole space for relaxing in the evening? With smart lights you can do exactly that, helping delineate spaces that serve multiple purposes.

“One of the greatest advantages of smart lighting is its ability to transform a space throughout the day without requiring any changes to the room’s layout,” says Philips Hue’s spokesperson. “Instead of moving lamps, changing bulbs or adjusting fixtures manually, smart lighting allows you to easily adapt brightness, color temperature and ambience to suit different activities and moods.”

Your home — and the way you use it — is unique, and smart lights let you personalize your layered lighting setup to suit the way you live.

“With intelligent features such as Govee DaySync, your lighting can automatically adjust its temperature and brightness to match your daily routine, shifting naturally from morning to evening,” says Govee’s Jerry Lin. “At the same time, advanced color management systems such as Govee LuminBlend+ let you explore more lighting experiences, from subtle pastel tones to immersive ambient scenes to strike the perfect mood every time.”

Ultimately, smart lighting gives people the flexibility to create spaces that feel more connected to the way they live,” says Lin.

Go for it!

Are you feeling inspired? I asked Philips Hue where I should start if I want to begin experimenting with layered lighting tonight.

“When layering a room, the use cases could be many,” said Hue’s spokesperson. “Say, for example, in a bedroom – a layered set-up might look like an overhead fixture for clarity, bedside lamps for reading, soft accent lights for atmosphere, and hidden strip lights that trace architectural lines.

“Once everything is dimmed, the room feels cohesive rather than cluttered, with each source playing a distinct role.”

Ready to go? Each expert has suggested four products to help you begin experimenting with layered lighting, including recessed spotlights, table lamps, floor lamps, smart ceiling lights, and gradient light strips. Want even more inspiration? Take a look at our complete guide to the best smart lights.

Lights for layering

• Philips Hue accidentally leaked a new Pro TV lightstrip on its own website
• There are no details of its price or release date yet
• A new Philips Hue Play Sync camera is expected to launch soon

I love Philips Hue lights, and I particularly love Hue lightstrips — so I'm excited by an accidental leak that indicates a new Pro lightstrip is coming to your TV.

The leak was spotted by the excellent Hueblog, who discovered the following text on the US Hue website: "Check out Philips Hue Play gradient strip lights and Play gradient strip light pro." There isn't currently a gradient strip with the 'pro' suffix, so this appears to be a new product that's coming very soon.

I hope so, although I worry about the "pro" bit because that usually indicates a premium price. But if it uses the same tech as the spectacular Hue Omniglow lighting strip I reviewed earlier this year, it could be a stunning addition to your home cinema or gaming setup.

Philips Hue Play Gradient Strip Light Pro: what to expect

The Philips Hue Play system synchronizes your smart lights and bulbs, enabling you to change the lighting with music or to reflect what's going on in a game, TV show or movie. The Gradient Strip Light models are designed to go on the back of your TV and deliver a similar experience to an Ambilight TV, extending the colours from your screen onto the walls and ceiling.

I'm a huge fan of Hue Play – I've been using it since the first-gen Play Sync box was released in 2019 – but the individual LEDs are very visible. If the Pro version were to be closer to the Omniglow, which delivers seamless gradients without the LEDs being visible individually, that would be a great upgrade. Although I suspect it's likely to be pricey too: the Omniglow has an RRP of $139.99 / £119.99 / AU$279.99 for the 3m model.

At the moment details are non-existent, but we do know that Hue is getting some more Hue Play products imminently: the Hue Play Screen Sync TV camera is expected to launch very soon as a more affordable alternative to the clever but expensive Hue Play HDMI Sync Box 8K. As with the Sync Box it'll mirror your display to your smart lights and bulbs, but you won't need to connect any devices to do it as it'll simply watch what's on the TV.

• Philips is rumored to be launching a new camera-based Hue Sync device for its TV backlights
• It removes the need for a pricey Hue Play HDMI Sync Box
• The 'Sync Screen' would be the first camera for the Philips Hue Play system

Philips Hue could be working on a new device for syncing your TV’s color palette to your backlights, giving you another option for illuminating your entertainment setup

Fabian of Hue Blog attended an online presentation hosted by Philips, and spotted a new Hue Sync device with an integrated camera that looks strikingly similar to rival devices like the Nanoleaf 4D.

The new gadget could be called ‘Sync Screen’, and may be unveiled at IFA 2026 in September. We don't know how much it will cost yet, but considering Philips Hue is a premium brand, it's likely the new device will sit in a higher price bracket than its competitors.

Just like other camera-operated TV LED lights, Philips’ version mounts to the top of a TV or monitor, and captures the color movements of the movie, show, or game on the screen. This movement is then processed and synced with backlights mounted behind the display.

From the image shared by Hue Blog, it seems that the Philips Sync Screen camera will only have one lens, but will likely be a fish-eye one to capture your entire TV screen — just like those used by rival devices.

You will almost certainly still need a Philips Hue Bridge to link the lights and camera to one another, but because the system camera-operated, you won't need a Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box or Hue Sync TV app subscription, which could make it a more tempting proposition.

As mentioned, Philips isn’t the first smart home giant to offer TV lighting gadgets like this, which aim to make your TV and gaming experiences more immersive by extending the colors from the screen onto the surrounding walls.

In addition to the Nanoleaf 4D light strips, the Govee StarPal Pro and the more recent Govee TV Backlight 3 Pro models are all camera-operated — the latter having a dual-camera system to capture more of your TV screen or monitor.

Philips has had quite an eventful 2026 already. In March the company unveiled its new OLED TVs, which are also the first native models for Dolby Vision 2, as well as its beautiful yet expensive ceiling light that mimics natural daylight. We’re just a mere two months away from IFA 2026, and I think the best is yet to come.

Halloween might seem like a long way away, but it's never too early to start getting ready, and if you're anything like me, then you can't wait for the weather to start getting cooler, with crisp leaves underfoot and misty mornings. It seems the designers at IKEA agree, because they've already launched a whole set of Kustfyr Halloween decor so you can start preparing for spooky season now.

The new seasonal lights are particularly cute, and I defy anyone not to be charmed by the adorably spooky LED ghost table lamp with its arms raised mid-scare. Pair it with a set of ghostly battery-powered LED string lights for a full themed room.

It wouldn't be Halloween without pumpkins, and you can avoid the mess and hassle of carving a real gourd by picking up one of IKEA's fun pumpkin lamps. The globe-shaped LED pumpkin table lamp is a cute classic, while the matching battery-powered pendant lamp is safe to use outdoors, so you can hang it on your porch when it's time for trick-or-treating.

Want more creepy ways to decorate your home? Check out the full Kustfyr collection, which includes everything from plushies to plates.

Adorably spooky Halloween lights

Philips Hue is widely known as the best smart bulb brand, but if you're looking to get yourself kitted out with a full Hue setup from the main range, it'll cost you. You might have spotted the brand's Essential range — which looks very similar to the main lineup but comes in at a much more affordable price — and wondered where the compromise is. You can see an Essential bulb on the left of the image above, next to a main range bulb on the right.

This article is here to help you figure out whether the Philips Hue Essential range is right for you, or whether it's better to splurge on the original lineup. We've tested both, and you can get the full low-down on what we thought of the budget-friendly bulbs in our Philips Hue Essential series review. For a quick summary, though — plus links to buy — read on.

Philips Hue Essential bulbs: reasons to buy

Let's start with the good bits about the Philips Hue Essentials range. Here are the main benefits to know about:

✅ The performance is excellent: In her side-by-side tests with the main range, our Homes Editor Cat Ellis found "both were equally responsive, and produced colors that were identical to my naked eye when [she] switched between scenes". The Essential bulbs are based on a different color-matching technology to regular Hue lights, but Cat "had a hard time telling the difference".

✅ They're compatible with the full Hue ecosystem: The Essential bulbs will play nicely with any Hue gadgets you already have, making them a great way to extend your existing smart light setup.

✅ They're much cheaper than the main range: While prices vary depending on exactly which bulb you're buying, generally the Essential models come in around half the price of the main range.

Philips Hue Essential bulbs: reasons to avoid

So what about the downsides? These are the main compromises you'll be making if you opt for an Essential bulb:

❌ The white shades don't match the main range: Essential bulbs have a narrower white light range, which is an issue if you were hoping to add them into a room that already has bulbs from the main lineup.

❌ They can't dim as low: Essential bulbs can only dim to 2%, whereas the main range can go right down to 0.2%. If you want seriously muted lighting, you'll need to shell out a bit more and stick to the main range.

❌ They can't get as bright: Essential bulbs have a lower maximum brightness capacity — they can reach 803 lumens, whereas some of the standard White & Color Ambiance bulbs can hit 1,600 lumens. It's worth nothing that this spec varies by bulb; not all standard bulbs have a higher max brightness than their Essential counterpart.

Philips Hue Essential Starter kits

Most people getting started with a Philips Hue lighting setup will begin by purchasing a 'Starter kit', which bundles some bulbs, a Philips Hue Bridge, and occasionally a bonus Philips Hue accessory. A Bridge isn't essential, but it is a good idea if you want to maximize the potential of your bulbs. There are a few variations available, with different numbers and kinds of bulbs included; I've listed a selection here.

US starter kits

UK starter kits

Philips Hue Essential bulbs

If you already have a Bridge and are looking to extend your setup, or are planning on going without (basic bulb functions can be controlled via Bluetooth), you can buy individual or multipack bulbs. There's a massive range — I've just included a selection here.

Whichever bulb lineup you choose, you'll have to decide between Hue's three light types. White and color ambiance bulbs can emit any one of millions of RGB colors, including a wide range of different white tones. White bulbs emit a warm light at a set color temperature, and White ambiance bulbs can be set to any one of a massive range of cool to warm white lights.

US bulbs

UK bulbs

• A software update bricked Philips Hue Bridge Pro devices
• The bug required a very specific set of circumstances
• Philips Hue has promised free replacements to affected users

Over the last few weeks, reports have emerged of Philips Hue Bridge Pro smart home devices becoming bricked, and it looks like the culprit has now been identified. According to Philips Hue, the fault lay with a recent software update — but the company has won plaudits for what it's giving to customers in order to make amends.

The trouble started in late June when Philips Hue released software update 2071353020, which was intended to include “several small changes” that improved the product’s operations. Yet reports started flooding in that the update had caused people’s Hue Bridge Pro devices to fail and become completely unresponsive.

In a statement to Ars Technica, Philips Hue explained the very specific circumstances that caused the problem: “The issue affects users who disabled automatic software updates, remained on an older software version for an extended period, and then manually installed a firmware update after the update package had been stored on the Bridge for more than 10 days.”

As well as that, the spokesperson noted that “Our data shows fewer than 100 Philips Hue Bridge Pro devices have been impacted.”

Still, any disruption like this is a pain. If you’re affected, not only will you have to wait for a replacement to arrive, but you’ll also have to reconfigure your lights and settings from scratch. That’s the kind of disturbance that is made all the more irritating due to the fact that it occurred after users updated their software — something that people are often encouraged to do in order to get the latest bug fixes and improvements.

Free replacements

While it’s always unpleasant to see a software update brick your device, Philips Hue has attracted praise for the way it’s responded. Not only has it issued a fix, but the company has promised that “We will replace affected Philips Hue Bridge Pro devices free of charge, regardless of warranty status.”

The decision has proved popular with Hue owners on Reddit, who've noted in one popular thread that it's a rare example of "big company actually making good". Another comment noted: “Considering the RAM prices too those Bridges went up in costs too. W to Philips on this one.”

If you haven’t updated your Philips Hue Bridge Pro for a while and think your device could be vulnerable according to Philips Hue's description, it might be worth getting in touch with the company first before attempting to update. The last thing you want is a bricked product on your hands.

And if you already have been affected, don’t spring for a replacement device just yet. You might be able to get a free replacement from Philips Hue, so be sure to explore that avenue first before spending a dime on anything new.

Philips Hue bulbs are a hugely popular smart lighting solution, and with good reason. But if your setup consists only of Hue bulbs (and a hub), you're missing a trick. The brand makes a range of accessories that can make a major difference to how you use your smart lights, and most are very affordable too. I asked the TechRadar team for some of their favorite cheap smart home upgrades, and almost all the answers I got back were Philips Hue accessories, so I decided it was worthy of its own article.

Entertainment Editor Matt Bolton is a big fan of his Philips Hue Smart Button, a compact, simple, wireless switch. "I stuck the Smart Button on my wall next to my regular light switch, giving me a way to control just the lamps in my living room separate to the other lights," he says. "It's so nice and easy, and no rewiring needed."

Matt also makes use of the Philips Hue Smart Plugs, which can be used to integrate non-smart lights into your Hue ecosystem. "I use the Hue Plugs to add little lamps that are too small for Hue bulbs into my lighting setups," he says. "I also use it for my Christmas tree lights every year, so I can plug them in somewhere awkward, but I can still turn them on and off at will."

Senior News Editor Mark Wilson is a big fan of his Philips Hue Tap Dial Switch. This physical switch has four buttons and a dial, and can control nine different actions; it's a more complex alternative to the Smart Button. "I hate using my phone or voice controls for smart lights. My favorite feature is turning the dial to dim my Hue lights — it's so much better than tapping the buttons on other switches," says Mark. "It’s simple to use, while also being really versatile thanks to those four buttons, which can set scenes in different rooms."

Homes Editor Cat Ellis has a slightly different suggestion: if you're finding regular Hue bulbs too expensive, she recommends checking out the much cheaper Essential range. "I put a regular Philips Hue bulb and a Hue Essential bulb side-by-side in identical lamps, and it was almost impossible to tell the difference when shifting colors — I could only really notice a distinction when dialing down the brightness."

A smarter setup

• Aldi is launching a new outdoor lamp range
• Each lamp is solar-powered and comes in two styles with three color choices
• The cost just £4.99, making them an affordable way to give your garden a glow-up

We’re seeing more and more affordable tech gadgets appearing in the middle aisles of budget supermarkets these days — and if you’re looking to give your garden a summer makeover, Aldi just unveiled a new range of solar-powered garden lights.

The lineup, which goes on sale on July 9, consists of two styles of outdoor table lamp, mushroom-top and flat-top, both of which are available in three colors: black, mint, and beige, so you should be able to find a colour that fits in with your garden decor.

Each lamp costs just £4.99, making them an affordable way to give your garden a glow-up with Aldi proving once again that you don’t need to spend a lot of money on the best smart lights in order to brighten up your home and garden.

Aldi’s new lighting range isn't, of course, in the same ballpark as smart lights from the likes of Philips Hue or Govee. There’s no app and no controls to fiddle with, and because they’re solar powered, placing them in sunny spots in your garden will ensure they have enough juice to last through a whole evening of outdoor dining or partying.

If there’s one thing we’ve learned from national treasure Nigella Lawson is that summer parties aren’t just about good food and drinks — the setting and decor are just as important, and lighting plays a big part in creating the perfect atmosphere.

It’s not only budget brands like Aldi that are jumping on the outdoor lighting bandwagon — if you want app-based features such as the option to change the colour of your lights, the big smart home brands are getting in on the act too.

Govee’s recently released smart string lights marked the brand’s first step into solar lighting costing £119.99. Though this is a little more pricey than the average solar-powered light , Philips stills takes the top spot on the price front — its own Festivia Smart Globe String Lights are one of our favorite garden gadgets for giving your outdoor space an instant lift.

• Nanoleaf announced a new $80 smart ceiling light
• It comes with three different lighting modes and also supports Matter
• It's on sale in the US and Canada now

Nanoleaf has unveiled a new device coming to its range of smart home tech, and it’s a small ceiling light that packs quite a punch.

Yesterday (June 30) the Toronto-based company announced its small 12-inch Nanoleaf Smart Multicolor Ceiling Light on its blog, which is now available to purchase for $79.99 in the US and Canada. We don’t know when or if its new ceiling light will be available internationally, but we’re keeping our eyes peeled for more news.

There’s not an evening spent in my home where the big light is turned on, so having a neat device like Nanoleaf’s new ceiling light is perfect for when you want to set the ambience for an entire room without turning on individual lamps. It can also be wired into your home, easily replacing your existing ceiling light.

As far as its features go, Nanoleaf’s ceiling light packs 19 LEDs and has three modes. ‘Front’ mode projects 2600 lumens of light filling rooms of up to 150 sq. ft, making it ideal for things such as cooking or reading. ‘Back’ mode shines light onto the ceiling to set the mood for times where you want to relax or indulge in a good movie, while ‘Front and Back’ mode is a combination of the two.

We’ve tested an extensive range of the best smart lights from Nanoleaf and there’s a plethora of reasons why we keep going back for more. One of them is its endless color wheel of lighting options, and the new ceiling light is no exception.

Nanoleaf says its ceiling light has roughly 16 million color choices, so I think it’s safe to say that you won’t run short of options when setting the right mood in your home. Additionally, it has a CRI 95 rating which, if you’re unfamiliar with the lingo, means that every color in your room will shine naturally when the light hits. Essentially, this rating is the gold standard.

Ceiling lights have had their time in the spotlight quite a bit recently. Philips, another behemoth in the world of smart lighting, launched an impressive ceiling device that imitates natural sunlight. However, though it looks stellar, it’s very pricey and falls flat on the smart features front, which is where Nanoleaf’s latest device wins.

While the Philips Skylight automatically adjusts daylight temperature as the day goes on, it’s not a smart light in the conventional sense as you can’t connect it to smart home hubs. In the case of Nanoleaf, the ceiling light is Matter compatible and supports Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings, and Alexa smart speakers, allowing you to use voice control to set the mood regardless of which system you’re using.

The other handy trick with the ceiling light is that it can do all the thinking for you when you set schedules, so the mood will automatically change to correspond with your set times. That’s not the only means of control however, the ceiling light can also be used with the Nanoleaf Sense+ switch (sold separately) which uses motion and daylight sensors to take the light’s smarts to the next level.

Despite Philips having the more premium ceiling light, Nanoleaf’s newest addition tackles a lot of pain points from its $500 rival. And yes, it’s not as big or bold, but for the roster of color options, Matter compatibility, and other smart home tools, $80 is quite the steal.

Looking to get started with smart lighting? Philips Hue is probably the brand you're looking at. It's the most prominent name in this market, and with good reason: it makes high-quality and ultra-versatile smart lights, and offers a huge range of products to suit different needs.

Philips Hue lights can, however, be rather pricey — especially if you're looking to kit out several rooms at once. The Amazon Prime Day sales can be a really good opportunity to pick up some Hue kit at a more affordable price, and luckily there's one about to start. The event officially runs through June 23-26, but there are discounts popping up already — and a number of other big retailers are running their own rival sales at the same time.

Below you'll find an explainer on your different Philips Hue bulb options, plus the best deals I've spotted in each category, from Amazon and beyond.

Philips Hue starter kits

Philips Hue bulbs are available as part of 'Starter Kits', which include bulbs (in any of the three light categories detailed above) and a Hue Bridge. The Bridge is essentially the communication hub that all your smart lights connect to, and which unlocks the lights' full gamut of features.

A starter kit is designed to be the most straightforward way to get set up with smart lighting in your home, and will often also be the most cost-effective, too.

US deals

UK deals

Philips Hue bulbs

At the heart of the Philips Hue range are its light bulbs. It makes a wide range of shapes and styles — spotlights, candle-shaped or flattened-off, and regular bulb-shaped bulbs. Most are available in any of Philips Hue's main light categories: White, White ambiance, and White and color ambiance. They'll also be available with different connections to work with different light fittings; double-check your setup before buying.

US deals

UK deals

Philips Hue lamps

Philips Hue makes a selection of indoor and outdoor lamps. I say lamps, but it's really everything from spotlights to light bars to pendant lights, wall washers and wake-up lights — I'm essentially using this as a catch-all term for anything where the bulb and its casing are sold together.

US deals

UK deals

Philips Hue lightstrips

Another main category of Philips Hue light is the LED strip light. These are designed to sit behind your TV, under shelving or behind mirrors to enhance room features and create atmosphere. There are even options that are weatherproof, and can be used outside. You can purchase different lengths (some kinds can be trimmed further), and they have adhesive backing to enable you to simply stick them on a clean, flat surface.

US deals

UK deals

Philips Hue accessories

Finally, Philips Hue makes a selection of accessories to work with its lights. The key one is the Bridge — if you're just purchasing individual lights rather than a Starter kit, you might need to pick one of these up separately in order to unlock the full potential of your smart lighting setup. The brand also makes physical switches and buttons that offer a different way to access your lights' functions outside of the app.

US deals

UK deals

• New Hue Play lamps to expand your immersive lighting
• Upgraded candle bulbs with full-spectrum daylight and Matter compatibility
• New smart switches, including dimmer switches

My house is full of Philips Hue smart bulbs, motion detectors and various flavours of lightstrips, but one thing I haven't been able to do is integrate old-fashioned light fixtures into my hue setup – so for example if you've got a ceiling light that doesn't use the kind of bulbs that can be swapped out for Hue ones, you're out of luck. Or at least, you were. Hue now offers smart light switches that you can use to add non-smart lights to your Hue system.

There are two versions, the Hue Wired On/Off and the Hue Wired Dimmer. Simply swap them for the original light switches and you can then control the appropriate lighting with the Hue app or compatible voice assistants.

The big benefit here is that your non-smart lights can now be included in your Hue groups, and in timed or other triggered events – so for example my Hue setup turns on the living room lights when I'm arriving home after dark. And it's a boon for rooms such as kitchens where – and I'm speaking from experience here – swapping out multiple downlighter bulbs for Hue ones is ruinously expensive.

Just make sure that you put the right sort of switch for the kind of lighting you have: for example some older downlighters aren't designed to be dimmed and can start strobing if they don't get enough power, so you'd need the on/off switch rather than the dimmer for those.

More Play lamps to light up your living room

In addition to the smart switches there are three new models of Play lamps: the Hue Play table lamp, the Hue Play floor lamp compact, and the Hue Play floor lamp large.

The USP of these lamps is that they pair with either the Hue Play HDMI Sync Box or the Hue Sync TV and PC apps to synchronise your lighting with the on-screen action.

I really like the Hue Play system and use it with a lightstrip for TV, movies and gaming; it makes my TV look like an Ambilight one and it's particularly good fun with things like the sunsets in Horizon: Forbidden West, which filled my entire front room with reds and oranges. By adding floor and table lamps to the collection Hue's expanding the scope of a Hue Play system, with the potential to have immersive lighting across even really big rooms.

Last but not least, there are new versions of the Hue candle bulbs. The new version is 40% more energy efficient and as before they're designed to go into decorative lighting, chandeliers and wall sconces. The 2026 version features full-spectrum daylight that closely mimics natural daylight and can be turned into warm or bright tones depending on the time of day, your preferences and your Hue routines.

The new wall switches will be available in the Europe (including the UK) from June 2026. The Hue Play table and floor lamps and the new candle bulbs will also arrive this month, and will be available in North America and "selected other markets" too.

As ever with Hue there are multiple bundles for the bulbs and the price you pay per bulb gets less the more you buy. The prices for the new lamps and switches are:

• Philips Hue wired switch module 1P/2P: £39.99 / £69.99 (about $50 / $90 or AU$80 / AU$130)
• Philips Hue wired dimmer switch 1C: £52.99 (about $70 / AU$100)
• Philips Hue wired relay switch 1C/2C: £44.99 / £49.99 (about $60 / $70 or AU$90)
• Hue Play Table lamp: £69.99 (about $90 / AU$13).
• Hue Play Floor lamp compact: £124.99 (about $170 / AU$240)
• Hue Play Floor lamp large: GBP £129.99 (about $170 / AU$250)

And the price for the candle bulbs will be (W is white, WA is White Ambience and WCA is White and Colour ambience):

• Philips Hue W B39 1P/2P: £19.99 / £29.99 (about $30 / $40 or AU$40 / AU$60)
• Philips Hue WA B39 E14 1P/2P/3P: £29.99 / £44.99 / £59.99 (about $30 / $60 / $80 or AU$40 / AU$90 / AU$110.
• Philips Hue WCA B39 E14 1P/2P/3P: £54.99 / £94.99 / £139.99 (about $70 / $130 / $190 or AU$100 / AU$180 / AU$270

• Philips is launching a ceiling light that mimics the look of a real skylight
• It automatically adjusts daylight temperature as the day goes on
• The skylight looks very realistic, but lacks smart home support

Philips is one of our favorite home lighting brands, and it’s launching a new ceiling light that mimics daylight and creates the effect of a skylight — and it looks spectacular.

The Philips Skylight is designed to replicate natural lighting and outdoor environments indoors, using a blend of advanced LED and Philips’ NatureConnect technologies. Signify, Philips’ manufacturer, says the skylight is “inspired by the natural brightness, depth and rhythm of sunlight”.

It’s a great option for windowless rooms if the design of your roof doesn't allow you to fit a skylight, or you want to save yourself the hassle and expense of having one fitted.

Before now, Signify limited the Philips Skylight to professional settings (offices, medical environments, and so on), but now the ceiling light will be available for everyone when it launches later this month in most regions (Signify says the Skylight be available in the US in September).

The Philips Skylight comes in four models: the Philips Skylight Medium, Philips Skylight Large, Philips Skylight VitaUp Medium, and Philips Skylight VitaUp Large, with prices starting at 499.99 euros (about $580 / £430).

Each variant comes with a slim ceiling profile for mounting, a remote control, five preset lighting scenes, and Philips’ Day Rhythm tool which automatically adjusts color temperature and brightness throughout the day. All models have an IP44 rating, meaning the Philips Skylight can be fitted in bathrooms and other humid environments.

The VitaUp models come with an integrated UV-B module built to support the body’s natural vitamin D production indoors. This also includes a handful of safety measures, including automatic shut-off which happens after eight hours.

In images shared by Philips, the Skylight's outdoor light imitation looks surprisingly convincing, and there are obvious benefits for wellbeing. More people are spending more time indoors and out of natural daylight, so devices like this are becoming increasingly sought after.

However, despite its cleverness, the Philips Skylight is not a Hue product. Philips produces some of the best smart lights out there, but its new ceiling light doesn't offer smart connectivity. This means it doesn’t connect to Wi-Fi or work with Matter over Thread, so you can't integrate it into your existing smart home setup, and you’ll have to use the included remote to control it manually.

Given how impressive the Philips Skylight looks, and its price tag, that's a shame. Let's hope Philips adds smart home connectivity to a future version.

• The IKEA Ankarlägg is a battery-operated light that you can stick anywhere
• Previously only available in Europe, it's now on sale in the US for $3.99
• It detects movement within 10 feet, and switches off when motion stops

If you struggle to see to the back of your closet, or you don't like trying to find your way around in the dark when you're heading for the bathroom, you need the IKEA Ankarlägg — a motion-sensitive LED light that you can stick anywhere, with no wires and no drilling required. Best of all, unlike typical smart light setups, there's no hub or Bluetooth connectivity necessary either. Just insert batteries, stick it up, and it's ready to go.

The Ankarlägg is also a great choice for dark kitchen cupboards, where it will nicely illuminate all your ingredients as soon as you open the door, and turn off automatically after you close it again. The light deactivates after 30 seconds if it doesn't detect any further movement, helping the replaceable AAA batteries last around six months if it's activated 10 times per day.

Reviewers have reported that the light isn't too bright, so they're not dazzled at night if they use it on the stairs or in the bathroom, and it's handy for rooms without windows. They say its "cute" design is a bonus as well.

"I purchased this nightlight to place in my hallway," wrote a reviewer from Canada. "I have no electricity sockets in there and it is really dark at night time. When we have guests staying who are not familiar with our layout (we have a cupboard in the hallway) they were bumping into the cupboard.

"With this light as soon as they open the bedroom door, the light comes on. It is not bright but does have enough light to show where to go. I have ordered a second one for stand by. I really love the light and would recommend it to anyone who needs a little light in a dark space."

Real-world battery life will depend on how often the light is triggered, but when used with IKEA's rechargeable batteries, even frequent use isn't a problem. The most common complaint is that the light's battery compartment is held closed with a screw (likely to prevent children accessing the batteries if it's used as a nightlight in their room), so make sure you have a crosshead screwdriver to hand when it's time to swap them out.

First, let's talk tech. If you're in the market to upgrade your TV for the occasion, we have a separate guide to how to choose a TV for the World Cup. Personally, though, when it comes to watch parties, I'm all about a projector. The Xgimi Mogo 4 and Mogo 3 Pro are both great options. They have built-in speakers, but if you want to beef up the sound, you could add in a Bluetooth desktop speaker like the Pebble Nova or Sonos Era 100.

To really amp up the festive atmosphere, you could add some smart lighting into the mix. Combine the Philips Hue Sync Box and Play Light Strip and the effects will match up to what's going on on screen, or string up some Govee Smart Outdoor String Lights, which can sync to sound.

Then it's time to get your refreshments sorted. With its two generously-sized drawers, the Ninja Double Stack air fryer is ideal for low-effort, large-scale catering. You can set it to automatically time the two baskets to finish cooking at the same time, and it'll switch itself off automatically when the food is done. That means there's no clock-watching needed, and you'll never have to sprint out of the room to turn the oven off when the on-screen competition is just heating up. The same brand's Woodfire electric pizza oven and Slushi cold drinks machine are also reliable winners when it comes to party catering.

Scroll down for more watch party picks for a top-tier international soccer season. And if you're confident you know who's going to take home the trophy this year, enter our TechRadar World Cup Members Club competition to be in with the chance of winning a $500 Amazon gift card, plus a year's Norton VPN subscription.

Watch party winners

• Camera-based so no sync box required
• TV sync and AI-based lighting designer
• From $89.99 / £89.99 (about AU$126)

If you fancy a Philips Hue-style lightstrip for your TV but don't want to splash out on a sync box or sacrifice lighting quality, Lepro may have just the strip for you. Its new STV1 lightstrip promises accurate color reproduction to extend your movie, show or game beyond the edge of your TV without complex installation or extra hardware.

I'm a big fan of lightstrips — I'm on my second Hue setup and use it daily for movies, TV shows and gaming — but the combination of a sync box and a lightstrip or other synchronized lighting isn't cheap. Lepro's approach is simpler and considerably less expensive, with the 55- to 65-inch version coming in at a very reasonable $89.99 / £89.99 (about AU$126).

The difference is that this is a camera-based system, and Lepro says it has key features that differentiate itself from other camera-based lighting strips.

Lepro STV1 lightstrip: is this the perfect accessory for your big-screen TV?

The STV1 has a two-in-one design that combines the camera and controller in a single device. The camera is a fisheye ultra-wide-angle lens with a very wide field of view – over 180 degrees – that enables it to capture color from screens up to 85 inches. Lepro says it responds up to 36% faster than similar camera-based setups.

If you've used fisheye lenses you'll know they distort shapes, but Lepro has thought of that. There's automatic distortion correction and zone mapping to get the captured image into the correct proportions, enabling the controller to deliver the right colors to the right parts of the lightstrip.

In addition to syncing with the on-screen action the STV1 can also listen to music, creating wave-like rhythm lighting rather than just flashing in time to the kick drum. It also comes with a prompt-based lighting designer that can turn your commands into lighting scenes to match whatever you plan to watch.

The STV1 comes in two sizes: 55 to 65 inches for $89.99 / £89.99, and 75 to 85 inches for $109.99. Both versions are on sale now directly from Lepro and from retailers including Amazon in the US, although at the moment only the 55-65 inch version is listed on Lepro's UK site.

I suspect this won't be as accurate as a Hue strip (or an Ambilight TV) but from the videos Lepro's given us it looks to be nice and responsive across a wide range of colors. I'm a big fan of synchronized lighting and this looks like a much more affordable alternative to more premium-priced products.

• Philips' new TV light sync box uses WiZ rather than Hue
• Includes 4K 120Hz passthrough, so you don't lose use of a key TV port
• £129 to £149 including lightstrip; US launch TBC

Signify has launched a new Philips HDMI sync box, but it's not for the Philips Hue range: it's part of the Philips Smart Lighting range, and uses smart technology from WiZ instead.

That's good news, because Hue is positioned as a premium product with prices to match, and Wiz is much cheaper. My Hue Play Sync Box, while excellent, is also very expensive: it had an official price of £299 / $349 at launch, although it's widely discounted now. The new sync box is £129 to £149.

The new product is called the Philips Smart Lighting HDMI Sync Box 2.1 and it comes with a bundled lightstrip in a choice of two sizes, one for TVs from 55 to 65 inches and one for TVs of 75 to 85 inches.

What's the difference between Philips Smart Lighting Sync and Hue Sync?

The Philips Smart Lighting HDMI 2.1 Sync Box isn't designed to work with any Hue system or the Hue app. It's a purely WiZ affair, and uses WiZ's app. The only thing that isn't WiZ is the branding, presumably because Philips has better brand cachet.

In terms of what the box offers, it's much the same as the Hue I love so much (or one of Philips' Ambilight TVs, which basically have a smart lightstrip built in). You connect it to your TV and it changes the lightstrip to match what's going on on screen, making the image feel larger and more immersive.

I particularly like mine when I'm gaming: playing Horizon: Forbidden West was spectacular with in-game sunsets.

Signify is also expanding the Philips Smart Lighting range with other products including gradient floor lights and bars, table lamps and multiple flexible strips, with models up to 20m long for the European market and in the UK, models with 5m lengths. All of these new products are much more affordable than the equivalent Hues, so for example the cheapest lightstrip will be £23.99.

The new products will all launch in the UK and Europe in June 2026. They'll be coming to other countries too, but launch dates and prices haven't been announced just yet.

• Smart multicolor solar lighting with app control
• Up to 50 lumens of white light output
• Fast charging and up to 13 hours of illumination

If, like me, you love solar garden lighting but hate the poor quality options on the shelves of so many shops, Govee would like to offer an alternative: the new Outdoor Solar String Lights, Govee's first venture into solar lighting.

These aren't the 10- or 20-buck strings you'll find in a supermarket or similar store that might last one season if you're lucky; they're a more premium product with app control. better batteries, better environmental protection and a two-year warranty. And they look pretty awesome too.

There's another big advantage to these lights: because they're solar you don't have to be tethered to a power supply. And that means your party lights are can go camping or anywhere else you want to add some atmosphere after dark.

Govee Outdoor Solar String Lights: is it worth paying a premium for your solar strings?

The problem with cheap solar lights is that they're not built to last, and as a result I end up buying new string lights every spring because last year's lot have succumbed to the weather. Govee's version comes with IP67 rating for weather and environmental resistance, so they're made for longer life. They also feature larger batteries and faster charging than standard solar, with a 6W corrosion-resistant panel that charges 50% faster than standard 4W panels.

You can expect up to 13 hours of illumination after the sun goes down and the battery is rated to deliver 93% capacity after 300 charge cycles, so it should last a long time.

The lights are LED, of course, and they're RGBICW. That means you get to use RGB, cool white and warm white too, so you can get your space just-so. However, it's worth noting that to create the nice lighting shown in some of the marketing images you'll need several strings: there are eight bulbs per string, with a 34-foot cable length. If you need longer you might be better off with Govee's plug-in strings, which aren't solar; they run at 48 or 96 feet with 15 bulbs.

The app gives you the same kind of control you'd expect from Govee's smart lights, with millions of possible color combinations including pastels as well as party colors. There's up to 50 lumens of output with white light, and it's all controlled through the Govee Home app so you can create lighting groups, set timers and choose from over 100 presets.

At $99 the Govee Outdoor Solar String lights cost a fair bit more than most solar lighting, especially if you need more than one string. But they're clearly a much classier proposition with much more customization and flexibility, as well as what should be decent stamina too.

• Philips Hue are getting a new Sports Live feature for the World Cup
• It will sync Hue smart lights to the action during games
• You don't need any extra hardware, just the lights and the Hue app

As a long-time Philips Hue user, and a big fan of this brand of smart lights, I'm looking forward to trying out a newly announced Sports Live feature during the World Cup — as long as it doesn't signal goals before they've actually happened.

Philips Hue lights have long been able to change color and brightness based on what's happening on a TV screen, but you need a compatible television or an HDMI Sync Box to get the feature. With Sports Live the lights change in real-time based on "live match data", with no additional hardware required.

That's according to the announcement from Philips Hue parent company Signify. Apparently the lights will shift for "key moments" such as goals, yellow cards, and red cards, during the soccer World Cup 2026.

"Easy to set up and in time for the world's biggest football event of the year, soccer at home has never felt so real," says Signify, though it sounds as though the feature is only going to be available for this one upcoming tournament, which starts on Thursday, June 11. That's a disappointment.

No spoilers please

It's also going to be interesting to see how this works. The live match data comes straight from the web to the Hue app, so presumably you'll need to tell the app when you've actually started watching it – and give your smart lights a heads up if you decide to pause or rewind the action at any point.

I don't want to be in a situation where my smart lights are flashing to tell me England have scored (or conceded, which is perhaps more likely), while the action on my TV screen is still several seconds behind.

"The system allows users to fine-tune timings to account for minor broadcasting delays," according to Signify. "If users choose to pause the action, lighting effects are also paused and — upon resuming — sync to current, live match events for a consistent and accurate real-time experience."

Sports Live will support an unlimited number of smart lights apparently, and there will be a certain level of customization on offer: you'll be able to select your favorite team, and its main strip color will be used as part of the suite of smart lighting effects.

IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp: two-minute review

IKEA's color-shifting Varmblixt smart lamp, with its donut-shaped frosted glass diffuser, makes a striking focal point. It's easy to operate using the switch included in the box, and it casts a soft glow whether you use it on a table or mounted on a wall.

The Varmblixt was designed by Dutch artist Sabine Marcelis and comes with a preset palette of pastel hues designed to complement its curves. Pressing the button on its remote once will turn it on, and double-pressing will switch to the next shade in the sequence.

This works well straight out of the box (and handing it to visitors so they can change the mood lighting during dinner is fun), but the Varmblixt really comes into its own when used with the IKEA Home Smart mobile app. This lets you choose from a much larger range of colors, adjust the lamp's brightness, and link it to other IKEA smart devices such as motion sensors and scroll wheel switches.

You can even incorporate it into a mix-and-match smart home setup using the Matter protocol. To do this, you'll need IKEA's Dirigera smart hub, so be prepared for that extra expense if you want to use the Varmblixt's smart capabilities.

Connecting the Varmblixt to the Home Smart app wasn't quite as straightforward as it should have been and involved some trial and error. You should be able to link any IKEA smart home device by scanning the QR code on the item or its packaging, but the app failed to connect to the Varmblixt (or the Bilresa switches I later used to control it).

I eventually found that I could get around the problem by waiting for the connection failure notification to appear in the app, then selecting the option to connect without Bluetooth. The lamp and switches were then linked to the app without a hitch.

Once your devices are linked, IKEA's app is extremely simple to use and is a good introduction to smart home tech. Unlike the Philips Hue app, which gives you granular control over every switch and light in your home, linking a device to IKEA Home Smart works immediately, with a limited but useful set of options.

Once you've linked the Varmblixt lamp, you'll find that you can pick from a much broader palette of colors, although the hues selected by Sabine Marcelis are highlighted so you can find them easily. Alternatively, you can use a color wheel to choose the shade you want.

The lamp doesn't offer as many colors as a Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance bulb, but its smooth shape and frosted diffuser mean it's effective at setting a mood with indirect lighting.

You can even set the Varmblixt to change colors on a schedule. The default 'adaptive' option changes the light temperature during the day, so it becomes cooler during working hours and warmer in the evening when you want to unwind, but it's also possible to create your own timed color changes.

When you connect a controller to the Varmblixt, there's no need to spend time configuring what each button should do; again, it works right away. When I linked it to a Bilresa dimmer switch, I found that the wheel was pre-programmed to control the light's brightness.

Overall, the IKEA Varmblixt lamp is a pleasure to use, and a real conversation-starter when you have guests. App setup can be a bit fiddly and requires IKEA's smart home hub, but it works very well with the remote alone.

• Performance score: 4/5

IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp: price and availability

IKEA first showed the Varmblixt smart lamp at the CES tech show in January 2026, and the donut-shaped light went on sale in the US and Europe in March of the same year. It's not available in Australia at the time of writing, but it might be released more widely later in 2026.

It's priced at $99 / £55 (about AU$140), which is about standard for a color-changing smart lamp without additional features like music or media synchronizing. For example, the Govee Table Lamp 2 is $69.99 / £69.99 (about AU$100).

However, if you want to use the smart functions and choose from a wider array of colors, you'll also need IKEA's Dirigera smart hub, which costs an additional $109 / £70 / AU$129, so you'll need to be sure that you want to invest in IKEA's wider smart home system first.

• Value score: 4/5

IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp: design

This is a new take on the original donut-shaped Varmblixt lamp, which was released in 2022. This lamp (also designed by Sabine Marcellis) had a glossy orange surface that cast warm light into the room. The 2026 Varmblixt replaces this with a white frosted glass diffuser and cycles through a palette of pastel colors selected by the designer.

The Varmblixt lamp has a flat base so you can use it on a table, and a hole in the backplate so you can mount it on a wall (though be aware that it's a wired lamp, so you'll need to place it near an electrical outlet).

The lamp is wired and is supplied with one of IKEA's standard Bilresa remote controls, which takes two AAA batteries (not included).

• Design score: 5/5

Should you buy the IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp: also consider

How I tested the IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp

I tested the Varmblixt lamp with the remote control included in the box, switching between all the preset colors, and then connected it to the IKEA Home Smart app using a Dirigera hub. I used all the color and scheduling options in the app, comparing it with a Philips Hue Wall Washer lamp. I also tried controlling the lamp using an IKEA Bilresa dimmer switch with a scroll wheel.

First tested April 2026

IKEA showed off a new range of furniture at Milan Design Week, including an inflatable chair that's turning heads and dropping jaws. The IKEA PS 2026 Easy Chair is a far cry from the uncomfortable, tacky plastic inflatables of the 1990s. Instead, this super lightweight armchair consists of two cushions covered in soft green fabric, with a chrome-colored carbon steel frame. It can be inflated with a foot pump, and you can add more air for a firm feel, or less if you want a soft seat.

The chair will be available in IKEA's online store on May 21, so there's plenty of time to think about how to style it in your home. It's a striking piece, so I'd choose to make it the star, using light oak veneer furniture as a base, and building around it with chrome and green accents.

Light fittings are a great way to add a pop of color, and the Spetsboj Table Lamp provides a little splash of green that should perfectly match the armchair. For ambient lighting, I've also picked Simrishamn ceiling and floor lights that match the chair's curvy chrome frame, with frosted opal diffusers to prevent the room looking clinical.

I'd finish the look with Fejka artificial potted plants, which soften the look even further while complementing the chair's striking green upholstery. Would you do something different? Let me know in the comments.

Green, chrome, and oak

There's a new statement piece in my living room — one that grabs everyone's attention when they visit — and nobody ever guesses it's from IKEA. The new smart version of the Varmblixt LED lamp launched earlier this year, and is a guaranteed conversation-starter that costs only $99.99 / £55.

The donut-shaped lamp can be placed on a table or mounted on a wall, where its frosted glass diffuser casts a soft halo of light. It was designed by artist Sabine Marcelis, who also picked out a palette of pastel shades to suit its soft curves.

You can switch between these colors by simply double-clicking a button on the remote control supplied in the box — and it's fun handing the controller to friends and seeing their smiles and the light shifts from one subtle shade to the next.

Want more options? If you have IKEA's Dirigera hub, you can control the Varmblixt through the IKEA Home Smart app, which gives you access to a full spectrum of colors, lets you set the light color to change on a schedule, and allows you to link it to other devices, including sensors and switches.

If you're feeling really adventurous, you can even control it using Apple HomeKit or Google Home — and this week, IKEA added support for SmartThings, so you can operate your Varmblixt and other devices through your Samsung smart TV.

Some people have reported problems connecting the Varmblixt lamp to the app, and there appears to be a bug when trying to link it via Bluetooth. Choose the option to connect without Bluetooth, however, and it should work perfectly.

What makes IKEA's app so special is its simplicity. I'm a fan of Philips Hue lights, but I'll admit that they can be time-consuming to set up, particularly if you want to use switches and sensors. IKEA's smart home system makes things a lot easier because you don't need to program the switch and decide which button should do what. Just follow the on-screen instructions to link the switch to the lamp, and it just works.

I've also used the lamp with one of IKEA's Bilresa smart switches, which have a large dial that you can turn with your thumb or press like a button. When connected to the Varmblixt lamp, double-pressing this dial changes the light color, and rotating it adjusts its brightness. Again, there's no complicated setup necessary.

Having used the Varmblixt lamp for a while, I think it looks most striking when mounted on a wall, and you can have it up and running in a couple of minutes. It's given a relatively dull room a whole new look, and I can't wait to have more people round to show it off.

IKEA has just launched a new motion-activated LED light that you can stick anywhere, and doesn't require a smart home hub. The IKEA Gömpyssling light is completely wireless, and best of all, it's super cheap — just $4.99 for a pair of two

They're incredibly handy — you can use them as nightlights in your kids' rooms, stick one in the bathroom so you don't dazzle yourself if you need to fetch a drink in the night, stick them in your kitchen cabinets so you can see all the spices at the back, or put some in your closet so you can get a better view of your clothes in the morning.

Cleverly, IKEA has designed each light with the LED angled downwards, so it illuminates whatever is underneath. They will turn off automatically after 10 seconds have passed with no motion detected

It's a much quicker and easier option than using a smart light paired with a motion sensor, which would also require a smart home hub, and would cost a lot more for the same result.

If you're worried about electronic waste, you'll be pleased to know that that the little Gömpyssling lights use replaceable AA batteries, so you don't need to throw them out when they start to dim. Pick up a Stenkol charger with four Ladda batteries for $18.98 and you can keep your home beautifully lit for years to come.

More bright ideas

The Gömpyssling lights aren't the only new additions to IKEA's collection of LED lamps. There are new designs for every room in your home, and I've picked a collection of my favorites right here.

Summer is just around the corner, and IKEA has just launched a new set of kitchenware that's got me in the mood for lazy camping trips and long evenings with friends in the great outdoors.

The new Soluppgång range is packed with accessories, furniture, and lighting ideas that wouldn't look out of place in the backcountry, and as TechRadar's Homes Editor, I'm in love.

I love lighting that sets the mood for entertaining, so one of my favorite pieces in the new Soluppgång collection is the LED lantern, which is wireless so you can use it indoors or out, and dimmable so you can use it to illuminate your table while you eat, then turn it down for a cozier feel while you relax afterwards.

I also adore the new bamboo cooler basket, which is insulated to keep your drinks and snacks cool when you're dining in the garden, but looks like a wicker picnic basket. It's a lot more elegant than a chunky plastic cooler, and is the perfect partner to the new folding table and folding stool, both of which are made from natural eucalyptus. Read on for more of my top picks.

Get back to nature

Want to take your outdoor entertaining a step further? Take a look at the Ninja Woodfire Pro Collect XL, which is an electric air fryer and grill that uses pellets of wood to give your food an authentic smoky flavor, and the Nanoleaf Solar Garden Lights, which look like beautiful bunches of glowing tulips growing from your planters and flower beds, and are fully wireless.

Take a look at our roundups of the best air fryers and best smart lights for even more options tested and recommended by our team of experts.

Philips Hue Omniglow: one-minute review

The Philips Hue Omniglow is the best Hue lightstrip yet. It's a classier kind of LED strip: where other models have visible LEDs, the Omniglow delivers seamless color gradients and smoothly moving light effects. The results are very impressive and the Hue app makes it easy to select, edit or create scenes either solo or as part of a wider Hue setup. If you've already got a Hue system you can add it in seconds and then include it in your scenes and automations. As with other Hue lights you'll need a Philips Hue Bridge or Bridge Pro to access advanced features such as custom scenes and smart home integration.

The Omniglow is easy to install and set up, although if you're mounting it up high you might curse the short power cable. The only real downside is the length: you can shorten the Omniglow but not extend it, and longer versions are not widely available in the UK or US. While European customers can choose between 3m, 5m and 10m models, the US and UK are currently limited to the 3m model only.

Philips Hue Omniglow: price and availability

• On sale from November 2025
• $139.99 / £119.99 / AU$279.99 (3m)

The Philips Hue Omniglow was announced in September 2025 and went on sale in November 2025. There are three sizes, but only the 3m model is available everywhere. That has a recommended price tag of $139.99 / £119.99 / €139.99 / AU$279.99.

Europe and Australia also get a longer 5m version, which costs €199.99 / AU$399. And in Europe there's a 10m version with a price tag of $349.99. The same 10m version was listed with a UK price of £349.99 but at the time of writing it's showing as as "not currently available" on the Philips website.

Philips Hue Omniglow: design

• RGB, warm white and cool white
• Seamless color and gradients
• Cuttable but not extendable

The Omniglow is a RGBWWIC design, which means it combines RGB, warm white, cool white and independent control in a single light source. Unlike other Hue lightstrips you can't see the individual LEDs; it's designed to deliver seamless whites, colors and gradients, which it does very well. That makes it look much more classy than lesser lightstrips.

The strip is 17mm wide and 8.5mm high and consists of multiple 12.5cm sections, each of which has 6 LEDs that can be individually controlled – so you can get twinkly lights and motion effects as well as solid color and gradients.

This lightstrip can be cut shorter at pre-defined 12.5cm spaces but any bit you remove can't be re-used or replaced later. Unlike previous Hue lightstrips the Omniglow can't be (officially) extended with additional sections, although inevitably some Hue fans have come up with warranty-voiding DIY solutions.

There are double-sided adhesive strips along the full length of the Omniglow, but you may want to use something more permanent if you're putting the strip in a place where it'll have to battle gravity; in my experience the adhesive that comes with Hue strips tends to be rather weak, and this lightstrip is quite heavy. The power supply is also very short, with just over 1m between the plug socket and the beginning of your lightstrip, and you're going to want to support the weight of the power brick.

Design score: 4/5

Hue Omniglow review: features

• Three-stage gradients
• Moving and flickering lights
• Great integration with other Hue lights

The Omniglow delivers the promised seamless gradients, and it also brings a feature across from the Festivia string lights in the form of moving lights. That enables you to pick a moving scene such as a fireplace, candle glow or looped color change, and you can tweak those scenes in the Hue app to adjust their speed or intensity. It's very smooth and very impressive.

The app offers very basic control via Bluetooth but for access to advanced features such as syncing and smart home integration you'll need a Hue Bridge or Hue Bridge Pro. That gives you the full range of customization, per-light settings and the ability to create your own custom moving gradients and flickering effects.

Features score: 5/5

Philips Hue Omniglow: performance

• Up to 2,700 lumens
• Seamless color
• Beautifully smooth transitions

If you're familiar with Hue lightstrips the first thing you'll notice about the Omniglow is how bright it is. It's much brighter than standard Hue lightstrips, delivering up to 2,700 lumens of brightness compared to the 1,700 lumens of a Hue Solo of the same length.

If you can get the 5m or 10m models they are more powerful still, putting out up to 4,500 lumens. That means the Omniglow isn't just a decorative lightstrip. You can also use it to illuminate spaces such as stairs or feature walls.

Performance score: 5/5

Philips Hue Omniglow: should you buy it?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Philips Hue Omniglow: also consider

There are multiple lightstrips for Hue, some of them much more affordable – so for example the Hue Gradient Lightstrip is much cheaper. Govee is the main rival in this space with very affordable products including the bendable, cuttable COB Strip Light Pro, the very cheap RGBIC LED Strip and several rope light models.

How I tested the Philips Hue Omniglow

I've been all-in on Hue lights for more than a decade, and my home currently features a mix of smart lights including two Hue gradient lightstrips, various Hue bulbs, a Hue motion sensor and Hue Festavia string lights, all controlled via the Hue app, Apple Home and Siri. I added the Omniglow to my living room setup and Hue Bridge and used it as both decorative lighting and functional lighting, controlling it alongside my existing lights and scenes.

First reviewed March 2026

This year, one of the biggest sleep trends is ‘dark showering’ — turning down the lights while bathing in the evening to get your body and mind ready to rest. The idea isn’t brand new, but as the seasons change and nights get shorter in the northern hemisphere, it makes sense that people are trying to optimize their bedtimes.

As the Guardian explains, the idea is to block out distractions, calm your nervous system, and practice mindfulness before bed. According to sleep scientists, it can have real benefits, with warm water reducing your core body temperature and low light signaling that it’s time to get ready to sleep, causing the release of melatonin.

If you want to try dark showering (or bathing if you prefer the tub), smart lights are a good way to do it. You can schedule them to dim to help you get into a regular routine, and set the brightness so you’re still safe in the bathroom.

That’s not the only way lighting can help you get a better night’s rest, though. I asked an expert from Signify — the company behind Philips Hue and WiZ smart lights — for some recommendations to help you get more out of your smart lamps and bulbs in the evening, and again in the morning when it’s time to rise and shine.

“Light is one of the most important environmental signals influencing the body’s internal clock, also known as the circadian rhythm,” said Signify’s spokesperson. “This biological system helps regulate sleep–wake cycles and responds strongly to changes in light throughout the day.

“Exposure to brighter and cooler-toned light in the evening can delay the body’s natural transition toward sleep, while lower light levels and warmer tones are generally associated with more relaxing environments before bedtime.

“Because of this, we recommend reducing brightness and using warmer light settings during the evening hours. These lighting conditions resemble the natural decrease in daylight after sunset and can help create a calmer atmosphere that supports bedtime routines.

Smart sunsets

I’ve tested a lot of sleep tech over the years, and I’ve found wake-up lamps are particularly tricky to get right. Ideally, the light shouldn’t wake you the moment it comes on; instead, it should brighten very gradually, like dawn through the canvas when you’re camping.

In my experience, many of them simply can’t dim low enough to wake me gently. Worse still are the lights with ‘nature’ sounds that are looping snippets of audio — usually only a few seconds long - that sound horribly compressed. It’s not a great way to start the day.

If you're on a budget, the Beurer Wake Up Light WL50 is a good option. It offers a broad spectrum of light temperatures, meaning it can wake you with warm light that gradually brightens and then cools, and it dims lower than most other lights in its price bracket (under $100 / £70 / AU$150).

I recommend skipping its wake-up noises, but it doubles as a radio and Bluetooth speaker, so you can connect it to your phone and wake up to your chosen music as a backup in case the light alone isn't enough to rouse you.

The lamp that’s working for me right now is the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer, which casts indirect light by shining onto a wall rather than directly into the room, and offers extremely low dimming. If you also want a light that can double as a reading lamp, the Philips Hue Twilight could be the one for you. It’s not quite as versatile as the Wall Washer (it can’t be connected to a Philips Hue Play HDMI Sync Box and used as part of an entertainment system, for example), but it provides you with focused white light that lets you enjoy a few pages of your favorite book before turning in for the night.

The Philips Hue app provides sunrise and sunset automations that can be triggered at a specific time or upon a particular event. I wake up at the same time most days, so the sunrise is on a timer, but bedtimes can vary, so the ‘Go to sleep’ automation is triggered by a smart switch attached to my bedside table.

“By allowing Philips Hue users to schedule gradual light transitions in the evening and morning, the system helps create consistent daily lighting routines that align more closely with natural light patterns,” explains Signify’s spokesperson.

If you want to get creative with your lighting, Google Home and Alexa+ let you describe the type of lighting you want using natural language — so you could ask for soft evening light, or a dim glow for your night time shower routine, whichever smart lights you own.

• The IKEA Skaftsärv is an LED gradient light costing $6.99 / £4 (about AU$8)
• It looks similar to the Philips Hue Play Gradient Light Bar, but can't mirror colors from a TV screen
• The WiZ Gradient Light Bar is an affordable alternative that can sync to a TV

IKEA has just launched a new lamp that looks strikingly similar to a popular Philips Hue light, but at a tiny fraction of the price. The IKEA Skaftsärv is available in the UK for just $6.99 / £4 (about AU$8), and each one has three lighting zones that can cast a colorful glow onto your walls or shine into the room.

As our colleagues at T3 note, it bears an uncanny resemblance to the Philips Hue Play Light Bar, and if you like the idea of making your home cinema system more immersive but have been put off by the price tag, you might be tempted to snag a pair of Skaftsärvs instead — but there's something you should know first.

Although the Skaftsärv can shift colors in response to music, and is dimmable, there's no way to connect it to your TV or PC monitor to extend the colors from the screen. It's impressive considering how little it costs, but it's only a decorative lamp, not a smart light.

By contrast, the Philips Hue Play Light Bar can be used to add ambience to a room, or to create an Amblight-style effect around and behind your TV when connected to a Philips Hue HDMI Sync Box. Up to three Light Bars can be connected to the same power supply.

You can control your Light Bars via the Philips Hue app, and like all Philips Hue devices, they are compatible with all the major smart home ecosystems so you can operate them with voice commands, connect them to your other smart devices, and use them in automations. Take a look at our Philips Hue Play Light Bar review to find out more.

Lighting for less

If the Philips Hue light is outside your budget, but you want something that will provide a similar experience, take a look at the WiZ Gradient Light Bars, which cost just $59.99 / £54.99, and work in a very similar way when linked to a WiZ HDMI Sync Box.

Although they use different technologies, both Philips Hue and WiZ smart lights are made by the same company (Signify), so you can be confident that you're getting good quality. In fact, our reviewer Abigail Shannon gave the WiZ Gradient Light Bars a near-perfect four and a half stars out of five thanks to their ease of use, versatility, and smooth color gradient. Check out our full WiZ Gradient Light Bars review for more details.