Josh Hendrickson
Last year, Signify (the parent company behind Philips Hue), took the wraps off of a new series of smart lights, the Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip. But that initial entry focused on the TV. Now, new Gradient lights will expand that offering, under the TV, and in other rooms.
The first new Gradient light is meant for the TV, although this time it doesn’t attach to your television set and it enhances the previous Play gradient lightstrip. That lightstrip only wraps around three sides of the TV, leaving the bottom without lighting. That’s fine if you keep your TV on a stand, but it stands out if you mount your TV on the wall.
The new Play gradient light tube goes under your television and blasts light up at an angle. It has adjustable feet so you can pick the best angle based on the height of your TV. You can use it standalone, but combined with the Play gradient lightstrip, you’ll get accurate ambiance lighting all around your television.
The Play gradient light tube will launch on January 18th for $179.99.
Stepping away from the TV, the Play ambiance gradient lightstrip will release on October 1st. Unlike the original lightstrip, this one goes anywhere in your home and doesn’t require a sync box. It uses the Philips Hue app instead to adjust colors, and even match the day cycle. Like the original lightstrip, it has addressable LEDs so it can show many colors on one strip. It will cost $169.99 for a two-meter strip, and $69.99 for one-meter extensions.
If you need even more color, the Philips Hue gradient Signe floor and table lamps come in black or white models and can blast out colors in the same fashion as the rest of the gradient line. They release on October 1st, and the table lamp will cost $199.99 while the floor lamp will set you back, $299.99.
To go along with all the new colorful strips, Philips Hue will also release an update to its app that integrates Spotify. Connect your free or premium Spotify account and you can sync your lights to the music. Your lights will react to the beat and even behave differently depending on the genre of the song.
And returning to the TV world, the Philips Hue sync box will soon see an update to assist gaming. Currently, the sync box can only handle 60 Hz refresh, which locks down the latest console capabilities. With the new update, the sync box will gain 120 Hz support, albeit at 1080p resolution. If you prefer 4K gaming, you can opt to step back to 60 Hz. The update will arrive sometime in Fall 2021 and will be free for existing sync box owners.
