Good lighting firm Hue has launched a brand new model of its Smart Button, one of many easiest methods of controlling Hue’s colourful good lights. The brand new Good Button has an even bigger design and a little bit of worth hike — within the U.S., a minimum of, the place it now prices $32.99 in comparison with $29.99 for its predecessor. That’s considerably greater than the UK and EU pricing for the brand new button — £19.99 and €21.99 respectively — probably an indication of issues to return.
A Zigbee machine, the Hue button will be programmed to regulate any single or group of Hue mild bulbs and fixtures via the Hue app. In line with Philips Hue’s web site, the button “lets you set off scenes based mostly on time of day, or cycle via a range. Press and maintain to dim and brighten your lights, and even set it to begin an automation.” This is similar performance because the prior mannequin, which means all that seems to have modified is the design and the worth.
The brand new button is nearly twice the dimensions, with a 45mm diameter (about 1.8 inches) versus 32mm (about 1.3 inches). It’s now extra angular and flatter, versus the extra bulbous model of the prior mannequin. It additionally doesn’t include a big plastic wall plate that resembles a typical mild swap – useful for people who find themselves used to utilizing common switches. As an alternative, it solely comes with a small metallic plate to magnetically connect the button to the wall, in line with HueBlog’s hands-on with the button.
The Hue button makes use of the identical CR2032 battery, which, in line with Hue, ought to final for 2 years. HueBlog known as out the battery for being rather a lot simpler to switch on this new button than on the earlier one.
I reviewed the first generation of the button when it launched in 2019 for $24.99, and it’s lengthy been certainly one of my favourite simple methods to regulate Hue lights. An update in 2023 added extra management choices, together with the flexibility to cycle via Hue’s pure mild scenes based mostly on time of day, so you can get the proper sort of tunable white mild for the time of day with only one press.
I like the concept of a barely bigger design, which could possibly be simpler to make use of, however the truth that it’s costlier within the States than within the EU and UK is a worrying signal.
Hue is already probably the most costly good lighting manufacturers, and based mostly on an email the company sent to customers earlier this month, it could be getting much more costly — a minimum of for these of us on this aspect of the pond. In line with the promotional message I bought on June ninth, Hue’s “costs go up on July 1.”
The observe concerning the worth enhance seems to have only been sent to US customers, indicating the rise could also be as a consequence of Trump’s tariffs. We’ve reached out to Signify (Philips Hue’s guardian firm) to verify and to search out out which merchandise will likely be affected.