Philips Hue, the smart lighting system that can be set to any of millions of colors and be controlled with your voice and smartphone, is expanding to include outdoor lighting options.
A new line of weatherproof spotlights and lanterns will let you bathe your outdoor spaces in all manner of shades, adding dramatic lighting to your prized flowerbeds, and added security to less-well illuminated corners of your property.
Both white-only and color-changing models will be available. The colorful wall-mountable Lily spotlight and Calla pedestal lamp will each let you set them to one of 16 million different colors, while the Lucca, Tuar, Ludere and Turaco will offer only white shades.
Smart gardening
The Philips Hue outdoor range can be controlled in just the same way as the indoor options, meaning that dimming controls, color changing and voice commands through the likes of Amazon's Alexa Echo devices are all capable.
Security features make even more sense in an outdoor environment too – lighting is a known deterrent against burglaries, with Hue's Home & Away function letting you set up a timed lighting routine to give the impression of your presence even when you're absent from a property. GPS smarts also mean that you'll be able to set your outdoor lights to automatically come on as you approach your home.
While Hue's other bulbs have gone global, it's worth noting that, for the time being at least are limited to US and European territories. That puts the Lily and Calla at $280/€299 and $130/€140 respectively, while the US-exclusive Hue White lamps will be priced from $50. We'll update with news of localised pricing for the UK and Australia once they become available.
