A preview listing for what appears to be the successor to the Philips Hue Play light bar has appeared on the UK’s Amazon site. The new Philips Hue Play Smart Wall Washer also emits an ambient glow on the walls that can be synchronized with music and video, but illuminates a larger area with better color reproduction than its predecessor thanks to “precisely positioned LEDs.”
The Hue Wall Washer is a significant improvement over the Light Bar, but it also costs significantly more. The Light Bar currently retails for $69.99 (normally $89.99) or in a two-pack for $159.99, while a single Wall Washer unit costs £199.99, or about $270, according to Hueblog. It is expected to be released within the next four months.
With a design similar to Philips’ Hue Twilight smart dawn lamp, but without the forward-facing bedside lamp feature, the Hue Play Smart Wall Washer projects up to 1035 lumens of white or colored light, which the company says “covers three times the surface area with colored light than other wall sinks,” no matter how far from the wall you place it. This is achieved by using Philips ColorCast technology, which directs the LEDs diagonally upwards.
Standing just over 6 inches tall and 3.5 inches wide, the luminaire can be placed behind or next to a TV, and because it is made of brushed aluminum rather than shiny reflective plastic, Philips claims that it “does not trap glare from the TV on the luminaire itself.”
Despite being more than twice as bright as the Philips Hue Play Light Bar (which offers 500 lumens of illumination), the new wall lamp is “ultra-low brightness” so it can be used to create a subtle lighting effect or even as a night light. It’s also Bluetooth-compatible (there’s no mention of Zigbee support on Amazon’s listing at this time) and can be controlled by voice commands via Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa.
