Amazon’s UK site has an early listing for what appears to be a successor to the Philips Hue Play Light Bar. The new Philips Hue Play Smart Wall Washer also casts an ambient glow on walls that can be synced to music and videos, but illuminates a wider area with better color output than its predecessor, thanks to “precisely arranged LEDs.”
The Hue Wall Washer appears to be a significant upgrade over the Light Bar, but it’s considerably more expensive, too. The Light Bar is currently on sale for $69.99 (normally $89.99) or available in a two-pack for $159.99, while a single Wall Washer unit is £199.99, or around $270, according to Hueblog. It’s expected to be released sometime in the next four months.
With a design that appears similar to Philips’ Hue Twilight smart sunrise lamp but without the forward-facing bedside lamp functionality, the Hue Play Smart Wall Washer projects up to 1,035 lumens of white or colored light that the company says “covers three times as much surface in colorful light as other wall washers,” no matter how far you have it positioned from a wall. It accomplishes this using Philips’ ColorCast technology, which angles the LEDs diagonally upwards.
Standing just over 6 inches tall and 3.5 inches wide, the Wall Washer can be positioned behind or nearby a TV, and because it’s made from aluminum with a matte finish instead of shiny reflective plastic, Philps says it “won’t catch any glare from the TV off the light itself.”
Despite being over twice as bright as the Philips Hue Play Light Bar (which offers 500 lumens of illumination), the new Wall Washer features “utra-low dimming” so it can be used to create a subtle lighting effect or even function as a night light. It’s also Bluetooth compatible (there’s currently no mention of Zigbee support on Amazon’s listing) and can be controlled with voice commands through Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, and Amazon’s Alexa smart assistants.
