Philips Hue plans a happy Hue year with new dimmers and outdoor lights

The Philips Hue lighting range is about to gain some brand new outdoor lighting, and the indoor dimmer switch is getting a redesign too. The new outdoor light is called Hue Wave Linear and it’s designed to illuminate large areas such as walls.

The new Wave Linear system from Philips is designed to integrate with the existing range of Philips Hue outdoor lights such as the Hue Outdoor Lightstrip, the Hue Calia and the Hue Lily. Where those lights are designed to provide spot illumination and colour, the Wave Linear thinks bigger: it's designed to provide even illumination to large outdoor spaces such as exterior walls. 

To do that, reports say it delivers a whopping 1,400 lumens of brightness; the product is a Philips White and Color Ambience model so it delivers 16 million colours as well as bright whites. The Wave Linear is 80cm wide, 5cm high and just under 7cm deep.

There are no details of pricing yet but the launch is expected to be in Spring 2021. Philips has previously announced its Hue products at CES, which takes place in early January 2021, so we may well find out more about Wave Linear then. 

Hue Wave Linear was leaked by the Smartlights.de site. Shortly after it appeared on Reddit the story disappeared, which suggests someone at Philips may have had a word – but not before it was picked up by MacRumors, which continues to spill these particular smart lighting beans. 

Philips Hue gets a different dimmer

HueBlog.com has details of another new Hue: a redesigned wireless dimmer switch. That might not sound particularly exciting, but the redesigned Hue dimmer switch is likely to make some of us less annoyed: it’s easier to locate in the dark and it now comes in a standard size. The base plate is now a bit bigger, which means it’ll cover standard EU in-wall boxes: the existing model is too narrow for that.

There are two key changes to the dimmer itself. The first is that the up and down buttons are now a single rocker switch, and the second is a new marking on the on switch to make it easier to find when you’re fumbling in the dark. The design has been softened with rounder corners and comes in a nicer plastic too.

Hue can make it a brighter Christmas

We’re big fans of Hue lights, giving it the maximum five stars in our Philips Hue review. The biggest downside is that Hue kit can be expensive, but there are plenty of cheap Philips Hue deals for Christmas 2020 that include deep discounts on Hue starter packs as well as on individual bulbs. 

The range has expended far beyond its first bulbs and now encompasses filament bulbs, LED light strips, spotlights, mood and ambient lighting and even an HDMI sync box to synchronise your lighting with the movie or gaming action on your TV.