At IFA 2025 in Berlin, Philips Hue launched a sweeping expansion of its ecosystem that expands accessibility, performance, and intelligence within smart lighting.
Hue Bridge Pro: The New Smart Home Hub
The Hue Bridge Pro serves as the heart of Hue’s new lineup and represents the most significant hub upgrade in a decade. Housed in an all-black chassis, the Bridge Pro packs a CPU that’s five times faster and 15 times more memory than its predecessor and supports up to 150 lights and 50 accessories—three times the capacity of the older V2 Bridge. It can store more than 500 custom lighting scenes and introduces MotionAware, an RF-based capability that transforms existing Hue-powered lights (made since 2014) into motion sensors using changes in Zigbee signal. System migration is made seamless: users can import their settings from older bridges, and future updates will enable combining multiple Bridges into a single Pro.
Hue Essential Range: Entry Made Easy
The Hue Essential line opens the Hue ecosystem to newcomers with simplified yet powerful smart features. This set includes A19 and BR30 bulbs, GU10 spotlights, and strip lights, all plug-and-play with Hue’s app. They offer full compatibility with Hue controls, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Matter-over-Thread, ensuring future-ready integrations at a lower cost. Notably, the A19 bulb itself is more efficient (up to 40% better) and offers ultra-low dimming down to 0.2% brightness.
Revamped Strip Lights and OmniGlow
Hue’s LED strip offerings received a full refresh. The new lineup features seven options, including indoor and outdoor models that are up to twice as bright, flexible, cuttable, and extendable. The standout is the OmniGlow strip, built with CSP (Chip-Scale-Packaging) for seamless color gradients and ultra-uniform illumination, ideal for practical or decorative use.
Outdoor Lighting Gets Festive and Durable
For outdoor atmospheres, Philips Hue expanded its Festavia line with two new permanent options: globe string lights and continuous-string lights suited for year-round installations along facades or pergolas. Both offer customizable scenes and IP65 weatherproofing, no setup takedown necessary, and integration with Spotify sync is supported.
Sonos Voice Control Partnership
Philips Hue also announced integration with Sonos Voice Control. Users will soon be able to command Hue lights—such as turning them on/off, dimming, and activating scenes, via voice through Sonos speakers. All processing occurs locally, enhancing responsiveness and privacy. Smart plug control is also on the roadmap.
Feature Breakdown
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Bridge Performance | 5× faster CPU, 15× memory, 150 lights, 50 accessories, 500+ scenes |
| Motion Sensing | MotionAware via RF sensing—works with most Hue bulbs (2014+) |
| Essentials Line | Affordable, Matter-over-Thread compatible bulbs & strips; ultra-dim 0.2% |
| OmniGlow Strips | CSP light strips with flawless gradients, up to 2× brightness |
| Outdoor Festavia | Permanent globe/string lights with IP65 and Spotify synchronization |
| Voice Integration | Sonos Voice Control supports lighting control and smart plug access |
