New Hue LightGuide Bulbs Start at $75, But They’re Pretty

Signify is set to release a surprising new line of light bulbs for its Philips Hue brand, as the company continues to innovate its LED-based smart lighting line. The new LightGuide line features oversized dimmable smart bulbs that come in three sizes and are designed for open lighting fixtures. It looks like they can add some seriously stylish mood lighting to any setup.

New full-color and white ambiance bulbs appeared on Amazon.de this week – first spotted by Fabian on HueBlog.com. According to him, the bulbs will start at 75 euros ($75 USD). He is everyone. These bulbs aren’t cheap, even by Hue standards.

Resembling Hue’s filament bulbs, dimmable white bulbs alike designed for mood lighting, the LightGuide bulbs have the same subtle black base and clear glass bulb. But the LightGuide line is capable of full-color light as well as tunable white light and dimming. The new ornamental bulbs come in three shapes: triangle, ellipsoid and globe.

The bulbs are also large, measuring only eight inches long and five inches wide. By comparison, Hue’s Filament Edison bulb is 5.2 by 2.4 inches. These are obviously not designed to hide in a lampshade but to appear as beautiful light bulbs in open fixtures.

Each bulb has a visible inner tube and a reflective, shiny surface that “gives them a special light,” according to the product description. They produce up to 500 lumens of light and 2,700 Kelvin, the same as a filament line, making these atmosphere bulbs not suitable for task lighting.

Like all Hue bulbs, they’re both Bluetooth and Zigbee capable, so they’ll work with the Hue Bridge, paired directly with your phone or tablet, or with an Amazon Echo smart speaker. You should be able to control them with the Hue app, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomeKit and Samsung SmartThings, as well as Philips Hue’s other smart home integrations. Signify has also committed to supporting the new smart home standard Matter via Hue Bridge.

We can hear more about the new line at IFA 2022 next week, including exact pricing and availability. Signify – the company that owns Philips Hue – has traditionally announced new products at events known as Europe’s biggest tech show.

In the meantime, enjoy these beautiful photos and maybe start growing your smart lighting budget.

Amazon.de. images via