After weeks of tantalizing leaks, the Philips Hue Bridge Pro is finally on sale. The new smart lighting hub (in a fetching shade of graphite) is available to buy for $98.99 in the US and £79.99 in the UK, and details of its Australian launch are expected very soon.
The Hue Bridge Pro can support over 150 smart lights (including bulbs and lamps) and over 50 accessories (such as switches and sensors), compared to just 50 bulbs and 10 accessories for the Bridge V2.
It can also turn your existing Hue lights into motion sensors using the Zigbee wireless protocol. The system, called MotionAware, works by detecting interference in the signal being sent between your bulbs and lamps. This data is processed by the Bridge Pro, which interprets it and uses it to determine whether a person has entered the area.
All of this makes it very tempting, particularly if you have too many Hue lights for just one Bridge, and had to go through the hassle of installing several in your home. Having them all linked to a single Bridge sounds ideal – but don’t rush in just yet.
Hold your horses
Although the Hue Bridge Pro can support well over 100 lights, it’s not yet possible to merge and migrate all the device settings from multiple previous-gen Bridges. You can use the Philips Hue app to port across your data from one Hue Bridge V2, but if you have more than one of the older hubs, you’ll need to wait a while before you can transfer all your settings and devices en masse.
The option to merge multiple Bridges and transfer the data is coming, but Signify (the company behind Philips Hue) hasn’t said exactly when. At its launch event in Berlin this week (where it revealed over a dozen new products), its spokespeople only said that it would become available before the end of the year.
It should be worth the wait, though. It’s understandable that Signify wants to get the merging and porting software working perfectly before launch, because any failure could mean you have to re-add all your lights one by one, re-create your zones and rooms, and make all your automations and scenes again. It would be a bit of a nightmare.
More reasons to switch
If you want to upgrade from a single Hue Bridge V2, however, you can go ahead and do it right now. Other perks of switching include the ability to connect the Bridge Pro to your router via Wi-Fi rather than an Ethernet cable, which means you can put it anywhere.
The Bridge Pro’s upgraded processor means your lights and switches should be more responsive too, and it can now store 500 custom lighting scenes. Learn more about all the Philips Hue devices launched at Signify’s Berlin event this week.
