GoKawiilis a senior reviewer with over twenty years of experience. She covers smart home, IoT, and connected tech, and has written previously for Wirecutter, Wired, Dwell, BBC, and US News.
I’ve been a fan of Philips Hue smart lights since the early days. It’s one of the few staples in my ever-changing smart home. However, when the Bridge Pro launched late last year, it wasn’t immediately obvious why I should upgrade. The signature feature, MotionAware — which turns your lights into motion sensors — is neat, but I already have motion sensors. While I run two of Hue’s standard bridges to accommodate all my lights and accessories, I’m not at a point where I need the Pro’s higher device capacity. I like the idea of faster response times thanks to the advanced processing power, but that wasn’t quite enough.
Then in April, SpatialAware arrived. This maps the location of lights in a room to distribute the colors and tones of Hue’s lighting scenes across them more intelligently. Suddenly, my existing smart lights felt new again. While MotionAware was the headline feature when the Pro launched, it’s SpatialAware that finally sold me on upgrading.
You don’t need a bridge to control a Hue light, but using one unlocks more advanced features, including dynamic lighting. The Bridge Pro, which launched last September, is faster and more powerful than Hue’s standard bridge. Its quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM support speedier response times for connected devices, along with MotionAware and SpatialAware, two features that only work on the Pro.
If you’re already invested in Hue’s ecosystem, upgrading to the $140 Bridge Pro can be meaningful. It lets you add up to four MotionAware zones, which could replace the need to spend $49 a pop on Hue’s standalone motion sensors. It can handle more than 150 lights and 50 accessories — three times the standard bridge’s limit — which is handy if you’re reaching the limit in your current setup. And it promises to be up to five times faster. The challenge is the price, particularly in the US, where it costs 40 percent more than elsewhere (it’s £89.99 in the UK/EU).
While the interoperability standard Matter makes it easier to mix and match smart light brands, there are still some good reasons to stick with a single brand. Proprietary features like dynamic lighting, entertainment syncing, and now MotionAware and SpatialAware for Hue, can’t be used when you combine products from multiple manufacturers.
Still, the standard bridge delivers much of the same experience for less money. When the Pro was $98, it was an easier decision (and you can still find it at this price — for now), but at $140, it gets trickier. Here’s how the Bridge Pro’s headline features performed in my home.
Bulbs in motion
MotionAware detects motion by sensing disruptions in Zigbee radio signals between Hue devices. In the app, it works like Hue’s standalone motion sensors, but it has specific requirements — and if you need to buy new hardware to meet them, it might be easier to buy a motion sensor.
The big requirement is three to four Hue lights in a room, and they have to be powered, so my Hue Table lamp in the bedroom was a no-go. I had to add an extra powered lamp to test it there. The bulbs also can’t be in a straight line, so my bathroom, which has a single vanity light with four Hue bulbs, was out of the picture.
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