Philips Hue Bridge Pro Review – A fantastic and long overdue upgrade for Hue

After almost a decade of ready, Philips Hue has lastly delivered what many sensible lighting lovers have been begging for – a bridge that may deal with the calls for of a contemporary sensible dwelling. The Hue Bridge Professional represents the primary main {hardware} improve to the Hue ecosystem’s spine since 2015, when the model 2 bridge launched. For these of us who’ve progressively expanded our Hue techniques over time, hitting the irritating 50-device restrict has develop into an all-too-familiar expertise.

The brand new Bridge Professional addresses this limitation head-on, supporting as much as 150 lights and 50 equipment – thrice the capability of its predecessor. However uncooked capability isn’t the one enchancment right here. With a 1.7 GHz quad-core processor changing the outdated 600 MHz single-core chip, 8GB of RAM as a substitute of 256MB, and built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, this bridge has been rebuilt from the bottom up for the calls for of 2025 and past.

Philips Hue has been variety sufficient to supply me with numerous samples to evaluate over time, however I purchased the Hue Bridge Professional myself, as I used to be desperate to improve my dwelling and evaluate this new bridge.

Associated Critiques

Specification

• Processor: The earlier bridge used a modest 600 MHz single-core processor. The Hue Bridge Professional is supplied with a 1.7 GHz quad-core “Hue Chip Professional”. It is a substantial enhance in processing energy, permitting the bridge to handle extra gadgets, course of complicated scenes sooner, and run new software program like MotionAware.
• Reminiscence (RAM): The outdated bridge functioned on simply 256 MB of RAM. The Hue Bridge Professional contains 8 GB of DDR4 RAM. This huge enhance in obtainable reminiscence means the bridge can deal with much more concurrent instructions, retailer extra complicated automations, and handle a a lot bigger machine listing with out lagging.
• Storage: The Professional mannequin contains 8 GB of eMMC flash storage, a major soar from the minimal storage on the outdated mannequin. This enables for the storage of as much as 500 mild scenes, in comparison with the a lot decrease restrict on the earlier bridge.
• Mild Capability: The outdated bridge had an official restrict of fifty lights (with a tough technical restrict round 63). The Hue Bridge Professional formally helps 150+ lights, with some experiences suggesting the {hardware} might deal with much more. This successfully triples the dimensions of a single Hue system.
• Accent Capability: The outdated bridge supported round 10-15 equipment (dimmers, sensors, and so on.). The Hue Bridge Professional will increase this to 50+ equipment. It is a welcome change for customers who depend on Hue’s bodily controls.
• Connectivity: The earlier bridge was famously Ethernet-only, requiring it to be bodily tethered to a router. The Hue Bridge Professional now contains each an Ethernet port and Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz). This offers customers new flexibility in putting the bridge centrally of their dwelling for optimum Zigbee mesh protection, fairly than being caught in a cupboard or basement.
• Energy: The Professional mannequin has been modernised to make use of a regular USB-C port for energy. The outdated bridge used a proprietary barrel connector. This small change is a good comfort, permitting for extra versatile energy choices, together with the flexibility to run the bridge from a USB-C battery pack throughout an influence lower.
• Design: Bodily, the 2 items are virtually similar in dimension and form, retaining the acquainted white, rounded-square design. The Professional has a barely completely different button and a brand new two-light indicator system on prime, in comparison with the three lights on the older mannequin.

Options

he new {hardware} within the Hue Bridge Professional allows a set of latest options that weren’t potential on the older mannequin. Whereas the headline function is capability, the supporting additions are additionally vital.

First is the massively elevated machine capability. Supporting 150+ lights and 50+ equipment on a single bridge is the first cause for this product’s existence. For customers who needed to run two, three, or much more bridges to handle their dwelling, it is a profound quality-of-life enchancment. It re-centralises the whole dwelling system, permitting for scenes and automations that span all rooms with out the clumsy workarounds the outdated multi-bridge interface required.

Second is the inclusion of Wi-Fi connectivity. Whereas connecting any sensible dwelling hub through an Ethernet cable remains to be the really useful methodology for optimum reliability, the Wi-Fi choice is a sensible answer for a lot of. It permits the bridge, which is the guts of the Zigbee mesh community, to be positioned in an open, central location in the home. This will dramatically enhance the vary and reliability of the whole lighting system, particularly in massive or unconventionally formed properties the place the router is usually positioned in an inconvenient nook.

Third is the brand new flagship software program function: Hue MotionAware. That is an unique function for the Bridge Professional, because it requires the brand new processor to carry out real-time evaluation. MotionAware makes use of the present Hue mild bulbs as a type of movement sensor. It really works by detecting delicate disturbances within the Zigbee radio frequency indicators that journey between the bulbs. When an individual strikes by a room, their physique disrupts these indicators, and the Bridge Professional can interpret that disruption as movement. This enables customers to create motion-based automations with out buying devoted movement sensors.

Fourth is the mixing of an AI-powered assistant throughout the Hue app. This function, which remains to be in its early levels, permits customers to kind or communicate pure language instructions to create scenes or, in concept, automations.

Lastly, the Bridge Professional is constructed with Matter assist from the bottom up. Whereas the earlier bridge obtained a Matter replace, the mixing with the Professional feels extra native. This enables the bridge to behave as a Matter gateway, exposing all of its related Zigbee lights and equipment to different Matter-compatible platforms like Apple House, Google House, and House Assistant.

Unboxing

The unboxing expertise for the Hue Bridge Professional is easy and displays a transfer in direction of extra trendy requirements. The machine is available in a compact field with sustainable-feeling paper wrapping for the primary unit, a departure from the moulded plastic of earlier merchandise.

Contained in the field, you’ll discover:

• The Hue Bridge Professional unit itself.
• A USB-C to USB-C energy cable.
• A USB-C energy adapter block to your particular area.
• A brand new, flat-style Ethernet cable, which feels extra premium than the usual spherical cable included with the outdated bridge.
• The same old paperwork and quick-start information.

Evaluating the outdated and new elements side-by-side, probably the most notable distinction is the ability provide. The transfer from the outdated, proprietary barrel connector to the common USB-C commonplace is a really welcome one.

Set Up and Migration from Hue Bridge V3

The migration course of isn’t excellent however it might be a lot worse. Your mileage will differ relying in your arrange.

The primary hurdle I had was that each one gadgets you wish to improve must be on the most recent firmware, and that is fairly a gradual course of to do. With 75 lights in my system, updating every one took a number of hours of preparation earlier than I might even start the migration. The Hue app handles this fairly effectively, however it might have been useful if the bridge might have queued firmware updates routinely in a single day.

The precise migration wizard is easy and well-designed. After connecting the brand new bridge to your community (I selected Ethernet for reliability), the app detected my present bridge and provided to switch all the pieces throughout. The method took roughly 20-Half-hour for my massive system, throughout which era the app displayed a reassuring progress bar and estimated time remaining.

Most of my Philips-branded lights, equipment, rooms, zones, and scenes transferred with out difficulty. The app maintained all my fastidiously configured room layouts, scene settings, and automation guidelines. Even complicated leisure zones for my Hue Sync bins got here throughout intact, although I did must re-authenticate the Sync bins with the brand new bridge.

Nonetheless, the migration isn’t fully seamless. The app warned me upfront that some gadgets may not switch routinely, and this proved correct. Pals of Hue gadgets, third-party Zigbee lights, and a few equipment required handbook re-addition after the migration accomplished. The app does present clear directions for this course of, strolling you thru the particular reset procedures for various machine varieties.

Migration of three^rd Get together Gadgets

One of many largest points with the migration was that it didn’t routinely migrate third-party lights you could have added.

That you must re-add them to the system, however I discovered that after added, all of them labored as they did earlier than.

Fortunately, I didn’t have too many in my system, however I discovered my Paulmann gadgets problematic to reconnect as a result of unnecessarily tough method to put them again into pairing mode. Every Paulmann mild required a particular sequence of energy biking to enter pairing mode, and the timing needed to be exact. What ought to have been a five-minute job became a irritating hour-long means of repeatedly making an attempt to pair every mild.

My Innr outside globe lights introduced comparable challenges. Whereas Innr merchandise usually work effectively with Hue as soon as configured, their pairing course of entails holding a small button on the machine for precisely the correct quantity of time – too quick and nothing occurs, too lengthy and it enters a special mode fully. The shortage of clear suggestions throughout this course of meant a number of makes an attempt for every mild.

The silver lining is that after re-paired, all third-party gadgets retained their earlier performance. Dimming curves, color copy, and response occasions all matched their efficiency on the outdated bridge. The Bridge Professional doesn’t appear to discriminate in opposition to non-Philips gadgets when it comes to efficiency, even when it received’t migrate them routinely.

Matter and House Assistant Integration

Whereas House Assistant can combine with Hue with out Matter, I opted to do it this fashion.

It’s precisely the identical because the earlier mannequin, as soon as added, it imported all my gadgets with the right names. The Matter integration gives sooner response occasions in comparison with the cloud-based integration, and native management stays obtainable even when your web connection drops. That is significantly necessary for vital automations like motion-triggered hallway lights or scheduled wake-up routines.

Organising Matter requires scanning the QR code on the underside of the bridge along with your cellphone’s digicam. The House Assistant app instantly recognised it as a Matter machine and commenced the import course of. Inside minutes, all my lights appeared in House Assistant with their appropriate names, room assignments, and capabilities intact.

Subjectively, the elevated processing energy of the Bridge Professional seems to translate to higher efficiency when utilizing Matter. Instructions despatched by House Assistant execute virtually instantaneously, with no perceptible delay between urgent a button within the interface and the lights responding. Group instructions, which generally struggled on the outdated bridge when controlling many lights concurrently, now execute easily and synchronously.

Aqara Integration

I’ve closely invested in Aqara and use numerous their mild switches and I just like the use the automations throughout the Aqara app vs House Assistant only for simplicity (plus I preserve breaking House Assistant by messing round with Proxmox on a regular basis).

The Matter integration course of works about the identical as House Assistant or different platforms. The irritating half is that Aqara imports all of the gadgets with a generic mannequin identify, and it isn’t clear what machine the mannequin identify is.

For instance, I’ve a number of RWL021, a great search signifies it is a Dimmer, however a few of them usually are not as simple to establish. I had to enter the machine settings and click on establish machine whereas wandering round my dwelling, hoping to work out what’s what.

As soon as correctly configured, although, the mixing works flawlessly. Aqara’s automations execute reliably, and the response occasions are wonderful. I significantly admire having the ability to use Aqara’s presence sensors to regulate Hue lights with minimal latency. The mixture of Aqara sensors and Hue lights creates a strong and responsive sensible lighting system that doesn’t depend on cloud providers for primary operation.

Scenes and Automations

The elevated scene storage capability – as much as 500 scenes in comparison with the earlier restrict – means you now not must fastidiously handle which scenes to maintain. I can now have a number of scenes for various occasions of day in every room, differences due to the season, and big day settings with out worrying about hitting limits.

Automations additionally profit from the improved processing energy. Complicated guidelines involving a number of situations and actions execute reliably, even when a number of automations set off concurrently. Time-based fades, which might be jerky on the outdated bridge, now progress easily. The dawn and sundown automations I exploit for progressively adjusting color temperature all through the day now not trigger occasional stutters or delays in handbook management.

The Adaptive Lighting function, which adjusts color temperature based mostly on time of day, works extra easily on the Bridge Professional. The transitions are imperceptible, sustaining the pure feeling of the lighting whereas making certain it’s at all times applicable for the time. This function had at all times been considerably hit-or-miss on my outdated bridge, generally failing to replace for hours at a time. With the Professional, it really works constantly and reliably.

Hue MotionAware / Movement Areas – Utilizing Philips Hue Bulbs as Movement Sensors

Other than the massively elevated machine capability, the standout function of the Bridge Professional was the flexibility to make use of your lights as movement sensors.

Sadly, I’ve discovered this disappointing, however I perceive why it doesn’t work how I’d like.

Getting this working successfully requires a number of elements:

• Three obtainable bulbs/gadgets in a room
• Bulbs at completely different heights for dependable efficiency
• Philips Hue bulbs, no third-party gadgets
• Some Hue gadgets don’t assist it, together with the Go Desk lamp, Hue Go, and most switches and sensors.

This precipitated points for me, as a result of the rooms the place I’ve probably the most Hue gadgets that may meet these necessities are rooms I don’t need movement sensing, equivalent to my TV/Front room and bed room.

In my kitchen, I’ve 10+ GU10 spotlights, however these are third-party and all on the similar top.

Within the hallways, the place I actually needed to make use of this, I’ve the Philips Hue Surimu panelsas they labored out cheaper than the Hue GU10 bulbs and on the time I used to be attempting to restrict the general gadgets in my Hue system.

So, the top result’s that I’ve solely been capable of arrange a take a look at for this in my front room.

Hue AI Powered Assistant

I really feel just like the AI options are only a box-ticking train as a result of all the pieces else has put AI into their app or machine. The implementation feels primary and considerably disconnected from the subtle lighting management system it’s meant to reinforce.

If you open the AI assistant, it presents pattern questions which are surprisingly primary – issues like “flip my bed room lights blue” or “dim the lounge lights to 50%”. These are all duties that may be completed simply as rapidly, if not sooner, utilizing the common app interface or voice assistants. The AI doesn’t appear to grasp complicated requests or multi-step automations that may really profit from pure language processing.

One semi-useful function was asking it to counsel scenes, however I don’t actually really feel like it’s that a lot use over simply shopping the scene gallery. The ideas are usually generic and don’t bear in mind the particular traits of your room or your previous preferences. After utilizing the system for years and creating dozens of customized scenes, I anticipated the AI to study from my patterns and counsel genuinely helpful combos.

I believed it could be potential to create difficult automations with it. I requested it to show the lights on in my workplace at 3 am after which off once more at 7 am. It advised me it didn’t perceive. It is a comparatively easy automation that the common Hue app can create in seconds, so the AI’s lack of ability to parse this request is disappointing. Extra complicated requests, like creating conditional automations based mostly on a number of triggers, had been fully past its capabilities.

I get why they’ve launched this function; each firm feels compelled so as to add AI, whether or not it’s helpful or not, and I’m certain it is going to enhance with time, however for the time being, it is vitally underwhelming. The processing energy of the Bridge Professional might allow genuinely clever lighting management – studying from utilization patterns, routinely adjusting scenes based mostly on climate or time of yr, or creating complicated automation flows from easy pure language descriptions. As a substitute, we now have what quantities to a primary voice interface with restricted understanding.

Worth and Various Choices

The Philips Hue Bridge Professional has an RRP of £80. It’s obtainable for barely much less on Amazon, however imported from the Amazon EU retailer.

The present bridge is £50 however obtainable on Amazon for £37.27.

Various techniques exist, however I don’t suppose it’s comparable right here. The most effective choices would seemingly be issues like House Assistant and Homey, which let you use completely different manufacturers and applied sciences to create a sensible dwelling.

General

My evaluate seems to have numerous damaging factors, and it’s true, this isn’t an ideal product. However many of the damaging issues I’ve mentioned had been to be anticipated when you think about it. It primarily boils all the way down to Hue not supporting third-party gadgets to the identical stage as their very own merchandise, MotionAware being a promising expertise however restricted, and the pattern of everybody shoving AI into all the pieces.

Trying past these points, the Philips Hue Bridge Professional does precisely what a major variety of Hue customers have been begging for over a few years. Triple the official capability of the earlier era and improved total efficiency.

I’m certain issues like MotionAware and the AI options will enhance over time.

Fortunately, Philips Hue haven’t taken the piss with the value of this. It’s simply £30 greater than the RRP of the outdated mannequin, which I feel is completely affordable for the rise in capability and certain a wise enterprise determination by Hue.

Folks seeking to get into Hue can nonetheless go for the older Bridge, which, contemplating the value of Hue merchandise, is extremely inexpensive. Then, as soon as they get you hooked (like me), you inevitably improve to the Professional, it’s low cost sufficient to make it a suitable impulse purchase, and you find yourself shopping for two bridges off them.

Then, for anybody who has numerous Hue merchandise, the Professional is only a no-brainer if you wish to proceed increasing your system.

I’m not usually a fanboy of issues, and I discover it annoying when individuals are, however within the case of Hue, I feel I’m. I haven’t used a lighting product that may compete with them, and the Hue Bridge Professional facilitates me increasing my system additional (seemingly changing all my GU10 bulbs).

So, as a consumer with an intensive variety of Hue merchandise, although it isn’t excellent, I like the Philips Hue Bridge Professional and may totally advocate it to anybody wanting whole-home sensible lighting.

I’m James, a UK-based tech fanatic and the Editor and Proprietor of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Keen about all issues expertise, my experience spans from computer systems and networking to cell, wearables, and sensible dwelling gadgets.

As a health fanatic who loves operating and biking, I even have a eager curiosity in fitness-related expertise, and I take each alternative to cowl this area of interest on my weblog. My various pursuits permit me to carry a novel perspective to tech running a blog, merging life-style, health, and the most recent tech developments.

In my tutorial pursuits, I earned a BSc in Data Techniques Design from UCLAN, earlier than advancing my studying with a Grasp’s Diploma in Computing. This superior examine additionally included Cisco CCNA accreditation, additional demonstrating my dedication to understanding and staying forward of the expertise curve.

I’m proud to share that Vuelio has constantly ranked Mighty Gadget as one of many prime expertise blogs within the UK. With my dedication to expertise and drive to share my insights, I purpose to proceed offering my readers with participating and informative content material.

Final replace on 2025-10-24 / Affiliate hyperlinks / Photographs from Amazon Product Promoting API