Philips Hue Bridge Pro review

Product name: Introduction

• Type: Smart lighting bridge
• Connectivity: Ethernet, Wi-Fi

It’s been a long time coming, but the Philips Hue Bridge Pro is finally here to fix all of the minor niggles and issues with the smart lighting system. Built for the future and with plenty of headroom, this new Bridge is an essential upgrade for anyone with a large existing system or for anyone new that’s likely to kit out their entire house.

Design and installation

• Easy migration
• Wi-Fi or Ethernet connection

Although it’s a product that will sit in out of sight, the Hue Bridge Pro is the most important component of the lighting system, old or new. While most Hue lights can be controlled via Bluetooth, this control method offers basic, local control; for the full range of accessories, Matter support and remote control, you have to have a Bridge and this is the one to buy.

The quick overview is that this new versions fixes the shortcomings of the older Bridge, which was launched over 10 years ago. The main problem with the old model is that it only supported 50 lights and 12 accessories, and had limited space for scene storage.

Those limits might sound high, but once you get into Hue, it’s surprisingly easy to hit those limits. Most of my home is kitted out with Hue lights, inside and out. In my kitchen, between strips, bulbs and spots, I’ve got seven lights alone. Multiply this out across the house and garden, and 50 lights isn’t that many.

It’s the same problem with accessories, such as light switches. As the majority of the switches are wireless, I put them where’s most convenient. For my garden, for example, I have three independent switches, depending on whether I want to turn the lights on when I’m outside, in my garden office or in the kitchen. 

As the number of lights and accessories hit the limit (or even just exceed it), the old Hue Bridge starts to go a bit bonkers. At best it will be a touch slow to respond to a light switch; at worse, odd things happen, such as switches losing their association with a room. 

And, the system starts to complain about adding new scenes, and I’ve had to clean up each room to free up memory. 

Running two Bridges is one potential solution, but this has its own problems: you can only remote control one, and to make this setup work you have to move bulbs from one Bridge to another. I’ve always resisted having two Bridges for these reasons.

The new Hue Bridge Pro fixes all this, with support for 150 lights, 50 accessories and 500 scenes. That should cover the vast majority of homes.

Externally, the Hue Bridge Pro looks much like the older model, only it’s a little larger and is powered via USB-C. There’s also an Ethernet port at the back, although Wi-Fi means that you don’t necessarily need it; I used Ethernet, as it’s far more reliable and I’ve run cabling to a cupboard specifically to house my hubs.

If you start from scratch, then the Hue Bridge Pro is set up like the old one and you then add lights to it. If you’ve got an existing system, then don’t fret: there’s an automatic migration process.

At launch, the migration supported one Bridges, but Signify, the company that owns Philips Hue, has just launched the migration for multiple Bridges. I’ve not tested the latter, but I have tested the migration for one Bridge, and it’s brilliant.

It took less than 20 minutes to migrate all of my bulbs and accessories. Most devices were moved automatically, but the Friends of Hue switches needed to be manually moved following the in-app instructions. And, I had to repair my Innr Globe Lights that are in my garden. This step was quite frankly awful, but that’s because Innr lights are a massive pain to reset and get into pairing mode. I almost gave up, but then the lights suddenly connected.

Features and performance

• Lights can be motion sensors
• Faster and more responsive
• Matter compatible

Day-to-day, the Hue Bridge Pro does what the old Bridge does: lights and accessories are connected via Zigbee, and are controlled via remotes or the app. In fact, for most of the time, you won’t even think about the Hue Bridge Pro.

What I can tell you is that it fixed the issues with my old Bridge. Whereas my kitchen lights might be a bit sluggish to turn when I hit the dimmer switch, the Hue Bridge Pro responds almost instantly.

Coverage remains excellent. With a single Bridge installed in the middle of my house, the Zigbee network covers the entire house (three floors) and stretches through the back garden and into my office.

With more space for scenes, I no longer have to worry about how many I have assigned to rooms, zones and devices. 

Matter support is now built in as default, with a Matter code on the bottom of the Hub, rather than the old HomeKit one. I’ve managed to add the Bridge Pro to Apple Home, Alexa and Homey easily.

Setting up Apple Home (unfortunately, the migration process doesn’t move this integration) had the added benefit that it re-enabled Apple’s Adaptive Lighting. This is the automatic light mode that adjusts colour temperature to match daylight through the day, and I love it when I’m working.

Adaptive Lighting worked on the old Bridge when connected via HomeKit, but when I ‘upgraded’ to Matter it killed the option and I could never get it back until I got the new Bridge. 

There’s a new feature, too: Motion Areas. This technology can turn your lights into motion sensors by monitoring the Zigbee network and detecting interference from people walking around.

Motion Zones need three or four lights to work, ideally placed in different locations and at different heights. That shouldn’t be a problem in many rooms.

Motion Zones have most of the same options as a Hue Motion Sensor: sensitivity settings, control of which lights you want to turn on, and which scenes you want to apply. The only thing missing is a light sensor, although you can use data from a camera or motion sensor.

For more basic control, you can set a Motion Zone to only work between Sunset and Sunrise (with an offset available), and you can disable the zone at set times, such as in a bedroom where you wouldn’t want to be woken up by the lights suddenly turning on.

Once configured, the sensing works surprisingly well, although I personally used it as a way to turn off lights after a 10 minutes of inactivity to save electricity. In my office, I stuck with the motion sensor, as I like the lights to turn on automatically as soon as it starts getting dark.

Final thoughs

An essential purchase, the Hue Bridge Pro is a brilliant upgrade for anyone with an existing system bursting at the seams, or for anyone planning to kit out their home with smart lights. The automatic migration is brilliant and makes it a no-brainer upgrade.

How we test

When we publish our reviews, you can rest assured that they are the result of “living with” long term tests.

Robot cleaners usually live within an ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony. And they are designed to offer a range of different cleaning options. Therefore, it’s impossible to use a robo cleaner for a week and deliver a verdict.

Because we’re testing smart home kit all day, everyday, we know what matters and how a particular smart cleaning machine compares to alternatives that you might also be considering.

Our reviews are comprehensive, objective and fair and, of course, we are never paid directly to review a device.

Read our guide on how we test robot vacuum cleaners to learn more.