Philips Hue Play Wall Washer review

Philips Hue Play Wall Washer: Introduction

• Lighting type: Smart lamp
• Connectivity: Zigbee, Bluetooth
• Ecosystems: Matter, Alexa, Apple Home, Google Home, SmartThings, Homey, more

Back in June, Signify officially took the covers off of the Philips Hue Play Wall Washer, a smart lamp designed to create a dramatic lighting effect from a pretty small form factor.

Available now in black or white, priced at $219.99 for one or $384.99 for a two-pack Stateside, £169.99 / £299.99 in the UK, the Wall Washer is still on the premium end of the spectrum – especially when you consider the Hue Light Bar costs around half the price – but it packs the ColorCast projection optics system that debuted with the Twilight bedside lamp at the end of last year.

The smart lamp features a wide-beam ColorCast setup to drench your walls with gradient lighting – either that you’ve manually set in the Hue app, or syncing in real time to whatever you’re watching or playing on your TV, if you pair it up with a Hue Play Sync Box or the Hue Sync app.

I’ve been testing the Hue Play Wall Washer for the past couple of weeks, read on for my full review.

Design and installation

The Play Wall Washer is unapologetically designed to be on display. The matte aluminum housing, frosted projection window, and sculptural silhouette make it look more like a modern decor piece than a tech accessory.

In white (as tested), it feels at home in a minimal living space, but the black version should blend neatly with a darker home theatre setup.

Inside that frosted window sit three LED modules, each aimed at a slightly different angle. Together, they create the wide, blended gradient effect that’s the Wall Washer’s calling card.

The light-facing side is elegant, but from behind it’s a little more functional-looking, you won’t want this positioned where the back is on show – that probably wouldn’t be good for your long-term sight, either.

At 15.7 cm tall, 9.1 cm wide, and weighing 0.85 kg, it’s compact enough to fit most AV or gaming setups without dominating the furniture. The build is solid, but Philips missed an opportunity to give it the braided cables we’ve seen on some of its recent gear. Instead, you get a standard rubberized 2m cable.

Power comes via the same chunky three-port adapter that we’ve seen with the likes of the Hue HDMI Sync Box.

It has ports can drive up to three wall washers from one brick, which is neat, but it also means that if you’re running a pair (or more) they’ll need to be within reach of the same adapter.

In the box – at least with the UK retail version that I tested – you’ll find UK and EU adapters to pop on the power brick.

Setup and control

As with all Hue bulbs launched in the past few years, you have a few options when it comes to setting up the Wall Washer.

The easiest way is to simply pair to the Hue app using Bluetooth. This gets the Wall Washer singing and dancing in the Hue app with a pretty comprehensive feature set.

However, for full functionality and the complete set of Hue bells and whistles such as scenes, automations, Hue Sync, and more, you’ll want to pair with a Hue Bridge.

Setting up the Wall Washer this way is the standard Hue experience: scan the QR code on the base, pair it with your Hue Bridge, assign a room and/or zone, give it a name, and you’re done in a couple of minutes.

You can also now connect Hue bulbs directly to some Amazon smart speakers using Zigbee. The likes of the 3rd-gen Echo Show 8, Echo Hub and Echo Studio can work as Zigbee hubs so, if you’ve already got one of these, the Wall Washer can be added through Alexa without the need for the Philips Hue skill.

I used the Bridge mode and added the Wall Washer to my existing Hue system, as this is the only way you get the full feature set. Anyone considering buying the Wall Washer without a Hue Bridge in place – or indeed a Sync Box or Sync app – is going to miss out on a lot of the main events.

Once paired, you’ve essentially got two ways to use it: as a standalone Hue lamp or as part of a Hue Entertainment area.

Standalone mode is where you treat it like any other Hue White and Colour Ambiance light. The app gives you the full 2000–6500K white temperature range, plus a huge colour palette to choose from.

Thanks to the three independent LED modules inside, the wall washer can display different colors across each section of its projection, giving you instant gradient lighting without needing to be in Sync mode.

You can fine-tune brightness for each separate LED, or the whole fixture, or let one of Hue’s built-in scenes do the heavy lifting.

All the usual Hue effects are here too – think Candle, Fireplace, Prism, Opal, and so on – plus seasonal or special-event effects Philips pushes out over time. It’s a solid mood light even if you never connect it to any media.

But the Entertainment mode is where it really shines, quite literally, and earns its “Play” badge.

Drop it into a Hue Entertainment area and it will sync in real time with whatever’s on your screen via the Hue Play HDMI Sync Box, or directly from the Hue Sync app if you have a compatible LG or Samsung TV.

Positioning is handled through the app’s 3D drag-and-drop tool, where you can set the exact placement, height, and orientation for each wall washer. You can move them closer to the wall for a more concentrated beam, or pull them back to blanket a bigger section of the room.

In this mode, the three LED modules respond individually to the content, creating smooth, cinematic colour transitions that are a cut above what single-zone lights can do, and the effect is brilliant – much better than the (albeit half-the-price) Hue Light Bar.

Performance

Brightness is another area where this light steps away from the Light Bar. It pushes up to 1,035 lumens in cool white at 4,000K, which is roughly double what the Light Bar can manage. The effect is noticeable whether you’re using it in Sync mode or just as a regular lamp.

With Hue Sync running, the wide-beam ColorCast optics throw vivid gradients across the wall that track games, films, or music in real time.

Thanks to the three individually-controllable LED modules, the transitions are smooth and cinematic rather than harsh or segmented. The result is a more immersive, less “LED strip” look than cheaper rivals.

When you’re not syncing, the Play Wall Washer still earns its keep. It can be run as a standard Hue White and Colour Ambiance light with a full 2000–6500 K range, high color accuracy (CRI ≥ 80), and all the preset scenes and effects you’d expect from Hue.

Final thoughts

The Hue Play Wall Washer ticks a lot of boxes: premium design, impressive gradient projection, plenty of brightness, and the flexibility to work as both a mood lamp and a fully reactive Hue Entertainment light.

In standalone mode, it’s a classy way to add colour and warmth to a room. In Entertainment mode, it’s a proper showpiece.

The price is the sticking point (when isn’t it, with Hue?). Govee’s Uplighter Floor Lamp offers a wide range of built-in effects at the same price as a single Wall Washer, while the Lifx Luna – if aimed at the wall – can deliver a somewhat similar wash effect for less than half the cost.

Both, however, miss out on Hue Sync integration, meaning they can’t match the seamless, real-time entertainment syncing that makes the wall washer so compelling for existing Hue users.

If you’re already invested in Hue and want to take your AV or gaming setup up a notch, this is one of the most satisfying upgrades you can make.

If you’re not… there are cheaper, if less polished, ways to light a wall.

How we test

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

Smart lights usually live within an ecosystem, or a range of products that – supposedly – all work in harmony. Therefore, it’s impossible to use a connected light 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 light 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 smart lights to learn more.