Philips Hue’s latest light can bathe your walls in color
A splash of color? Think bigger. With its latest light, Signify-owned Philips Hue is looking to wash your walls with a multicolored glow. Also: The promised Hue AI chatbot is making its debut in a handful of countries.
Available now, the $220 Philips Hue Play wall washer is a squat cylindrical module with a “transparent projection window” in back that reveals a trio of rectangular lighting elements.
Positioned near a wall, the Play wall washer–leaked earlier this month–does just that, washing any nearby surface with up to 1,035 lumens of multicolored light.
Philips Hue
Measuring 6.2 x 3.6 inches (HxD) and arriving with an aluminum finish, the Play wall washer boasts Hue’s ColorCast technology, a lighting feature we originally saw in the brand’s Twilight bedside lamp. With ColorCast, the Play wall washer can deliver “an even wider spread of rich, deeply saturated gradients of color,” Hue says.
As with Hue’s other Play-style lights, the Play wall washer’s lighting effects can be customized in the Hue app, which allows for precise arrangement with other Hue Play products within a drag-and-drop 3D interface.
Used in conjunction with the Hue Play HDMI Sync Box or the Hue sync app, the Hue Play wall washer can sync up with the images on a TV, or it can pulse in time to your Spotify tunes with assistance from the Hue app; it can also be grouped with more traditional Hue light bulbs and lamps.
Available in black and white finishes, the Philips Hue Play wall washer is on sale now at Amazon and the Philips Hue online store, although it’s listed as “temporarily out of stock” on the former.
Meanwhile, Philips Hue is starting to roll out the AI chatbot that it first announced at CES back in January.
Now live in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, the Hue AI assistant is designed to deliver “personalized lighting scenes based on mood, occasion, or style.”
For example, you’ll be able to submit prompts like, “Give me a scene for a garden party,” and the chatbot might say, “Give me a sec… Here are some scene suggestions for you.”
This news story is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lights.
Besides merely suggesting existing lighting scenes, the Hue AI chatbot will also be able to generate new scenes, a Hue rep previously told me.
The Hue AI assistant is slated to arrive in the United Kingdom next month, with a global rollout set for August. 
© 2025 PC World 8:15am  
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