Bridge NAM

The Philips Hue Bridge Pro Smart Light Hub has been a great upgrade from my first-generation Hue hub. It arrived quickly and setup was simple. Performance is noticeably improved. Scene changes react much faster than my older hub, and responsiveness overall feels more immediate. I use it primarily through HomeKit, and it has worked flawlessly without connection or stability issues. I have not fully taken advantage of all the newer Pro features yet, but I plan to when we move and expand our lighting setup. Even without diving into the advanced capabilities, the performance increase alone made it worthwhile. I also appreciate that Philips moved away from the old barrel connector and now uses 5V USB-C for power. Fit and finish are excellent, and it functions exactly as you would expect from a premium smart home product. I would definitely recommend it if you are upgrading from an older bridge or planning to expand your Hue ecosystem.

I didn't even want to buy this since I don't have much use for colored lights in the first place, and all of my smart devices are at the switch level anyway, but... I'm also impulsive and technologically silly, so I bought it in order for a computer to interact with them for a specific reason - watching Formula One races through the MultiViewer app. (See pic) The MultiViewer app allows you to watch Formula One races beyond just a single broadcast of the race - instead of just the television broadcast you can also see multiple driver cockpit cameras, track information, position of cars on the track, the leaderboard and tire information, track violations and penalties, and even tune into specific driver radios. Basically it gives you a fully immersive racing experience outside of "just watching the race on tv". In addition to MultiViewer, there's a companion app called F1MV Lights Integration - which is awesome - and well... I simply had to have it. The companion app will take the data being pushed through MultiViewer and use it to control smart lights, so the lights reflect the race conditions such as green flags, red flags, safety cars, fastest laps, chequered flags, etc. In my picture someone had just hit the fastest lap of the race so far, usually indicated with the color purple on the leaderboard. As such the Philips lights changed to purple. The same happens for red flags, yellow flags, etc. Is it necessary? Nah... Cool as hell though? You bet. I originally tried this with the cheaper Govee lights, but although they were wi-fi capable like the Philips, they didn't have the API necessary to work correctly with the MultiViewer system. Those were returned and Philips lights were were purchased instead, and they require the hub to work with MultiViewer. It sucked that I also had to buy a hub to make it all work, but I'm silly and bought it anyway. Through the hub and the app, all it worked flawlessly and painlessly, connected easily, and does what I need it to do. All of it was generally easy to configure, and the app gives you quite a bit of control over a simple light. The lights dim from zero to 100 without issue, and the color range is everything I personally could ask for. (Although maybe others would be more demanding than myself.) All in all it was rather expensive, (compare to the Govee lights and you'll see the price difference!), but I hope that the extra expense means all of it will last a long time with no problems. They were all purpose-bought and they serve their purpose excellently.

Needed for full control of the Hue lights. While I think that is kind of lame that you ‘have’ to have it, it does make them work faster and give you complete control to set up individual rooms, scenes and groups of lights controls. Set up was easy and provides a noticeable increase in speed and smoothness for control of the lights. Without it you can still control the lights to some degree using the app, but not with grouping or rooms which was super important for us, and the hub enabled that.

It’s a great product but I found imposible to connect it to the wifi, plugged by ethernet works great tho

Due to scarce availability, I had to wait quite a long time for the updated Hue Bridge Pro, but it was worth the wait. All my issues with misbehaving lights and inconsistent performance were resolved with the new hub. I was over the suggested number of devices with my old hub, and now everything works exactly as expected. The new sense-aware feature works very well for rooms with several Hue bulbs. This is a worthwhile upgrade for larger Hue implementations. For those with only a few Hue bulbs/devices, I'm not sure the extra cost is worth it.

I struggled with what to include in this review as the product itself is pretty straightforward and really has no meaningful functionality to "review," per se: it either works or it doesn't. In my case, the hub worked just fine, setup was easy enough, and I haven't had any actual trouble with the hub. Since most people looking at the hub are likely considering diving into the Hue system as a whole, my review, instead, will focus on my experience with a relatively built-out Hue system after a few weeks. My current setup includes two BR-30 multicolor lights in my theater room, three of the same in my kitchen, a LightStrip with multiple extenders in the bedroom, and two A7 lightbulbs for our nightstand lamps in the bedroom. The only "smart" home product that I've owned prior to the Hue lights was two Nest thermostats and a Ring doorbell, so my experience with this category of technology is fairly limited. Overall, this lights are just fun. Adding lights to the system was straightforward, the automatic detection worked well, and it was easy to get individual lights assigned to rooms and scenes set up. The Hue app itself is fairly easy to use, though some of the UI decisions in the most recent version of the app are a little annoying (for example, having different "tabs" for individual lights and scenes). I've had some hiccups with getting individual lights to "group" together for color changes when setting up scenes, though this has been relatively rare. Setting up scenes was straightforward, though I'll admit I almost immediately deleted most of the included presets since I thought they were a bit strange. But setting up individual scenes with custom colors and brightness was a breeze. Getting used to using an app - rather than light switches - has been a bit of a challenge. This isn't a fault of the Hue system itself but is something relevant, I think, to the experience of switching to a smart lighting system. A few weeks in, I still accidentally use my light switches at times. I'm looking forward to getting some of the Hue motion sensors to see if this can make the system truly automated; I love the idea of lights turning on and off automatically based on need, and I imagine that this will improve my experience with the system immensely. For now, though, there's definitely a bit of a learning curve to getting used to using an app (and carrying a phone around) to turn your lights on rather than the much more convenient light switch. The main problem I've had thus far is having individual lights being "unreachable" for, sometimes, long periods of time. Interestingly, the lights still respond to scene changes even when they're listed as "unreachable," but I can't control "unreachable" lights individually. I haven't quite figured out what the issue with this is, and I've verified that all of the firmware for the lights and the iOS app are up-to-date. This seems to mostly happen with the bedroom lights, which are located upstairs while the hub is downstairs, and I wonder if this is part of the problem. Perhaps it'll be less of an issue as I continue to expand the system and have a stronger mesh network throughout the house. But I will say that this has been quite an annoyance that I haven't been able to sort out completely. Not enough to say that I won't continue to buy Hue lights, but certainly something to be aware of if this might be enough to cause you to think twice. Because of this issue, HomeKit integration has been spotty for me. While the Hue app will allow me to change the lights via scenes even when they're "unreachable," this isn't the case in HomeKit. As a result, I rarely use HomeKit, and frankly I just find the Hue app easier to use. Since I don't have a ton of smart products, I don't necessarily need the deep integration and automation that can be achieved with the HomeKit system. The brightness and color setting are very granular, and you can create just about any lighting situation you can imagine. You're really only limited to your creativity. For day-to-day use, most of these features are a bit unnecessary, though even at times it can be fun to use some of the different colors. The adjustable brightness and color warmth are incredibly useful on a regular basis. But I can imagine this being a very nice touch for parties or big get togethers. Overall, do I think the Hue system is work the admittedly high cost? After about $600 to be able to light three rooms, I have to say I don't think so. It's a very fun toy, and I'll continue to expand the system, but I don't see this as a huge game-changer. Maybe it's because I'm not using the system to its fullest extent (e.g., integration with a smart thermostat), but I see this as a very expensive amusement and nothing else. Hopefully the lights will last quite a while: at $30-40 for each replacement, this can very quickly become an expensive system. But for those looking for the ability to fine tune your home lighting setup and are willing to pay the high price, I would definitely recommend it, although perhaps try setting it up in just a room or two to see how it goes before you spend a ton of money for whole-house lighting.

I've been using Philips Hue products for several years, and after upgrading to the Philips Hue Bridge Pro, I can confidently say this is a major step forward and absolutely worth it for anyone serious about smart lighting. Setup & Migration Experience: Setup was smooth and straightforward. I migrated all my existing Hue lights and accessories from the old bridge without any issues. Everything was recognized instantly, and my scenes, automations, and routines transferred seamlessly. Within minutes, the system was up and running with no re-pairing headaches. Speed & Responsiveness: The difference in speed is immediately noticeable. Lights respond almost instantly with no delays, no lag. Whether I’m turning lights on through the app, voice commands, or automations, everything feels fast and precise. The new Hue Chip Pro and quad-core processor clearly make a real-world difference, especially in a larger setup. Capacity & Scalability: This bridge is built for serious smart homes. Supporting 150+ lights and 50+ accessories mean, I no longer have to worry about hitting limits as my system grows. The extra memory allows for a vast number of custom scenes and advanced automations. If you’re planning to expand your smart lighting across an entire home, this bridge is future proof. MotionAware – A Game Changer: One of the standout features is Hue MotionAware. The ability to create motion-based lighting using existing Hue devices (without needing separate motion sensors) is brilliant. Lights turn on smoothly as you enter a room and shut off intelligently when not needed. It feels natural and genuinely smart, not gimmicky. Security & Privacy: Security is clearly a priority here. The enhanced encryption and Zigbee Trust Center provide peace of mind, especially in a connected home environment. Knowing that the system actively prevents unauthorized access makes this feel like a premium, well-thought-out product rather than just another smart hub. Memory & Automation Power: With more RAM and storage, automation proceed smoothly with no hiccups. I have designed dozens of scenes for various times of the day, moods, and activities, and each one works perfectly. Even complex scenes involving multiple events trigger seamlessly. Smart Home Compatibility: It can seamlessly connect to Apple Home, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings without any issues. Voice commands are very quick and effortless, and everything feels quite smooth and connected. This device truly serves as a smart brain for a smart lighting setup. Design & Reliability: The design is clean and minimal, just like you’d expect from Philips. Once installed, it quietly does its job in the background without needing attention. Stability has been excellent and there are no random disconnects or dropped devices. Conclusion: The Philips Hue Bridge Pro isn’t just an upgrade, it’s the foundation for a powerful, secure, and scalable smart lighting ecosystem. Faster performance, massive capacity, advanced automation, and strong security make it a must-have for anyone investing deeply in Philips Hue. If you’re building a smart home or expanding an existing Hue setup, this bridge is absolutely worth it. It delivers premium performance, reliability, and peace of mind.

Trying to migrate from my old bridge to this new “pro” bridge has been an absolute nightmare. To start, their migration steps for resetting your old bridge are incorrect. It asks you to hold the reset button on your old bridge until all 3 lights turn solid, however, the lights won’t turn solid while you are holding the button. This led to me wasting probably 15 minutes of my time trying to reset the old bridge, only to realize that their instructions are wrong. Unfortunately, this is the least amount of time I would spend troubleshooting this thing… Everything worked fine for several hours after migrating my devices, but about 4-5 hours after migrating all of my devices over, they all went to “unresponsive” in the Hue app. They have an option in the app to reconnect unresponsive lights, so I gave that a try on some of my bulbs that are easy to get to, but even though the app said they were “successfully reconnected” they still showed as “unresponsive” in the app and I was not able to control them. The only thing that I found that kind of worked, was changing the zigbee channel then reconnecting all of my lights, a process that took several hours. That worked for another 4-5 hours before they all once again went back to “unresponsive”. Since then, they will randomly work and go back to “unresponsive” for hours at a time. Luckily, the migration is one way and Hue doesn’t give you the option to move devices back to the old bridge (or move from bridge to bridge in general) so now I am stuck will all of my lights, some of which are installed in hard to reach places, that simply do not work. Love it! They also don’t provide you with any advanced details to try and figure out what is going on yourself. I work in IT, so I would love to be able to dig into some logs to try and figure this out, but that’s not an option unfortunately. Save your money and don’t buy this garbage.