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Philips Hue Go 2 White & Colour Ambiance Smart Portable Light Review Rating
Summary
The Philips Hue Go is a superb little lamp that is an excellent entry point into the Hue system and can complement existing Hue systems perfectly. Its portable nature of it gives it a wide variety of uses, and it will work well as a bedroom/night light or be integrated into an AV set-up and synchronised using the HDMI sync box.
Pros
Versatile lamp that works well plugged in or portable
Integrates with the Hue ecosystem perfectly and can be used with Hue sync
Cons
Needs updating to use USB-C
The original Philips Hue Go was launched back in 2015, and the Go 2 was launched around three years ago, so this review is a bit late to the game.
However, it is a cool little smart light that compliments the Philips Hue ecosystem well, and I thought it was worth doing a quick review of.
Specification
Bluetooth or Hue Bridge connectivity
520 lumens vs 300 lumens of Go Gen 1
16 million colours
Up to 24 hours battery life (up from 3)
On-device control via a touch button
Voice control with Alexa or Google Assistant
Can sync the light with music or movies via an app or the HDMI sync.
The bulb is not replaceable, but the bulb life is 20,000 h
No USB-C
By far, the worst thing about this portable light is the fact it lacks USB-C for charging. I loathe proprietary chargers, and I have just spent hours trying to find the charger for my Philips clippers, so I was already feeling particularly irritated about chargers.
To be fair, this was launched three years ago, when USB-C wasn’t quite as prevalent for devices other than phones. So I will forgive Philips Hue for not including it, but it is still annoying.
In Use
I used this with the Hue bridge, but you can optionally use it via Bluetooth.
I predominantly use this in my hallway. We have a stupidly shaped house with very little natural light in the halls and just one Philips Hue Edison Filament bulb attempting to light it. The Go lamp compliments it nicely, it is not incredibly bright, but it does provide some useful additional lighting.
I use the Hue motion sensors to switch on and off my lights, and one possible solution will be to set up the Go lamp specifically for a night lamp for when anyone gets up and goes to the toilet or comes home late at night. I have the motion sensors to set the Edison at a dim level, but it is still too bright when you are half asleep. The Go lamp should provide a perfect level of brightness for this scenario.
Also, as an experiment, I have used this in my TV room in conjunction with the Philips Hue Play Gradient Lightstrip, Signe Gradient Floor Lamp and the HDMI Sync Box. I found that it works quite well behind my speakers, shining some ambient light onto the walls behind them.
I have previously reviewed the WiZ Luminaire Mobile Portable Light. It is an excellent light and similar to the Hue Go in many ways, both smart controlled portable lights with millions of colours. As I am heavily invested in Philips Hue, I am biased and think the Go is better, but I think the WiZ lamp could be a better night light or reading light in a bedroom.
Portability & Battery Life
While I generally use this plugged-in all the time in my hallway, I do find the portable nature very useful. When I had my kitchen redone, for some stupid reason, I didn’t put plug sockets near the dining table, so we are restricted to using the bright spotlights. This is fine for general use, but it is a bit harsh later in the evening when I have friends and family around drinking around the table. The portable nature of this is perfect for some mood lighting.
The 24-hour battery life claims are a touch misleading. That’s 24 hours when used as a nightlight. Using it in dimmed mode, it drops down to 10h. If you want a bright light, it’s just 2.5h.
Using one of the coloured scenes, you can get 3-18h out of it. I normally go for one of the orange/red hues, and it has always lasted the few hours we have sat at the table.
Price and Alternative
The Philips Hue Go 2.0 has an RRP of £79.99. It dropped to just under £50 during Black Friday 2023 and, prior to that, was selling for around £60 on Amazon.
Philips Hue has announced the Go portable table lamp, which was supposed to be available by now. When it does launch, it will cost quite a bit more and provides the same brightness, but it has double the battery life and an IP44 rating.
Philips Hue also has some non-portable alternatives, including the popular Iris and Bloom table lamps, and there is also the Wellness White Ambiance Smart Table Light. There is also a table lamp version of the Signe gradient.
The WiZ Luminaire Mobile Portable Light is supposed to retail for the same price, £79.99. Currently, the cheapest I can find it for is £110.
Govee has a couple of smart lamps, which are similar but not portable. The new RGBICW Night Light for Kids can also play white noise.
Conclusion
Even though it has been out for a while now, I have been impressed with how good the Philips Hue Go is. It is both a good entry point to the world of Philips Hue and an excellent addition for existing users.
It is a versatile lamp, too, I mainly use it to complement my hall lights for some additional lighting near a mirror, but the portable nature allows me to move it into the kitchen when we need low-light mood lighting at night. I will almost certainly use it to help with product photography too.
There is not much competition with it, the WiZ portable light being the obvious choice. While I like that lamp, availability in the UK is not great, and it currently costs a lot more. WiZ is also much less established than Hue.
Last update on 2023-01-04 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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