It took two tries for Signify to make an enjoyable Philips Hue portable smart lamp – it’s not quite perfect yet, but getting there.
The Philips Hue Go 2 is a portable, Bluetooth-enabled smart light that can be fun to use. Now in its second generation, it’s not a light to convince anyone to move to a smart lighting system, but it does add a little versatility to your home’s decor. The first Philips Hue Go was introduced in 2015, but without Bluetooth connectivity and a very limited battery life, it was hard to justify the cost. Thankfully Signify – the company that makes the Philips Hue lights – has added some much-needed improvements to the portable lamp, making the Hue Go 2 a far better product than its predecessor. It’s still not quite perfect yet, but it’s remarkably easy to set up and use. Unlike a lot of the other Philips Hue products, you don’t need the Hue Bridge to use the Hue Go 2. You just need to download the Philips Hue Bluetooth app and you’re ready to go. If you already have a Hue Bridge set up for your existing lighting ecosystem, the Hue Go 2 will automatically get added to the Hue app, from where control is easy. If you don’t want to bother with apps of any kind, there’s a physical button that not only turns the lamp on and off, it will also cycle through a few light presets, including white, yellow and colored hues. If you do want to set up custom colored scenes, however, you’ll need to use a Hue app. The lamp is very light, so moving it around is far from difficult and, with up to 24 hours of battery life, it can be used outdoors to light up a dinner gathering or in a child’s room as a night light. However, the bulb inside isn’t high intensity – a 6W bulb with a maximum of 520 lumens brightness – and battery life diminishes considerably at the brighter presets. Despite that, setting up custom light scenes is remarkably easy, the colors are lovely and you can use it anywhere you want – your work desk, the dinner table, by the bed, in the garden or even the beach. Just don’t get it wet as it’s not waterproof. It took Signify four years to upgrade its Philips Hue Go lamp to the second generation, which was announced in September 2019 and began shipping about a month later, at least in the US. It took a little longer for the Hue Go 2 to arrive on shelves in other markets – like June 2020 in Europe – but it’s currently widely available is most regions. The Hue Go 2 didn’t see a price change for the upgrade, launching at $79.95 / £79.99 / AU$165, but it is now possible to get this lamp for a lower price. At the time of writing, it was hard to find stock of the Hue Go in the US, but it’s available in the UK for between £60 and £67, while in Australia you can get it for AU$139. The bowl-like design of the Philips Hue Go hasn’t changed since the first-gen lamp.
