There are plenty of well-established brands in the smart home security system market, such as Arlo, Ring, and Google, but more competition is always appreciated. Surprisingly, Philips Hue is throwing its metaphorical hat into the home security ring, with a new lineup of cameras and sensors.
Signify's sub-brand, Philips Hue, has, until this point, dedicated exclusively to smart light offerings. It's one of the most popular brands in this segment, selling several different smart lighting products for you to make your house light up just the way you want to. This is the very first time it's branching out into other smart home segments, and its first destination is home security with two new products.
The first one is a range of smart cameras. The Philips Hue Secure cameras feature a 1080p video feed with night vision, making it perfect for placing it on your doorstep and keeping an eye on potential intruders at night. The camera is able to deter intruders by leveraging smart lights and sound alarms, and if you're getting a package or greeting a friendly face, there's also two-way communication to speak to the person to the other end of the door. Signify says that these cameras are good for both indoor and outdoor use, although for more outdoors-y situations, there is also a floodlight camera that can let you keep an eye on your backyard and, if necessary, illuminate a large area when triggering a light alarm.
To compliment this, there is also a Philips Hue Secure contact sensor, which can be used on doors, windows, and more, and will notify you in real time when it's opened or closed, You can use it as a component of your security system, and you can also use it as a part of your lighting system too, making it so lights automatically turn on or off whenever a door is opened or closed. The Philips Hue app is also, logically, getting a new security center section, which will let you manage all of your security stuff from one place.
The Philips Hue Secure camera will start at $199.99 for the wired version and $249.99 for the wireless version, while the floodlight version costs $349.99. The contact sensors cost $39.99 each, and $69.99 for a two-pack. These will become available over the coming weeks, so keep an eye out at your retailer of choice.
Source: Signify