Hue Tap Review

Philips has added a new member to the Hue family, one that surprisingly is not a light bulb and retails for $59.95. This new component is coined the Hue Tap, a switch of sorts, something I believe is very necessary wherever there is a light. How well did Philips do with what some would consider the opposite of their mobile centric approach. Let's find out what they did right and what they could have done better.

Hardware

The Hue Tap for all intents and purposes completes the purpose of a wall switch, and at the same time is capable of so much more. The Tap is a spartan circle  which is one large button that within it contains three smaller buttons. It is built out of plastic, the buttons are a white glossy plastic, with dots that denote which button you are pressing, ( one dot for button one, two for button two and so on...). This white button is cradled in a brushed silver ring. Perhaps the most fascinating idea behind this button is that it works with no power or batteries. It functions with energy generated from each button press. Speaking of button presses, sometimes the buttons can feel sticky, for example if you are pressing any of the smaller buttons it may feel as if you are pressing the large one as well. Fortunately, button presses have to be firm until you hear a clicking sound which will let you know that the button's function has been triggered.

Software

The Software side is what makes the Tap so powerful, and set up is painless. Once you are in the Hue app, under "Settings" you tap "My devices" and if you already have a tap, you should see the screen below, if not then it is what you will see after you have set up your Tap. 

Setting up the Tap requires nothing more than holding down button one, and in less than a minute you'll be assigning "Scenes" to each button. "Scenes" are light presets for your arrangement of lights, which means you can set each light to a different color if you so choose, you can turn some on and others off and any combination of those. The Hue Tap works well and keeps my phone either in my pocket or on it's charging pad, it does what it says with little getting in the way. What keeps me curious is the potential of these four buttons should Philips decide to release other product into it's Hue or "Friends of Hue" line of products. This little guy has a lot of potential that Philips may have yet to reveal to us.

Wrap Up

One of my peeves with the Hue lighting system is that when the power goes out, all the lights come on simultaneously and the bridge loses connection from the internet (not the network) making it difficult to turn them off (especially annoying when this happens in the middle of the night). I bought the Tap in hopes that it would resolve this issue and turn off the lights immediately with little to no wait for the network, I really didn't see much more purpose for it in my day to day. I am pleased to report that it met those expectations and has become a device I use regularly. Because it requires no batteries or power source I can take it around the house, which is very convenient. 

The Tap's hardware may sound cheap, and to an extent it is, but this keeps the device light and inexpensive. Regardless, I don't see a market for premium light switches appearing any time soon. The Hue Tap is, within its ecosystem maybe not the brightest component, but definitely a useful one.