Review: Philips Hue Twilight lamp

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I would have happily kept the Twilight lamp past the review loan, but wouldn’t spend $499 on it.

I’m obsessed with mood lighting – all lights in my house are dimmable, and I get headaches with bright ceiling lights.

So I was super curious to try the new Philips Hue Twilight.

I owned an earlier Philips wake-up light about a decade ago. It looked like a small spaceship
had landed on my bedside table, and took up roughly the same amount of room.

The Twilight looks completely different.

Available in black or white, it’s a slim, streamlined lamp that looks designer, although its plastic casing keeps it from feeling truly chic. It stands 33cm tall on a cork base and has a swivelling head.

The lamp shines modular lighting from its top and changing colours from the back.

Setup was easy.

I paired the lamp to my phone through the Hue app in a few minutes, then I could navigate the lamp’s various modes without using my phone, which is my preference.

Two buttons sit on top of the lamp: one turns the light on and off, the other triggers a sunset function that fades the light down gradually instead of switching off in one hit.

The Twilight’s dual lighting sets it apart from other lamps.

Two separate light sources, one on the swivelling head and one facing the wall behind it, shift through the colours of a sunrise or sunset rather than snapping between bright and off.

Through the app, you can set a range of moods and colours, but the light works well as a plain soft bedside lamp, which is how I used it most mornings and nights.

It gradually goes from really soft (down to 0.5% brightness), mimicking the feel of a sunrise, to really bright (up to 1380 lumens at 4000K).

Cheaper lamps won’t reach the same brightness and won’t offer such a rich range of colours.

The plastic casing is inconsistent with the lamp’s design feel and premium positioning.

I found it too complicated to set up as a waking light through the app, but other reviewers say the process is much easier with another device called a Hue Bridge, which connects to other Philips Hue lights around the house.

Via the bridge, the light can connect to Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Samsung SmartThings.

I enjoyed living with the Hue Twilight enough that I would have happily kept it past the review period. I loved the soft glow at bedtime and the minimal lighting if I woke up during the night.

But the $499 price tag asks a lot for a bedside lamp.

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