Like its previous surveillance cameras, Philips Hue’s next smart home product isn’t changing colors or brightening the waning light of smart home tech. Instead, the company may be looking a little red in the face after it self-leaked an upcoming Ring-like smart doorbell for its Hue Secure products. Based on what little we know about Philips Hue’s upcoming doorbell, it may be relatively barebones and may need a physical power connection at all times.
One Philips Hue user spotted that the company listed a “secure doorbell” under its “no QR code” menu for products you can’t connect to without establishing a Bluetooth and WiFi connection. Writers at the smart home blog Hueblog shared screenshots of the supposed device and its connectivity requirements. Philips Hue’s latest supposed security product looks to be very standard, with a camera on the upper portion and the doorbell control on the bottom.
Unfortunately, the images don’t offer much insight into the doorbell’s specs, especially the size of its camera sensor. Most doorbell cameras from brands like Blink and Ring offer 1080p head-to-toe video of your porch. Both of those camera setups also work off of motion detection, something Philips Hue already has built into its Hue Security cameras and outdoor spotlights.
There’s also the bummer possibility that there won’t be battery-operated option. The leak suggests the product needs to be “properly wired” for power. In that case, users will need to physically wire it into their home. Gizmodo reached out to Philips Hue for comment, but we did not immediately hear back.
At the very least it could be cheaper than doorbells with batteries. Ring’s battery-operated doorbells cost twice as much as those with wired-only connections. But it also means Philips Hue’s model will be useless for anybody who lives in a rented property or in an older home without those wired connections already in place.
I only wish Philips Hue would do something different with its outdoor security suite. Judging by the leak, there’s not much to get excited about with this iteration of an already staid design. Why not get weird with it? Why not have a doorbell that strobes with light, as excited as a puppy whenever a delivery person drops off another package. I say, let’s make our porches look as fun as our living rooms.