- A new firmware update is rolling out for Philips Hue Secure battery cameras
- It includes tweaks that should let the camera run longer between charges
- This should help resolve battery-life problems reported by some owners
If you own a Philips Hue Secure battery camera, there’s good news – it’s set to get a major firmware update that should significantly improve its battery life.
These fully wireless cameras are particularly popular because they can be installed anywhere, sending alerts to your phone when they detect motion, capturing video during the day or at night, and triggering Philips Hue smart lights. In fact, they long held the top spot in our roundup of the best home security cameras, thanks to their versatility.
The downside is that they need to be taken down periodically for charging. That’s not too onerous (each camera attaches to a magnetic plate, and can be detached without the need to remove any screws), but it does mean your camera is out of action for around seven or eight hours.
Signify (the company behind the Philips Hue brand) says that the cameras should run for around three months “under typical usage at 20C with 10 wake ups per day resulting in 10 clips with an average duration of 10 seconds”. However, according to Hueblog.com, many owners have reported that their cameras needed plugging in much more frequently than that.
Keep your camera rolling for longer
Now, however, it looks like Signify has addressed that problem with a firmware update that makes several significant changes. Firmware version 1.2.32.976110 began rolling out last week, and according to the release notes, it makes several tweaks to extend the time between charges. These include:
- Optimizing motion snooze settings, leading to better efficiency in busy locations.
- Reducing instances of unreachable battery cameras failing to enter sleep mode properly.
- Minimizing unnecessary wake-ups.
The update also fixes a problem where very short clips were sometimes uploaded from cameras and improves automatic day/night switching for battery cameras, allowing them to adjust more accurately for different lighting conditions.
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