Philips Hue Festavia String Lights Assessment – Good Christmas tree lights that compete vs Twinkly

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Lately, Philips Hue introduced the Festavia string lights, that are designed for Christmas and the vacation season and, extra particularly, Christmas Timber.

There are surprisingly only a few manufacturers competing within the sensible Christmas tree lighting area of interest. You could have your typical random Chinese language manufacturers obtainable on Amazon, however if you would like an excellent expertise, there has solely actually been one model to select from in recent times, Twinkly.

For my part, anybody that has invested closely in Philips Hue will discover the Festavia lights a greater product than Twinkly.

Philips Hue Festavia vs Twinkly Strings

I’ve reviewed just a few Twinkly merchandise prior to now couple of years, however the standout merchandise are the varied sting lights they produce. I reviewed the Twinkly Strings Gold Version, however they presently have three color choices, multicolour, multicolour & white and gold/silver. Every choice has a number of lengths, usually beginning at 250 LEDs however going as much as 600 LEDs.

Twinkly has cornered the sensible lighting marketplace for decorations as a result of it’s doable to map all of your lights after which create enticing lighting patterns. You’ll be able to map a number of merchandise making the animation impact as easy or as advanced as you want. I discovered that the Twinkly Strings have been a enjoyable product to play with, however I believe you want lots of lights if you wish to create a powerful impact.

Twinkly even has a enterprise facet that specialises in extravagant installations.

Due to this fact, Philips Hue is at an obstacle on this planet of sensible Christmas lighting. The Festavia string lights have nowhere close to the extent of customisation you possibly can obtain from Twinkly, they usually value extra vs the like-for-like Festavia multicolour string lights.

Alternatively, Hue has one huge benefit. Philips Hue is the market chief for sensible lighting, I’d estimate greater than half the individuals I do know have some type of Hue product of their dwelling.

I detest having dozens of various apps to manage all my sensible dwelling gadgets (hopefully, Matter could resolve this), and I’m closely invested in Philips Hue. Due to this fact, Festavia makes lots of sense to me, and I believe this will likely be true for a lot of customers.

In Use / Dynamic Scenes / Media Syncing

If you’re an current Hue consumer, the setup is similar to each different Hue product. Plug the lights in, go to the app and seek for a brand new system then observe the set-up directions. This consists of including it to a room and so forth. For me, I created a brand new room only for the Christmas tree, then added that to a zone.

Though you don’t have the flowery animation results that Twinkly has. The Philips Hue Festavia integrates completely throughout the Hue ecosystem. For those who assign the lights to a room or zone, you possibly can set a scene for all of the lights inside that zone somewhat than simply having your Christmas lights work independently (like Twinkly).

You can too use a dynamic scene which can steadily change the colors of your lights. You’ll be able to management the pace and brightness to make it as delicate or intense as you want. This works higher for me than Twinkly as a result of I already personal lots of Hue merchandise. Due to this fact I can create a dynamic scene with all the present lights inside my room. With Twinkly, I’d have to purchase a number of merchandise to realize an analogous impact.

Philips Hue has additionally created a brand new scatter sample for these lights. Usually you’ve got a line gradient, which is smart for the sunshine strips with the colors sensibly transitioning into one another. With the scatter sample, you get the random sample that many individuals will doubtless wish to obtain on their Christmas tree.

As you’d count on, Festavia lights can work with every part else you’ve got inside Hue. You’ll be able to have schedules or assign the lights to buttons, dimmers or the Hue Faucet Dial. Every part works seamlessly.

Like different Hue lights, the Festavia are suitable with Spotify. I’m not usually a fan of syncing my lights with music, however on this state of affairs, I can see the attraction of individuals desirous to sync their Christmas tree lights with music. It should little doubt create a nice impact when enjoying Christmas songs all through the vacation season.

Equally, in case you have a Philips Hue Play HDMI sync field, you possibly can synchronise the lights to any content material that you’re enjoying on the TV.

Energy Draw / Electrical energy Prices

As I’ve written about the price of residing loads lately and have subsequently began testing the price of working merchandise.

The Festavia comes with a surprisingly massive energy brink, however it is just rated for 40W. Hue claims that the standby energy draw is 0.5w and the standard energy draw ought to be 15W.

Value and Different Choices

The Philips Hue Festavia are priced at £139.99 RRP, and these have 250 RGB LEDs on a 20m/65ft twine. They formally launched on the 15^th of November, however the web site says they’re already offered out. I’d count on new inventory quickly.

Twinkly Era 2 with 250 RGB lights on a 20M string have an RRP of £115, however there’s a respectable low cost throughout Black Friday/Cyber Monday. On Amazon, they’ve been at round £107, since April and are presently £92.39. Argos have them for £86.25.

There are different sensible string lights, however none of them come near the standard of Philips Hue or Twinkly.

For those who solely need primary sensible management of your lights, and dealing on a schedule, then you definately’d doubtless be higher off with dumb lights and utilizing a wise plug.

General

I believe the Philips Hue Festavia is strictly a product that’s for current Philips Hue techniques. When you’ve got closely invested in Hue, then it simply is smart to stay with Hue in your Christmas tree lights.

I’m a type of individuals, and subsequently I really like them. I’m an enormous fan of the Hue ecosystem normally, it’s simply simple to make use of and works flawlessly.

For different individuals, it’s onerous to disregard Twinkly. They’re cheaper, and you’ve got superior performance with the lights. I don’t notably just like the Twinkly app, I discover it ugly and clunky in comparison with Hue, however upon getting the lights arrange, there’s not a lot have to preserve going into it.  

For current Hue house owners and relying on what you need out of your Christmas lights, I discover that the Festavia are extra cost-efficient than Twinkly. I’ve a number of lights in a single room and all of those are assigned to a scene, together with the brand new Festavia lights. All these lights work completely inside a dynamic scene. I’d have to purchase a number of Twinkly lights to realize an analogous impact. After all, I can’t create fancy animations with Hue, however that isn’t one thing I’m that bothered about.

General, whereas the Philips Hue Festavia are costly, I don’t assume £25 further vs the Twinkly Era 2 is an excessive amount of of a value premium to have all may lights working flawlessly beneath one ecosystem.