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

Sharing is caring!

Just lately, Philips Hue introduced the Festavia string lights, that are designed for Christmas and the vacation season and, extra particularly, Christmas Bushes.

There are surprisingly only a few manufacturers competing within the sensible Christmas tree lighting area of interest. You’ve got your typical random Chinese language manufacturers accessible on Amazon, however in order for you a superb expertise, there has solely actually been one model to select from lately, 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 previously couple of years, however the standout merchandise are the assorted sting lights they produce. I reviewed the Twinkly Strings Gold Version, however they at the moment 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 attainable to map all of your lights after which create engaging lighting patterns. You possibly can map a number of merchandise making the animation impact as easy or as complicated as you want. I discovered that the Twinkly Strings had been a enjoyable product to play with, however I believe you want a number of lights if you wish to create a formidable impact.

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

Subsequently, Philips Hue is at a drawback on the planet of sensible Christmas lighting. The Festavia string lights have nowhere close to the extent of customisation you may obtain from Twinkly, they usually value extra vs the like-for-like Festavia multicolour string lights.

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

I detest having dozens of various apps to regulate all my sensible dwelling units (hopefully, Matter could clear up this), and I’m closely invested in Philips Hue. Subsequently, Festavia makes a number 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 person, 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 comply with 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. If you happen to assign the lights to a room or zone, you may set a scene for all of the lights inside that zone quite than simply having your Christmas lights work independently (like Twinkly).

You too can use a dynamic scene which is able to regularly change the colors of your lights. You possibly can 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 a number of Hue merchandise. Subsequently I can create a dynamic scene with all the prevailing 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 will have a line gradient, which is sensible 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 probably need to obtain on their Christmas tree.

As you’d count on, Festavia lights can work with all the things else you will have inside Hue. You possibly can 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 situation, I can see the attraction of individuals desirous to sync their Christmas tree lights with music. It’ll little question create a pleasing impact when enjoying Christmas songs all through the vacation season.

Equally, when you have a Philips Hue Play HDMI sync field, you may 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 dwelling loads not too long ago and have due to this fact began testing the price of operating merchandise.

The Festavia comes with a surprisingly giant energy brink, however it is just rated for 40W. Hue claims that the standby energy draw is 0.5w and the everyday 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 bought 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 at the moment £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.

If you happen to solely need fundamental sensible management of your lights, and dealing on a schedule, then you definitely’d probably be higher off with dumb lights and utilizing a sensible plug.

General

I believe the Philips Hue Festavia is strictly a product that’s for current Philips Hue techniques. You probably have closely invested in Hue, then it simply is sensible to stay with Hue to your Christmas tree lights.

I’m a type of folks, and due to this fact I like them. I’m an enormous fan of the Hue ecosystem basically, it’s simply straightforward to make use of and works flawlessly.

For different folks, it’s arduous 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 may be not a lot have to hold going into it.  

For current Hue homeowners 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. In fact, 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 underneath one ecosystem.