Philips Hue Festavia String Lights (2nd gen) Review

Introduction

The original Hue Festavia String Lights were a decent set of Christmas lights, but slightly limited as they only worked indoors. Now, I have the new Philips Hue Festavia String Lights, which ship with an indoor/outdoor power supply, so you can use them outside as well as in, and even leave them out for all-year-round use.

It might sound like a small change but the flexibility to use these lights all year makes them a far better buy.   

Design and Features

• Indoor and outdoor use
• Choice of three lengths
• Bluetooth and Zigbee

There are three versions of the Philips Hue Festavia String Lights: an 8m, 100 LED set; a 20m, 250 LED set (the version I have on review); and a 40m 500 LED set. No matter what size garden or tree you have, then, there’s a set of lights that will fit.

The 100 and 250 LED versions have one string of lights each, but the 500 LED version has two strings of 250 LEDs. That’s similar to how the Nanoleaf Matter Smart Holiday String Lights works, which has a split range of lights.

There’s a 30W power supply in the box, which is capable of powering up to 500 LEDS. If you’ve got 100 or 250 set, then you can power multiple lights from the same power supply, provided you buy the optional T-connector. Philips Hue also sells additional higher-rated power supplies, if you want to power more outdoor lights from a single plug socket.

There’s then an indoor/outdoor power supply that’s physically to the lights. With the older version, this part was indoor only, so it’s quite an upgrade to get a set that you can use indoor or out.

Installation of the lights is simple. With the power supply plugged in and connected up, the lights turn on automatically and can be connected to the Hue app. Both Bluetooth and Zigbee are supported, with the latter requiring a Hue Bridge.

I prefer the Zigbee option, as it gives more scope for control and makes sense with a larger installation. That said, if you do plan on using these lights for a Christmas tree and don’t have Hue lights around your home, using Bluetooth does mean that you don’t need any additional kit.

For physical installation, you can wrap the lights around a Christmas tree, a tree outside, or string them along the fence. With so much cable to play with, the options are almost endless.

With a Christmas tree, Philips Hue recommends placing the end of the string at the top of the tree and the power supply at the bottom; for the 500-led set, the company says that the junction box should be placed in the middle so that the split is even and both sides of the lights match.

If you’re running the lights along a fence, then be aware that each string is split into controllable segments, so you don’t want to overlap them to preserve the effect.

Control of the lights is via the Hue app, and the Philips Hue Festavia String Lights appear like any other lights. Indeed, they can be put into a room, just like a standard bulb. If, like me, you’ve got a home kitted out with Hue lights, this makes a lot of sense, as using standard controls, I can turn the lights on and off, dim them and flick through scenes.

As the Philips Hue Festavia String Lights are just like other lights, they blend into a scene perfectly. 

As the Philips Hue Festavia String Lights are standard Hue lights, I could also control their colour individually. I had the 250-LED version of the lights, which have three different operating modes: linear, mirrored or scattered.

With linear and mirrored, you get three colour points to adjust. Mirror sets the ends of the light to the same colour, and then has a gradient leading to the middle colour; linear treats each point individually. These are good modes for when you want your lights to blend in.

Scattered is the mode that is more traditional for this kind of light, offering five segments that can be individually controlled, allowing you to select a different colour temperature or colour for each.

Such a wide range of segments gives a lot of physical control over the lights, and easily let me select a multi-colour rainbow.

All of these options are fine for standard use where you want the Philips Hue Festavia String Lights to match your other Hue lights. If you are using them for Christmas, then it’s nice to have something a bit more festive.

This is something that Twinkly does well with its lights, such as those on the Balsam Hill Nordmann Fir Twinkly tree. In addition to standard lights, Twinkly offers a full range of standard Christmas modes, featuring flashing lights, fast-moving colour changes, and epic animations.

While it’s fair to say that the Philips Hue Festavia String Lights doesn’t quite go that far, they do have Sparkle and Glisten options. Each adds a bit of dynamic action to the lights, adding some sparkle and flash into the mix that better suits the holiday period.

Each effect has a baseline colour for the entire string, with a set of examples baked in, plus you can create your own effect, including the transition speed.

Both types of effect add a greater sense of fun than the standard Hue dynamic effects, which are a bit slow. However, you still don’t get quite the full range of dynamic lights that Twinkly offers.

With a Hue Bridge, the lights are compatible with Apple Home, Alexa and the Google Assistant, plus they’re Matter compatible, too. I have my lights connected to Apple Home via Matter. This reduces the level of control to static colours and brightness, but I do find it useful for automation, such as turning the lights off automatically when I leave home.

Performance

• Very bright
• Excellent transitions

I love the way that the Philips Hue Festavia String Lights integrate into my home. In linear or mirror mode, the lights operate like any other gradient light. Having them match the scene of other lights in a room is brilliant, and makes the lights feel like part of a bigger set up, which they are.

That’s as true using the lights along a fence for outdoor lighting as it is on a Christmas tree. For the latter, there’s something classy about having the lights come on the same colour as the other bulbs in a room, perfectly matching.

Compatibility with the full range of controls is a real bonus. When I want the lights on I can hit a button on a remote, and I can dim or turn the lights off at the touch of a button, too.

I found the Philips Hue Festavia String Lights to be very bright. On full brightness, on white, they did a good job of lighting up my garden at night. It’s really the subtlety that makes these lights stand out.

For something more colourful that stands out, the scatter mode is excellent. Brilliant colour reproduction across the full range of colours helps create a colourful playground, and the five segments on my lights beautifully blend.

With standard dynamic scenes, the lights gently move through colours, creating a slightly more interesting ambient light than static colours can achieve alone.

I do like the more dynamic light scenes that are better suited to holiday periods, even if Twinkly’s lights go a bit further in that regard.

Ultimately, it’s a choice between what you want. The Philips Hue Festavia String Lights can be up all year in different places, perfectly blend with your existing smart light set up, and create excellent ambient light. Twinkly’s Christmas lights are more fun and have a huge choice of bright, dynamic scenes, but they don’t mix with an existing lighting set up and they’re not much use past Christmas.

Should you buy it?

FAQs