Are Smart Christmas Lights Worth It?

Smart Christmas lights are more pricey than both conventional and LED Christmas lights however use a considerable variety of functions that make them an engaging vacation splurge.

They’re so brand-new and specific niche you might not have actually even become aware of them yet, however wise Christmas lights are a really cool and extremely costly vacation splurge. Are they worth it?

What Are Smart Christmas Lights?

Smart Christmas lights, like plain old clever lights in basic, can be found in 2 tastes. There are light hairs that can be managed by an app and are restricted to simply standard color modifications, not unlike the deal wise bulbs on the market. The a little fancier variations may consist of a couple of color modification modes or scenes as a technique up their sleeve, however that’s about it.

Then there are advanced alternatives a wee bit more worthwhile of the “clever” title. These alternatives aren’t simply clever because an app on your phone can turn them on and off from another location or alter them from white, to red, to green. They’re a lot advanced and can do gradients, moving patterns, and even placed on a full-out light program with dancing sweet walking canes and more.

And hi, while you’re considering clever Christmas lights, do not forget that routine clever lights are the most convenient vacation decors around.

I still embellish for the vacations and string my tree with lights, however I lean greatly on my all-year-round lights, like my Govee floodlights, to include some vacation cheer. Govee’s brand-new irreversible outside vacation lighting was so popular it offered out right away.

What Smart Christmas Light Options Are There?

Once you surpass the “these aren’t Christmas lights, these are simply RGB light strips identified as Christmas lights” sector of the “wise Christmas light” market, there are presently just 2 significant gamers out there in the A-list top-tier classification.

Twinkly: It’ll Blow Your Mind

The very first is Twinkly. We ‘d go so far as to argue that Twinkly is the defacto face of the customer wise Christmas lighting market. Considering That 2017, the business has actually provided the most advanced off-the-shelf wise Christmas light designs around.

What makes them stick out from every other rival is not simply the addressable nature of their light hairs, however the ease with which you can utilize the app to do so. You can string the lights, take a photo of them with the app, and after that utilize an easy tap-to-paint type user interface to produce intricate patterns and animations– all since the system understands precisely where each light is set out.

For a lot of Christmas trees, you’ll require one Twinkly Strings set (600 bulbs throughout 157.5 feet). That’ll set you back $250-300, depending upon whether you capture the package on sale. There is likewise a 400- light, 105- foot hair for $140 that’s functionally similar save for length.

Need a tree and a clever light package all in one swoop? Twinkly even uses a pre-lit tree so you can delight in out-of-the-box wise lighting.

Philips Hue: Old Pros, New Lights

In the clever lighting market, Philips is an old pro with a huge selection of fantastic items in the Hue lineup. We suggest them all the time here at How-To Geek for whatever from basic clever lighting to establishing a dawn alarm clock.

As of November 2022, Philips remains in the clever Christmas lighting video game with the release of their Festavia string lights. Since this post in December 2022, they are entirely offered out due to a substantial action from Hue fans, so you’ll likely need to wait till next Christmas to deck your tree out with Philips Hue items.

The Festivia lights do not use private addressability like Twinkly lights, however they use the ease of usage and stylish scenes you ‘d get out of the Hue platform. You can develop gradients, basic patterns, and– most important to major Hue lovers– sync them into the rest of your lights. If you currently have Hue bulbs, light strips, or accent lights, they will fit together perfectly with your Christmas tree lights.

The Festiva hairs function 250 lights throughout 65 feet. Philips declares one hair suffices for trees approximately 7 feet however we’re not so positive because as we like a Christmas tree illuminated like the Vegas strip. Strangely, the hairs aren’t extensible, and Philips’ recommended option to that issue is to thoroughly layer 2 hairs over each other in the exact same spiral pattern and after that sync them in the app. For a business understood for their very refined wise lighting options that feels simply a wee bit kludgy, if you ask us.

At $160 a hair, nevertheless, it’s developed to attract Hue fans deep in the Hue community and not priced competitively enough to go toe-to-toe with the somewhat less expensive offerings from Twinkly. Still, the Hue platform is rather fully grown, and if you’re living that Hue life, it’s hard to beat a Christmas light item that perfectly incorporates with it.

Everyone Else: It’s Hit or Miss

Once you get beyond Twinkly and Philips Hue, there aren’t any significant brand names in the clever Christmas light area. Business Kasa and Govee have terrific clever LED lights in basic and light strips you can utilize for vacation designing, however they do not have actually devoted Christmas light strings for indoor or outside trees.

Hopefully, one day they will due to the fact that we actually like both business. For now, as soon as you get beyond Twinkly as the flashiest showstopper choice and the Festiva hairs as the Hue-integrated alternative, you’re into the wilds of little brand names and white box items.

If you want to invest less than those 2 premium alternatives need however still have voice control through Alexa or Google Assistant, wise house combination, color altering, schedules, and more, there are a couple of choices worth examining. We ‘d motivate you to go into the experiment with modest expectations since the hardware and software application have the prospective to be a bit flaky by contrast.

Brizled offers a variety of low-cost LED vacation lights on Amazon. In 2022 they presented a brand-new wise Christmas light alternative with all the fundamental bells and whistles you ‘d anticipate, like clever house combination and scenes.

The hair has 600 LEDs, is 196 feet long, and is not extensible (if you desire more lights you’ll require to utilize the Hue Festiva technique and layer them over one another to develop a candy-cane result).

People like the cost point–$85 for such a long hair is a respectable worth– however do keep in mind that the Brizled lights battle with managing warm white. Customers keep in mind that the LEDs can do pure white, and yellow, however absolutely nothing that looks precisely like a warm standard lights.

If you’re searching for a much more cost-effective alternative, this hair from PabiPabi includes clever house combination integrated with an on-strand control system. You can utilize the app or you can utilize the button on the control box to change the light modes.

The app likewise has a smart style with a tree-shaped overview that looks sort of like the Twinkly user interface (minus the sophisticated real-time scanning and shows). As long as you string your lights from the tail end of the hair, top to bottom, the mocked-up tree will let you see how the patterns will look. It’s not advanced programmability, however it is a good touch.

Beyond those 2 alternatives, nevertheless, we ‘d motivate you to check out the item listings and evaluations thoroughly. You’ll get numerous search results page for “clever” Christmas lights that aren’t in fact wise or merely have a push-button control and no clever house combination to mention.

So, Are They Worth It?

That’s the concern we postured in the heading, and it’s a hard concern to respond to for you. A cars deserves it if you wish to invest your leisure time zooming along winding canyon roadways, however that does not negate the expenditure.

Halloween, for instance, is a Very Big Deal in my home, and I simply purchased numerous fog makers on Black Friday. Investing cash on fog makers deserves it since I desire the most climatic lawn possible on Halloween night.

In that regard, wise Christmas lights might be more than worth it to you if you deal with the Christmas season as The Big Show and wish to not just have something to play with however something that will wow your family and friends.

Sure, a $250 hair of light-show-grade wise Christmas lights is a lot more than $30 worth of plain old warm white LEDs, however if you desire an experience that is more Viva Las Vegas and less Christmas in Connecticut, that may simply be the rate of admission.