Philips Hue’s Festavia string lights are sparkly, colorful, and expensive

It's time to think about decorating for the winter holidays as pumpkins are being put out to pasture. The Festavia string lights look like a good option for a little extra wow and can be used for any celebration.

There is a string of smart lights with 250 mini color-changing smart LEDs. If you want to bring a touch of holiday magic to your home, these indoor lights are perfect. They can be ordered at philips-hue.com.

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In my house, we usually get a 6-foot tree, and the general recommendation is 100 lights per foot, which means we would need three of these strings to decorate. That's a lot of money. We wouldn't have to replace them every year as we used to, and it makes sense.

The Festavia strip can do more than the standard holiday lights. You can use the app to set the lights to turn on and off based on sunrise or sunset, or you can use a motion sensor. It's much simpler to scramble under the tree.

Image: Signify

You can do most of those things with a standard set of holiday lights plugged into a smart plug, but you can also dim, lighten, and change the color of the Festavia strip. Group of the LEDs are addressable and you can have multiple colors going at the same time.

You can use the Festavia to extend the holiday atmosphere across the room or house if you have other lights and a bridge.

Two new effects have been added to the app to take advantage of the new form factor.

Image: Signify

A Sparkle effect makes each light on the string twinkle, and a Scattered style spread up to five colors randomly along the string. Candle or Fireplace can be used for a cozy look.

Live Christmas trees don't have a lot of smart string lights. Twinkly is the best known, and its products are slightly cheaper and have more options for length. They can be used outdoors.

The brands work with some of the most popular brands in the world. It works with other things. It is a lot cheaper to use a smart plug for scheduling and remote control. If you want that extra feature of color-changing and addressable lighting, these fancy lighting options are only worth looking at.

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