This year marks the debut of the only string light product that can integrate with thePhilipsHue platform. The Festavia string lights can be used for christmas trees, holiday decorations, or year-round accent lighting.
The Festavia includes 250 smart mini LEDs on a 65 foot cord and is a standard length for a string light. The cord is black and the LEDs are rounded.
During the day, the black cord tends to stand out more against my tree than a green cord, and it mostly excludes the Festavia for lighter colored trees such as those that are white. I hope that the Hue line will offer other Festavia options with colored cords that are suitable for a wider range of trees.
I have a tree that is seven feet tall, and the Festavia was just about enough lights for it, though I could probably have done with two strings. If a tree is against a wall, the lights would be placed on the front instead of the back.
HomeKit-enabled Festavia lights can be controlled through the Home app and with voice commands, but they are not compatible with the Hue app, so a bridge is needed. These are gradient lights, and the colors on them are changed by the hue app.
Each light can be set to a different color if you choose one of the two modes. If you want, you can sync the lights to music if you want.
The Twinkly lights are a lot cheaper than the Festavia lights. Twinkly lights are also HomeKit-enabled, so I want to point out a few things for people to consider.
The Twinkly lights are very bright. It's a good thing that the lights are more subtle and less bright. By default, the Twinkly lights are too bright. Twinkly lights are brighter.
There seems to be more of an available color range in terms of color accuracy and hue seems to be a bit more accurate. I can change the color of every Twinkly light individually, but I cannot do that with the Festavia. There is a mix of up to five colors that are assigned to the lights.
The Twinkly lights are more fun than the Festavia lights. The Twinkly has a lot of effects that can be used, while the Festavia has less.
The lights have a more classy look. Twinkly lights can't match the nice animations that Hue has. A fireplace animation has a soft orange glow and a "Sparkle" animation has white lights in different shades shifting slowly so that it looks like twinkling lights. It's not easy to use the color shifting animations in the app.
Even on the slowest setting, Twinkly light animations are rapid, and I prefer the more sophisticated hue patterns. There are only three animations that can be seen through the Hue app. I hope that more will be added.
There are limited colorful animations and the color light settings are mostly limited to static designs. You can create light scenes that integrate all of your lights, including the Festavia, with the help of the Hue lights.
The app is easy to use for the majority of the time. If you want to change between colors or white tones, you can choose the effects tab. Light colors can be changed by dragging the icons on the color wheel with a finger, and this is an interface where you can control all of your Hue lights together.
Controls for adjusting brightness and limited options in the Home app are included. The Home app can be used to set single colors for all the lights, and you can use your voice to change the brightness. There are effects and multi-color options that need the app.
Since these are HomeKit integrated lights, you can set timers for when they run, when they leave, or in response to other HomeKit devices.
I would recommend the Festavia lights to anyone with a Philips Hue setup because of their integration with other lights.
The Festavia string lights are perfect for those who already have a good set of lights, or for those who want a soft, classy look for a Christmas tree. They aren't as interactive as the Twinkly lights, and so might not be ideal for families with kids who might like to play with the color changing Twinkly features, but they are perfect for those who want a less hands on lighting experience.
The Festavia lights are out of stock at the moment but can be purchased from the website. There has been a lot of enthusiasm for the Festavia, and the company is working to make more inventory available for purchase.
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