Home LivingSmart HomePhilips Hue Festavia (1st gen) review: the ultimate smart home string lights?Are these smart home fairy lights fantastic, or a festive flop?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Philips Hue)T3 VerdictUnsurprisingly, the Philips Hue Festavia is a very well-made set of smart home string lights that allows its owner to customise the colours it displays over its 250 LEDs in great detail. However, the price of the Festavia is very high and its brightness during daylight conditions falls short of much cheaper, non-smart string lights.Reasons to buy+Seamlessly syncs into a Philips Hue lighting setup+Gradient light segments allow multiple colours at once+Philips Hue lighting effects are neat+20-meters of cord delivered with 250 LED lightsReasons to avoid-Incredibly expensive for string lights-Not very bright, especially during the day-Indoor use only-Completely sold out at the time of writingWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Home LivingSmart HomePhilips Hue Festavia (1st gen) review: the ultimate smart home string lights?Are these smart home fairy lights fantastic, or a festive flop?When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.(Image credit: Philips Hue)T3 VerdictUnsurprisingly, the Philips Hue Festavia is a very well-made set of smart home string lights that allows its owner to customise the colours it displays over its 250 LEDs in great detail. However, the price of the Festavia is very high and its brightness during daylight conditions falls short of much cheaper, non-smart string lights.Reasons to buy+Seamlessly syncs into a Philips Hue lighting setup+Gradient light segments allow multiple colours at once+Philips Hue lighting effects are neat+20-meters of cord delivered with 250 LED lightsReasons to avoid-Incredibly expensive for string lights-Not very bright, especially during the day-Indoor use only-Completely sold out at the time of writingWhy you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Are these smart home fairy lights fantastic, or a festive flop?
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Philips Hue)T3 VerdictUnsurprisingly, the Philips Hue Festavia is a very well-made set of smart home string lights that allows its owner to customise the colours it displays over its 250 LEDs in great detail. However, the price of the Festavia is very high and its brightness during daylight conditions falls short of much cheaper, non-smart string lights.Reasons to buy+Seamlessly syncs into a Philips Hue lighting setup+Gradient light segments allow multiple colours at once+Philips Hue lighting effects are neat+20-meters of cord delivered with 250 LED lightsReasons to avoid-Incredibly expensive for string lights-Not very bright, especially during the day-Indoor use only-Completely sold out at the time of writing
(Image credit: Philips Hue)
(Image credit: Philips Hue)
T3 VerdictUnsurprisingly, the Philips Hue Festavia is a very well-made set of smart home string lights that allows its owner to customise the colours it displays over its 250 LEDs in great detail. However, the price of the Festavia is very high and its brightness during daylight conditions falls short of much cheaper, non-smart string lights.Reasons to buy+Seamlessly syncs into a Philips Hue lighting setup+Gradient light segments allow multiple colours at once+Philips Hue lighting effects are neat+20-meters of cord delivered with 250 LED lightsReasons to avoid-Incredibly expensive for string lights-Not very bright, especially during the day-Indoor use only-Completely sold out at the time of writing
T3 VerdictUnsurprisingly, the Philips Hue Festavia is a very well-made set of smart home string lights that allows its owner to customise the colours it displays over its 250 LEDs in great detail. However, the price of the Festavia is very high and its brightness during daylight conditions falls short of much cheaper, non-smart string lights.
T3 Verdict
Unsurprisingly, the Philips Hue Festavia is a very well-made set of smart home string lights that allows its owner to customise the colours it displays over its 250 LEDs in great detail. However, the price of the Festavia is very high and its brightness during daylight conditions falls short of much cheaper, non-smart string lights.
Reasons to buy+Seamlessly syncs into a Philips Hue lighting setup+Gradient light segments allow multiple colours at once+Philips Hue lighting effects are neat+20-meters of cord delivered with 250 LED lightsReasons to avoid-Incredibly expensive for string lights-Not very bright, especially during the day-Indoor use only-Completely sold out at the time of writing
Reasons to buy+Seamlessly syncs into a Philips Hue lighting setup+Gradient light segments allow multiple colours at once+Philips Hue lighting effects are neat+20-meters of cord delivered with 250 LED lights
Seamlessly syncs into a Philips Hue lighting setup
Gradient light segments allow multiple colours at once
Philips Hue lighting effects are neat
20-meters of cord delivered with 250 LED lights
Reasons to avoid-Incredibly expensive for string lights-Not very bright, especially during the day-Indoor use only-Completely sold out at the time of writing
Incredibly expensive for string lights
Not very bright, especially during the day
Indoor use only
Completely sold out at the time of writing
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Why you can trust T3Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.Find out more about how we test.
Welcome to T3’sPhilips HueFestavia (1st gen) review. I’ve been using the Festavia for a few weeks now and, after setting these string lights up and using them in my own home, this is my considered take on what they deliver and how good a purchase they are.
The box the Philips Hue Festavia comes in.(Image credit: Future)
The box the Philips Hue Festavia comes in.
The box the Philips Hue Festavia comes in.
(Image credit: Future)
Philips Hue Festavia review: price and availability
My take on the Festavia’s price is that it isreallyhigh. For example, I can get a 20-metre set of colour-changing string lights forunder£10/$10 atAmazonright now. Yes, sure, these string lights aren’t smart home compatible and don’t offer graduated light zones, but theyabsolutely canchange through a good selection of coloursandoffer lighting effects, too.
So, when you consider the Festavia cost£139.99, which is £129.99morethan that, you really do have to ask yourself if having a Hue-connected set of string lights is worth the extra money, as the Hue product is a 1,291.391 per cent increase on the price.
The fact that Festavia alsocannotbe bought right now, certainly for RRP, puts a dampener on its launch, as it is a product that cannot be bought. Hopefully, Hue will increase its production volume dramatically going into 2023.
Philips Hue Festavia review: setup
The Festavia comes in a spool wrapped around a cardboard holder.(Image credit: Future)
The Festavia comes in a spool wrapped around a cardboard holder.
The Festavia comes in a spool wrapped around a cardboard holder.
(Image credit: Future)
Take the Festavia out of the box and you’re presented with a 20-metre set of string lights wrapped in a spool around a cardboard holder. The lights unravel easily and the cardboard holder is robust, meaning it can be easily re-used.
The Philips Hue Festavia’s 40W power supply box.(Image credit: Future)
The Philips Hue Festavia’s 40W power supply box.
The Philips Hue Festavia’s 40W power supply box.
(Image credit: Future)
Plug the lights in and power them up and you get to see the Festavia’s 250 LEDs lit up, as well as their design. The LEDs have a circular, flat-tipped design and, like the Festavia’s cabling, are held in black-colored sheaths.
The gap between each LED is pleasingly short and the design of the sheaths means the lights don’t get stuck together easily, which is handy when installing them in your chosen location.
To be clear, though, the Festavia is only available in a 20-metre length and only with black cabling and sheaths.
The Festavia default to white light when turned on initially.(Image credit: Future)
The Festavia default to white light when turned on initially.
The Festavia default to white light when turned on initially.
(Image credit: Future)
With the lights powered on you can then open the Philips Hue app on your smartphone device and activate the Festavia. These activate like any Hue product in its smart lighting ecosystem – you simply click find new product in the app and the string lights are automatically found.
Once found you can name the lights, add them to any lighting zone you wish, as well as customise their color, theme or effect (more on that later).
I had the Festavia set up in mere minutes. Hue has really nailed making it super easy to plug new lighting into a Hue smart home setup, and to my mind it is a best-in-class experience.
Setting up the Festavia in the Philips Hue app.(Image credit: Future)
Setting up the Festavia in the Philips Hue app.
Setting up the Festavia in the Philips Hue app.
(Image credit: Future)
With the Festavia installed into my Hue network of smart lighting products, I then proceeded to physically install the lights in the roof of my garden pub, supporting them with cable clips and hooks. The idea is that they bring festive cheer throughout the holiday season whenever I’m down there, which will be a longer period of time than my Christmas tree is up.
All in, it took about 10 minutes to go from product-in-box to fully installed and set up Festavia string lights. I guess this could be an even shorter period of time if you decide to use the Festavia on a Christmas tree. I’d say the setup was very easy across the board.
Note the different colors of lights down the gradiated Festavia string light chain, moving from green to red.(Image credit: Future)
Note the different colors of lights down the gradiated Festavia string light chain, moving from green to red.
Note the different colors of lights down the gradiated Festavia string light chain, moving from green to red.
(Image credit: Future)
Philips Hue Festavia review: performance
As you would expect from a colour-changing Philips Hue product, the Festavia can be programmed via the Hue app to display any colour you can think of. And, as there are actuallythreegradient LED zones on the 20-metre string light, you can actually have three different colours of lights on at any one time, moving say from blue to yellow to red.
The ability to finely control the color of the Festavia is a major selling point for these string lights.(Image credit: Future)
The ability to finely control the color of the Festavia is a major selling point for these string lights.
The ability to finely control the color of the Festavia is a major selling point for these string lights.
(Image credit: Future)
Selecting these colours in the Hue app is easy, with three balloons sat over a color palette letting you just drag and drop to alter the colour on the fly. You can also modify the brightness of the LEDs, too.
Now, here, I have to say that while I found the Festavia LEDs to be perfectly bright in darker environments, I did not think they were terribly bright when turned on during the day, and noticeably dimmer than the peak brightness of my non-smart home string lights.
It’s not as if you can’t see the colours or the lights on at all during the day, far from it, they just don’t have thattwinklethat traditional string lights do.
You can change the color or effect of the Festavia easily in the Philips Hue app.(Image credit: Future)
You can change the color or effect of the Festavia easily in the Philips Hue app.
You can change the color or effect of the Festavia easily in the Philips Hue app.
(Image credit: Future)
In my garden pub I cycled through a wide selection of colours on the Festavia and I thought the LEDs displayed them accurately. I also selected some of the more wintery, festive lighting themes, which are pre-programmed patterns, and I thought they looked very classy, with subtle mixtures of festive colours.
As well as solid colours and themes, the Festavia also can be programmed with an ‘Effect’, which included at the time of review, ‘Candle’, ‘Fireplace’ and ‘Sparkle’. These add an element of movement and live-ness to the lights, with colours and brightness of individual LEDs changing constantly to replicate the effect chosen.
The Festavia only comes in a black cable variety and only in a 20-meter length.(Image credit: Future)
The Festavia only comes in a black cable variety and only in a 20-meter length.
The Festavia only comes in a black cable variety and only in a 20-meter length.
(Image credit: Future)
Once more, you can alter the brightness of these live effects, which I did to the maximum as that way the effect is most noticeable. I particularly liked the fireplace effect, which glowed and flickered red, orange and yellow. I even put aNetflixfire on the TV to give the effect from the Festavia even more visual power.
Lastly on effects and performance, as with other Hue lights, if you want you can sync these lights to pulse in time with music (as I’ve written about before multiple times). That’s not really my bag but I can imagine it working well at a Christmas party, or indeed any party, as these are string lights thatcanbe used all year round. The feature is there if you want it.
The Philips Hue Festavia is the best set ofsmartstring lights in the world but clearly isn’t for everyone.(Image credit: Philips Hue)
The Philips Hue Festavia is the best set ofsmartstring lights in the world but clearly isn’t for everyone.
The Philips Hue Festavia is the best set ofsmartstring lights in the world but clearly isn’t for everyone.
(Image credit: Philips Hue)
Philips Hue Festavia review: verdict
Ok, there you go, that was my Philips Hue Festavia review. I hope you found it useful in determining what this product delivers in the real world.
My feelings on the Festavia are really split down the middle. One half of me rightly admits that Hue has made the best set of smart string lights in the world, with a well-made product offering lots of lighting customisation and options. It does so, too, in a product that is very easy to set up and syncs perfectly into the Hue ecosystem of smart lights.
That said, though, as the Festavia is currently sold out maybe other people don’t think like I do, and find that price approachable. Only you can speak for yourself here.
It’s not just the price, though. I didn’t find the Festavia incredibly bright during the day, either, and despite their robust build quality, they are for indoor use only, restricting their potential usage scenarios.
There’s also the fact that the Festavia only comes in a 20-metre length and black cable option to consider, too. Other traditional string lights are purchasable in various lengths and cable colours.
Altogether, therefore, I do recommend the Festavia but only really to well-heeled shoppers with existing Philips Hue lighting setups whohaveto have fine control over the colors of their string lights, or advanced features like music syncing. For all other people, the sub-£10/$10 set of string lights is almost certainly the better buy.
I think if Hue can iterate on the Festavia and produce a new model next year that is brighter and/or cheaper, as well as available in more lengths and cable colours, then it will be on to a winner.
TOPICSPhilips Hue
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