The holidays are when the trendiest smart lights can shine their brightest. Even so, some lights are more practical for quick decorating, while others are better suited for permanent installation. Because of their higher cost, lights compatible with Google Home or Alexa have struggled to replace the more inexpensive string lights illuminating trees or the exteriors of homes. While still more pricey, smart lights from brands likeGovee and Nanoleafoffer so much added convenience that they become more relied on every festive season.
USB Smart Candles
TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim 4-Pack
String lights deserve their standing as the best Christmas lights and are one of the most efficient ways to brighten a home. Many variations of these lights exist, with larger and smaller bulbs ideal for different applications. Newer smart lights allow more functionality, including reacting to music or displaying elaborate multi-colored animations. At various price points, GameRant has narrowed down the most intelligent options to amplify holiday displays.
Govee Outdoor String Lights
The Govee Outdoor String Lights are GameRant Editor’s Choice for the best holiday lights because of their brightness and impressive smart features. Available in 48 or 96-foot sizes, these Govee lights are weatherproof to withstand the elements. Embracing RGBIC technology, buyers can set the individual bulbs to different colors, creating some complex and dynamic scenes. Similar toGovee smart bulbs and wall panels, it’s possible to sync them with Google Home and Alexa for voice commands.
Philips Hue Festavia String Lights
For buyers who already own Philips Hue smart bulbs, there is also a premium compatible option for outdoor/indoor string lights. The Festavia String Lights excel at more subtle effects where the differences in bulb colors are clearly defined. Buyers won’t need a Hue hub to use these lights, and unlike many competing lights, they work with HomeKit as well as Google Home and Alexa. The Hue Festavia String Lights are sold in 65 and 130-foot lengths to plaster the largest areas with stunning illumination.
Nobent Smart WiFi Fairy Lights
Buyers don’t have to ruin their holiday budgets to make a household look festive. As GameRant’s Best Value pick among smart lights, the Nobent Smart WiFi Fairy Lights offer an incredible 66 feet of lighting for a surprisingly low price. Fairy lights are a great option for creating an illuminated hanging display near indoor and outdoor entrances. Despite theirbudget smart light status, these Nobent lights work with Google Home and Alexa for voice commands and also pulsate with holiday music.
Twinkly Strings App Controlled LED Christmas Lights
The Twinkly Strings LED lights have obvious similarities with competing products from Govee and Philips Hue but also have advantages. The 2nd generation of these string lights offers Bluetooth connectivity, improved responsiveness, and HomeKit compatibility. Buyers will find that these are the easiest holiday smart lights to quickly customize since they can use their smartphone cameras to virtually paint scenes. The layout of the LED bulbs is also quite dense, meaning any lighting effects stand out more.
Nanoleaf Matter Smart Holiday String Lights
The Nanoleaf Matter Smart Holiday String Lights are a better value than other premium lights and offer Matter compatibility. Even holiday lighting can now benefit from this emerging smart home protocol, which syncs smart devices from many brands with increased speed. Gamers should also consider the Nanoleaf Holiday String Lights as an option to sync with the manufacturer’s many other wall panels and reactive lighting kits. Unlike mostNanoleaf lights, these string lights can also be used outdoors to make neighbors envious.
Philips Hue Outdoor Lightstrip
The Philips Hue Outdoor Lightstrip can add sophisticated holiday illumination to homes but is designed to survive year-round outdoor elements. As soft and flexible yet durable lightstrips, these Hue lights easily adhere to walkways, doorways, and balconies. Buyers will need a Hue hub to use the lightstrip but will then be able to sync it with a household full of smart lights. Although it’s quite pricey, users find that few competitors can match the build quality or color accuracy of these lights.
Govee Curtain Lights
Although the Govee Curtain Lights are the perfect way to dramatically highlight a window, they also can be used outdoors to decorate patios and other outdoor spaces. Buyers have several installation methods available with these lights, including tapes, nails, and hooks. Once set up, it’s possible to program the Curtain Lights with highly detailed logos and designs since the LED light bulbs are so tightly packed. If customization takes too much valuable time during this holiday season, Govee has an unmatched number of preset scenes for download in its apps.
Nanoleaf Shapes
Because of their versatility,Nanoleaf Shapescan turn a gaming room into a holiday celebration of smart lighting. Highly rated for their integration with all major smart home platforms, Shapes lights in triangles, mini triangles, and hexagons link together for intricate designs. The popularity of these smart lights has led Nanoleaf users to design and share unique scenes, which include patterns appropriate for the holidays. While Shapes aren’t suitable for outdoor installations, their build quality and long history of support from Nanoleaf make them a permanent addition to any room.
No holiday decor is complete without some candles adding to the festive season. These USB Smart Candles take some of the mess and danger out of using conventional wax candles. Although they require USB power, users can control them with Alexa, Google Home, and HomeKit apps and set up schedules to turn them off and on automatically. The USB candles come in a variety of sizes and have flickering effects, which will fool any visitors into thinking they have burning wicks.
As tempting as decorating a home with smart lighting is, the costs quickly add up compared to traditional string lights. The TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim can turn any light into a smart device. Once a light or appliance is plugged into the Kasa smart plugs, users are able to control them with the Kasa app or any software compatible with Alexa, Google Home, and HomeKit. These plugs can also save homeowners money by monitoring power usage and revealing ways to save wasted energy.
The Most Essential Holiday Smart Lights
The movement to bring conventional holiday lighting into the smart age is well underway. Whether a buyer is searching for LED string lights to spruce up a home’s exterior or ways to control older lights with smart apps, there are solutions with dramatically differing costs. The following three smart lights are GameRant’s top picks for performance, compatibility with smart home ecosystems, and ease of installation.
Editor’s Choice for Best Holiday Smart Lights
LED string lights are the most popular way to illuminate Christmas trees or hang up outside homes to show a family’s holiday spirit. The Govee Outdoor String Lights are lights on a string, but buyers receive a series of larger bulbs instead of small LED bulbs for more dramatic effects. Each bulb is rather far apart from the other, but the Outdoor String Lights compensate with added brightness. Govee has mastered RGBIC technology, and each light can display different hues simultaneously. The other benefit is that users can program elaborate holiday lighting patterns or download scenes from the Govee Home app for holiday splendor that never gets tiresome.
The majority ofGovee smart lightsare intended for indoor usage, but these outdoor string lights can withstand cold weather or the heaviest rain and snow. The bulbs are also made of a special hard plastic material that resists shattering if they fall from the side of a house. Otherwise, any gamer with Govee lights will find that they integrate perfectly with the manufacturer’s wall panel lights, screen mirroring kits, or individual smart light bulbs. Since the Outdoor String Lights sync with Google Home and Alexa devices and can be installed indoors, they will become a year-round fixture of an evolving smart household.
The Govee Outdoor String Lights are available in several lengths from 48 to 96 feet and make a strong impression as the best Christmas lights. Compared to the most premium smart outdoor lights, they offer attractive value, but still require a significant investment. The most obvious downside of most Govee lights is they lack compatibility with HomeKit, so those buyers will need to consider Philips Hue orNanoleaf smart lights.
The Best Premium Holiday Smart Lights
When most buyers think ofpremium LED lights, Hue is the first brand that comes to mind. Although the price of the Festavia String Lights may seem excessive, their build quality and support for virtually every smart home platform is second to none. Unlike the Govee Outdoor String Lights, the Festavia lights are more conventional smaller LED bulbs that are densely packed on a wire. Previous versions of these lights were not suitable for outdoor use, but Philips has weatherproofed this year’s iteration.
The Festavia String Lights won’t blow audiences away with brightness but instead produce subdued and comforting illumination. Consequently, they are best used alongside other lights to set the perfect mood. The Festavia lights also excel when displaying white colors since they can distinguish between warm and cool white hues. Hue has programmed several preset effects that maximize the potential of the Festavia lights, like patterns that simulate flickering candles or twinkling stars. In the Philips Hue app, buyers can customize scenes and coordinate lighting with Hue bulbs and lightstrips.
Since they are already costly, it’s a relief that the Festavia lights don’t require purchasing a Hue hub. The lights also have some advantages over other smart lights since they work with Apple HomeKit. If buyers desire a high-quality string of lights that will perform flawlessly for many years, Festavia String Lights are the best Christmas lights or lights to celebrate the most special occasions.
The Best Value Holiday Smart Lights
Fairy lights like the Nobrent Smart WiFi Smart Lights are a simple way to drape a tree, window, or entranceway with holiday illumination. They tend to be not exceptionally bright but rely on a high volume of lights in close proximity attached to thin wires. Still, these Nobent fairy lights are a tremendous value, considering buyers typically pay less than 50 cents per foot of lighting. In addition, they are compatible with Google Home and Amazon Alexa for voice commands and can react to the most popular songs of the season. The Nobent lights can also display multiple colors on the same strand to rival elaborate Nanoleaf, Govee, and Philips Hue scenes.
Of course, as budget smart lights, buyers will have to make some compromises with the Nobrent Smart WiFi Fairy Lights. Besides not being especially powerful, buyers often find that the included controller loses connections with compatible apps, forcing them to unplug and replug the lights. Also, the build quality of these fairy lights won’t impress, so users will have to take great care when storing them.
For fairy-type smart lights that are even more impressive, gamers are often drawn to theGovee Curtain Lights. These Govee lights ship with hardware that makes windows easy installation targets, but they equally impress hanging outdoors near decks and patios. Users can design intricate patterns or program the Curtain Lights to display pixel art or logos, which is possible because of the compact configuration of bright bulbs.
