Smart lights, as a whole, are still a somewhat new industry, and string lights are even more niche that Hue doesn’t have a whole bus of competitors to contend with. Among the others, there are the Feit Electric S14 LED string lights, listed for $99.99. These are quite different — they’re large dangling bulbs and only 24 feet long, but for $60 less than the Hues with capabilities in the smartphone app, Alexa, and Google control. These are tailored for outdoor use, though, with the bigger bulbs spaced three feet apart.
On Amazon, the Twinkly Strings smart LED string lights retail for $119.99. These are the same length as the Festavias, have the same amount of lights, and create a similarly sized and shaped light bokeh — if the listing pictures don’t fail us. In this brand, you could get 105 feet of wire with 400 LED lights for still less than the Hues.
These claim to be rated for both outdoor and indoor use and seem to be capable of all the same smart light things — dimming, timing, music synchronization, smartphone app control, pre-loaded and user-created color schemes, and Alexa/Google Home/Apple Homekit compatibility. And judging from the listing, it seems the Twinkly Strings have more creative freedom in the custom lighting; there’s some sort of pixel color canvas where you can hand-draw the display you want the lights to portray.
On paper, the Twinkly Strings really do seem to give the Festavia a run for their money — but only, I think, if you don’t already have a pre-installed set of smart lights you want to immerse the string lights into. When it comes down to technicalities and specs, I think it’s arguable that the Festavia lights are a bit overpriced, but you have the integration to keep in mind.
