I know everybody's getting excited about Prime Big Deals Day and Black Friday, but it's just 77 days till Christmas – and that means it's a good time to invest in some of the best smart lights for the festive season. My Hue Festavia smart lights made my Christmas tree happy last year so I'm a big fan of smart string lights, and now there's a new set from Nanoleaf that will help make your home much merrier.
The new lights are called Nanoleaf Matter Smart Holiday String Lights, and they cost £119. In addition to Matter over Wi-Fi for compatible smart home controllers they're controllable via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi via the Nanoleaf app. There's also there's a physical on/off and scene cycling controller. The lights are splash-proof and weatherproof so you can use them outdoors as well as inside.
Nanoleaf smart string lights: how do they compare to Hue?
The first and most important feature here is the length: you've got 20m of LEDs to play with, and over that 20m there are 250 LEDs that can deliver chilly or cosy whites as well as 16 million colours as solid blocks, patterns or gradients. If you use the Nanoleaf app you can apply a wide range of holiday-themed colour scenes designed for trees, stairs and anywhere else you fancy adding a bit of illumination.
I know £119 is a lot of cash compared to the £20 lights you'll see in the supermarket over the coming weeks. But of all the smart lights I have at home, my smart string lights are my absolute favourites: over the Christmas period they turn my fairly cheap fake tree into a proper winter wonderland, and during the rest of the year they add a bit of warmth and sparkle to where my friends and I eat.
Nanoleaf's option is also considerably cheaper than Hue's offering, assuming you can even get the Festavia: they keep selling out, and at the time of writing all three variants are once again out of stock. If and when they return the price of Hue's smart string lights is £109 for 8m/100 LEDs; £199 for 20m/250 LEDs and £319 for 40m/500 LEDs.
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