Nanoleaf Smart Holiday String Lights: One-minute review

LED Christmas lights have been around for a while now, filling our homes with potentially headache-inducing flashing festive patterns. Now, thanks to the wonders of home automation you can induce those headaches remotely, and in 16 million colors.

Joking aside, these smart Christmas tree lights are very good, which should come as no surprise given that Nanoleaf makes some of the best smart lights. While the Philips Hue Festavia lights come in three different lengths (depending on what region you’re in) the Nanoleaf Smart Holiday String Lights come in one size only: 66ft / 20m, with 250 bulbs split into two 33ft / 10m strips for easy tree decoration. However, they’re a lot cheaper – Hue’s alternative of the same size come in at $219.99 / £199.99 / AU$359.95 whereas Nanoleaf’s are $119 / £119. There’s no availability in Australia as of writing. 

The lights are suitable for both indoor and outdoor use, but have a similar design flaw to the Festavia lights from Hue – the black wire. It’s such a silly oversight given that most people are decorating green trees, and it makes them a lot less discreet. Another similarity I’d rather not see is how sparse these lights are – they’re spaced 3.15 inches / 8 cm apart, so you won’t find it easy to achieve a densely lit tree with these lights.

The lights are controlled with Nanoleaf’s companion app, and I found the initial setup straightforward. After a while though, the application started to alert me that there was a firmware upgrade which then disappeared by the time I got to the screen used to update it.

When it did eventually find a more recent firmware and updated itself, the lights then became unavailable in Apple HomeKit. The situation was not resolved until I uninstalled the Nanoleaf app, removed the device from Homekit, and then reinstalled everything. I experienced similar black holes of wasted time troubleshooting software issues with the Nanoleaf 4D TV-syncing strip lights , but it’s worth noting that this may be attributable to the amount of change in my Home automation setup, and that both products were very new at the time of testing. However, these repeated issues do not inspire confidence in the quality of the software. I wasn’t able to test the selection of themes via HomeKit because the themes were simply not there.

On the whole, though, the app is nicely laid out and uncluttered. The phone application comes with nine preconfigured scenes for you to select from, or you can create your own. Each scene consists of a palette of up to seven colors, and one of nine ‘motions’ (sequences). 

The scenes are very effective, and serve as a showcase for what’s possible with a little experimentation – and I found myself experimenting a lot. It’s commendable that Nanoleaf allows you to create your own scenes, although after experimenting with half a dozen of my own I couldn’t find a way to delete the ones that were rubbish. Also, some of the names of the scenes and palettes are the same, meaning it’s easy to get confused. 

It’s also possible to forgo the cycling patterns and have the lights react to sound via the microphone in the base unit, and you can also use a button on the wire to shuffle through the preconfigured scenes, which is a nice touch.

The ‘Crackling Fireplace’ theme certainly made me feel like breaking out the chestnuts – which is impressive, given that even if you had the most powerful microscope in the world, you would not be able to find my Christmas spirit. 

‘Jingle Bell Rock’ is also wonderful for its simple color choice, and is one of the two stock example schemes featuring sound-activated ‘motions’. The ‘Reindeer Gamer’ scheme is a nod to Nanaoleaf’s gamer roots, which worked well to entice me.

I also found the set of nine Motions interesting and unusual; the ‘Organic’ light pattern, in particular, is very interesting, and I could imagine it being even more entertaining after a Christmas tipple. 

It’s worth mentioning the ease with which you can pack these lights away, and when you come to do this you’ll realize why splitting the lights into two lengths is the way to go. They bundle up very neatly, avoiding the yearly ‘tangled mass of wires in a biscuit tin in the attic’ scenario – it would be even easier if Nanoleaf implemented a feature that lit only the last bulb on each string, which would make taking it off of the tree so much easier.

The sound-activated motions kind of work, but are limited by the microphone in the base unit. The base unit will probably end up on the floor, so it will respond to footsteps rather than any music playing through your speakers, which is a bit annoying. 

Placing the base unit next to a subwoofer works pretty well; however, there is a slight delay, and it doesn’t always do what you think it would do, but it’s good enough – and Killing in the Name by Rage Against the Machine was probably not the best choice of track to test the feature with, in fairness. There’s plenty of scope for creating a fantastic light show with this feature if you set the lights up around grandma’s chair for when she falls asleep snoring after the Christmas meal. 

Nanoleaf Smart Holiday String Lights: Price and availability

•  List price: $119 /  £119 

The Nanoleaf Smart Holiday String Lights are available for $119 / £119 directly from the Nanoleaf website, and at the time of writing, they were discounted slightly. You can also buy them from Amazon.

This makes the Nanoleaf Smart Holiday String Lights significantly cheaper than their biggest competition, the Philips Hue Festavia, which come in at nearly double the price. Given that this product is arguably better for most users, I’d say that’s a huge win. As of writing, there’s no availability in Australia, but hopefully, that’ll be rectified in time for Christmas next year! 

Nanoleaf Smart Holiday String Lights: Specs

Should I buy the Nanoleaf Smart Holiday String Lights?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if... 

How I tested the Nanoleaf Smart Holiday String Lights

• I installed the Nanoleaf application and added the lights to Apple HomeKit
• I tested each of the nine preset scenes and created several custom palettes
• I tested the features where practical

I wrapped the lights around several objects in my house (I don’t have a Christmas tree), and tried to imagine what would be important to a person whose interest in Christmas was greater than zero.

I unpacked and packed the lights away several times to test the likelihood of the lights and packaging lasting for several years – this is something that’s particularly important for devices that only get used once a year, and these are not cheap lights, although they’re versatile enough that they could be put to a more general use throughout the year. The lights passed this test.

I did not count all 16 million colors, but I can say that they’re bright and colorful. I was disappointed that I could not voice-activate the schemes through Apple HomeKit, but not disappointed enough to go to the trouble of making it work through an Apple shortcut or something. I can’t think of a scenario where voice activation would be of any benefit anyway, other than scaring the jingle bells out of Santa as he emerges from the fireplace.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed December 2023

Dyson Solarcycle Morph Desk: Two-minute review

The Dyson Solarcycle Morph Desk lamp is essentially an upgraded version of the Lightcycle Morph that has been available in select markets for a while. Like the Lightcycle, the Solarcycle Morph also comes in two variations – a desk and a floor lamp. For this review, I was sent the desk version, which is currently the only model available in Australia where I am based.

With the update comes a sleeker design compared to the Lightcycle, moving away from an industrial look to what I think is a showpiece, especially in its Ambient mode where the light diffuses through its perforated stand.

Other than its Ambient mode, there are three other settings on the Solarcycle Morph – Task (focused white light), Indirect (warm light pointed upwards) and Feature (a spotlight for decorative items in your home). So, as you’ve probably surmised, the light temperature can be adjusted, plus there’s a daylight tracking option that sets the lamp to mimic sunlight hues inside your home. So it can even be your wake-up call in the morning.

From the different modes, you’ve also probably realized that the lamp can be adjusted into different angles – the entire stand turns 360º on its base, as does the jointed arm so the optical head can point in a heck of a lot of directions.

Amongst its other headline features are a motion sensor capable of sensing movement from a foot or two away, plus auto-brightness depending on the ambient light. The lamp also goes into standby mode after five minutes of no motion detection. It can even be scheduled to turn on and off intermittently in the evening hours while you’re away on holiday to give the impression that someone’s home.

As nicely as it’s designed, its base has a large footprint, taking up a heck of a lot of desk (or bedside table) space, while the rest of it can tend to feel quite fragile. It’s hard to test the lifecycle of the LED bulb, but Dyson promises that it will last you up to 60 years with no change in the light quality, thanks to the heat sink within the swivel beam of the lamp.

Its physical controls are touch and slide, but you can also use the MyDyson app to control the Solarcycle Morph, including setting up schedules.

Unlike other smart lights, there’s no way to control the Solarcycle Morph via voice assistants. During my testing, that really wasn’t a dealbreaker for me as a lot of the other features aren’t found on any other smart light I’ve tested. Despite that, I still find it hard to justify its premium price.

Dyson Solarcycle Morph Desk review: Price and availability

• Desk lamp retails for $649.99 /  £499.99 / AU$899
• Floor lamp priced at $849.99 /  £649.99 / AU price TBA
• Available to buy now in select markets

There is no denying that the Dyson Solarcycle Morph is an expensive lamp, even the cheaper desk version. Sure, it does a lot of things that no other smart lamp can match but, at $649.99 /  £499.99 / AU$899, it’s still very premium.

While the Solarcycle Morph Desk is available to buy in most markets, the floor version – which will set you back $849.99 and  £649.99 in the US and the UK respectively – is yet to come to Australia, potentially being available Down Under some time in 2024.

While it might be hard to justify the high price, it’s also just as difficult to compare it with any other smart light, even Philips Hue, as there’s really nothing else quite like it on the market. It’s probably just a matter of time before dupes become available, but if you have the cash to spare, the Solarcycle Morph might just be the best lamp you get for your home.

Value score: 3 / 5

Dyson Solarcycle Morph Desk specs

Dyson Solarcycle Morph Desk review: Design

• Clean, modern design
• Large, heavy base
• Integrated USB-C port

While Australia gets just one silver and white colorway of the Solarcycle Morph, there are two other options in select markets, including the US. These are a full black option and a brass one with black accents.

As with all things Dyson, the design aesthetic is simple and elegant. It might be tubular and plain, but once set up, the Solarcycle Morph looks beautiful. The only part of it I am not a fan of is its round base which, for a desk lamp, is rather large and very heavy. Most of the 3.5kg weight of the lamp is in that base.

Another element that’s a bit of an eyesore if visible is the power brick, which is as big as what we used to get with some laptops from a few years ago. That said, depending on how you place the lamp, it could easily be hidden, as the cable is quite long.

Move your eye upward from the base and that’s where the beauty lies. My review unit was a matte-silver hollow tube that features a 5V/1.5 amp USB-C port in its lower third, so you can charge a phone or tablet. There’s perforations the rest of the way up the tube, which can turn 360º on the vertical axis. The perforations aren’t for heat dissipation, but for setting the lamp to its Ambient mode.

This is possible because the optical head housing the LED bulbs can be positioned face down for the light to diffuse through the holes, providing mood lighting. To keep it from swivelling away by accident, a circular magnet pops up from the top of the tube to lock the optical head in place. The arm pivots a full 360º horizontally around its joint, as well as turning around a full 360º so you can point the optical head at any angle.

There are physical controls on the top and bottom of the pivoting part of the arm. On the top, there’s a copper tube, which is the heat sink to keep the LEDs cool, in turn extending their life and quality that, Dyson promises, will last up to 60 years. Also on the top, towards the optical head, are two sliders – one to adjust the light temperature, the other to change the brightness.

On the underside of the pivoting arm are three buttons. The one farthest to the optical head controls the brightness sensor – pressing this one will turn the sensor off, which is on by default right out of the box. The middle button is for the motion sensor that, when on, will adjust brightness gradually as you approach or move away from the lamp, and also put the Solarcycle Morph into standby mode if no motion is detected in 5 minutes. The button closest to the optical head is the synchronization button that allows the lamp to mimic the light temperature of the daylight cycle in your location. 

There are lights on these buttons that glow if the sensors are on – if you see them flashing, don’t panic as that’s just a firmware update being pushed out via the MyDyson app.

The top of the optical head is a touch-sensitive control to power the lamp on and off. This is extremely sensitive and I found that if I mistakenly – very gently – touched that spot while making angle adjustments or using the sliders and buttons, I’d switch off my lamp.

Design score: 4.5 / 5

Dyson Solarcycle Morph Desk review: Features

• Useful motion sensor
• Auto-brightness sensor
• Versatile light settings

As I’ve already mentioned, the Solarcycle Morph is extremely versatile. Just given the plethora of physical adjustments there are, it’s easy to envision how the four main modes – Ambient, Indirect, Task and Feature – would look. You can have custom settings for your light too, but you will need the MyDyson app for this. In fact, the app gives you full control of the lamp so you don’t need to touch the Solarcycle at all… except to perhaps give it a wipedown to keep it clean.

While its standout feature is its ability to mimic the daylight cycle in your location – which you can set in the app – I think it’s the motion sensor that should be the headline act here. It’s both very handy and equally annoying too... at least to me. Of course, for this to work, you need to leave the lamp on standby. Dyson doesn’t specify what the maximum distance is for motion detection but I found it’s capable of picking up movement about a meter (or 3 ft) away. This allows the lamp to turn on, but will remain dim if the motion is still distant. As you approach, the lamp will increase brightness automatically. It goes back into standby mode after 5 minutes if no motion is detected after it’s turned on.

This is where I found it annoying. I used the Solarcycle Morph in my home office, and even though I was at the desk typing at my keyboard, it couldn't detect that movement and kept going into standby mode. It happened during video calls too and I make a lot of hand gestures when I talk!

I also like the fact that if I’m going away on holiday, I can set the start date in the app and the lamp will power on periodically between 4pm and 11pm in a time zone to tell possible intruders that people are still inside the home. 

The lamp is capable of auto-brightness too, which is handy to have, depending on where you position it. I appreciated it when I was using the Solarcycle Morph in my home office, which doesn’t get a whole lot of natural light, but it was a little disconcerting in the bedroom as the change can be quite sudden and distinct.

I cannot finish this section without waffling on about the lamp’s Ambient mode – it’s absolutely stunning. In this mode, if your lamp is set at its brightest, it will reduce brightness automatically with light temperature dropping between 1800K to 3400K, depending on what hue it’s already set at.

Features score: 5 / 5

Dyson Solarcycle Morph Desk review: Performance

• 60-year lifecycle
• Sensitive controls
• Good brightness

While the Solarcycle Morph matches the light temperature of some other smart lights out there (2700K to 6500K when not in Ambient mode), it isn’t as bright as some popular smart bulbs on the market today. For example, the Philips Hue White Ambiance smart bulb tops out at 1,600 lumens and the Nanoleaf Essentials Matter bulb is 1,100 lumens. While a maximum brightness of 850 lumens is enough for a bedside or desk lamp, it’s not quite enough to light up a whole room.

Dyson claims the Solarcycle Morph will last up to 60 years, without any damage to the light quality. I couldn't test this for this review of course, but Dyson engineers have used a simple heat sink – that's also a lovely trim adding to the overall look of the lamp – to make sure the light lasts as long as possible. You'll see the slim copper tube on the top of the swivel arm – it houses a few drops of water that evaporates as heat from the LEDs build up. If you were paying attention in science class at school, you'll know that evaporation results in cooling. And because the tube is also sealed, the water drops condense inside and are ready to carry on being an effective coolant.

As I’ve already mentioned, I found the motion sensor both excellent and annoying. Excellent because it can pick up movement from about two feet away – although it did pick me up a couple of times while I was approximately three feet away – and it turns on, but annoying because it can’t pick up fingers and arms moving while I’m just inches away. 

Another little annoyance I found was if I didn’t completely exit the MyDyson app, it failed to connect to the light the next time I opened the application on my phone. I’d have ignored it if this happened once in a while, but it happened often. Perhaps a firmware update will sort this out at some point…

Other than that, I have absolutely no complaints about the Solarcycle Morph’s performance. It does everything it says on the tin, and does it remarkably well.

Performance score: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Dyson Solarcycle Morph Desk?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Also consider

There really aren’t any like-for-like alternatives to the Dyson Solarcycle Morph, although opting for a smart bulb or two from Philips Hue or Nanoleaf could be a decent alternative as you can adjust the light temperature and brightness to suit your needs. Where the Nanoleaf smart bulb supports colors by default, you can get white or color globes in the Philips Hue range. You can find out more about the former in our Nanoleaf Essentials Matter Smart Bulb review.

While neither of these will do everything that the Solarcycle Morph does, you can use them to mimic sunlight in the morning to wake up. A lot of smart light systems offer this feature. None are going to be showpieces like the Dyson, but you could find yourself a beautiful lamp stand.

How I tested the Dyson Solarcycle Morph Desk

• Tested in two different rooms
• Left it on standby most of the time to test the motion sensor
• Tried different modes and settings

I was sent the Dyson Solarcycle Morph for testing for just a few weeks, and I used it in two different locations in my own home. It was initially set up on work desk in my home office, then moved to the bedroom.

In the first location, I left it on standby most of the time to see how well it would react to me leaving my desk and returning at random intervals. In the bedroom, it was set up to turn on at 6:30am.

To see how well it responds via the app, I saved custom settings for light hues I personally prefer – which tend to be on the warmer side than white light – and I tried out all the presets as well.

Read more about how we test

[First reviewed November 2023]

One-minute review

As well as its ever-growing range of smart bulbs, Philips Hue has been producing table and floor lamps for a number of years, many of which qualify as some of the best smart lights.

Way back in 2013, the Hue Bloom was the first non-bulb smart light to start this trend – a successful gambit, given it’s still a fan favorite to this day. It can be purchased from Amazon, directly from Philips Hue, and from some third-party retailers for $79.99 / £79.99. It’s a little expensive for what it is, especially in the UK; but it’s one of Hue’s more affordable table lamps. Petite at 4 x 5.1 x 5-inches / 10.1 x 12.9 x 12.6cm (h x w x d), the Bloom is a versatile table lamp that works as well for rudimentary bias lighting as it does for accent lighting.

It sports a fairly discreet appearance, especially when it’s off, with a sort of ’70s sci-fi look; neutral, curvy, and clad in white plastic and metal. The front of the light is a flat, angled disc with a small bezel; however, you’re most likely to only ever see the rear or side of the light, since it’s for indirect lighting and performs best when facing walls and corners. The light sits on a short stem, which is home to the power cable; the cable exits through a small arch at the front-facing side of the lamp. Depending on where your power supply is in relation to the lamp, this can prove a little fiddly to set up.  

You can set up the lamp via Bluetooth or the Hue Bridge. The latter comes at an additional cost of $59.99 / £49.99, and enables further devices to be connected, while also bringing more features such as remote control. As with all Philips Hue lights, the Bloom is super easy to set up in the app, with the overall user experience splendid. Adding the light to your smart home ecosystem is just as easy, and it’s compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple HomeKit. 

Its slightly low lumen output somewhat betrays the age of the Bloom – and that’s despite it having had a few generational updates over the years. At just 500 lumens at 4000K, which is about as low as you’d ever want a table lamp to go. However, Bloom isn’t designed to spray light across the room, just to provide an interesting and ambient splash of color – and for that it’s perfectly balanced. There’s also a welcome softness to the Bloom as a result of the frosted covering, which diffuses the light wonderfully.

With the now-standard full 16 million array of colors, the Bloom can produce some beautifully vibrant hues, and you can adjust the temperature and brightness with ease using voice controls with the best smart speakers or via the app. As time has gone on, and Bloom has evolved through different Hue generations, color accuracy has improved significantly, and the most recent version I’ve been testing is exemplary of that evolution.

While there are still a few niggles that I’d have expected Hue to have tackled by now (the cable exit in the stem really irks me, for example), overall the Philips Hue Bloom is an excellent – albeit basic – bias or accent light, offering vibrant and bright ambient lighting in your home. It’s discreet enough to work well in any room, but still a good-looking device in itself.

Philips Hue Bloom review: Specs table

Should I buy?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if... 

Philips Hue Bloom review: Also consider

How I tested the Philips Hue Bloom

•  I tested the Philips Hue Bloom for a month 
•  I used it as part of my smart lighting setup  
•  I paired it via the Philips Hue Bridge and Alexa 

To test the Philips Hue Bloom, I set it up in my living room for a month, alongside a set of other smart lights from other manufacturers. 

My primary smart speaker controller is Alexa, which I used in tandem with the Philips Hue app to test the responsiveness, accuracy and ease of use when operating the lamp. I compared its color accuracy to smart lights in various form factors and from different manufacturers, too.

I used the Bloom as both a bias light behind my TV screen and as an accent light for a display cabinet, as well as a table-side light to add some more color spray to my smart light setup