Philips Hue Outdoor lights review: It’s time to make your garden glow

Philips Hue Outdoor: 60-Second Review

If you want to make your garden glow then Philips Hue offers the ultimate solution. The firm’s Outddor lights are easy to install, look great, and add a real atmosphere to the outside of your home.

Thanks to their full internet connectivity, the lights can be controlled via the Hue app on your smartphone and there’s even the option to switch the style to any colour in the rainbow.

Full waterproofing should mean they cope with everything the British weather has to throw at them and, unlike solar lights, they work even when the sun hasn’t been shining on them.

Filling your garden with Hue products isn’t cheap but their ease of use and full smart controls make them tough to beat.

Philips Hue Outdoor Lights: Full review

Summer is here and if you want your garden to shine like a scene from Love Island then Philips Hue offers the perfect solution. The firm has plenty of bright ideas to make the outside of your home sparkle and they’ll even survive the wettest of winters.

Express.co.uk has been testing out a number of weather-proof lights including the Lily Outdoor spotlight, Outdoor Light Strip and Calla Outdoor bollard with them all bringing a simple way to make things shine when the sun goes down.

Now before you even start thinking about buying Philips Hue Outdoor products there are a couple of important things to be aware of.

Firstly, these devices all need mains power for them to light up so you’re going to need an outdoor socket to get things up and running.

If you don’t have an outside power source then we’d consider another product, such as solar lights, as stretching an extension cable through a window isn’t a long-term solution and you simply won’t get enough use out of these lights to warrant their high price.

The next thing they need is a Hue Bridge as this hub is how the lights connect to the internet. If you’ve already got Hue in the house your current Hub Bridge will work just fine but beginners will need to add this £40 product to their shopping basket along with the lights themselves.

If you’re happy to proceed you are in for a treat as these lights look great and add some real style to the garden.

The Lily Outdoor spotlights and Light Strip can be hidden in plants or tucked under bushes with things then glowing like the gardens in a posh hotel.

The Calla Outdoor bollard sits perfectly on decking or your patio with Philips making sure this device looks just as good during the day as when it glows at night. You can add as many lights as you like with them linking to one another via a daisy chain-style connection.

It’s definitely worth laying all the wiring out first before you start plugging things in. This will make sure the lights are all in the right place and there’s enough cable to reach them all. We’re not experts when it comes to electrics and lighting but we had four lights connected and glowing within 30 minutes of opening the box.

Once they are all switched on they connected seamlessly with the brilliant Hue app with simple taps on your smartphone switching things off or changing the colour to any shade in the rainbow.

You can even set them to come on at different times of the day and turn off automatically when you head to bed.

With prices starting from around £90 these aren’t cheap accessories but their ease of use, rugged build quality and instant smartphone connectivity mean they are a top pick for adding some gloss to the garden.

We’ve not seen how they cope with a harsh Britsh winter but we’ll keep this review updated throughout the year.