Innr Outdoor Smart Globe Lights Review
A great addition to any garden
Verdict
A great addition to any garden, the Innr Outdoor Smart Globe Lights can be used with the Innr hub or Hue (with a couple of minor limitations). Flexible to install, they can be staked into the ground or hung from a tree or other suitable surface. They’re powerful, bright and produce excellent colours, letting you pick between ambient light and utility lighting.
Pros
- Great value
- Expandable
- Flexible installation options
Cons
- Some limitations when used with Hue
Availability
- UKRRP: £169.99
Key Features
- TypeThese outdoor lights are sold in a pack of three and expandable up to five lights. They can be staked into the ground or hung
- ConnectionThese lights use Zigbee, so can connect to the Innr hub, an Amazon Echo device or Philips Hue bridge
Introduction
Philips Hue may be the big name in smart lighting, but it isn’t the only player in town. Innr has its own range of smart lighting, and the Innr Outdoor Smart Globe Lights are some of the best. These Zigbee outdoor lights come with flexible installation options and work with Innr’s own software or, even better, Philips Hue (with a couple of minor limitations). Great value and capable of acting as both utility and artistic lighting, they’re a great addition to any garden.
Design and Installation
- Up to five globes per set up
- Can be stuck in the ground or hung up
- Work with Hue or Innr software
Large globe lights, the Innr Outdoor Smart Globe Lights look similar to the Fatboy Bolleke rechargeable light that I included in my guide to the best camping gadgets. The Outdoor Smart Globe Lights are available as a three-pack, as I have here, but you can buy additional lights to expand the set, with a maximum of five lights supported from one power supply.
These lights can be hung via their large rubber handles or, as I’ve done, pushed into the ground on plastic stakes. Of course, you can mix and match between the two. I went with the stake option, to highlight the path from the kitchen to my garden office.
There’s a power supply that needs to connect to an outdoor plug, and then the lights daisy-chain in a line, with a 2m length of cable running between the lights. If you do place the lights on the ground, you may want to enclose the power cable in some plastic trunking to offering protection for those times you’re mowing the lawn.
With the lights in place, turning on the power sees the lights ready for pairing. You can choose to pair the lights to the Innr hub, for use with Innr’s software, or you can connect the lights to a Philips Hue bridge.
I went for the latter option; I already have Hue outdoor lights, and wanted to integrate these lights into the new system. There are a couple of limitations when using Hue: the lights don’t work with HomeKit (not a problem for how I use them); they won’t work with Hue dynamic senses; nor can they be integrated into dynamic entertainment areas (not really a problem with outdoor lighting).
Features and Performance
- Bright
- Power efficient
- Colour changing
Each light draws a max 4.6W, which is about the same as a regular LED light bulb. With three running together, that’s just 13.8W in total. Given that these lights are unlikely to be on for long periods, they’re an efficient way to light your outdoor space.
As with most colour-changing lights, the Innr Outdoor Smart Globe Lights are capable of reproducing 16-million colours, the same as the Hue lights. Controlling them via the Hue app, I found that the colour matching between the Innr lights and my outdoor Hue lights was spot on. In fact, if I didn’t know that another manufacturer made the globe lights, I would have thought that everything in the garden was from Philips Hue.
These lights also have a colour temperature range of between 1800K (warm) to 6500K (daylight). It’s a useful range, as I can have the lights on dim and warm (or coloured) for ambience, but whack up the colour temperature and brightness (maximum of 370 lumen) to fully light up the garden.
When leaving my garden office at night, the option to have brighter lights is handy, allowing me to see exactly where I’m going.
Via the Hue app, I can set scenes and control the lights’ brightness, colour temperature and colour. There isn’t individual control over each light, and they all have to work on the same setting, which is a minor restriction.
I did find that the Innr Outdoor Smart Globe Lights were slightly slower to respond than my regular Hue bulbs. Turning them on and off using a Hue wireless dimmer switch, the Innr lights were a fraction behind the Hue ones. That’s a minor issue, but the important thing is that the Innr lights were as reliable as their Hue counterparts.
Alternatively, the lights can be controlled via the Innr hub and app. The basic settings are similar, but Innr has a narrower choice of scenes and wireless controls.
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Should you buy it?
Excellent value, expandable and flexible, these are great outdoor lights that will integrate with Phiips Hue or Innr.
If you want lights with HomeKit compatibility or dynamic scene compatibility then official Hue lights may be better.
Final Thoughts
Blending in well with the garden when turned off, and providing anything from an ambient fun light to a bright working light, the Innr Outdoor Smart Globe Lights are an excellent choice for any outdoor space. The fact that they work with Philips Hue is an additional bonus, with only a couple of minor limitations in this mode.
If you want well-priced smart outdoor lights, either individually or to mix and match with Hue Outdoor lights, these come highly recommended.
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FAQs
They work with any Zigbee hub including Alexa, Innr and Philips Hue.
They don’t work with HomeKit or in any dynamic scene.
You can run a maximum of five lights from the PSU.
Full specs
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Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
