Kick Off Summer Vibes With Our Favorite Outdoor Lights

WIRED

26-06-2025

Each Lily spotlight from Philips Hue contains an LED bulb capable of putting out 640 lumens, enough to act as pathway lights, illuminate architectural features, or light up garden ornaments. The bulbs are wrapped in a tough, black, sealed aluminum tube with spikes for sinking them into the ground and mounting holes for fixing them to walls or fences. A simple thumbscrew on the side makes it easy to adjust the angle. You get 23-foot power extension cables for each light, a couple of T-shaped connectors, and a plug that fits in an outdoor socket. They are IP65-rated (mine have survived wind, rain, and snow). Like the rest of the Hue range, you can choose the brightness, color, temperature, and theme you want in the app, schedule the lights, or link a trigger, like a motion sensor. The price is the only obvious con here, and if you don't already have Hue lights, you need to buy a Hue Bridge ($40) on top. That said, the Lily lights are high-quality, versatile, responsive outdoor lights capable of weathering rough conditions. They are an obvious pick for folks who already have some Hue lights. Weatherproof Rating: IP65
String lights are not just for holidays anymore. You can use them to brighten up any area, including your garden. Twinkly's colored string lights are the best and come in various lengths, from 26 to 197 feet. You can set the brightness and color, but these lights top our best smart Christmas lights tree because of the premade effects. Twinkly's excellent app allows you to map the position of your lights to make the most of the animations. You even have the option of creating effects. You can sync multiple strings for larger areas, too.
The Generation II lights have a physical button for Bluetooth pairing and to switch between effects manually, but you can also control and schedule them from the app on your phone. You can add the Twinkly String Lights to Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, or Google Home for voice controls. If you want party lights that react to the music, Twinkly sells a Music dongle ($30) that plugs in via USB.
With an IP44 rating, the Twinkly String Lights are fine with splashing water, so rain shouldn't be a problem, but they are probably best situated somewhere sheltered. The plug must be in a covered outdoor socket or weatherproof box. Twinkly also splits its string lights in two and has the power cord in the middle, which can be good or bad depending on where your socket is and how you plan to place them. If you want dense clumps of lights, I also love the Twinkly Cluster ($100) string lights.
Weatherproof Rating: IP44