Philips Illuminate

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I too wish I would have read the reviews on this before shelling out $$$ on 4 strands of these lights. The thought is nice, and the lights are pretty and versatile but the thing has to be reconnected to the app every day. It’s super annoying and time consuming. Once I reconnect I can use the app. I haven’t tried customizing anything yet because I waste too much time reconnecting. I also haven’t tried music because I can’t figure out how to use anything other than Apple Music and I that isn’t where I have a subscription. Definitely could be tons more user friendly.

I saw lots of negative reviews for this app but I haven't had any problems getting everything to work perfectly. Other older reviews that suggest new features all seem to be incorporated in the current version. I have two starter sets with a dozen extra strings. It works great. Once you connect the control boxes to your home WiFi it’s easy to make the lights do whatever you want. You can use these lights for any holiday just by creating a custom program with whatever colors you want. Red, white and blue for 4th of July. Red, pink and white for Valentine’s Day. Green and white for St. Patrick’s Day, Your favorite team colors on game day, etc. I nailed my lights to the bottom edge of the facia board around my house using 1/2” wood staples. They are hard to see in daylight which allows me to leave them up year round without looking tacky. Edit - I removed one star because you can’t set multiple custom colors to show at the same time. I would like to have a custom colors where every other bulb is a different color. You can set all the lights to a single custom color which changes to another custom color but all the strings will only be that one color at a time.

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It’s hard to rate the app because it works for what it does. The terrible part is the product in very aspect, plus the lack of true customization and some other issues. You can’t really program anything special. Just a basic fixed 5 colors that repeat over and over down the strand. Yay can’t choose only 2 colors, you have to choose 5. You can make it repeat 2 colors but every 5/6th bulb is gonna repeat the same color. In any regard, you are forced to choose 5 colors. That’s it. Then they can fade in and out or be on or off. And that about wraps up the custom side of what you can do. The presets are ok, wish there was more as you go through them quickly and realize some just don’t look good, and others are sort of boring. Plus with all the twinkling effects and color fades, you’d think you can make custom ones yourself like them, but sadly no. This is my second year with these lights. The first year they replaced a DOA set. This year I plugged them in and another strand is not working. Plus on a years time, this app has had ZERO updates. I’m pretty sure they are just trying to forget these were made and move on, or they just truly don’t care. Either way, I hope this review helps someone decide not to buy these lights.

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Now on my 5th year of using this app and it still blows me away how little they care to improve. Features that are available as presets lack any user customization. I can’t create a custom chasing or full string wipe effect but I can use the preset ones. And there is no timer feature. These are my holiday lights but I can’t schedule when they turn on/off. Just ridiculous. 3 years and this app has not changed. My original review below is still appropriate. Lowering the app rating to 1 star for lack of support on an expensive product that doesn’t meet the expectations on the app side. Cool lights but the app is severely lacking in expected customization. Any complaints I have with this product come from the app itself, which can be updated!

These lights are very cool! This is my third year with them. But I agree a software upgrade is long overdue. This system is more expensive to operate and update every year so there should be more flexibility with the software. One suggestion: add a feature to allow the user to select the specific functions they would like to cycle through instead of having to go thru all 17. I have the unit connected to a timing system that shuts it on and off. But the unit does not seem to hold all of the settings (speed, brightness) after it turns off and in again. Thanks for considering.