Twinkly C9 Bulbs Review – Smart Outdoor Christmas Holiday Lighting

The Twinkly C9 Bulbs were announced at the start of November and pad out the growing range of outdoor smart festive lighting that Twinkly has become famous for.

I am posting this review a bit too close to Christmas than I originally planned. Unfortunately, due to problems on my end, the lights were returned to Twinky and had to be sent out again. So, this review is perhaps not of much use to anyone who has been looking for smart Christmas lights this year, but these are well worth considering for next Christmas, and I think they would work well for year-round outdoor use.

Specification

Related Reviews

• Twinkly Candies Review
• Twinkly Strings Gold Edition Review
• Twinkly Flex & Line Smart LED Lights Review
• Philips Hue Festavia String Lights Review

Features

The Twinkly C9 Bulbs has the same feature set as most of the other Twinkly bulbs, which includes:

• App controlled: Control all your decorations with just the Twinkly mobile application.
• Combine virtually: Virtually combine multiple Twinkly lights into one beautiful installation.
• Map your lights: Like all Twinkly products, C9 Bulbs can be mapped, and every single LED can be controlled individually to let you create and reproduce unique effects, gradients, and colour animations.
• Instant setup: Easily set up Twinkly lights with Bluetooth & WiFi connectivity.
• Voice control: Twinkly works with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Apple Home Kit.
• Sync with music: Make all your decorations dance to the rhythm of your music with amazing synchro capabilities.
• Sync with gameplay: Get the ultimate multi-sensory gaming experience with Razer Chroma RGB & Omen Light Studio.

Twinkly Outdoor Lighting Options & IP Rating

Twinkly have the best range of smart outdoor lighting for the holidays.

Options include:

• Festoon Multicolour or Gold & Silver
• Curtain Multicolour & White
• Icicle Multicolour & White, Multicolour or Gold & Silver
• Strings Multicolour & White, Multicolour or Gold & Silver

All the Twinkly outdoor bulbs are rated for IP44, which means that the lights will be protected from solid particles that are over 1mm in size and from low-velocity sprays of water from every direction.

You’d think that’s not ideal for an outdoor light, but it is a common rating, and most Philips Hue outdoor lights have the same rating. Many outdoor video doorbells are not rated at all! Govee claims their outdoor lights are IP65-rated.

Design

The Twinkly C9 Bulbs have a basic underlying design similar to most of the Twinkly lights.

These use a Type G plug with a screw-in connector for the lights, which presumably helps with the IP44 rating. You then have the controller that’s built into the light cable, followed by the sting of bulbs.

I was sent the 80-bulb pack, which has a very long 24.2m cable, and there is also a 40-bulb option that is 12.2m long.

What differentiates these from all the other outdoor Christmas lights I can find is the design of the bulbs, which is a pinecone shape with multifaceted texture that is designed to diffuse light in a sparkling display. The lights are a bit smaller than the festoon-style design.

Being smaller than the festoon lights, you have a higher density of bulbs with 40 on a 12m cable vs 20 on a 10m cable for the Twinkly Festoon.

Set Up & Twinkly App Features

The set of these C9 bulbs is identical to the other Gen 2 lights. With the lights powered up, you need to go into the device section and the upper left icon to search for new devices on the network. You then need to select Gen 2 and hold down the button on the controller to enter pairing mode.

These use Bluetooth for the onboarding process, so there is no faffing around with connecting to an open SSID. You just provide the SSID credentials, and it should connect.

Again, just like all the other Twinkly lights, the overall functionality is basically the same.

You have basic smart controls where you can set a timer, control the brightness and select either a single colour or effects.

The big feature that makes Twinkly stand out from all other brands is the ability to map the lights and combine different sets of Twinkly lights into one big design. This obviously works best when you have a lot of Twinkly lights and many people.

Under the gallery, you have a wide range of pre-defined lighting effects, including rainbow, snake, beat, Christmas spirit and many more.

The top left icon on the gallery page allows you to design your own effects, which you can draw with your finger or start with a  predefined pattern.

You can then download a range of effects, and many of these have complex designs, such as a candy cane dance or Santa run, which would require a large number of lights for an effective pattern.

Third-Party Integration – HomeKit & Home Assistant

The Twinkly Candies officially support Alexa, Google, Apple HomeKit, and Homey. You can also integrate them with Razer Chroma, and if you pair them up with a Twinkly Music Dongle, you can sync the lights with your music.

I don’t use Apple HomeKit, but I can confirm that they integrate perfectly with Home Assistant, Homey, Google Assistant and Alexa.

With Home Assistant, they are automatically discovered, and you just need to click configure and add them to your desired room. With Homey, you need to add the lights by searching for Twinkly, and this works with the Homey Bridge as it is a native integration rather than a community.

In Use

Due to these arriving later than I had planned, I didn’t have the time to set them up outside, so I made a poor attempt to make our kitchen more Christmassy.

The lights work exactly as expected. As I was sent the 24.2m length, these would be able to cover a substantial area around my garden or in my tree. The lights have a good density, not being too far apart or too close together.

The brightness is also excellent, and the textured/faceted surface does give them a bit of a twinkle in comparison to smooth, festoon lighting.

I don’t have enough lights to create a complex design, but I am fond of all the standard effects.

Of course, if you plan to use these outdoors, then you need access to a plug socket, and the power cable has a 1.5m length, so you will want a plug socket relatively close to where you are setting up the lights. For outdoor plugs, you will also need to factor in making sure the plug is not exposed to the elements.  

Price and Alternatives

The Twinkly C9 Bulbs are available in two options:

• 40 Bulbs / 12.2m / 40ft: £100 RRP
• 80 Bulbs / 24.2m / 80ft: £190 RRP

Twinkly also has the Festoon lights priced at:

• 20 LED / 10m / 32.8ft: £100
• 40 LED / 20m / 65.6ft: £170

In terms of alternative options, there are no bulbs with a design similar to the C9, but there are various outdoor festoon-style lights.

The best alternative option appears to be from Govee with the Outdoor 48ft LED String Lights, 15m RGBIC WiFi Garden Lights for £60 RRP, but at the time of writing, there was a £20 off voucher.  

While this option is much cheaper, it is worth noting that there are only 15 bulbs, and these are festoon-style bulbs, so they are physically larger.

If you don’t mind a random brand, there is the Popotan Globe String Lights, priced at just £10 for 5M of lights with 25 G40 bulbs. They are cheap, but at 5M, they seem a bit short to be practical for outdoor use.

The Frankever LED Fairy Lights are 50ft/15m with 25 RGBCW G40 bulbs.

Both of these options are Bluetooth only, so not really smart in the same way as the Twinkly or Govee options.

Overall

I have grown to become a big fan of Twinkly. I may be a die-hard Philips Hue fan for my smart home lighting, but you can’t really beat Twinkly when it comes to smart Christmas/Holiday lighting.

They have the widest range of holiday lights, and they have the best features if you want to create an impressive display with all the lights working in unison to create elaborate lighting patterns.

The Twinkly C9 Bulbs are yet another excellent addition to the Twinkly line-up. The smaller pinecone design of the bulbs with the faceted surface adds a bit of sparkle to the lighting and is an attractive alternative to the festoon or globe-style outdoor lights.

The pinecone design isn’t too Christmasy either, so these are a viable solution for all-year outdoor lighting.

Overall, these are excellent smart outdoor Christmas lights, and I can highly recommend them.

James Smythe( Editor-in-chief )

I am James, a UK-based tech enthusiast and the Editor and Owner of Mighty Gadget, which I’ve proudly run since 2007. Passionate about all things technology, my expertise spans from computers and networking to mobile, wearables, and smart home devices.

As a fitness fanatic who loves running and cycling, I also have a keen interest in fitness-related technology, and I take every opportunity to cover this niche on my blog. My diverse interests allow me to bring a unique perspective to tech blogging, merging lifestyle, fitness, and the latest tech trends.

In my academic pursuits, I earned a BSc in Information Systems Design from UCLAN, before advancing my learning with a Master’s Degree in Computing. This advanced study also included Cisco CCNA accreditation, further demonstrating my commitment to understanding and staying ahead of the technology curve.

I’m proud to share that Vuelio has consistently ranked Mighty Gadget as one of the top technology blogs in the UK. With my dedication to technology and drive to share my insights, I aim to continue providing my readers with engaging and informative content.