LIFX, a smart lighting brand that’s been flying under the radar following years of financial uncertainty, is stepping out again with a quartet of Matter-enabled outdoor lights.
Now owned by Feit Electric, LIFX‘s new outdoor products include decorative string lights, a path light, a flexible “rope” light, and a spotlight.
Two of the new lights support Matter out of the box, while the other two lights are slated to get future Matter updates.
This news is part of TechHive’s in-depth coverage of the best smart lighting.
First up, the 24-foot-long LIFX Smart String Light ($149) comes with 12 cylindrical café-style LED fixtures that offer three zones of color.
Feit Electric
Capable of emitting up to 600 lumens of brightness, the LIFX Smart String Light boasts an IP66 rating, meaning it should be completely dust-proof, while also being resistant to powerful jets of water sprayed in any direction.
The LIFX app will let you put the string on a schedule, as well as assign various “hypnotic” lighting effects, ranging from “shifting sunsets or rolling rainbows to gently flowing icy whites,” LIFX promises.
Connecting to your home network via Wi-Fi, the LIFX Smart String Light will support Matter once the slated software update arrives.
Also available now is the LIFX Smart Path Light, which comes in both round ($149) and square ($109.97) versions.
Like the LIFX string light, the 10-inch-tall Smart Path Light has an IP66 weatherization rating, and lights can shine with up to 800 lumens of brightness for the round version and 500 lumens for the square model. The Path can also deliver “blended” colors thanks to its six addressable color zones.
Feit Electric
The Wi-Fi-enabled LIFX Smart Path Lights will support Matter out of the box.
Another new LIFX light is the Smart Neon Flex Light ($169.97), which boasts a flexible “rope”-style design similar to Govee’s Neon Rope light.
The multicolor 16-foot Smart Neon Flex Light casts up to 2,150 lumens of brightness, while its IP67 rating denotes resistance to immersion in a meter of water for 30 minutes.
As with other LIFX lights, the Smart Neon Flex Light can be scheduled using the LIFX app, and it also offers plenty of lighting effects.
Feit Electric
The LIFX Smart Neon Flex Light connects via Wi-Fi and will eventually get a Matter update.
Finally, the LIFX Smart Spotlight ($99.97) is a “color-blending” spotlight with (again) an IP66 rating and up to 1,600 lumens of brightness.
The LIFX Smart Spotlight will work with Matter out of the box.
The new LIFX lights will go on sale by the “end of February”–in other words, any day now.
Besides being LIFX’s first decorative outdoor lights (LIFX has offered outdoor smart bulbs in the past), these are the first new lights we’ve seen from LIFX since it was acquired by California-based Feit Electric.
Established back in 2012, the same year the first Philips Hue smart bulbs came to market, LIFX manufactured a wide array of well-regarded smart bulbs but struggled to stay in the black.
LIFX was snapped up by Buddy Technologies in 2019, but then Buddy ran into its own financial turbulence. Feit finally scooped up LIFX’s assets in August 2022.
Stay tuned for full reviews of LIFX’s new lights.
Updated shortly after publication with new naming, pricing, and specification details supplied by LIFX following an earlier pre-briefing.
Author: Ben Patterson, Senior Writer, TechHive
Ben has been writing about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. A PCWorld contributor since 2014, Ben joined TechHive in 2019, where he has covered everything from smart speakers and soundbars to smart lights and security cameras. Ben's articles have also appeared in PC Magazine, TIME, Wired, CNET, Men's Fitness, Mobile Magazine, and more. Ben holds a master's degree in English literature.