Smart Home

Review: Innr Outdoor Globes – brings extra atmosphere in the garden

Review: Innr Outdoor Globes - brings extra atmosphere in the garden if you looking for smart mood lighting in the garden.

The Innr Outdoor Globes are round orbs for the garden. The diameter per bulb is 19 centimeters and the light output is 370 lumen. You can hang them up, but you can also pin them into the ground with the included ground spikes. The lamps are weather and moisture resistant (IP65) and last 30,000 burning hours. They give different shades of white (1800K to 6500K) and can display 16 million colors.

This outdoor lighting works via the Zigbee protocol and can be used with the Innr Bridge, but also with Philips Hue, IKEA TRADFRI or Samsung SmartThings, for example. In addition to being controlled via the app, these outdoor smart lights also work with your favorite voice assistant with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or Siri Shortcuts. You buy them in a set of three pieces including controller for 199.99 euros or as a separate add-on for 59.99 euros.

Installation and build quality

The Innr Outdoor Globes are delivered in a large box. Inside you will find the three different lamps, ground spikes, loops, cables, a control box and an adapter. It is a complete package with which you can start immediately. The power consumption is 4.6W per bulb and the lamps are safe to use due to the low operating voltage of 24V. From plug, control box and then to all lamps, you use a total of no less than twelve meters of cables. These are not lamps that you put together at the kitchen table. You bring them to the place where you want to use them and only there you connect them. By default we find the loop tightened to the lamps. Would you rather place these orbs? Then you unscrew this and screw in a ground spike again. That works very easily. You do not have to use all three lamps. You can also install one or two orbs. In addition, you can also buy separate orbs to further expand the number of three. You finally click everything together.

The Innr Outdoor Globes are white plastic globes with a solid build quality. At first glance, these lamps are perfectly adequate for creating more atmosphere. It looks solid and certainly not cheap. The cables are also equipped with cover rings, so that rain and dust have as little chance as possible. Note that the plug has a lower IP rating than the orbs themselves. That is something to take into account. In the handy paper manual (and you do need it with all those cables) you can see what you need to pay attention to during the physical installation. Have you ever hung the lamps or stuck them in the ground? Then it’s time to move on to the app.

Control via the app

During the test period, we used the Outdoor Globes in the Innr app via the Innr Bridge. So you really do have one zigbee bridge necessary, because without a bridge you cannot use them. If you want to, you can also use Philips Hue or another Zigbee app. Please note that you cannot use the entertainment function when you use these lamps via Philips Hue. Innr’s app is partly similar to Philips Hue, but is more simplistic. Not only in terms of design, but also in terms of functions. You can access your lamps, routines and rooms from the home screen where you can subdivide the different lamps. Switch the lamps in a room on or off or click on a room to individually set everything for each lamp in terms of color or white tones.

Before we can really get started, it is first time to install the lamps via the app. And that works smoothly. At Innr you are always asked for a QR code by default. That QR code cannot be found with these lamps, so you opt for the alternative installation where the search is carried out yourself. The lamps were found within twenty seconds, so that worked smoothly. You add all lamps at once thanks to the control box. That is the actual part that you have to connect to the app, after which you can control the lamps via the app and the control box. And that control box ensures that you can turn all the lights on or off at the same time and have them change color at the same time. That’s a minus, because you can’t switch on or off per lamp or choose a color. It really is one whole and counts as one lamp in the app. Once added via the app, these smart light bulbs react exactly like any other smart light.

You can assign these lamps to a room, or in our case the garden, via the Innr app. You can then control all the lamps in that room at the same time or click on the room and control lamps individually. Since the three Innr Outdoor Globes appear as one lamp in the app and we do not use other Innr outdoor lamps, this does not apply to us. We click on the lamp and can choose scenes (candlelight does not work by the way), select white tones from 1800K to 6500K or choose from a circle for 16 million different colors. Dimming is easy by sliding the bar. If desired, you can also assign these lamps to routines. Select Read and the lamps added to this routine will go into reading mode. Choose Goodnight and all selected lamps will go out, for example.

Through Automation you can also set timers for any time of the day. You can also use the sunrise and sunset to make the lamps react the way you want. You can also easily set waking up and bedtime. If you want, you can also use Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa or Siri Shortcuts. Samsung SmartThings is also supported by the way.

In use

The Innr Outdoor Globes are nice lamps that can really add value during the warm and long summer evenings. You don’t have to do it for the light output. With 370 lumens per light bulb, they are not very bright, but this makes them perfectly capable of creating atmosphere. These smart light bulbs are of real added value, especially if you have a veranda or roof. The light is nicely even in the orb, so you don’t see any strange surfaces through which more or less light comes through. That’s all fine. It is also nice that colors come out well.

The orbs must really fit in your garden. You can stick them in the ground, but the real added value is to hang them on the loop. If you have a veranda, roof or other shelter in the garden, then they really come into their own. Unfortunately, this does not apply to us and then we can’t do much more than hang them over the fence during this test period. So they don’t fit in every garden. It is a real pity that you operate the three Outdoor Globes as a whole and not individually.

Garden lighting can be difficult. You have to work with ground cables, the whole garden has to be turned upside down and it can be dangerous work if you don’t know what you are doing. Because of the low voltage, you don’t have that with the Innr Outdoor Globes. Everyone can get started safely and it works no differently than with lamps that you place inside. Connect all cables together and put the plug in the socket and you are done.

Conclusion

Are you looking for smart mood lighting in the garden for the coming summer evenings? The Innr Outdoor Globes do exactly what they are intended for. Thanks to the warm and cold white tones and 16 million colors you can create the perfect atmosphere for every occasion. The unfortunate thing is that you cannot control the Outdoor Globes individually. You really control the whole as one lamp. The purchase price of 199.99 euros is therefore really too high, but the ease of operation via the app and the simple installation make up for a lot.

Pros

  • Brings extra atmosphere to the garden
  • Flexible placement
  • Simple and clear app
  • Can also be used in other apps via Zigbee protocol
  • Excellent build quality
Negatives

  • Orbs cannot be controlled individually
  • Too expensive