Festive Christmas String Lights, 200 bulbs

For the price I paid for these, I don't have much to complain about. But if you're paying the retail prices on these, I'd suggest you look elsewhere. I bought a number of 300 piece sets of these in bright white, warm white, and multi color. This review could apply to most any color, they're fairly identical. First, the upside: • USB connector! Works as advertised, just unscrew and unplug from the battery pack, and it works in every single usb outlet I tried it in. I tried high power ports, low power ports, and chained multiple off those ports: the light is consistently bright no matter the usb source. • Build Quality (note, this is in the negatives too): I was very impressed visually with the build. They're similar to a very sturdy and expensive set I bought locally. Sturdy plastic battery box with hinged lid and silicone seal. The wires are a decent thickness and the bulbs seem high quality and well constructed. The usb plug has a nice weatherproof seeming screw connection. • The price: for between 2 and 3 washingtons, these are the cheapest battery op lights I've ever purchased. Now the downsides: • Number one for sure, the brightness. These are incredibly dim bulbs. The dimness is consistent across ten strands I tried, no matter the battery type or usb power source. I had planned to replace a 100 bulb strand of 120v lights that I use as ambient lighting, but even though there are 300 of these bad boys on a strand, they put out less light than a cell phone screen. I included a photo for reference here; two of the pictured sets are Festive warm and cold lights (the dim sets). From left to right: 120v cheap 100 bulb led light strand; 300 bulb Festive warm white on usb power; 132 bulb micro led strand from another manufacturer here, running on 6x AA batteries; lastly, Festive again, cool white 300 bulbs. • They are so ridiculously long! For something this dim, the strand would be better suited with half the bulbs and twice the brightness for a net power change of zero. And yes, I bought the 200 and 100 light sets from Festive too, they're exactly the same as these (but they run on AA batteries). • C batteries. I don't plan on actually using the battery cases for these, but I think this strand would be better suited to house 6 AA batteries instead. More common, cheaper, easier to get in rechargeable. • Build Quality: Although these appear well made, I did find some defects among some of my strands. Common problems were: broken battery house snap closure, loose or broken internal battery tabs, and faulty wiring (pull lightly on a strand and sections go dim). It was also common to find strands of what appeared to be hot glue webbing inside the battery compartments. I can't speak to longevity for these, but check your strands before your return period is up. • Annoying mode change button: this button is terrible. It's super soft and has no click to it, and making it change requires a long press, a pause, then another long press (repeat until you get to your desired mode or off setting). Actually getting them to switch was really inconsistent, and this happened with every strand I tried. FYI, the 200 and 100 bulb varieties use a lovely clicky and sealed press switch that is comparably a delight to work. I haven't measured the claim of getting weeks out of a set of batteries, but I'd imagine that it could be close given how dim an entire set is. I can't really use these for the applications I intended them for, but for the price I'm happy enough to have some strands to accent the car at holiday time, the tent while camping, or the bike at a certain dusty festival.