Nanoleaf Essentials Lightstrip review

Good LED gentle strips which can be properly designed but moderately priced are onerous to come back by, which is why we’re enthusiastic – to a level, anyway – concerning the Nanoleaf Necessities Lightstrip. Suitable with Apple HomeKit and Google Assistant, this shiny, 80-inch gentle strip advantages from simple setup and Nanoleaf’s smooth cell app. And at simply $50/ £50, it’s significantly cheaper than the competing Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus.

However like Nanoleaf’s different Necessities product, a 120-sided A19 sensible bulb, the Necessities Lightstrip comes with some vital and probably deal-breaking caveats.

For starters, the Lightstrip’s most superior options rely upon Thread, the IP-based wi-fi protocol backed by such tech stalwarts as Apple, Google, and Samsung. Thread is enticing for a quantity causes, together with low latency, low energy consumption, and – better of all – beefed-up safety. Thread requires a “border” router, and the one shopper mannequin in the marketplace proper now’s Apple’s HomePod Mini. For those who don’t have already got one, that provides a hefty premium to the Lightstrip’s price of entry.

A less expensive various could be to skip the HomePod Mini and management the Lightstrip by way of Bluetooth; doing so, nevertheless, means you’ll miss out on a number of the Lightstrip’s greatest options, together with the power to regulate it exterior your own home. And talking of key options, lots of them – particularly the power to sync with pc displays, music, and Nanoleaf’s Shapes gentle panels – aren’t prepared for prime time but.

Lastly, you might need observed an vital sensible house integration that the Necessities Lightstrip decidedly does not help: Alexa. That alone might be a deal-breaker for sensible house customers who’re deeply invested in Amazon’s sensible house ecosystem.

Configuration

There are presently simply two merchandise in Nanoleaf’s Necessities line: the Lightstrip reviewed right here, and the A19 Necessities color bulb. Nanoleaf says that extra Necessities merchandise are on the way in which, and we’ve seen promotional supplies that image BR30 floodlights, ornamental candle bulbs, and GU10 and GU24 downlights, however Nanoleaf hasn’t made any of these lights official but.

The Lightstrip itself is about two metres (80 inches) lengthy and a bit of over a half-inch broad, with about 21 LEDs per meter in teams of 5. You can too add as much as eight 1-metre extensions to the Lightstrip, for a complete size of 10 metres; in the event you add extra extensions past this, the brightness of the LEDs will begin to dim.

There’s a peel-and-stick adhesive backing on the other aspect of the strip, whereas a 14.5cm/ 5.7-inch cable connects a palm-sized controller to 1 finish. That controller, in flip, connects to an almost two-metre energy wire, which terminates in a chunky AC adapter that’s massive sufficient to dam close by shops. It’s value noting that solely the Lightstrip “Starter Package” consists of the controller and the AC adapter, whereas the 1-metre extension comes solely with the sunshine strip itself.

Rated to last as long as 25,000 hours, the Necessities Lightstrip’s white gentle might be tuned from a heat 2,700 Kelvin (about the identical color temperature as a warm-white bulb for a bed room) to a cool 6,500K (which is equal to sunlight on a hazy day). The Lightstrip also can glow in as much as 16 million colors, however solely in a single color at a time; in different phrases, don’t count on to see any rainbow patterns.

Nanoleaf says the Lightstrip has a mean brightness of two,000 lumens and a most brightness of as much as 2,200 lumens, which makes it one of many brighter gentle strips we’ve examined. Cranking the brightness all the way in which up on my evaluate unit, the Lightstrip simply lit up my workplace.

Setup

For those who’ve ever put in a peel-and-stick gentle strip on a wall, below a cupboard, or elsewhere in your house, you’ll know what to anticipate when establishing the Nanoleaf Necessities Lightstrip.

Step one is to measure and, if vital, reduce for size. After all, you may’t simply reduce anyplace on the sunshine strip; as an alternative, you may solely reduce alongside designated markings which can be about 33cm/ 13in aside, which implies the ultimate size of the strip could also be longer or shorter than you’d like. That’s a limitation that’s frequent to all of the LED gentle strips we’ve examined.

When you’ve reduce the Lightstrip to the perfect size, you peel off the plastic protecting that protects the adhesive backing after which stick the strip to the floor you’ve chosen (ideally one which’s clear and completely flat). Then you definitely’ll must take away the plastic protecting on the controller’s rear adhesive pads and stick that to the identical (or a close-by) floor, and at last you plug the AC adapter right into a wall outlet.

With the bodily setup out of the way in which, it’s time to attach the Lightstrip to HomeKit. Whether or not you could have a Thread-enabled HomePod Mini otherwise you’re planning on controlling the Lightstrip by way of Bluetooth, the method is similar: merely fireplace up the Apple Dwelling app and scan the QR code on the Lightstrip’s AC adapter.

If you do, the app will robotically add the Lightstrip to your assortment of different HomeKit gadgets. Not an iOS person? You’ll be able to connect with the Lightstrip and management it utilizing the Google Dwelling app.

As with Nanoleaf’s Necessities A19 bulb, you don’t want a HomePod Mini to regulate the Necessities Lightstrip; your telephone’s Bluetooth connection will allow you to flip the sunshine strip on and off, change its color temperatures, cycle between lighting scenes, and set schedules.

With no Thread border router, nevertheless, you’ll miss out on the superior performance that’s coming quickly to Nanoleaf’s Necessities lights (extra on these in a bit), and also you’ll additionally must be in Bluetooth vary (as in 33 ft or so) to regulate the strip.

For those who do select so as to add a Thread-enabled HomePod Mini to your setup, the improve course of is seamless. As quickly as you energy up the HomePod Mini and join it to your own home community, it’ll silently connect with the sunshine strip by way of Thread. Once I made the swap, I observed that the Necessities Lightstrip started responding to instructions from my telephone extra rapidly.

And since the HomePod Mini additionally acts as a sensible house hub, it permits you to management the Lightstrip even once you’re away from house.

Options and performance

Sadly, a number of the Nanoleaf Necessities Lightstrip’s most fascinating options have but to be rolled out. For instance, Nanoleaf says the Lightstrip will – ultimately – be capable of mirror the colors in your Mac or Home windows monitor, which may result in some nifty results in the event you set up the Lightstrip on the again of your pc display screen as a bias gentle.

However whereas a few of Nanoleaf’s different merchandise, equivalent to its Shapes gentle panels, already can sync with Mac and PC displays (with assist from a desktop utility), the characteristic has but to reach for Nanoleaf’s Necessities line, together with the Lightstrip.

A few different superior options are additionally circling the airport: the power to sync with the colors on Nanoleaf’s Shapes panels, in addition to the power to sync with music. As with the PC monitor syncing, music and Shapes syncing could be ultimate options for the Necessities Lightstrip; certainly, I’d like to sync my Lightstrip pattern unit with the Shapes panels I’ve put in on the wall immediately above it.

Alas, as of this writing, Nanoleaf will solely say that they’re coming someday quickly. It’s additionally value noting that each one of those upcoming syncing options require a Thread connection.

The excellent news is that a few promised options for the Necessities line have lately arrived. One in all them is help for Apple’s Adaptive Lighting characteristic, which robotically tunes the color temperature of your lights based on the time of day in your area.

The opposite is the power to use color scenes, together with such animated scenes as “Date Evening,” “HipHop,” “Lightscape,” “Northern Lights,” and “Starlight.” You’ll be able to even create your personal color scenes with assist from a contact interface that permits you to customise how lengthy the assorted colors seem earlier than biking to the subsequent.

Apart from its new Adaptive Lighting help and color scenes, the Necessities Lightstrip has a stable lineup of different options, that are roughly equivalent to these out there for the Necessities A19 bulb. Each lights supply a circadian lighting characteristic (Nanoleaf’s tackle Apple’s Adaptive Lighting), whereas the Nanoleaf app boasts a redesigned color picker. The app additionally allows you to group the sunshine strip with different Necessities lights, Nanoleaf’s Shapes gentle panels, and different appropriate sensible lights (equivalent to these from Philips Hue).

You’ll be able to put the Necessities Lightstrip on a schedule with assist from both the Apple Dwelling or Google Dwelling apps, which supply each every day and weekly schedules together with sundown/dawn triggers. The Lightstrip additionally works with HomeKit and Google Assistant routines, together with Google’s new Light Sleep and Wake characteristic (which slowly dims your lights at bedtime and steadily ups the brightness within the morning).

As with the Necessities A19 bulb, the Necessities Lightstrip’s sensible house integrations are restricted to HomeKit and Google Assistant, which implies it’s not appropriate with Alexa. A Nanoleaf rep had no data when – or if – Alexa help would possibly arrive for the Necessities line.

Verdict

As with the Necessities A19 bulb, Nanoleaf’s promising Necessities Lightstrip is a piece in progress. On the one hand, you’ll be hard-pressed to discover a sensible LED gentle strip that’s this shiny and boasts such simple setup and intensive options, to not point out Bluetooth, Google Assistant, and HomeKit help.

However, the sunshine strip’s Thread connectivity means you’ll want a HomePod Mini to unlock its full potential – not less than till extra Thread border routers can be found. And for now, the Lightstrip’s engaging light-syncing skills are unfinished. The Necessities Lightstrip might be a good selection for sensible house customers who’ve each a HomePod Mini and a splash of persistence, however others is perhaps higher off adopting a wait-and-see strategy.

To see all of the Nanoleaf merchandise we’ve reviewed and discover the perfect ornamental lighting on your partitions, browse our greatest Nanoleaf units round-up.

This text was first printed on TechHive.