14- Nanoleaf Lines review
The most striking Nanoleaf lights yet
Two-minute review
Nanoleaf makes some of the best smart lighting systems in the business, but with the latest Nanoleaf lines, the company has a clear winner - it has knocked the Nanoleaf Canvas off the hanger as this reviewer's favorite with its bold and beautiful colors.
It's also the first Nanoleaf light set that doesn't necessarily have to be an eyesore when turned off. The skins are available as an optional accessory that can be attached to the poles to make them look like geometric works of art on your wall (or ceiling).
In addition, you can fold them around walls thanks to the new connectors, which are also available as optional accessories. Even without extras, the cables do not look bad when switched off. They are thin rods rather than flat plastic blocks that make them look so much better than the old Nanoleaf Smart Panels.JUMP TONanoleaf Lines Price & Availability Turn them on and the transformation is beautiful. With LEDs on the back of the panel, the backlighting effect is fascinating and the colors are breathtaking.For example, the daylight presetting available in the app actually makes the room appear flooded with sunlight through transparent curtains.
The colored lights are vivid and each light bar has two zones so you get movement and multiple colors in a scene. While it is easy to set up, it does require help. Nanoleaf suggests that you lay your final design (connectors and everything) on a flat surface, then ask a friend to help you pin it in place in one go.
However, to avoid mistakes gluing the hexagonal connectors so that the light strips are not misaligned, you can get by on your own if you are careful and place one section of your design at a time. It's also pretty easy to connect to the Nanoleaf app, as is setting it up on Apple HomeKit or Google Home.
In contrast to the Nanoleaf Essentials series, the lines are supplied with Alexa support, so that they should also be able to run with any smart device with Amazon technology. So if you're already using the Essentials over bluetooth, you'll find that after you've set up the lines in your home, the Nanoleaf smart bulb and light bar respond much faster, you don't have to use a different thread router like the Apple HomePod mini. it's still with the companion app.
Nanoleaf has updated its Smarter Series app to include the lines and their functions, but it's still not as intuitive as it was when the original Nanoleaf canvas and light panels appeared. while you get used to it if you are new to the Nanoleaf Nanoleaf ecosystem.
Nanoleaf Lines Price & Availability List Price: $ 199.99 / £ 179.99 / AU $ 349.99 The looks and great performance of the Nanoleaf Lines don't come cheap. Prices start at $ 199.99 / £ 179.99 / AU $ 349.99 for the Basic Starter Kit consisting of nine lines.
It's the same price as the 9-pack Nanoleaf Shapes Starter Kit and cheaper than the 9-pack Nanoleaf Elements kit, but we think the cords are better value for money as they are much nicer when turned off and serve as a thread router to control the intelligent lightbulb. or the Nanoleaf Essentials light strip if you've already set it up - if you have the cash we have no hesitation in recommending the 15-pack starter kit if you can get hold of it, although it has only been available for select markets at the moment announced (in Australia it costs AU $ 539.99) Three light bar expansion packs are also available if you want to work out your design in the future (pun intended) and this will set you back $ 69.99 / £ 49.99 / AU $ 119.99 As mentioned, the Lines have optional accessories - if you want to disguise them, a pack of nine masks costs $ 19.99 / £ 17.99 / AU $ 39.99, available in matte black and pink only - all currently available for pre-order direct from Nanoleaf or select retailers, with lights and accessories shipping beginning late November.
They are vastly different from anything the company has made before - you no longer have to worry about flat white plastic pieces that look like an eyesore on the wall without lighting. when it turns off.Put on the optional bezels (if available) and they'll really pop even in daylight. To accommodate each light bar and create geometric designs, Nanoleaf completely redesigned the connections for the lines.
This time they are small. Hex blocks that attach to the wall with double-sided tape Each mounting connector has its own cap (which snaps into place with a satisfactory click) to keep the final design looking neat and clean.
The base of each connector can also be pulled off, exposing the adhesive tape’s tab, which is how you would remove the Lines from your wall. The mounting base also has holes for screws, which is what Nanoleaf advises you use if you plan to set the Lines up on your ceiling… so gravity can be beaten at its game of pulling your hard work down.
One connector doubles as the controller, with buttons for changing scenes, dimming, brightening and activating music mode available on the cap. A cable connects this to a separate power module that houses a Thread border router. This in turn is connected to a rather chunky wall adaptor – the only part of the Nanoleaf Lines that isn’t sleek.
Each light bar is about 11 inches / 28 cm in length, including the connector ends, although only 10 inches / 26 cm will be visible in your final setup. They’re feather light, and really slim too, no more than 0.8 inches / 2 cm in width, and just thick enough to accommodate the little LEDs. These are just barely visible through the translucent base panel of the bars.
Each Line has two light zones that can display different colors simultaneously, with support for 16 million shades that all Nanoleaf products can show off.
Being dual-zone light sticks means you can set up colorful scenes to be displayed on the Nanoleaf Lines. These can be static light combinations or dynamic ones, and you can either choose from those available in the vast library on the Nanoleaf app or create your own.
Like the Canvas and the Shapes, there’s an in-built microphone on the Lines as well that picks up ambient sound when the music mode is selected. This allows the lights to flicker along with music. However, we found that the only rhythm light scenes that work with the bars are the default ones set up by the company specifically for the Lines. Every time we tried to select another from the huge community-created library we got a notification that there’s no rhythm module available for that scene and cannot be displayed. Despite that, the default rhythm scenes like Cotton Candy, Beat Drop and Jalapeno Heat can add a sense of disco to a room when you’re entertaining.
If you’ve got the Lines set up near your TV or your home computer, you can use the screen mirroring feature. This, however, requires the Nanoleaf desktop app installed on a PC or laptop (as it does with the Shapes or the Nanoleaf Essentials Lightstrip), and only works if you’re streaming or casting video to a TV from that computer.
If you’ve already got other Nanoleaf lights set up, you can group them to set up scheduled scenes, which can be done via the app. And you can easily control the Lines with Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa.
The only thing the Lines miss out on from a features perspective is touch functionality. This is available on the Canvas and Shapes, allowing you to play games or add lighting effects when you touch a panel. Considering how slim and light the bars are, this really is no loss – it’s still possible to enjoy the dynamic scenes and music mode without any additional functionality.
Setup and app control
Easy setup but could require two people
App needs a little work
Easy control with voice assistants
Every time we receive a new Nanoleaf package we wonder if installation is going to be complicated… and it never is. The app makes it easy to come up with a design using the Layout Assistant, then it’s just a matter of laying it out on a flat surface – the floor works best as there’s plenty of space – and then sticking it on the wall.
It’s the same with the Lines – Nanoleaf suggests you have someone else with you so you can get the whole design up in one piece. We don’t think this is absolutely necessary, but we can see why this is important: if the mounting connectors are even marginally placed wrong on the wall, the whole layout becomes almost impossible to get right as you’re restricted by the 60-degree angles for the light bars themselves. You can, however, stick the design up in sections; for example, in our layout we could have gotten each diamond up individually, although, with three people on the job, we got two up together, followed by a third.
Connecting to the app is via Wi-Fi, but it only works on the 2.4GHz bandwidth. That said, most modems these days are dual band and you shouldn’t have any issues getting started. Just scan the QR code on the power unit of the Nanoleaf Lines (or enter the numeric sequence) and aw
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