Zigbee lightstrip needs to be teamed up with Aqara Hub
Aqara has been one of the most active smart home brands in 2023 and its assault continues with the launch of the Aqara LED Strip T1.
An RGB lightstrip, the LED Strip T1 can display up to 16 million colors and also features tunable white accent lighting.
The T1 is an RGBIC strip, as per the Govee Neon Rope Light, meaning it can shine multiple colors simultaneously to create blending and dramatic effects.
Aqara tells us that it has ten segments which can be fine tuned for individual colors but you won’t be able to control these section when dealing with tunable white light scenes; these only work over the whole lightstrip.
As with most Aqara Zigbee devices, if you want to add Matter, Alexa or Google Home to the mix then you’ll need to pair it with one of the many Aqara smart home hubs.
If you want to add the LED Strip T1 to your Matter smart home then that hub needs to be the Hub M2, as Matter was added to that back in February.
Other Aqara hubs – like the Hub M1S, Hub E1, Camera Hub G3, and Camera Hub G2H Pro – are said to be receiving the update over “the coming months.”
Aqara also has its own Matter controller / Thread border router in the works; we’re told that the M3 Hub will arrive in early 2024 and looks like being the perfect solution for anyone who already has an arsenal of Aqara’s Zigbee sensors and wants to expand to a Matter system.
If you add it to your HomeKit system then you can also make use of Apple’s Adaptive Lighting. HomeKit Adaptive Lighting is a feature that can change the color temperature of smart lighting at different times of the day, and in real-time.
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The idea is that, over the course of a day, a smart light using the tech would emit warmer colours in the morning and cooler colours halfway through the day. But at night, it would automatically lower blue light in order to improve people’s sleep.
It’s like the Night Shift feature you get on your iPhone, but in your house on all of your smart lights.
However, if you’re thinking of controlling the Aqara LED Strip T1 through Matter, then you won’t be able to use the Adaptive Lighting features as it’s not yet supported through Matter (hence why Nanoleaf ditched it on the latest Essentials Matter lightstrip).
Back to the T1 and it’s a 2m lightstrip that can be extended via 1m extension kits, up to a maximum length of 10m; it can also be cut at 20cm intervals (and you can reuse these cut off castoffs if you buy some extra standard 5-core ribbon cables and 5-pin connectors.)
With an IP44 rating, the T1 can, technically, be used outdoors – although we’d advise keeping it up high and away from possible sitting water. The controller and the power supply both need to stay indoors and dry as well so, if you are planning on an outdoor installation, bear this in mind.
The Aqara Lightstrip T1 is available direct from Aqara, or via your local Amazon stores. It’s $49.99 Stateside, £49.99 in the UK.
