Wooden hexagon lighting panels have new effects and a Thread radio on board
Smart lighting maverick Nanoleaf today unveiled the latest addition to its increasingly impressive line of connected, colorful, and very shapely LED smart lights.
Nanoleaf Elements Wood Look Hexagons, which are available today at Nanoleaf’s online store, are a version of its popular Nanoleaf Shapes line, only instead of looking like a lighting panel they have a more sculptural aesthetic thanks to a laminate wood-grain finish.
While this won’t be good news for those who love Nanoleaf for its bold RGB colors (these are white only), it does solve a key problem that Nanoleaf’s current smart lighting panels have in blending in with the modern home (and not a YouTubers’ streaming den): These wood-look panels look good when they’re switched off
This is a problem with Nanoleaf’s other panels, which look more like a Star Trek-style control panel than swanky home decor when they’re not doing their cool, glowy-thing.
You’ll pay a premium price for this elevated wall art aesthetic, however: The Nanoleaf Elements Wood Look Hexagons cost £199.99, which is £100 more than their Shapes and Canvas counterparts.
We’ve been testing out the Nanoleaf Elements for the last week, head here for our full review or read on for the bottom line.
Nanoleaf’s Elements don’t just have a shiny new cover, these panels also have some cool new features that bring the wall sculpture to life.
These include corner control and backlit technology, both of which give the panels more organic, interesting visual effects.
Unlike Nanoleaf’s other lighting, Elements are white only, but this is ambient white so you can go from bright white all the way down to warm orange. The panels have a color temperature range of 1500 to 4000 kelvins, with 22 lumens per hexagon.
Plus, the backlit tech and corner control – which lets each corner light up independently – allows for dynamic glowing effects, so you can recreate a crackling fireplace or twinkling moonshine.
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In the Nanoleaf app, which has had a big overhaul (thankfully!), there are 11 preset scenes that use this motion effect, including “Fireplace” and “Sunbeam.” You can also create your own Scenes and add in these new effects.
The panels work over 2.4 Ghz Wi-Fi, and also include a BLE/Thread radio. Nanoleaf also announced today that its Elements and Shapes lines will be capable of running as Thread Border Routers in any Thread network, although they won’t run on Thread themselves.
That means that – according to Nanoleaf – you won’t need an additional hub, like Apple’s HomePod mini, to use your Nanoleaf lights or any another Thread-enabled products over a Thread network, you can just use your light panels. That’s the coolest hub ever.
The Thread software update will go live later this month and will also come to the Nanoleaf Shapes line.
The panels can be controlled with a control panel on the lights, over Wi-Fi with the new Nanoleaf App, or through voice courtesy of integrations with Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. They also work with Samsung SmartThings and IFTTT.
Using the Nanoleaf app you can set schedules, program the panels to adapt to circadian lighting and set different scenes.
The panels are touch sensitive and you can program different scenes to different touch gestures. They also respond to touch visually – so when you press a panel it brightens. Plus, they can sync with your music using a built-in music visualizer.
Nanoleaf Elements are available starting 3 June on the Nanoleaf online store, they cost £199.99 for a “Smarter Kit” that include seven panels, and £69.99 for an expansion pack with an extra three panels. The lights will be coming to Best Buy US online later this month and launching globally in Apple stores and online later this year.
