Nanoleaf Lines ditches the panels for a modular wall-mounted light bar design

By Patrick Hearn Published October 14, 2021

Nanoleaf has long been the company at the forefront of using lighting as aesthetic decor. First with the Aurora, then with the Canvas and the Elements, Nanoleaf consistently reinvents the idea of what smart lighting in the home can be. The new Nanoleaf Lines are no exception, bringing a new style of design to the Nanoleaf lineup.

The Nanoleaf Lines are backlit LED bars that can be arranged in nearly any pattern you want. They connect to one another at 60-degree angles. The Lines have dual-color zones that allow each one to display two colors at once. With more than 16 million colors to choose from, users can create vibrant light displays in their homes. One of the most impressive features is that it acts as a Thread Border Router, which means the Nanoleaf Lines can automatically connect to your home network without any hubs.

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The Lines include all the features users have come to expect from other entries in the Nanoleaf lineup, including the ability to create unique scenes. Nanoleaf Lines come with 19 preset scenes, including seven rhythm scenes that utilize music visualization technology. You can explore many other scenes through the Nanoleaf app or create your own through the Scene Creator.

Nanoleaf Lines placed on wall. — Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Rhythm Music Visualizer technology syncs with your favorite songs in real time to help you “see” your music in a new way. Each dual zone on the Lines will pulse and beat in time with the song. You can choose from 22 different Rhythm Motions.

The Lines can also reflect what’s on your TV screen or monitor through the Screen Mirror feature. It helps create a more immersive lighting experience through the four different modes, from Palette for more subtle transitions to Match mode for total accuracy.

The Nanoleaf Lines can be controlled through Amazon Alexa or Google Home, as well as through Apple HomeKit and Siri. There will be further customization available in the future through snap-on faceplates that act as a sort of “skin” for the lights. These will be available in black and pink starting in December.

The Nanoleaf Lines are available for pre-order now. The base kit starts at $200 for a set of nine Lines, while expansion kits (three Lines each) are available for $80.

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Patrick Hearn writes about smart home technology like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, smart light bulbs, and more. If it's a…

Smart Home

Nanoleaf and Secretlab team on a new smart light strip

A top down look of the MAGNUS desk with the MAGRGB lit, also showing a monitor and Nanoleaf shape panels.

Nanoleaf has recently announced a partnership with Secretlab to release the new MAGRGB diffused LED strip. This LED strip was specifically made for Secretlab's Magnus metal gaming desk. With this new lighting and desk, you'll elevate your gaming to the next level.

Those unfamiliar with the Magnus metal desk will be impressed by its features. First, its build quality is above that of most desks, including all the wooden desks popularized by IKEA. It also was made with cable management in mind, thanks to the back compartment of the desk. You can have it flush against your wall and still have all your cables meticulously managed at the back of the desk.

Smart Home

Nanoleaf adds Thread to HomeKit support for Shapes, Elements, and Lines smart lights

Nanoleaf Lines lights installed on the ceiling in a bedroom.

Nanoleaf is patching its Thread-capable smart lights to include support for Apple HomeKit. The update is rolling out today for the company's Shapes, Elements, and Lines products. Now you can manage the Thread network through your iPhone, iPad, or Mac using HomeKit.

Beyond Apple, the addition of Thread over HomeKit to the Nanoleaf suite also sets the stage for Matter, a smart home application layer that will span multiple manufacturers. This whole update is good news for interoperability.

Smart Home

How long does smart lighting last?

Wyze Bulb Color in lamp green

When you're spending a healthy chunk of change on a smart lighting system, you want to know that it will last. We're here to break down expected timelines for a smart lighting system and figure out which components are likely to fail first.
How long do smart lights last?
Smart lights use LEDs, which reports show last much, much longer than incandescent bulbs. LEDs can last 30,000 to 50,000 hours of output until brightness decreases to 70% of what it initially had. Meanwhile, CFL bulbs will go for 8,000 to 10,000 hours, while traditional incandescent lamps only last 1,000 hours. Applying a little math shows that you could run an LED bulb eight hours a day for 17 years, and even then, you'd only be dealing with a slight diminishment of bulb brightness. If you're really concerned about making sure your smart lights last long enough, you can always set a schedule so they're only on exactly when they need to be.
Do smart bulbs burn out?
LEDs will emit less light over time. Rather than burn out from overuse, it's much more likely that they'll become unusable due to a wiring fault or gradual decline in color quality before then.

The reason LEDs last so much longer than incandescent bulbs is because they don't rely on generating heat in order to create light. Incandescent bulbs send their voltage through a filament that gets hot until it starts emitting light as well, but over 90% of that energy is lost as heat. So there's a lot less stress on the materials at play in an LED, but it doesn't mean they produce no heat at all. Improper materials that don't account for the small amount of heat they do produce could result in a burnout. In that vein, LEDs that have been built with poor heat sinks are likely to burn out. Home wiring that's running at too high of a voltage could equally fry a smart light bulb. There are outliers, however, and in general, you shouldn't expect your smart lights to burn out in the same way as incandescent bulbs.
Do smart bulbs last longer than regular bulbs?
Smart bulbs do last longer than non-LED bulbs. One potential pitfall with smart lights versus "dumb" LED lights is software support. For example, Philips Hue light bulbs require a wireless hub to communicate with your phone. After a while, the mobile app stopped supporting voice commands to any Hue bulbs that were connected to the first-generation hub, requiring users to upgrade to the next generation. In these instances, the smart light bulbs themselves worked just fine, but the software backbone they needed had partially failed. Basic functions were still supported, but it should be expected that smart lights will lose some of their functions as software platforms evolve.
Do smart bulbs go bad?
At worst, smart bulbs become less useful over time. Diminishing light quality is likely to happen with any LED bulb, and it's unlikely manufacturers will provide software support for any given product for an indefinite amount of time.