Nanoleaf Elements Starter Kit

Smart home lighting without the ‘garish’ colours

You can get the lights to respond to touch, sound, controller or the free app

£199 FROM Nanoleaf, nanoleaf.me/en-GB FEATURES LED smart lights (max 22 ANSI lumens each), Ambient whites (1500-4000K colour temperature), works with Apple HomeKit, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi (2.4GHz)

Nanoleaf’s brilliantly colourful Shapes Hexagon (MF359) smart lights aren’t for everyone. For those that might find them a bit too colourful, the company has come up with Elements… ‘nature-inspired’ decorative lighting versions that eschew scenes such as Rave and Tropical Rainfall (that can turn any living space into a teenagers’ RGB-festooned bedroom), and plump for more muted colours like Ambient White, Bloom and Calming Waterfall.

That’s partly because the Elements come in wood-effect plastic, and partly because the seven light panels traverse the ambient white colour gamut from 1,500K to 4,000K, offering an autumnal orange glow at one end and a cool white at the other. Like other Nanoleaf Starter Kits, the £199 Elements version comes with a power supply, a controller and a set of linkers (which pass power and commands to each light panel), plus mounting plates with double-sided tape, that enable you to attach the lights to the wall in a variety of shapes. Like other Nanoleaf lights, you can get the Elements to respond to your touch, sound (such as music) and give them commands using the controller or the free Nanoleaf app. They even work with HomeKit, so you can say “Hey Siri, set Ambient White scene” to your HomePod mini.

Essential by nature

Setting up the lights is easy using your iPhone (you’ll need Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled, plus access to a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network), from there most of the heavy lifting is done from the app. You can choose from 13 different light scenes or create your own, adjust the brightness and set schedules – this enables the lights to do things like gently wake you in the morning or automatically switch on and select a suitably relaxing ambience at night. Plus, unlike the Shapes Hexagon where the whole panel lights up, Elements panels can light up individually from each corner, making the effect more subtle.

As for the lighting scenes, they’re clearly limited in variety and colour in order to fit into the ‘nature’ remit. You can enjoy the flickering orange glow of Ember (which approximates a wood fire) or relax to the gently scudding Clouds, but you miss out on the variety of colours and lighting scenes that the Shapes Hexagon has built in, plus the dozens of others created by the Nanoleaf community. Yes, you can download these and even make them play, but the Elements still glides through its various shades of ambient white whatever you choose… and that means you miss out on the glorious greens, beautiful blues, warming reds and shocking pinks of other Nanoleaf lights. That’s a shame, because by staying at the blander end of the colour spectrum, the Elements panels feel more limited than luxurious. Rob Mead-Green

Each starter kit comes with seven panels, as well as a power supply, controller and linkers between the panels.

If you like the idea of smart lighting, but want to tie in with a neutral colour scheme, the Elements could be for you.