Smart lights cover walls with color

Nanoleaf Aurora

Cnet rating: 4 stars out of 5

The good: The triangular light panels are bright, colorful, easy to assemble and downright cool to look at. The app makes it easy to create your own animated scenes, and you can control everything using spoken Siri commands, too. The bad: Decorative, wall-mounted panels aren’t nearly as practical as smart bulbs are, and they won’t fit in with every aesthetic. Also, the lack of a music sync feature is a missed opportunity. The cost: $277 The bottom line: These unique, colorchanging smart panels are delightful to look at and easy to use, especially if you’re an iOS user.

Lifx Z LED Light Strip

Cnet rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

The good: The multicolor light strips don’t need a bridge or a hub plugged into a router, and they let you “paint” colors onto the strips — two distinct advantages over Philips Hue. They also work with IFTTT, Nest, SmartThings and Amazon’s Alexa. The bad: Controls for that color-painting feature are pretty imprecise, and you can’t save any of your custom patterns to use later. There’s also no way to animate your light patterns — and no Apple HomeKit compatibility, either. The cost: $90 The bottom line: Like most colorchanging lights, these strips are a fun smart-home novelty.

DreamScreen 4K

Cnet rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

The good: DreamScreen works as promised, delivering multicolor effects to the wall behind a TV. The HDMI pass-through box that powers it means you can use the lights with almost any streamer, cable box or gaming console, and with virtually no lag. The bad: The colors in video sync mode are too muted, especially warm tones like red and yellow. The adhesive that holds the lights in place behind a TV didn’t work for us, forcing us to tape the lights up ourselves. The cost: $250 The bottom line: DreamScreen’s lights are worth a look if you like the novelty factor (and especially if you’re a console gamer), but tone down your expectations.

Sylvania Smart Plus Flex Strip

Cnet rating: 3 stars out of 5 The good: The HomeKit-compatible version of Sylvania’s color-changing light strip works with Siri and costs less than strips from Lifx and Philips Hue. Setting it up is a cinch.

The bad: The strips don’t offer any unique features beyond their HomeKit compatibility, and the Bluetooth performance seemed to lag more than smart lights that use Wi-Fi or Zigbee. The cost: $39 The bottom line: These lights are a decent value pick for HomeKit households, but we prefer the features and performance of the competition.