SPECTACULAR SMART LIGHTS
The latest smart lights for your home are things of beauty that do much more than helping you not walk into the wall
Level up your illumination with a whole new generation of smart lights
1 IKEA FLOALT
Sometimes you don’t want a bulb, you want a whole panel of light to control from your phone or through your smart speaker – and that’s exactly what you get with the Floalt, part of Ikea’s growing range of intelligent illumination products. Available in a variety of sizes, these panels really enable you to get creative with your lighting setup.
From £65, ikea.com
2 PHILIPS HUE AMARANT
One of the latest products from the smart lightning veterans at Philips Hue is the Amarant, an outdoor light bar that can blanket a wall or a particular part of your property with a white or coloured light. You can even connect several of them together, and they’re perfect for hedges, fences, and any other bit of outdoor furniture that you want to illuminate. £129.99, philips-hue.com
3 LIFX CANDLE WHITE TO WARM
The White to Warm candle light from Lifx brings with it all the usual Lifx functionality – remote phone control without the need of a hub, millions of colours, automatic scheduling – while also offering a touch of style and charm. It’s the perfect option for some lazy evening (or lazy morning) chilling out with your everimproving smart home setup. £29.99, lifx.com
4 PHILIPS HUE APPEAR
Add a touch of subtle class to any outdoor space with the help of the Philips Hue Appear, a lamp that can direct light precisely upwards or downwards, and which gives you millions of colours to pick from. As with any product in the Philips Hue range, the app gives you access to a host of settings and features, including options for timers and scheduling. £129.99, philips-hue.com
5 NANOLEAF ESSENTIALS
The new Nanoleaf Essentials range includes both bulbs and a light strip, and, besides giving you all the usual smart lighting goodies, also works with the latest Thread protocol – that means these lights work like a charm with Apple HomeKit. With a huge choice of colours, customisable timings and more, these lights can fit into any home setup.
From £17.99, nanoleaf.me
6 NANOLEAF SHAPES
Combine hexagons and triangles into a truly unique smart lighting setup with the Nanoleaf Shapes range: the shapes and sizes of these panel layouts are completely up to you, and the lights can be controlled via physical touch as well as from your phone. You can even get them dancing to music – a truly eye-catching smart lighting product. From £89.99, nanoleaf.me
7 INNR WI-FI BULBS
Innr has new white and RGB Wi-Fi bulbs to show off, as well as a redesigned app that makes managing them much easier. You can choose from 16 million different colours, set automated timings, and even use your lights to help you wake up (or fall asleep) more naturally. Both E27 and B22 bulb connections are available in the new range. From €24.99 (about £22), innr.com
8 INNR SMART FILAMENT VINTAGE GLOBE
When modern-day smart lights combine with old-fashioned filament bulbs, you end up with these stylish Innr Vintage Globes: you still get that classic look while also controlling the lighting from your phone. As with the other products in the Innr smart light range, the E27 bulbs can integrate with your existing Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant setup too. €47.99 (about £42), innr.com
9 TWINKLY SQUARES
Part of a new smart LED lighting range from Twinkly coming later this year, Squares is a customisable panel of lights that you can use to illuminate a room, display a message, and generally have a lot of fun with. There are 64-pixel blocks in each square, with the panels made up of 9 or 15 squares in total. £TBC, twinkly.com
10 SENGLED SMARTSENSE
Smart lighting and smart homes are all about convenience, which is why a product like the Sengled SmartSense has so much appeal: it comes with a built-in motion detector, which means you don’t even need to tap on your phone to get it to illuminate (very handy for those late-night wanderings around the house). It’s ridiculously affordable as well. £11.99, sengled.com
11 YEELIGHT SMART LED BULB M2
The special party trick offered by the latest bulb from the Xiaomi-backed Yeelight is compatibility with the new Seamless Setup feature from Google Home – essentially, getting this smart bulb working with Google Assistant is a breeze, as there’s no hub required. The bulb is coming soon with pricing yet to be confirmed, but expect it to be inexpensive. £TBC, yeelight.com
12 LIFX CLEAN
What if your smart lights could clean surfaces and objects with specialised High Energy Visible (HEV) light, as well as giving you all the standard features? The Lifx Clean range, coming later this year, can flip into a disinfectant mode when you’re not around and wipe a substantial number of bacteria and microbes away from whatever the light touches. £TBC, lifx.com