STUFF SAYS The most dazzling smart lights around, now with added sonic skills
■ The £180 Aurora Smarter Kit has nine triangular LED panels, which you can fix together in virtually any pattern on your wall – the only restriction is that one end needs to be a near a power outlet. Want more? You can buy three-panel expansion packs for £55.
■ The lights are so spectacular that photos don’t quite do them justice, but it’s the Rhythm module that makes this a unique option for house parties – or just pretending you’re Dj’ing in front of a packed dancefloor. The lights change colour in sync with the beat in what Nanoleaf calls ‘an immersive symphony of light and music’.
■ The response rates with most types of music are impressive. Yes, it is possible to sync Philips Hue lights to music, but Nanoleaf’s dedicated hardware makes a big difference, particularly as it lets you plug your audio source directly into its 3.5mm jack.
■ Nanoleaf has done a fine job of making sure its lights can talk to whichever smart home platform you’ve chosen: the system works with Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Homekit. There’s also an IFTTT channel for connecting it to things like Flic buttons and hubs such as Samsung Smartthings. And of course, Nanoleaf’s own smartphone app lets you indulge in some serious tweaking. Mark Wilson
Lighting’s on the wall The default way to mount the panels is using the bundled 3M adhesive strips. While these will stick to painted walls, they feel a bit ‘university houseshare’. You might be best off going with the £23 Screw Mount Kit.
Watts going on Will installing nine of these panels also turn your electricity bill red? Not likely – each one is an energy-efficient LED, so you’ll get 100 lumens from each at a maximum cost of 2W power (at full brightness).