Smart home lighting has been in our lives for many years now and many home offices and bedrooms will feature some level of IoT devices. This means the question in 2024 is not if you should add some RGB lighting, but which one should I add and where.
One of the more recent products I’ve been testing is from Nanoleaf who really are pushing the industry forward with new products. The Nanoleaf Blocks are square panels which doesn’t sound interesting on the surface, but when you dive deeper, there’s a lot more on offer here.
When you have squares of different sizes, you can combine them in really interesting ways, to create a visually interesting, unique layout. The Blocks Combo SL Smarter Kit includes not just large and small LED panels, but there’s also a Light Pegboard and a Shelve.
When you combine these items, your smart home lighting all of a sudden become a 3D piece of functional art. The functionality becomes a shelf to store or feature important items like a lego model, a 3D print, or just flowers.
The other aspect of functionality is the hooks that plug into the pegboard to hang your headphones and stacking these together really creates a unique lighting setup with a purpose.
Design
The Large Squares measure 231*231*29mm, while the Small Squares are 115.5*115.5*29mm. At more than an inch to hang off your wall, that’s already a challenge, but the tiles can be attached by double-sided tape (provided).
Something you’ll learn about installing these blocks and accessories, is that you will need to make a big commitment. That commitment is to make holes in your wall to hold the weight. So far at least, while I’m reviewing and experimenting, I’m not quite ready to make that commitment, as I have a habit of changing my mind on my office lighting setups.
If you can get through that, you’ll be able to hang your headphones, controller, keyboard etc from the pegboard (which a maintains RBG lighting behind it.
The weight of whatever you place on the shelf also needs to be secured correctly, but there’s no doubt you’ll create a truly unique setup that is sure to be a conversation starter.
One accessory that’s not included in the Nanoleaf Blocks Combo Starter Kit is a Textured Panel. This features a 3D geometric pattern on the surface of the tile, further providing a 3D look to your panels.
Features
The Nanoleaf Blocks offer a range of features controlled via their mobile app.
Colours
Naturally when you buy smart lighting, you can select from more than 16 million colours, and while there may be time when you want a static, solid colour, a more interesting option is to select from the thousands of community creations.
Nanoleaf provide a Paint Tool within a Scene Creator to choose exactly where each colour goes on your layout.
Music Sync
If you’re looking for the experience of your lighting to sync to the beats in your music, then you can certainly enable that.
Screen Mirror
One of my favourite features is the screen mirror option that, depending on the placement of your panels, can create an effect that feels like the lighting is an extension of your monitor.
Controller
The small controller provides quick and easy (mobile-free) access to turn the panels on/off, adjust brightness, move through display modes or enable the Music Sync.
Thread Compatibility
Blocks can connect quickly into your existing IOT network if you use Threads. Nanoleaf says Blocks can be used as a Thread Border Router with a future firmware update.
Smart Home Platform Support
The experience of controlling this device can easily be expanded to include voice support, thanks to integration with Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa and Samsung Smart Things.
Issues and Opportunities
While there’s a lot to love about the Blocks, not everything is perfect. Something I found issue in, is the structural integrity of the cardboard used to retrieve the blocks from the box. As I pulled up on it, the handle ripped, suggesting this needs to be strengthened.
Outside matching the thickness of the pegboard panel, I’m not sure why these are so thick. I’d like to see a future version that is a little thinner.
If you ever have to remove a panel, you will have a challenge on your hand, this is not easy and obviously you need some more double-sided tape to attach the tile in it’s new location.
Price and Availability
The Blocks Combo XL Kit is not cheap, starting at A$429.99. You can get started with a Blocks Combo Starter Kit (Combo) for A$299.99, or the middle-ground of A$349.99 that gets you 6 panels, no shelve, no smaller or textured panels, making this a lot less inviting.
I do appreciate that you can buy Add-on kit for Blocks to allow you to get the exact squares you need to achieve the design you’re chasing. I do not that a number of the awesome setups on the website would take you to the best part of A$1,000 to achieve.
While there are certainly much cheaper than many alternative smart home lighting products, these offer something quite unique in the look and functionality that helps justify the price tag.
Overall
All things considered, the Nanoleaf Blocks offer a unique smart home lighting option and one that looks great, limited really only by your budget and creativity.
The Nanoleaf layout assistant certainly offers some great ideas, once you let it know which elements you have to use. What I’d love to see is the ability to craft limitations like shelves or other lighting products into the design assistant, perhaps even an AR overlay on top of a photo of your walls.
The product itself is great, I really enjoyed using it, for most, the big challenges will be the price tag and the concept of having to drill into your walls. The second of these mean these lights will really only appeal to those who own their home and not something practical for renters.
Overall I love that Nanoleaf continues to be creative with their products, offering new ideas in the market and personally I’ve wanted to avoid having a headphone stand on my desk, and the Blocks pegboard provides the perfect opportunity to hang them next to my workstation.
If you’re looking for smart home lighting, these should definitely be on your short list. I do think you should consider not only the Blocks Combo XL start kit, but also the textured panels and perhaps a few additional tiles to create some of the experiences showcased on the Nanoleaf website with Blocks.
