Hands-on review: Nanoleaf Essentials, the A60 and B22 lightbulbs
As an active gamer who is always trying to make their gaming setup the best it can possibly be, I'm a big fan of Nanoleaf. I have had the Nanoleaf Shapes panels around my gaming set-up ever since they came out. After a while, I wanted to have the same smart experience around the house so I added panels to the bedroom and the living room. Nanoleaf finally made this easier by releasing their essentials line that includes light bulbs and light strips.
I have been using the light bulb for around a month now. While the panels are great, I have hated how they look in the living room - they do not give the living room the aesthetic I am after. But they did provide the convenience of being able to control my lights from my phone. I also do not have much wall space available in the living room, which meant that the panels lived on a shelf. The new A60 and B22 lightbulbs solved all of these problems for me.
The bulbs are relatively cheap. They retail at around $39 AUD. That is a very reasonable price for a smart light bulb. They also do not need any hubs or extra bells and whistles to work. They are a pretty much plug and go product. This made it really easy for me to have smart lighting in places I usually wouldn't. This included the small night light lamp in my bedroom and our living room standing light.
Just like the panels, the bulbs can be adjusted to be any colour the user could want. From warm lights to crazy bright colours, the bulbs can do it all. Before setting it up, one of my worries was the brightness of the white light. We have been using regular white bulbs for so long, we got used to that brightness level. I was pleasantly surprised with the Nanoleaf bulbs. With a few of them around the room working together, the room was bright enough that I did not feel like I was missing the regular bulbs.
The bulbs also have a Circadian lighting feature that allows them to automatically adjust the colour temperature of the light throughout the day. The purpose of this is for the light to compliment the natural daylight cycle with warmer lights in the morning to help users wake up, going into cooler lights during the day to help with productivity and then switching back into warm lights for evening wind dows.
I think Nanoleaf has done a great job making smart lighting accessible to everyday users. They have easy, no hub setups that work with existing systems like Google Home and Apple HomeKit. They do everything you would expect from a smart light, and they do it very smoothly. I can definitely recommend them to anyone that is interested in integrating technology into their home lighting.
