Simply switching from yellow to blue light can dramatically affect the ambience of a room. What more can you do with the TP-Link Tapo Smart Wi-Fi Light Strip (L900-5), a customisable RGB LED light strip with over 16 million colours? Well, the only limit is your imagination. And while the cost of adding mood lighting to your home can quickly scale up, this Tapo light strip is relatively inexpensive compared with its competitors.
Quick specs
- 5m (16.4 feet) length
- 57g
- Supports 2.4GHz (802.11 b/g/n)
- Power consumption: 13.5W
Installing the light strip is easy enough. It took me longer to decide where to place it. You can add it below furniture, around a full-length mirror or even behind your TV for that Philips Ambilight experience. I eventually settled on the underside of my kid's bed frame. The light strip comes with a 3M peel-and-stick adhesive that felt secure. Plug in the light strip controller and power adapter, connect it wirelessly to your smartphone using the Tapo app (for iOS and Android), and you're done.
You control and adjust the colour and intensity of the LEDs using the Tapo app. There are also premade custom lighting effects to choose from, or you can make your own. You can set a schedule or a timer for the light strip to turn on or off. It will even work with your favourite voice assistant (Google and Amazon). The Tapo light strip also has a Sync-to-Sound feature that uses your phone's microphone to pick up sound, and sync the LEDs to the frequency and the beat of the background music. While it can create some excitement for a house party, the light effects did not seem entirely in sync with the music.
The Tapo light strip is 5m long, but you can cut it to your desired length. Of course, you shouldn't cut through an LED — the safe places to cut are marked. The remaining light strip (after cutting) cannot be used. However, TP-Link says it will introduce an adapter later this year that will let you reuse the leftovers. The LEDs themselves are said to last around 5.5 years of constant use, but the light strip only has a two-year warranty.
At around S$42 for a 5m strip, the TP-Link Tapo Smart Wi-Fi Light Strip Tapo is cheaper than its competitors. The 2m starter kits from Philips Hue and Yeelight (Razer Chroma compatible) cost S$129 and S$70 respectively. Even Ikea's multi-coloured light strip is S$59 for 5m. In short, if you're only dipping your toes into mood lighting, the Tapo is worth considering for its price alone. Get it now on Shopee and Lazada.
Note: Review unit provided by TP-Link.
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