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What love looks like at LifX

22.11.2019

Translation: machine translated

LED panels are something like the lava lamps of the 21st century. Only more colourful. And the many millions of colour mixtures should of course all have a beautiful name. The "LifX Tile" light tiles spread love, peace and unbearable neon colours.

Lights on, lights off. Candles on, candles off. Not so long ago, there wasn't much more choice; a dimmer was the ultimate in convenience. Nowadays, you can offer your guests not just 60-watt light bulbs or candlelight, but pretty much anything: How would you like the light? Cosy? Peaceful? Or would you prefer exciting? Not only have millions of possible colours found their way into the living room with smart lighting, a new profession has also developed. Light translators are increasingly desperate to find words that best describe the fancy colour mixtures of modern LEDs.

While Philips is still programming halfway comprehensible standard scenes such as "sunset" or "tropical twilight" into the app for the Ambi lights "Hue Play", LifX is getting really colourful. The Australian-Californian manufacturer is proud of its colourful LEDs. They have convinced me on this point.

The "LifX Tile" light tiles are a product in the range that I wanted to take a closer look at. As Nanoleaf has enjoyed great success with its combinable light panels, LifX also wants to get in on the wall action. Unlike the competition, each of the five tiles has 64 different light zones, which makes for extreme colour gradients and even looks very special as a GIF. These are the 20 standard topics that some poor person had to find suitable names for.

Colourful, colourful or incredibly colourful. Anything is possible.

Come along on an LED trip

And now I don't know what to do. There's too much colour fuss for me. Of course, you can create lighting scenes to suit your taste with a few simple steps. But the basic range is pretty garish. A few mixtures are quite pleasant, others are an LED trip turned into light, many have names that can mean everything and nothing. Here's a little quiz: what is it?

Lighting mood 1

happy
12%
peaceful
35%
reassuring
53%

The competition has ended.

You will find the resolution below the image once you have blinked a few times and can see properly again. This is roughly how LifX imagines its use on the wall.

Light mood 1: peaceful / Light mood 2: exciting / Light mood 3: Independence Day

Is this art or can it go away?

With "LifX Tile" you can live it up. Everything is possible, except for putting the light maths into words. Various effects are of course also available, control via Apple Homekit, Google Assistant, IFTTT and more is possible and the app is fine. Only the integration of the LifX lights doesn't always work straight away. And if the Wi-Fi connection is disrupted, you have a problem. Find out more about the underlying system here.

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LifX, the hubless alternative to Philips Hue
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When it comes to expansion options, the sky's the limit. While you can connect up to 30 panels with Nanoleaf, LifX stops after five tiles. They are not plugged together, but are connected to each other via cables that allow distances between the individual tiles. The next panels need their own power socket. And instead of using its own rhythm module, "LifX Tile" only synchronises music via the microphone of your smartphone or tablet. The almost 20-centimetre plastic squares are around 3.5 centimetres thick and are anything but inconspicuous when switched off. For my taste, the flat Nanoleaf panels are more elegant.

The end of the light story

Who is "LifX Tile" interesting for? If you have a weakness for extreme colour gradients and are happy to customise every tile down to the smallest detail, you will hardly find a more blatant LED trip. If you can live with just one colour per panel, Nanoleaf has the cooler Tile in my neon-plagued eyes. Or Panel. Or Canvas. Either way. Names are one of those things in the lighting business. I can only assure you of one thing: The one at the top, in the cover picture, is love.

Table lamps

Lifx Tile

420 lm

Wall lamps + Ceiling lamps

CHF170.–

Nanoleaf Canvas Smarter Kit (9 Panels)

Wall lamps + Ceiling lamps

Nanoleaf Aurora Rhythm

100 lm

Table lamps

Lifx Tile

420 lm

Wall lamps + Ceiling lamps

CHF170.–

Nanoleaf Canvas Smarter Kit (9 Panels)

Wall lamps + Ceiling lamps

Nanoleaf Aurora Rhythm

100 lm

58 people like this article

Michael Restin

Senior Editor

Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.ch

Simple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.

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