Nanoleaf - Canvas Smarter Kit - 9 Light Squares - Multicolor

The lights are very bright at 100 percent enough to light up a room. Had a little trouble getting all the software to sync up but it works really well now. I have it synched with both google and razor synapse and both work fine. My only complain is they are hard to get on the wall level

I became curios about lighting for my movie room but wanted a low cost solution that would not break the bank. I came across these lights and decided to give them a try. I really enjoyed these lights, the squares are really bright, the pulse to the music was entertaining and setup was a breeze. Pros: Bright Easy Setup Low Power Usage Thin to make for easy / light placements Can be Operated by on-board control panel or phone app Cons: Linker is fragile, be very careful One corner of square does not allow connections Power cord is short ::Setup:: The installation and setup was a breeze, they provide sticky's that work well especially since the squares are a light plastic. The phone app allows for remote access which makes things great if you are installing at a high place in the house. ::Lights:: The lights are bright and colorful. I really enjoy watching them pulse to the music playing. There are multiple settings you can do with the lights including touch. I would recommend trying many different modes they offer ::App:: The app was easy to download , install and setup on the phone. It provides all the different light modes along with recommended ways to setup the blocks. You are also able to download new light patterns that others made. Overall this was a fun cheap lighting system full of colors to enjoy in my game room. I would recommend this product for anyone wanting to start using lighting for decorations.

I really wanted to like this enough to give it 5 stars. It had a lot of promise, and it reminded me of how Lite Bright worked in the 80’s when I was growing up. The Nanoleaf is set up to be the 21st century upgrade to the beloved LB, but I feel this falls short. After a week of processing my thoughts, here is what I came up with: Pros: -beautiful colors. The amount of color and brightness of the Nanoleaf is stunning. The panels are subdivided into 4 squares. You have your typical colors of Blue, White, Yellow, Green, Orange, Red, and Purple. Within these are different shades of those colors when it transitions. The brightness level is REALLY bright. -Patterns: you have the option to have the transitions vary, so not to make it too boring. Many differing color patterns are available for you to experiment. -navigation: on the bottom right of the main square is the primary control panel. It gives you the options for Next Rhythm scene, Shuffle, Next color, Adjusting Brightness and Power. Pretty easy navigation for children to use. Cons: -starter set is not enough to make a good pattern. They only provide 9 squares for you to use, or enough if you wanted to make anything worth resembling such as a letter, animal, etc. I understand that this is only a starter set, but I think a dozen would’ve been sufficient. -connections. On the back of each panel square are the connection ports. There are only 4 connection ports, one of each side but in different locations, the idea for you to mix the pattern. I would have liked to have at least 2 on each side so you can have more variety on how you pattern your design. -connector tabs: there are several tabs that interlink with each panel, but they are very flimsy and can break easily. Also, when you do have the pattern idea, the panels are loosely connected and can fall off. Along with that are the stick tabs where you stick them to the walls these are really stick and hard to place, all while balancing the panel pattern without them falling apart. It’s a pain. I tried to put one panel at a time but becomes time consuming as you are trying to slide the connector tab into the slot. The design on this could’ve been better as wells Conclusion: At the end of the day, my kids are very happy with it. Again, great idea but the execution in design was not so great.

Nanoleaf starter kit has great potential and it can create something very beautiful, but comes with a hefty price if you want to add to the starter kit. the Kit comes with 9 plastic panels and enough connectors and 3m stickers to install on a wall. the 9 panels are not enough to create anything, I went to try to create the letter K and this is the best I could do with the current panel quantity and the way the panels have the connectors on. each panel has 3 connectors to hook to other panels or to the power adapter which can be connected to any panel, and not necessarily to the main panel that has the power. setup is very easy and took less than 5 minutes including updating the firmware and hooking the nanoleaf to my wifi. nanoleaf can be controlled using Gogle assistant or Alexa or apple of any IFTTT protocol enabled device. the scene creation is easy and fun, the kids and the cats loved the changing themes when played with music. the panels are responsive to music which mean it has a high sensitivity mic. Nanoleaf say they dont record sounds but who knows! panels are also very responsive to touch and multi touch gestures. they can also be set to play specific scenes on a schedule that you can create and control using the app. you can also set nanoleaf to play soft or cool white light in a not very well lit room or use it as a night light. summary: Nanoleaf is a great addition to my home and it is definitely a conversation starter when you have people over. my cats are still amazed by it although its been a week so far. the problem is the price, if you want a decent amount of panels to create something nice, you will be spending hundreds if not close to thousands to create something special.

Nanoleafs are more than just smart lights and to judge them on that basis is to do them a bit of an injustice. It's more like a modern art piece that you personalize and display as you would a fine painting or a sculpture. That you can interact with them via touch and have them interact with your environment via sound is evidence of this. But there's more than a few reviews here that tell how much fun and beauty they possess so I'd like to touch on a few other things that you may not be aware of. For me one of the biggest things about the Nanoleaf platform is it's dedication to the user community it has created. Setting them up is made so much easier thanks to the many tutorial videos on YouTube and their community forums on Reddit. That shows a level of commitment that a lot of vendors simply don't possess in this market. Another, even bigger show of commitment is the fact that there is a published, open and most importantly LOCAL API interface. If you're not familiar with what that means, an API or application programming interface is a documented 'back door' to the platform, giving you a number of abilities to interface with other systems. It's one of the reasons that it is so easy to control your Nanoleaf devices (Canvas, Aurora and the remote) with Alexa and Google Assistant, but it also means that there are opportunities for other programmers to develop interfaces and applications for the platform now and in the future. For example, I use an open source program called HomeAssistant to control my smart home and Nanoleaf is a supported platform. It took me a few minutes tops to get HomeAssistant to recognize and control my new Canvas setup. SmartThings is yet another popular platform that supports Nanoleaf, as does IFTTT and Yonomi. And because it's a local API, it will work without a connection to the internet and doesn't rely on a cloud service that might be shut down in the future. These are important considerations for anyone buying into a smart platform these days! A few things I learned along the way setting up my Canvas: 1. Blue Painter's tape is your friend. Besides laying out lines to keep your creation level and proportional, I found it easier to layout my design on the floor and then tape the whole thing together so you can pick it up and mount it on the wall as one piece - great if you're working solo like I was! I would highly suggest buying a roll before you get started - trust me you'll use it. 2. It's a good idea to reserve a static IP address for your Nanoleaf, but the app doesn't show either the MAC or IP anywhere. I found mine by using a port scanner on my network and searching for a device using the port number 16021 - this is Nanoleaf's API endpoint and chances are near 100% that no other device on your network is using it, making it easier to determine the IP address. 3. I found that pairing using the QR code caused the app to time out and it's much faster and more reliable just to punch in the 8 digit code manually. When I did this, it paired in seconds. 4. The app is great for designing your own scenes and schemes and the Discover feature gets you access to many great user contributed scenes that you can either use as they are or as a starting point for your own creations. But the interface can be confusing at times and needs a bit of work. For instance, you can preview scenes before you download them, but you have to select your Canvas device before you do. Ok fine. But then when you decide to download it, it asks you again which device to download it to. This seems like an unnecessary step given the fact that you just indicated the device a few seconds before. And things aren't always where you would expect them to be in the app. Overall, it works well, especially when creating your own scenes but like I said, there's a learning curve until you get used to the flow. Yes, it is a bit pricey but the build quality is solid and like I said in the beginning - you need to look at this as more than just some multicolored smart lighting and look at it as an art piece. Still, I think if these were priced just a little lower more people would be willing to take the chance on them. And take the chance you should, because there is nothing like them anywhere. They are gorgeous and while the starter kit is sufficient to get you a nice display, I already plan on ordering an expansion kit within the next few days - seeing them in action has convinced me I need more. It's easy to get addicted. The pricing is the only thing that made me hesitate on giving it five stars but in the end, scoring them as "Good" just didn't feel right for something that looks this awesome. Everyone who's stopped by my house and seen them has "Oohed" and "Ahhed" at them... and that's really the best you can hope for when you put a piece of artwork on your walls, right?

So, I think that the Nanoleaf Canvas, featured at this year's 2019 CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is one of the most cool and fun decorating and game playing items that I have seen. In its prior iteration, this was the Nanoleaf Aurora, using triangular panels instead of the square ones featured in this Canvas version. The introductory box comes with a power source that plugs into one special tile that has touch buttons for various functions, Power (on/off) Music Notes, Schemes, Programmed Patterns, and +/- Light Brightness, 8 other tiles, links that connect one tile to another that powers the connected tiles, and 3 Command-like strips for each tile to install it to a viewing surface such as a wall, a ceiling, a post, etc. One of the You Tubes that I watched said that the 1st version, the Aurora, used 3M strips and with this version they are stamped with Nanoleaf's name. It is easy to decipher the 3 areas on the back of the tile to put these strips, but the blogger that brought up this detail said that the strips used for the Aurora triangular tiles, when released, did pull off paint from the wall and that he needed to repaint the damaged areas. Make sure that you have a readily accessible electrical outlet proximate to the wall area that you will be installing this on. I have picked a wall in my kitchen to affix these tiles where wallpaper is now currently hung and I do not want to damage that. By the way, you will want to stage the process of design and construction of this from a table, the floor, or some other elevated level surface to create your design, taking a picture with your phone so that you can remember your design, and then do the installation from there. I am being very careful to finalize my design before I do the actual installation, since I am debating on whether or not to buy additional tiles. I strongly recommend downloading the Nanoleaf app to your smartphone or whatever device you have and use that to program, to what seems, a multitude of choices available through that. I have an android, Samsung phone, but I see that if you have an iphone that there is a special AR feature that maps out various designs. Just to note, you must create a login/password for this app and then once you engage and power up that first control tile, you can add a device. label it, and the app will find your Wi-Fi network and then attach to that after you load your network's password. I have watched numerous YouTube videos, Nanoleaf produced ones and blogger produced ones, and there is a lot of information out there on how to set this up, construction of different patterns, scheduling of these light patterns either as a one-time only, daily, weekly, and for how long; the options seem to be limitless. By the way, Nanoleaf also has the ability to access tutorials through the app and their website, and it said on the address label that they would prefer the owner/user of this item to call them with issues before contacting the place where it was acquired from, in this case Best Buy. So, the good is that this is a fun, interesting, and cool light show with unlimited visual possibilities that also responds to music or other verbal sounds, is able to be linked to Alexa, or Google Home, or its own app to control, and play games by tapping on the tiles . The bad is the cost to do this-just to add 4 more tiles is $79.99, so to really make a larger mural might be cost prohibitive to many buyers in the market. Lastly, there really is no ugly.

I own a Nanoleaf Aurora, the triangle-shaped light panels, and when I heard about Canvas, I about fell out of my chair, and when I got my hands on this product, I fell out of my chair, I just love Nanoleaf products. I love smart lights in general, but Nanoleaf is creative about it. Canvas is certainly an upgrade from Aurora, what blew my mind was how interactive it is. The panels are touch-responsive, and I found out, that it’s so sensitive, you can place your hand or finger just about a centimeter above the panel, and it responds. It might be capacitive touch system? Either way, you all you do is touch it! (One of the photos I attached, is my poor attempt to show this) The only downside to this I foresee is people with small children who like to press hard on things, I don’t know how durable the panels are, but if you press hard enough, you can break them. Another fun thing with these panels, Nanoleaf included games like “Simon Says” and “Memory” So that’s a new level of interactivity, I haven’t seen before. Unlike Aurora, Canvas comes integrated with the music module, meaning the lights will react to sound/music. Set up is easy. Nanoleaf’s starter kit gives you nine panels, plenty of linkers, and a smaller power supply unit than Aurora’s PSU. Placing them on walls are easy, just make sure it’s clean and dry so the adhesive sticks better. The app helps you figure out a pattern, I placed mine on my bed since I am in the process of moving when I got these, but I plan to purchase corner linkers so I can place mine on a corner. There is the control panel that has four buttons. (Power, Next Scene, Brightness Down, and Brightness Up), and that is a great feature so if you’re like me, and misplace my phone all the time, you can turn them on without your phone. They are also voice assistant compatible (Google/Amazon/Apple) so you can have your assistant turn them on or set a scene. Overall, I am so happy with this product, and plan on purchasing more expansion kits soon, and if you were happy with the Nanoleaf aurora, I think you’ll enjoy this as well!

I’m no newcomer to smart lighting, but the Nanoleaf Canvas is something different. The idea itself is fantastic and I love the idea. Not to mention, the execution is almost perfect. The colors are great, and the touch controls are slick. The built-in mic for sound response is a cool idea but I really wish I could somehow tie it in with my headphones too. Cons: • You’ll want 30 of these, you’ll get 9. Expansion tiles are expensive, and you’ll find yourself just falling a little short of a satisfying pattern with the included 9. • Unless you’re incredibly creative, you’ll wish there was a way to generate or suggest patterns based on the number of tiles you have Pros: • Google/Alexa integration is great and definitely needed for any smart home • The colors are bright and bold • Looks awesome! • Touch controls are easy and are helpful • Easy to hang – don’t forget to order some additional adhesive strips or pick up some small command strips in case you find yourself needing to make changes.