Josh Hendrickson
Nanoleaf’s Hexagon and Triangle line is some of the best-looking premium lighting you can put in your home—when it’s on. When it’s off, it’s a bunch of white shapes on the wall and not as attractive. Nanoleaf’s latest Elements smart home line solves that problem with an attractive woodgrain look.
If you already own Nanoleaf’s Shapes line, like the Hexagon and triangles, let’s get some of the bad news out of the way. The new Elements line follows the same shape, linkers, and style as the Hexagon lights—but it’s not truly compatible with the previous Shapes lights. You CAN hook it up to the other lights, but the Elements line isn’t capable of all the same colors, so unless you’re ok with unlit hexagons pairing the sets up will look strange.
But you may not want to do that anyway. The new Elements pieces have seen improvements over the original Hexagons. The original Nanoleaf shapes pieces didn’t shine light completely to the corners. Instead, you have dark patches around all the corners, whether it’s hexagons or triangles.
The new Elements line drastically cuts those dark patches to smaller corners. It’s a noticeable difference. Additionally, Nanoleaf added lights to the back of the units to give a “double-lighting” effect on the wall. It adds a soft glow around each panel that improves the overall look. And Nanoleaf says it embedded new “corner control technology” that allows it to offer more control over the entire panel.
The company says the corner control technology “enables each apex on the panel to light up independently, creating surreal organic motions resembling embers in a fireplace, or gently moving clouds on a sunny day.” To go along with the new tech, Nanoleaf created new 11 scene options like “Organic Motion,” “Fireplace,” “Calming Waterfall.” You can also choose any of the existing RGB scenes, and the app will automatically remap the colors for white lighting.
Like other Nanoleaf entries, you get extra features like Rhythm Music Sync, Schedules, Touch capabilities, and Circadian Lighting. The panels themselves can emit light between cool to warm white (1500-4000K). We have a set on hand and can say that they range from bright white to soft yellows, golds, and browns.
Nanoleaf Elements come in a 7-pack Smarter Kit for $299.99. And if that’s enough, Nanoleaf offers a 3-pack add-on expansion for $99.99. You can buy them today at the Nanoleaf website and later this month at Best Buy. Later this year, you will be able to purchase Nanoleaf Elements in the Apple Store.
Nanoleaf Elements
If you like the look of Nanoleaf panels when they’re on, but not so much when they’re off, the Nanoleaf elements might be for you. They feature a natural woodgrain look and light up to cool or warm white light.
