So i seem to have a lot of Smart lights on this channel, my last video was on the Nanoleaf Aurora, if you haven’t seen it click on the info button on the top right.
Continuing with the trend, today we’re reviewing the Xiaomi Yeelight Smart Light Strip, a smart light strip that goes head to head with its main competitor the Philips hue strip. The first thing to catch your fancy is the price, a smart light strip for $30, just under Rs 2000 (The prices seem to be fluctuating). The equivalent length Philips Hue strip goes for Rs 7000, and a Hue bridge has to be purchased separately, that is if you don’t have a Echo Plus.
The Yeelight Light strip is 2 metres long approximately 6 feet, and as the name suggests is a strip of led’s and the Smart in the name indicates that it can connect to your Wifi network to control remotely, either via phone or also by Alexa, Google Assistant.
The box looks well designed, and the unboxing experience is similar to that you would have with Apple products.
Inside the box is the flexible light strip, with a power cable and remote tucked underneath. The power cable is pretty long, around 3 metres and the strip itself measures 2 metres. This gives you enough flexibility with where you can install the light strip. The plug, supports voltages of 110-220V, so that makes it usable anywhere in the world. Also provided, is a converter, from a US plug to EU, which works in india.
The remote is pretty solid, with only a blue LED to indicate the power on/off status, and a circular button on top. Tap to turn the light on and off, tap and hold to change colors. This is all fine if you are close to the remote, but the smart features are what you’ll be mostly using.
The RGB LED’s support 16 million colors, and are quite bright at 140 lumens. This can light up an area pretty well at full brightness.
The strip is flexible and has cut marks every 3 inches, that is if you don’t want the entire length. A rubber coating protects the strip and its ip65, so not waterproof, but resistant to sudden heavy splashes.
The strips have an adhesive backing, to allow sticking anywhere.
Now lets get to the app. The yeelight app i had installed earlier for the Xiaomi smart bulb is the same i’m going to connect the light stip to. So plug in the light, and follow the instructions on screen, and it’s up and running in no time.
The app provides standard contold like turning the lights on and off, and changing the color. Other options are available like scheduling.
The app also has a color swatch, where we can choose any color from the palette. A few scenes are also available such as Sunrise, sunset, night mode etc, which can be used to set the mood in the room.
The Light Strip also have alexa compatibility, which allows for the virtual assistant to control the lights via the echo for voice control. And the Echo discovered the device easily and allowed for control via voice.
Commands like Turn on/off lightstrip, lightstrip being the name i set for the yeelight.
It worked perfectly, only problem i did have was with setting color via voice command. It just wouldn’t do it.
So are the Xiaomi Yeelight LightStrips worth it. At this price, of course. But do note they’re accent lights and not light bulbs, so you cannot expect too much light from them.
But overall, it does everything it’s more expensive counterparts can, at an affordable price.
