Wyze Light Strip Pro Review: Affordable, but lacks key features | Technology Honeycomb

2021-11-26 08:46:38 By : Ms. Ella Qiao

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Wyze Light Strip Pro is an economical and easy-to-use colored light strip that provides a range of functions, but lacks some of the key features of the more expensive competitors. The Light Strip Pro compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant can emit light in multiple colors at the same time, supporting up to 16 million colors and multiple color temperatures. You can combine it with other Wyze lights, or use "rules" in Wyze "And smart routines. There is also a music mode that allows Light Strip Pro to synchronize with your music, as well as a holiday mode and the ability to match the color of the sun.

Unfortunately, you can't combine multiple Light Strip Pros into a longer strip like you can with the more expensive Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus, nor can you reuse any parts you trim. Although the animated music mode is cool, there are no other animation and/or dynamic light modes. Finally, we hope that Wyze rules and smart routines can trigger lighting scenes, not just basic color and brightness settings.

This review is part of TechHive's coverage of the best smart light bulbs, where you can find reviews of competing products, as well as a buyer's guide for features that should be considered when purchasing this category.

Wyze Light Strip Pro has two lengths: 5 meters (16.4 feet, $28) and 10 meters (32.8 feet, $41). The 10-meter version consists of two 5-meter strips connected by a central controller. However, according to Wyze, you can’t create a 10-meter-long strip Pro yourself by buying two 5-meter strips and connecting them together, nor can you connect additional strips to the 10-meter model; In other words, it is either 5 meters or 10 meters, nothing more. Competitive light strips such as Philips Hue Lightstrip Plus do allow you to add extensions to make the original light strip longer.

In addition to the Light Strip Pro, Wyze also sells the cheaper Light Strip ($20 for a 5-meter model and $36 for a 10-meter model), which is a similar LED colored light strip that lacks the ability of Pro to emit multiple colors at once. 

Although you cannot combine multiple Light Strip Pros by yourself, you can tailor them to fit. Like Hue Lightstrip Plus and its similar products, Light Strip Pro can be cut with a pair of ordinary scissors, provided that you cut them about a foot at a specific point; cutting the strip in the wrong place, you may damage its electronic equipment. Unlike Lightstrip Plus with connectors, you can reconnect the cut part, and any decorations you cut from Light Strip Pro cannot be reused.

You can trim the Wyze Light Strip Pro to make it fit, but only if you cut into the correct position (three narrow golden stripes).

The LED on the Light Strip Pro can emit up to 16 million colors and provides an adjustable white option. Unlike the step-down Wyze Light Strip, the Light Strip Pro has 16 customizable color zones for travel Send out up to 16 different colors at the same time. As I just mentioned, the Wyze Light Strip can only emit light in one solid color.

In terms of lumens, Wyze's specifications specify in great detail how many lumens per meter the blue, red, and green LEDs emit. Rather than trying to decompose all of this, I just want to tell you that the brightness of Light Strip Pro is about the same as the competing light strips I have tested, that is, it is bright enough for mood lighting, but not suitable for illuminating work spaces or illuminating alone. Room.

Similar to other Wyze smart lights, Light Strip Pro does not rely on a hub, but it can only connect to a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network.

Like most other LED light strips, Wyze Light Strip Pro has an adhesive backing that can be peeled and pasted, so you only need to tear off the plastic film, place the light strip where you want to place it, and press down firmly That's it. In my example, I installed the light strip on the back of the horizontal bar of my daughter's bunk bed. Since the five-meter-long light strip is a little bit long, I used scissors to cut off a section (cut carefully along the marked part) with a pair of scissors. You can also use the included plastic clip to secure the strap.

After connecting the Light Strip Pro to a suitable surface, then connect the controller to the end of the cable with the connector (ideally, you have planned in advance to ensure that the cable end of the light strip faces the correct direction). The boxy single-button controller has its own peel-and-stick backing, which in turn is connected to a power cord with a 90-degree corner wart.

The boxy single-button controller has its own peel and paste support.

After installing the Light Strip Pro in place and plugging in the power source, the LED starts to flash blue, indicating that the light strip is in pairing mode. The Wyze app quickly found Light Strip Pro, and the app managed to connect the light strip to my Wi-Fi network on the first try. Then I gave the strip a name and it was ready.

The charming Wyze interface for controlling Light Strip Pro (and other Wyze lights) consists of three tabs: Design, Scene, and Music.

The "Design" tab provides your basic color wheel and white color temperature (allows you to adjust the color temperature from a very warm 1,800 Kelvin to a cool daylight 6,500 K). Directly below the color wheel is a series of one-click color palettes, and the brightness slider is located near the top of the screen.

You can change the color of various color areas of Light Strip Pro by calling the color grid in the Wyze application. Just select one or more areas, and then use the color wheel to adjust the color.

If you want to take advantage of the multi-color function of Light Strip Pro, you can press and hold the icon of the light strip; doing so will summon a grid representing the 16 color areas of the strip. Then select one or more color areas (if you lose some color areas due to trim strips, you need to pay attention), close the area selector, adjust the color wheel, and then rinse and repeat for other color areas until you are satisfied.

You can save multi-color patterns and any other monochrome scenes you create in the "Scene" tab. In addition to custom scenes, there are four preset solid color scenes (energy, games, movies, and meditation) and color temperature scenes (luminous, comfortable, bright, and vitality). Since you can combine Light Strip Pro with other Wyze lights (including Wyze Bulb Color and other Wyze light strips), you can save lighting scenes involving entire groups of lights, not just a single Wyze light strip.

Wyze Light Strip Pro provides 10 music modes, from Shadow and Leap to Shooting Star and Starlight.

The music tab is where the multi-color feature of Light Strip Pro really shines, literally. Using the controller's integrated microphone, the light strip can pulsate with any audible tune. There are 10 music modes available, including shadow, jumping, blinking, marquee, color focus, water, waves, meteors and starlight, and the slider allows you to adjust the sensitivity of the effect. Overall, Music Mode does a great job of creating funky multi-color light shows that are synchronized with your music.

Unfortunately, the only way to turn on the music mode is through the Wyze app. You can’t do this with Alexa or Google Assistant voice commands (when I try, Alexa just says "what do you mean?"), and the single button controller only lets you cycle through a series of solid colors, and A long-press power off bar.

In addition, it is worth noting that—at least for now—music mode is as close as Wyze Light Strip Pro's approach to animated lighting scenes. It is not possible to use strips to create non-music-driven light shows, and there are no preset animations. According to a representative, the good news is that Wyze is "working hard", adding that the non-musical color animation is scheduled for "early next year".

Other features of Light Strip Pro include wake-up and sleep programs that gradually brighten or dim LEDs, a "sun matching" mode close to the natural color temperature of the sun, and a vacation mode that randomly turns on and off the light strips. You can also add Light Strip Pro In the Wyze rules, when your Wyze Cam detects a person, it will enable smart functions such as turning on the light strip or changing its color.

Unfortunately, the Wyze rule cannot trigger a lighting scene; instead, the only parameters in the Light Strip Pro rule are its power state, brightness, color, or white color temperature. This means that any custom lighting scenes you create, including any elaborate multi-color scenes, can only be triggered manually in the Wyze application. The same restrictions apply to Alexa and Google Assistant routines and voice commands; currently, the voice assistant can only adjust the power state, brightness, and color of the Light Strip Pro (using the basic color palette). Wyze told me that it is "evaluating" to allow Wyze rules to trigger light scenes, but "there is no set delivery schedule yet."

Wyze Light Strip Pro has many things to like, as long as you can control your expectations. We like its simple setup and installation. The music mode is surprising. We have always been fans of the holiday and sun matching mode. The compatibility of Alexa and Google Assistant is always a plus. But keep in mind that those cool multi-color animations are limited to music mode. Although you can trim Light Strip Pro, you cannot add more segments to make it longer or combine multiple segments into one longer segment.

Wyze Light Strip Pro is an economical and easy-to-use multi-color light strip that provides a range of functions, but lacks some of the key features of the more expensive competitors.

Ben has written about technology and consumer electronics for more than 20 years. Ben became a contributor to PCWorld in 2014 and joined TechHive in 2019, responsible for smart home and home entertainment products.

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