Lighting for the future.
Over the past several years, I’ve been collecting different styles of smart lighting. I really love being able to ask my virtual assistant of choice (Siri) to turn on different rooms of the house and have the lights not only turn on but also change colors or dim to a particular level. Even though I’ve added dozens of light bulbs throughout the house, I really enjoy having the ambient light provided by light strips. I have them installed throughout the house in various places like under a desk or around a TV. I found they really add a lot to the mood of a room and I love the look that the light strips provide. With that in mind, I was very excited to add the Eve Light Strip to our collection.
DETAILS
The Eve Light Strip was just announced at CES in Las Vegas early in January this year as an addition to eve’s product lineup of smart home products. As of today, the powerful lighting strip is available for purchase through the Eve Store and Amazon. It has a price point that is in line with its top competitors — the Z Strip by Lifx and the Philips Hue Strip — at $79.95 for a 6.6-foot strip. The Eve Light Strip boasts an impressive 1800 lumens as a maximum brightness thanks to its premium triple-diode architecture. Like other lighting strips, it can be cut to accommodate smaller areas or extended up to 32.8 feet (with extensions that are sold separately). The light strip is compatible with Apple HomeKit technology so no bridge or gateway is necessary for automation or operation.
Features
- Full-spectrum white and color thanks to premium triple-diode architecture
- 1800 lumens for ultra-bright, whole-room ambiance
- Tell Siri to switch on/off, dim, and brighten using your voice
- Activate preset colors and easily create your own favorites
- Cut or extend: 6.6 ft – extend up to 32.8 ft using 6.6 ft extension strips
- Flexible and self-adhesive: peel and stick in and around corners
- HomeKit-enabled: unparalleled ease of use and advanced security
- Easy setup: direct connection, no bridge or gateway required
USER EXPERIENCE
My journey with the Eve Light Strip began with opening the box. It comes in a very simple but elegant box. An image of the product is featured on the front and along with the “Work with Apple HomeKit” emblem. Some of the major details of the light strip are included on the box including the fact that it has full-spectrum white and color lighting available. I was immediately impressed with the 1800 lumen rating for brightness (900 lm per meter at 4200K). I have both the Philips Hue Strip and Z-Strip by Lifx installed in my home and when I saw this high of a lumen rating, I was ecstatic. The Philips Hue Strip can reach a level of 900 lumens at 6500K while the Z-Strip is only rated with 700 lumens. Both of those strips are 6.6 feet in length as well and feature up to 16 million colors so the only real difference between the Z-Strip, Philips Hue Strip, and the Eve Light Strip is that the Eve strip features the triple diode design. This technology is evident in the image I’ve included below. It’s a side-by-side image of the Eve Light Strip and the Lifx strip. You can see that there are three distinct lighting diodes in the Eve Strip (labels W2, Y3, and the larger one with ‘LED’ in the label) whereas the Lifx strip only has two distinct diodes.
The set-up process with the Eve Light Strip couldn’t be any easier. Because it’s compatible with Apple HomeKit, you have a choice of scanning the provided code with the Home App on your iOS device or adding the device within the Eve App. Even if you add it in the Home App, you will still have the option to modify the device within the Eve App. I chose to add the light strip as an accessory within the Home App. I pulled out my iPhone and scanned the code on the back of the user manual. I waited for about 30 seconds or so and the Home App approved the addition. At that point, I placed it in the room the strip was ultimately going to live in and renamed it (smart lights have to have a unique name if you want to control them individually — ours are named after Star Wars characters). Then, I migrated over to the Eve App and to my surprise, the new accessory was already listed within the proper room along with all the other smart lights in that room whether they were Eve products or not. Even if you plan to control the light strip through the Home App, I would strongly suggest you check the light strip in the Eve App before you move on because there may be a firmware update — and that will only show up in the Eve App.
Aside from the brightness, one of the other features I noticed about the Eve Light Strips right away was its design. The strip is different from other lighting strips I’ve installed because it has a thicker covering around it. It’s almost like the strip itself has an additional silicone case around it for protection. I love this feature because the only real issue I’ve had with other light strips is that they will get damaged over time because they are exposed to everything. This ‘case’ is really a great option and I love that this is the direction Eve took with the design. The strip is still flexible and I would say just as light but heftier.
CONCLUSION
So far, I have been very impressed with the Eve Light Strip. It’s been a solid smart product and works beautifully with Apple HomeKit. I love how incredibly bright it gets and that it is so easy to install. The strip doesn’t get hot at all either. I had it plugged in for 2 hours after I did the initial set-up and it continued to feel cool to the touch. I think that since it’s the same price as the other two major brands of smart lighting strip, I would recommend the Eve Light Strip above the others at this time.
For more information, visit Eve Light Strip
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