Nanoleaf Shapes Limited Edition Ultra Black Triangles Review
A set of smart lighting panels that look as good turned off as on.
Verdict
Going for a black finish, rather than a white one, the Nanoleaf Shapes Limited Edition Ultra Black Triangles look almost as good powered off as when turned on. The downside is that the cases pick up fingerprints and the icons on the built-in controls are hard to read. That aside, these are a great set of mood lighting panels, with excellent colours and a wide range of scenes.
Pros
- Black finish looks great
- Excellent colour reproduction
- Wide choice of scenes
Cons
- Picks up fingerprints
Key Features
- Lighting typeThese smart lighting panels can be attached to a wall in the layout that best suits your home.
- ConnectionConnects via Wi-Fi to your home network and can act as a Thread Border Router.
Introduction
Liked the Nanoleaf Shapes line in action, but not so much when turned off?
The matte black Nanoleaf Shapes Limited Edition Ultra Black Triangles look fantastic on or off, adding some interest to a wall even when you don’t have power to them. They can get a bit mucky with fingerprints, though.
Design and installation
- Deep black design
- Compatible with other Shapes
- Can’t rearrange after sticking to wall
The Nanoleaf Shapes Limited Edition Ultra Black Triangles are the same product as the Nanoleaf Shapes, only these ones are finished in a deep matte black, rather than the usual white.
That gives them a completely different appearance when turned off; one that I think looks better, as these Triangles stick out less when turned off compared to the regular edition.
Installation is the same for these models, as with the normal Shapes. There’s the Starter Kit, which I’ve reviewed here. This comes with nine triangles, plus you can buy three additional triangles for £49.99. The handy PSU Calculator helps you work out how many PSUs you need for your chosen number of Triangles.
Before starting to stick these shapes to the wall, it’s worth using the Nanoleaf app’s AR-powered setup tool, which helps you imagine how a design will look on the wall. Once you’re happy, you can start to stick the shapes to the wall.
As with the regular edition, this version of the Triangles has a removable mounting plate. This plate sticks to the wall, and then the light panels can be removed. This makes it easier to get to the back of the panel, or to replace a duff light, but it’s hard to get the mounting plate off the wall and, if you do, impossible to re-stick it without replacing the double-sided sticky pad.
Lights are connected by the connector. There are multiple connectors around the light panels, so it’s easy to create the shape and layout that you want.
Power in, and the controller will also connect to these rear connectors. The controller adds some physical controls (brightness, scene selection and music mode), although the black icon on the black background is all a bit Hotblack Desiato from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
These light panels can pick up fingerprints, so keep the microfibre cloth that’s provided in the box to hand.
Features
- Excellent range of scenes
- Powerful integrations
- Fiddly touch controls
The Nanoleaf Shapes Limited Edition Ultra Black Triangles has Thread built in, acting as a Thread border router to work with Thread-compatible devices. Control is actually over Wi-Fi, as with the other Shapes products, and these lights are not Matter compatible.
As with the previous Shapes products, the Nanoleaf Shapes Limited Edition Ultra Black Triangles is also HomeKit compatible. At first, I couldn’t get these lights to connect to HomeKit; instead, I had to join the Wi-Fi network that the lights were broadcasting, which kickstarted the lights joining my Apple Home.
Via the Home app, control is quite basic: I could adjust the colour of all of the panels, toggle power and adjust brightness. That’s it.
For more control, the Nanoleaf app has to be used. There’s a set of default scenes, either solid lights or motion scenes, where lights change colour. Each panel can be a different light, and when set to a dynamic scene, look great. Shapes can also respond to music, flashing colour in time to the beat. It’s a neat trick for parties.
Don’t like what’s on offer? Custom scenes can easily be built to get the colours and dynamic changes that you want.
There’s also Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant support built in, with voice commands for turning the lights on and off. I could only get scene changes via Alexa and couldn’t work out how to do the same thing with Google.
Touch gestures are available, but they’re not very good. In the app, I could select what’s supposed to happen with a swipe (up, down, left or right), such as selecting a specific scene. It’s nice in theory, but unresponsive in real life.
Performance
- Mood lighting
- Bright and realistic colours
Each Triangle panel is up to 80 lumens on maximum brightness. Even on a bright white light, with the brightness dialled up, the Nanoleaf Shapes Limited Edition Ultra Black Triangles are not really a replacement for a utility light, in the same way that Philips Hue bulbs are.
Instead, think of these as mood lighting, adding a bit of interest to a wall, brightening up a room. Here, the lights excel. Colours are even, bright and vibrant across the entire range. With a dynamic light-scene shifting colours across the panels, they’re brilliant fun.
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Should you buy it?
You want smart light panels that look good when turned off:
The black finish looks fantastic and is a step up from the white ones.
You have the existing Shapes line:
While these new ones are compatible, mixing black and white doesn’t look great.
Final Thoughts
At the same price as the original Triangles, the Nanoleaf Shapes Limited Edition Ultra Black Triangles are a decent choice if you’d rather have the black finish, which I think looks great when the lights are turned off. Excellent smart integrations and a wide choice of scenes make these a fun, if not expensive, way of brightening up a room.
How we test
Unlike other sites, we test every smart home product we review thoroughly over an extended period of time. We use industry standard tests to compare features properly. We’ll always tell you what we find. We never, ever, accept money to review a product.
Find out more about how we test in our ethics policy.
We test how each product integrates with other smart home systems including Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, IFTTT and Samsung SmartThings
We use each smart home product in a real world setting, integrating it into our home.
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FAQs
No, these lights are not.
Yes, although the mix of white and black panels may not look very good.
Full specs
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Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
