Skip to main content

Choosy? You can light up your home in 16 million colors with these solutions

LIFX Beam
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Have you ever dreamed of having millions of accent light color patterns on your wall, all at the touch of a button or a voice command?

Smart home lighting company LIFX  has shed new light on the market with the introduction of Beam, a light strip, and Tile, an LED block light. You can hang the wall-mounted products anywhere in your house and build patterns by adding additional strips and tiles. Whether you need special lighting to showcase your giant flatscreen TV or a piece of art, the possibilities are endless. The company says the products can illuminate in more than 16 million colors and are compatible with Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home. That of course means that you can control the ambient lighting with just your voice.

The Beam kit, which is available for pre-order now and will ship in November, includes six individual Beams, one corner connector piece, and a power pack for $199. Each Beam is 11.8 inches long, 1.37 inches deep, and 0.78 inches wide, which could net you more than 72 feet of strip lighting in your home using just the starter pack. You can can create squares, triangles, or other patterns and customize whatever colors you want to have illuminated at any time. 

The Tile kit is also available for pre-order now and will ship in November. The $250 starter kit includes five tiles – each just under eight inches wide and more than an inch deep – plus a power pack and a controller. Like the Beam, you can position each tile on your wall in any way you wish, meaning that you can create your own game of QBert on the wall if you want.

Both products link up with Wi-Fi without an additional hub. There’s a dimmer on each item, giving you the ability to adjust the brightness at any time. Each unit can be set to display multiple colors.

LIFX is one of several companies creating interesting smart lighting solutions. Philips Hue has been at the forefront of ambient lighting, and Heelight recently released a smart light bulb that the company claims is able to hear the environment around it.

Editors' Recommendations

Karl Utermohlen
Karl Utermohlen is a finance and tech journalist with an MFA in creative writing from the University of Idaho. his do Zelda…
How to save money with your smart home this winter
The Google Nest Learning Thermostat in stainless steel.

Keeping your home warm and cozy during the winter is a challenge. Homes equipped with a fireplace benefit from a frugal heating option -- though there's no doubt they can be messy and time-consuming to clean. You can also ramp up your furnace, but that's a quick way to spend a fortune on your heating bill.

Instead, consider using smart home gadgets to save money and keep your house at a nice temperature until spring rolls around. If you need some help getting started, here are a few smart home gadgets that can help you make it through the cold, dark winter.
Invest in smart blinds

Read more
The best smart home devices for 2023
The X2 Omni dock up against a wall.

With hundreds of incredible products available, it can be intimidating to piece together a smart home. From smart displays and thermostats to smart light bulbs and video doorbells, not only are there tons of categories to browse, but each category is filled with highly reviewed products that can be difficult to distinguish from one another. If you’re in the market for a new smart home gadget or are just starting your smart home journey, there are tons of factors to consider.

If you need help navigating all the products, here’s a look at the best smart home devices of 2023 across a wide variety of categories. It’s hard to go wrong with products from big names like Ring, Arlo, Amazon, and Google, but if you need a bit more guidance, here are some of our top picks.
Voice assistant

Read more
Alexa adds new features to help with your holiday shopping
An Amazon smart display on a kitchen counter.

Alexa is one of the most popular smart assistants, and this month it's becoming even more useful. Just in time for the holidays, Amazon has rolled out three new features to assist with your trips to the grocery store.

One of the coolest new features allows you to scan your handwritten shopping list and instantaneously convert it to an Amazon Shopping list. After opening the Alexa app and heading to the Shopping List menu, simply press the Scan button to start the process.

Read more