Canadian smart lighting company Nanoleaf has been slowly expanding its range of light panel shapes. It started out with triangles, then expanded to squares, and hexagons, and finally it’s… back to triangles.
Let’s explain. The Nanoleaf Shapes – Triangles, to give them their proper name, may look similar to the company’s original triangular light panels, but they come with a crucial distinction. They join the hexagonal models in the Shapes line, which are designed to be interoperable – meaning you can now create a mixed design using both shapes at once.
That’s a big change from the original triangular panels, which remain on sale and can’t link up to either the square Nanoleaf Canvas design or the hexagons.
To help make its case Nanoleaf has launched the triangles alongside mini-triangles, so there are now in fact three distinct designs within the Shapes line, all of which can connect up to one another for complex, creative designs.
As with previous Nanoleaf systems, each panel is a separate wall-mountable smart light, with connectors to let you build almost any pattern you can imagine. Nanoleaf offers its own app to let you create designs or download existing patterns, and the panels are compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple HomeKit so that you can integrate them into your full smart home setup, create schedules, and use voice controls.
The panels are touch-sensitive too, and support Nanoleaf’s Screen Mirror mode, which sees them change colour to match whatever game or movie you have on – though this relies on software run through a PC, so it’s a bit fiddly to get set up with a regular TV.
In addition to the new-ish shape, Nanoleaf introduced a redesign of its own app and the launch of a Nanoleaf Essentials line of smart bulbs and lightstrips for more conventional smart lighting setups.
The new Nanoleaf Shapes – Triangles are available from Nanoleaf, starting from £119.99 for five big triangles and £89.99 for the same number of mini-triangles. The company promises more panels in the Shapes line are on the way in 2020 and 2021, which will also be interoperable with the triangles.
