Top Rated LED Lighting Strips : A Comprehensive Guide
Top Rated LED Lighting Strips : A Comprehensive Guide
Read update
- We’ve added a new category, the best LED light strip for Apple Homekit, and updated our pick for the best light strip overall.
Once relegated as novelty lighting, LED strip lights can be used everywhere in your home from behind your TV, beneath your kitchen cabinets, and inside your car. Our top picks will get you using these convenient, easy-to-install lights in no time.
UPDATE: 01/31/2024
We’ve added a new category, the best LED light strip for Apple Homekit, and updated our pick for the best light strip overall.
Govee Smart LED Strip Lights
Best LED Strip Light Overall
$40 at Amazon
TJoy 50ft Smart LED Strip Lights
Best Budget Strip Light
$16 at Amazon
Hitlights Waterproof White LED Light Strip
Best Waterproof LED Strip Light
$43 at Amazon
Cozylady 50ft Alexa LED Strip Lights
Best LED Strip Light for Alexa
See at Amazon
Philips Hue Lightstrip
Best LED Strip Light for Google Assistant
$70 at Amazon
See More
Nanoleaf Essentials Lightstrip
Best LED Strip Light for Apple HomeKit
$50 at Amazon
What to Look For in an LED Strip Light in 2024
LED strip lights are available in a wide variety of options geared to suit nearly any lighting application. So, with that many choices, how do you know what to look for? You’ll want to decide a color type, how bright you need your strips to be, and any additional features you might need.
When determining a color type, know there are generally three main options for smart LED strips: daylight white, warm white, and RGB . In working spaces or other areas requiring focus or attention, daylight white is the best choice. Warm white is the way to go in rooms geared more toward relaxation. RGB would be the best choice for any scenario that could use some mood lighting—say, behind a bar, computer monitor, or sound system.
After making that decision, you’ll want to determine your brightness requirements. If you need high brightness for your home, make sure that you choose 5050 LED lights. Other lumen options, including 3528 or 2835 LED, are generally used to accent or create the desired ambiance and are generally not as bright.
Finally, it’s important to consider any other special features your lighting project might require. For example, a waterproof light strip is the safest bet if your application is outdoors or might encounter any moisture. If you want your strip lights and smart bulbs to sync up, it’s usually best to grab items from the same company. It’s also important to ensure any smart features work with your smart home ecosystem, whether it’s Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple HomeKit.
With that in mind, here are our picks for the best LED strip lights.
| How Did We Research | ||
|---|---|---|
| Models Evaluated | Hours Researched | Reviews Analyzed |
| 20 | 9 | 12 |
How-To Geek’s product recommendations come from the same team of experts that have helped people fix their gadgets over one billion times. We only recommend the best products based on our research and expertise. We never accept payment to endorse or review a product. Read More »
Best LED Strip Light Overall: Govee 65.6ft Smart Strip Lights
Govee| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✓ Vivid, bright lights with customizable color and temperature | ✗ Expensive compared to competition |
| ✓ Syncs with your favorite music | |
| ✓ Easy-to-use app lets you set up scenes and schedules | |
| ✓ Compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant |
Govee consistently produces lighting technology that’s as innovative as it is durable, so it’s no surprise that its 65.6-foot Smart LED Strip Lights are the best option for most people. With two 32.8-foot rolls of lights, you can easily brighten up multiple rooms or cabinets with vivid colors or ambient whites.
These strip lights are made with 600 LEDs, brighter than the average competition, and it’s easy to customize the light or color temperature of the LED strips through Govee’s app, available for Android and iOS . In the app, you can also play around with over 64 dynamic light scene modes, turn lights on and off, and set up automated schedules.
Govee’s Smart LED light strips are compatible with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can adjust brightness, change colors, and turn lights on and off with simple voice commands. These lights can also sync up to music playing from your phone, creating a unique light show that’s great for parties.
The only downside to these lights is their price, which is higher than the competition. That said, many people who invest in Govee lights don’t need to replace them for quite some time, whereas cheaper options won’t last as long or end up with a few random LEDs on the strip that won’t turn on.
Best LED Strip Light Overall
Govee Smart LED Strip Lights
$40 $60 Save $20
While Govee’s strip lights are slightly more expensive than the competition, they offer bright, beautiful colors, a friendly app, and compatibility with Google Assistant and Alexa.
Best Budget LED Strip Light: TJoy 50ft Smart LED Strip Lights
TJoy| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✓ Affordable | ✗ Slow color transitions |
| ✓ Compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant | ✗ App isn’t user-friendly |
Want to harness the full potential of Govee’s strip lights but for a fraction of the cost? Enter TJoy’s Smart LED Light Strip . TJoy’s strip lights offer many of the same features that Govee does, such as voice and smartphone control (including Google Assistant and Alexa) and light syncing to your favorite music.
You’ll also get 16 million color combinations with brightness control through TJoy’s Tuya app (available on Android and iPhone ), which is the same number of colors as Govee’s app offers. If you don’t want to deal with the app, though, you can also use a remote control to adjust the lights as needed.
The LEDs on TJoy’s smart LED strip are bright and vivid, though you only get 50ft of LED lights as opposed to Govee’s 65.6ft. This doesn’t matter much if you’re setting up for a smaller space and needed to cut the strip anyway but it might be a dealbreaker if you’re looking to deck out bigger rooms.
That being said, some users report issues with setting the TJoy strip up by using the app, but it seems like persistence and patience usually get the job done. If you’re not particularly tech-savvy, though, you may want to investigate other options.
Best Budget Strip Light
TJoy 50ft Smart LED Strip Lights
If you want to try out some smart strip lights but don’t want to pay Govee prices, TJoy has a strip set that will cost much less. It’s slightly less user-friendly, but they’re still great, especially at this price.
The Tube Sites Submitter is a fast and efficient tool for anyone who needs to upload videos quickly, easily and automatically to hundreds of tube sites in mere minutes . Best Waterproof LED Strip Light: Hitlights Waterproof Warm White Light Strip
Hitlights
vMix Basic HD - Software based live production. vMix Basic HD includes 4 inputs, 3 cameras, streaming, recording, playlist.| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✓ Smooth, bright 3528 LED lights | ✗ No colored light option |
| ✓ IP-67 waterproof rating | ✗ Not smart enabled |
| ✓ Can be cut to size | ✗ If cut, waterproofing needs to be resealed before use |
If your lighting project runs the risk of being near water or moisture, you can’t do any better than Hitlights’ Waterproof Warm White LED Light Strips . Besides housing superior quality 3528 LEDs that provide smooth and even light output, these strips boast an impressive IP-67 waterproof rating .
The IP rating means these Hitlights strips have been tested to work for at least 30 minutes while under 3 feet of water. This LED strip can withstand a lot when it comes to typical water exposure. Most other “waterproof” strip lights don’t even come close to this kind of rating. So, put them anywhere and relax—these lights can handle it.
Granted, these strips do not have any smart functions, nor any RGB colors. This is just a single-color strip. In addition, if you need to cut the strip, the area needs to be resealed to keep the waterproofing intact. But if a waterproof LED strip is your main priority, you cannot beat these warm white light strips.
Best Waterproof LED Strip Light
Hitlights Waterproof White LED Light Strip
While this Hitlights strip model doesn’t offer color or smart options, it’s one of the few available with an IP-67 waterproof rating.
Best LED Strip Light for Alexa: Cozylady Alexa 50ft LED Strip Lights
Cozylady
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✓ Works best with Alexa voice control | ✗ Cut points are widely spaced |
| ✓ Great for kids’ bedrooms | ✗ Remote requires line-of-site |
| ✓ Excellent value |
For all those Amazon Alexa users out there, the Cozylady Alexa might be your new favorite component to your smart home. You can control everything with Alexa voice commands, such as turning the lights on and off, adjusting brightness, and moving between various light modes. You can also do all this within the Happy Lighting app, available on iPhone , iPad , and Android .
In older reviews, some users complained that the adhesive that holds the Cozylady strips up has been insufficient, but the company claims it has replaced the adhesive with one that gets thicker and stronger over time. Cozylady also says that it’s happy to send out additional adhesive tape if needed, so if you happen to get a defective adhesive unit, you can get a replacement with minimal fuss.
One disadvantage of the Cozylady strips, however, is that they can only be cut at widely spaced intervals, so precise placement can get a little tricky. Also, users report that to control the lights with the included remote, a direct line-of-sight with the receiver on the light strip must be maintained. This isn’t uncommon with budget strip lights, but frustrating if you want to keep the receiver hidden.
Still, Alexa integration is highly praised, so if you want to control your lights with an Amazon device, Cozylady’s LED strip lights make a solid choice.
Best LED Strip Light for Alexa
Cozylady 50ft Alexa LED Strip Lights
Cozylady’s smart LED strips are built to work with Amazon Alexa, allowing you to use voice commands to change colors, adjust the brightness, and more.
Best LED Strip Light for Google Assistant: Philips Hue Lightstrip
Philips
Easy and Safe Partition Software & Hard Disk Manager
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✓ Simple pairing via Bluetooth | ✗ Expensive compared to competition |
| ✓ Intuitive and powerful smartphone app | |
| ✓ Ties into a Hue Hub for added functionality |
If you can look past its price tag, the Philips Hue Lightstrip has a lot to offer. If you’re looking for a great product that will integrate natively with Google Assistant, you can’t do much better than this. The light strip can be easily connected to your smart home using Bluetooth and can be synced with gaming, music, and movies using the intuitive Hue Sync app.
Aside from easy Google Home integration, Philips Hue Lightstrips are surprisingly easy to install. Each pack comes with six feet of lights and more can be connected if needed, with up to 32 feet per base kit. They also come with cutmark indicators that make it easy to trim off the excess for smaller applications.
Best of all, Philips has incorporated a unique coating around the entire light strip that offers uniform illumination, meaning you shouldn’t get any “dark spots” in between lights.
While you can enjoy Philips Hue Lightstrips with a simple Bluetooth connection, you’ll need to add a Hue Hub to experience everything they have to offer. This includes automated schedules, the ability to sync with movies, and the option to toggle lights on or off when entering and leaving your home.
The only real drawback to the Hue Lightstrip is its price, which is considerably more expensive than the competition. It’s not a dealbreaker, but the addition of a Hue Hub–which typically costs more than $50—could end up putting you over budget if you need that additional functionality.
Best LED Strip Light for Google Assistant
Philips Hue Lightstrip
$70 $100 Save $30
The Philips Hue Lightstrip offers a premium lighting experience with plenty of functionality, although it comes with a hefty price tag.
$70 at Amazon See at bestbuy See at Target
Best Smart Strip Light for Apple HomeKit: Nanoleaf Essentials Lightstrip
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| ✓ Matter-enabled, or compatible with all smart home ecosystems | ✗ Expensive for only ~6.5 feet of length |
| ✓ Multiple color and temperature options to customize lights with | ✗ Doesn’t currently work with HomeKit Adaptive Lighting |
| ✓ Fun color-changing animations |
Nanoleaf’s Essentials Lightstrip works well for Apple HomeKit users, and it’s Matter-enabled, so it’ll help futureproof your home in case you ever change smart home ecosystems. Setup is incredibly simple, and you can customize and control the light strip via the Nanoleaf app, available for both Android and iOS .
Through the app, you can choose your favorite color among over 16 million options, switch between cool white and warm white, or play around with color-changing animations, like Fade, Highlight, or Random. You can also automate the lights to turn on and off at set times, which can help you wake up or fall asleep on time if the lights are in your bedroom.
The Nanoleaf Essentials Lightstrip is compatible with the Apple Home app, Google Home app, or any other Matter-compatible app, as well as any voice assistants used for these smart home ecosystems. It’s also worth noting that this strip doesn’t support Apple’s Adaptive Lighting feature for HomeKit, and future support is dependent on Apple’s timeline.
Best LED Strip Light for Apple HomeKit
Nanoleaf Essentials Lightstrip
The Nanoleaf Essentials Lightstrip is the best Matter-compatible option for Apple HomeKit users. Play around with multiple color and temperature options and set up schedules, all in the easy-to-use mobile app.
- Title: Top Rated LED Lighting Strips : A Comprehensive Guide
- Author: Scott
- Created at : 2024-08-30 14:04:11
- Updated at : 2024-08-31 14:04:11
- Link: https://buynow-info.techidaily.com/top-rated-led-lighting-strips-a-comprehensive-guide/
- License: This work is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.