TP-Link Tapo L-900-5 Smart LED Light Strip Review

pczone.co.uk:

We all need a bit of colour in our lives, and with this the latest fad in tech customisation you can do so with immense style. That’s why I agreed to give this smart LED light strip a try, as my desk could do with some serious spicing up lighting-wise.

And as I just experienced with my last review that featured a shit-ton of RGB lighting, it’s the little things in life that can transform your gaming environment for the better.

The TP-LINK Tapo L-900-5 (rolls right off the tongue) is yet another neat little light strip crammed into an ever more crowded marketplace. So is it worthy of your dosh? Let’s take a look…

The unboxing experience is easy and uneventful, with QR codes helpfully plastered about the packaging linking to the app you’ll need to download to set everything up.

Included in the box are:

Once you’ve registered in the Tapo app you’ll need to pair your device, connect it to your WiFi network and update it to the latest firmware. This is all very straightforward.

You’ll then be prompted to set up a smart assistant, for which Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are available. As I’m an iPhone user, the lack of Siri is a disappointing omission.

As you’d expect, the app features a variety of predefined lighting effects, as well as the usual palette of boring static colours. If you only use the physical button on the control module, you’re limited to just these colours.

Despite lots of fancy names like Aurora, Bubbling Cauldron and Haunted Mansion, the effects aren’t massively exciting, as the lights on the strip are just too far apart to create a nuanced effect. A fully-addressable solid light strip would work better.

The app pops up with helpful suggestions on how best to cut and bend the lights, which is nice

You can create