IKEA has just launched a new smart RGB LED light strip in the Netherlands, and it looks like a promising affordable alternative to Philips Hue and TP-Link, which will hopefully go on sale worldwide.
Tweakers (a Dutch site) reported on the launch (as pointed out by The edge) from the Ormanäs, an LED strip that offers RGB colors or white. It’s dimmable, but it appears the LEDs aren’t individually addressable, meaning you can’t mix and match – the strip is all one color.
Control of the lights can be facilitated via IKEA’s Styrbar remote control (which can control all your smart lights) or the retailer’s own Home Smart app. Or it can be connected (via Zigbee) to IKEA’s smart hub Dirigera (which supports Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit and Google Home, bringing all your smart home devices together).
The Ormanäs is 4 meters long and as usual with these LED strips, you can shorten it to the desired length (between the lamps in any desired section).
One of the main attractions here is the €30 price tag (about $32 / £26 / AU$50), but for now the Ormanäs is only available for purchase in the Netherlands (and only then on a limited basis). However, we can hopefully expect a rollout to the US and elsewhere soon, as it’s not unusual for IKEA to initially launch products in the Netherlands (where it is currently headquartered).
Analysis: A promising new light strip
It should be noted that the Ormanäs is not even available in many stores in the Netherlands yet (and is not yet available for purchase online), so it may take a while before it becomes popular in other countries.
Still, given the price, it could be a popular product, as it looks like a cheap but effective solution that you can connect to your smart home system for a fully integrated experience (unlike the typical standalone ‘dumb’ LED -relief). strip that you can run along the back of your TV as backlight, for example).
As for potential downsides, the LEDs look a little on the widely spaced side, but it’s hard to say exactly how many based on the images provided (and the overall effect looks good enough anyway) .
People are of course not too concerned about possible small problems when you compare the prices with the Philips Hue Lightstrip…