Pat PilcherNanoLeaf Mini Triangle REVIEW
Summary
NanoLeaf Mini Triangle REVIEW
Desirous of some colour therapy to brighten your perspective and add allure to your environment? PAT PILCHER has found the answer.
$151.95
Many years ago, I did a course in colour psychology. Even accounting for the tastes of the time (grey and pink – euuugh!), it was fascinating. Before doing the course, I had no idea that colour could be such a powerful thing, given its physiological and psychological effects on us humans. Take the colour red for instance. It can increase your appetite and your heart rate. Green can even make you feel healthier. Who’d have thunk?
One of the more powerful ways in which colour plays a part in our lives is with lighting. Like colours, lighting plays a role in shaping your moods, circadian rhythms, and a host of other subtle but ever so important things. Us humans are visual creatures after all, which is why lighting is so powerful.
This is particularly evident as we transition into spring. The days get longer, and our sleep patterns change. Ironically in much of New Zealand, spring is also a time of shitty overcast weather and the endless cloudy days can be a bit of a drag. Add to this the whole Covid-19 work from home thing, and the urge to change things up, even just a little, is mighty indeed.
Enter stage left, Nanoleaf’s newest kit, Nanoleaf Mini Triangles. Measuring 11cm, Mini Triangles come in packs of five. Once they’re connected and powered up, they transform into simple yet flexible RGB LED smart light tiles capable of displaying over 16 million different colours.
They connect using tiny circuit board joiners, and with the aid of a mobile app, they can be programmed to shine in any colour and pattern you choose. They’re also interactive – touching them can make them flash. You can also add in an optional microphone module. This sees the Nanoleaf triangles responding to music should you want to transform your home into something out of Saturday Night Fever.
The Nanoleaf Mini Triangles are Apple HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT and Samsung SmartThings compatible. In theory, it is easy to make them part of any smart home setup. Fancy pants tricks aside, they work brilliantly as regular lighting too, as well as accent lighting to lend a cherry mood to any room.
Nanoleaf makes other shapes too. These can also connect with the triangles, so the shapes and designs that are possible are only limited by your imagination. The mini triangles are nifty though as they can form a lot of creative geometric shapes or plain square/rectangles. Their small size also means they can fit onto spaces that were out of bounds for larger Nanoleaf products.
Having played with the Mini Triangles, I used some double-sided tape to stick them to the wall behind my TV. I used the Screen Mirror feature and a Chromecast which allowed colours from my phone’s screen to wash over the wall behind my TV for more immersive viewing.
With the Mini Triangle starter kit giving you just five triangles for $151.95, Nanoleaf kit isn’t cheap, but it is a tonne of fun.
