Lightstrips are a great way to add accent lighting to any number of places around the home and when done correctly, can add a dramatic flare and cozy up your humble abode.  Though there are a number of HomeKit-enabled options out there at various price points, today we’ll be looking at Sylvania’s Smart+ offering comparing it to others in its class and hopefully helping you make a better purchasing decision.

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Features

• 16 million + colors
• white color temperature adjustments from 2700K to 6500K
• dimmable 
• Bluetooth, no hub required

Need to Knows

• starter pack includes power supply, bluetooth module, and three 2 ft. Strips (6 ft. total)
• expandable to a total of 20 ft. using expansion packs which include two 2 ft. Strips each
• a connector kit is also available for dealing with angles and extending the length of the strips in places where no light is needed
• 400 lumens

Pros

Sylvania has been a huge name in the lighting game since I can remember and its always nice to see the heavy-hitters try to keep up with the times and even innovate.  The Smart+ Flex Strips provide a soft glow when added beneath cabinets, under sofas, behind televisions, or any other place you could think to add a splash of color.  They are very much a trusted name in lighting.

This was my first HomeKit light that didn’t require a hub (Team Hue!) and I kind of enjoyed that as the Hue Lightstrip + is ridiculously expensive in my opinion.  A lightstrip that doesn’t require a hub is a great option for those who just want to add one or two accents since you don’t have the added cost of a hub and the fact that it uses Bluetooth means one less device that is connected to your WiFi router which can present an issue for some.

This light strip is also quite competitively priced and also has the added benefit of optional accessories for getting around corners and bridging gaps in places where you don’t need or want light, as long as your necessities are in two foot increments.  Also, it also boasts a fairly flexible extendability coming in at a very respectable 20 ft. Which is longer than some, but shorter than others in the HomeKit-enabled light strip space.

Cons

Sylvania’s foray into connected lighting has me befuddled.  Is it Osram?  Lightify?  Ledvance?  Smart+?  In fact, only the latter of these offerings connected to the Sylvania name work with HomeKit.  Be aware of this when making your purchase.  Furthermore, as far as I can tell the expansion packs need to also be of the HomeKit-enabled Smart+ variety, but the Connector pack does not.

I’m also not usually one to dwell on packaging, but my device arrived looking as if someone had rifled through it and left me feeling as if it may have been used, though the box itself was fine and all parts were included.  This didn’t instill a vote of confidence from the beginning.

As with most other lightstrips at this price point, the Flex Strip’s lumen output is a bit lackluster, hence the use of words like “splash”, but considering the price, we can’t really expect major illumination.  I must also make mention of the the color saturation and “white” color temperatures.  Most of the colors appear washed out and unconvincing.  Although it’s difficult to expect a connected light strip at this price point be full RGBW, the “whites” are almost comically complied from colors.  The warmer end of the spectrum feeling the brunt of it appearing more yellow and red.

Bluetooth.  I don’t suppose this is a huge problem and is definitely an issue of protocol, but I found it mildly irritating when having added the Smart+ strips to a scene with other Hue lights in the same room and the Smart+ Flex strips lagged behind by a few seconds after the scene was triggered.  Again, not necessarily a deal-breaker in and of itself, but something to bear in mind.

Lastly, I found all of the connections, power supply to Bluetooth module, Bluetooth module to flex strip, as well as the connections between the Flex strips themselves a bit loose, in particular the connections between the individual strips.  This led me to securing the connections with tape which isn’t exactly ideal.

The App

When I first picked up the Flex Strips, the Sylvania Smart Home app was simply a way to push firmware updates to the device.  You couldn’t even add the accessory to HomeKit with the app.  Again, it was relegated to the deepest, darkest corner of my Home app folder.  It wasn’t until I started working on this review after having put the accessory through its paces for several months that I realized the app had received a significant update which aimed at granting access for Google home and Alexa users as well as in-app control of Sylvania Smart+ products.  I must say, though, I kind of wish they hadn’t updated, or least in the way that they did.

Opening the app, I jumped in and performed a firmware update for my device which I thought was exciting as maybe it had fixed some issues with Bluetooth or added some features.  Nope.  It bricked my Flex Strip…or at least I thought it did.  I reached out to support through email with no response before the writing of this piece.  I also reached out to Sylvania via Twitter with a much more rapid response, but with little more help than them being a Plan B to support’s Plan A.  Thankfully I was able to figure out the problem on my own.  Apparently, the firmware update I performed was to make the device compatible with Google Assistant and Alexa, but as a result of this blocks HomeKit support.  The reversal process is fairly straight-forward if a little hidden and we go through how to do it in the video below.  What a frustrating thing though.  I’m sure there is some reason for this, but it seems like a notification before you run the firmware update explaining what will happen could have avoided this headache.

If you are wondering, the Sylvania Smart Home app only offers support for the Smart+ line and in terms of functionality with the Flex Strips, you can turn the on and off and you are given a color color and temperature color selector.  My advice is to not even bother with setting up an account choosing the Firmware option from the initial screen.

This is a HomeKit-enabled lightstrip.  It meets those requirements, but doesn’t really go beyond that.  It’s hard to say that the quality of it is reflected in its price when there are several other options out there in the same price range that perform significantly better.  It took Sylvania quite a while to get onboard with HomeKit and when they did, it seems like it was an afterthought.  The combination of all of the points discussed above personally don’t instill much confidence in terms of the staying power and continued support of this line of products, at least as HomeKit is concerned.  Only time will tell.  Given all of this, if you are wanting to keep all of your devices off of WiFi and don’t want a hub, the Sylvania Smart+ Flex Strips are for you.  If this is not the case, you might want to consider looking elsewhere.

Which is your go-to lightstrip in HomeKit? Do you prefer a hub, WiFi, or Bluetooth for your smart lighting? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to follow us on social media at Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for regular updates on the latest and greatest in the HomeKit world.

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Links & Resources

Sylvania Smart+ Flex Strips on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2RJpOmJ

Learn more about the Sylvania Flex Strips at: https://consumer.sylvania.com/our-products/smart/product-info/apple-homekit/sylvania-smart-apple-homekit-enabled-indoor-full-color-flex-strip/index.jsp