Lighting effects can make or break your TV room, gaming setup, etc. SwitchBot’s RGBICWW Light Bars take a different approach from most products, with dedicated cool-white and warm-white LEDs alongside the color zones. The end result means real white light for work and reading, and 12-zone RGBIC color for movies. It all works over Wi-Fi/Matter as well, so you don’t need a hub.
HomeKit Weekly is a series focused on smart home accessories, automation tips and tricks, and everything to do with Apple’s smart home framework.
RGB color mixing can produce something that technically looks white on a wall, but it’s not the same quality of light you’d want to read or work under for hours. If you work in an office building, you know what I am talking about. SwitchBot’s RGBICWW Light Bars use separate cool-white and warm-white LEDs that produce actual white light with adjustable color temperature that can go from 2200K up to 6500K, and they dim as well. It can produce up to 800 lumens across the pair.
On the color side, each bar has six independently controllable RGBIC zones, so you have 12 zones across the pair. This lets you run multi-color gradients rather than a single color across the entire bar. There are 26 preset dynamic effects and six music-reactive modes powered by a built-in microphone, so you don’t need a separate sensor to sync the lights to sound.
Matter over Wi-Fi
The light bars connect to Apple Home natively over Matters the basics: on/off, brightness, color temperature, and color control
The deeper color zone control, music modes, dynamic effects, and scene building all live in the SwitchBot app rather than Apple Home, which is standard for Matter accessories at this level of feature complexity. A wired physical controller is also included for quick changes to the lights as well. I am a big fan of when smart home products offer a physical button option as well.
The lights include built-in magnets so you can attach the bars directly to compatible metal surfaces, with adhesive being an option as well. They can be mounted horizontally, vertically, rear-mounted behind a monitor or TV, or set upright with the included desktop stands.
Wrap up
SwitchBot built just about everything you’d want here. The attention to color detail is fantastic. Matter over Wi-Fi means you can buy it and have it directly connected to Apple Home/HomeKit without a hub, while still having flexibility for the future.
You can buy the SwitchBot RGBICWW Light Bars from Amazon.
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