HomeGames & TechTCP Smart WiFi Strip Light 5m review

TCP Smart WiFi Strip Light 5m review

Over the past couple of years WiFi Strip Lights have become more and more popular. People have been using them to backlight televisions, provide lighting in dull spaces throughout their homes and to set a mood for parties and gatherings. One company who has released a number of products in this area is TCP Smart and I got to try out their WiFi Strip Light 5m to see what all the fuss is about.

Claiming to be easy to set-up, I didn’t find the TCP Smart WiFi Strip Light 5m as simple as I’d expected, and I consider myself to be very good with technology. Once I unravelled the LED strip and cut it to the length I wanted (so far, so good), I peeled off the paper from the back to reveal the adhesive and the first thing I noticed is that it wasn’t very sticky. After attaching it to the back of my TV, it did stay there but only until the TV had been turned on and used for an hour or so, after which the strip peeled off and fell to the floor. In the end I had to use masking tape to stick it on, which was a bit disappointing.

The other issue I encountered was getting the lights to turn on at all. After spending close to an hour revisiting the steps I’d taken to set the strip up, and watching plenty of YouTube videos thanks to the very scant instructions included with the product, I eventually worked out that the connection between the strip and the power source was a little bit temperamental. Unplugging the strip from the connector, flipping it over and plugging it in again did solve the problem but it was a pretty stressful experience.

TCP Smart WiFi Strip Light 5m
Credit TCP Smart

Once the stress of the set-up was out of the way, I download the TCP Smart app and I was pleasantly surprised by just how much I could do with the strip. Once you activate the strip via the app, you can change the colours (there are 16 million to choose from!), the brightness and the contrast making it a very flexible product in terms of creating the right mood. My house is naturally quite dark and gets little natural light, so this product has actually made a huge difference in my living room.

There are a number of presets to scroll through if you can’t be bothered to customise it to your liking, and they also serve as easy ways to get the lights to the brightness and contrast you want quickly. If you want the lights to sync with the music you’re playing, that’s pretty easy to do too and it means you can have a much livelier atmosphere if that’s what you’re after. There’s also the option to set a timer or put the lights on a schedule if you’d like to do that too.

The TCP Smart WiFi Strip Light 5m works with Amazon Alexa and Google Nest out of the box. If you’re an iOS user, like me, you can get the lights to work using Siri Shortcuts. It’s a little more complicated than it should be but there are plenty of tutorials online to show you how to do it. Once I got it working (it took around 5-10 mins to learn how to do it and create the shortcuts), you can then control the lights using your voice, which is actually really neat. It saves having to locate the app in your phone every time and makes using them a lot speedier.

Despite the initial frustration with the set-up, I was impressed with the TCP Smart WiFi Strip Light 5m. It’s made a big difference in my home and I’m genuinely impressed by just how flexible it is. I would say if you’re not tech-savvy, you’re probably going to struggle to get to grips with it but if you have patience and are willing to learn, you’ll get a lot out of this product.

Released by: TCP Smart Shop the TCP Smart range at Amazon

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Pip Ellwood-Hughes Editor / Owner
Pip is the owner and Editor of Entertainment Focus, and the Managing Director of Piñata Media.

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