I’ll be honest: neither Chris nor I have ever been much of an interior design or home-decor kind of person. Don’t get us wrong – we like a splash of colour and cute IKEA desk plants as much as the next person… It’s just that our idea of a light setup has always been one lamp, one switch, and no thought given beyond that. So when Nanoleaf’s Matter Smart Multicolor Floor Lamp showed up, we weren’t expecting it to actually make a difference – but it did.
Setup and Initial Impressions
Assembling the lamp was mostly straightforward using the IKEA-style instructions. No extra tools required; everything you need to assemble the lamp is included in the box, which was very convenient. The only tricky part was installing the light strip; the silicone tubing needed more than a firm squeeze into the channel, and at first we were worried we’d break something. Thankfully, the online video guides were super helpful, showing exactly how it should sit within the metal frame. A little patience goes a long way here.
Once everything was in place, the lamp felt impressively solid. The circular iron base is heavy enough that you don’t have to worry about it tipping over, whilst sticking to a relatively small footprint. The aluminium frame also has a clean, premium feel that doesn’t make it look like cheap tech.
Controlling the lamp can be accomplished via the in-line physical controller (the boring way), Bluetooth and WiFi using the mobile or desktop Nanoleaf app, or your smart home ecosystem via Matter. Keep in mind functionality with the controller or Bluetooth is rather limited – you’ll want to connect over WiFi or your smart home system to access community-made scene presets, smart home/voice command and assistant features and so forth. The physical controller is still plenty useful though if you don’t want wireless connectivity.
The overall cable length is ~2.5m, with the physical controller sitting a metre away from the lamp base. It’s a sturdy, stealthy cable that makes it easy to tuck away, though the power adapter is a bit on the chunky side. The floor lamp weighs in at ~1.5KG and 1.4m tall. The edges of the top of the lamp aren’t sharp or pointy, but due to its height, it wobbles if you push or bump into it. You’ll be best off putting this somewhere where it won’t easily get hit by a swinging elbow or backpack. Also, the IP20 rating means it lacks any water resistance whatsoever, so keep it indoors.
Keep in mind the lamp is meant to be used facing up against a wall or surface; whilst it can work facing away from the wall, the 72 LEDs themselves aren’t diffused very well and look quite odd if used this way. This lamp is not meant to light up an entire room; rather, it’s purely for ambience. We’ve used it ~20cm away from the wall, but we’d recommend experimenting with its positioning depending on your room size and use case.
The Good
Put simply, the Nanoleaf floor lamp works a charm, and it’s been a very welcome addition overall to the home. The colours are very pretty and it works wonders to completely transform the atmosphere of a room.
Perhaps most importantly, the experience has very much been set-and-forget; once we dialed in a colour palette and set a time routine using the app, the Nanoleaf floor lamp didn’t skip a beat. We’ve set it up so it turns on automatically around noon, and turns off just before we head off to bed.
The floor lamp is rated for 25,000 hours of use, which is just under 3 years of constant usage. Nanoleaf doesn’t seem to sell the silicone light strip itself separately unfortunately, however there is the standard 2 year warranty period in the event it fails before it reaches its lifetime limit.
Something we were surprised by was the Scene Creator mode in the Nanoleaf app, which really allows you to dig in and customise almost every detail of the lamp. Obviously, there’s the colour palette itself to set (up to 24 ‘swatches’/zones in static mode, or 10 zones in dynamic mode), but also speed, delay and even sound reactivity parameters. We personally didn’t use the latter function, but it’d be great if you wanted your lights to sync up with music or a movie. The floor lamp has a colour temperature range between 2200K-6500K and access to 16M+ colours – you shouldn’t have an issue finding the exact colour scheme you want. Overall, the customisability is excellent, and you can easily spend an entire evening just playing around.
On top of this, there’s a huge library of official and community-made designs (including some interesting collaborations… Call of Duty, anyone?). If you don’t feel like making your own, or just lack any real artistic talent, you can simply just try out what other people have created. Some of them are simple and subtle, good for a relaxed background glow, whilst others are way more energetic and over the top – perfect for gaming, parties, or just showing off. Having access to such a big mix means you’re never short of options, and it keeps the lamp feeling fresh well after you’ve set it up.
The Bad
There were only a few things about the lamp we weren’t too excited about, and they were all app-related.
First and foremost, the app just feels incomplete. It is possible the experience is better with Nanoleaf’s more mainstream products, like their light panels, but using it with the floor lamp feels a little underbaked. The AI Magic Scenes feature, whilst fun for generating new colour palettes (you can quite literally type in anything you like…), doesn’t translate well into dynamic light patterns of modes, leaving it useful for really only static colour choices.
Also, previewing preset light patterns in the app is not very intuitive – you can’t always tell if an effect involves movement or remains static until you actually apply it to the lamp. A quick animation or preview graphic would go a long way in making this clearer.
The Conclusion
As our first Nanoleaf product, Chris and I were pretty excited to review this lamp. We knew it’d make an interesting addition to our setup, and we’re even now considering purchasing more smart lighting accessories to round things out.
Now an RRP of A$149 may seem a tall asking price to some, but keep in mind similar products from the likes of Philips and Govee reach into the A$400+ range. There are a number of cheaper options available too from your typical Amazon small-brands, but you’d be missing out on the stellar Nanoleaf integration, refinement and customer support.
With this in mind, we don’t have any issues recommending the Nanoleaf Matter Smart Multicolor Floor Lamp to anyone looking to add a bit more pizzazz to their home.
We would like to thank Nanoleaf for providing this unit for review. The Nanoleaf floor lamp is available for A$149 each, or A$279 for a two-pack.
