In this review, we are covering the brand Twinkly. If you remember only last month we covered their Twinkly Strings 250 LED Christmas lights which really did turn our Christmas tree smart.
In this review, we got sent the starter kit for Twinkly squares which are square LED panels that you can really get creative with. They really do redefine decorative lighting you can create pixel-perfect artwork to create a cool office ambience and even mood lighting if it’s date night. They can even be used when listening to music or when gaming to create an atmosphere.
The Twinkly square multicolour starter kit currently costs £249.99 and can be found in B&Q, Robert Dyas, Very.co.uk and even Amazon.
If you have not heard of Twinkly or saw our last review here who the brand is:
WHO IS TWINKLY?
Twinkly is a brand from the Italian tech company Ledworks which is a leader in smart lighting and launched back in 2016. They have since become a global brand in smart lighting, the team at Ledworks saw a gap in the market for transforming the classic Christmas decoration and turning them into smart devices that can create large-scale lighting installations.
Twinkly has since created a wide range of decorative lighting such as:
- Cluster
- Curtain
- Dots
- Festoon
- Flex
- Icicle
- Light Tree
- Line
- Spritzer
- Squares
- Strings
First Impressions
The decorative panels are expensive there is no getting around that but look at them as a luxury item for the home gaming room or office. In the starter kit, you get one master panel and 5 extension panels hence the 5+1 on the box. The panels feature 64 premium app-controlled LEDs that are designed for extraordinary brightness and colour quality in over 16 million colours.
You can also buy an extension kit that provides you with an additional 3 panels for the additional cost of £99. However, most of the designs you see on the Twinkly website require at least 12 panels so you might need to buy 2 boxes of the extension pack.
If you already own a set of Twinkly Christmas lights like we do you will use the same app which is a fantastic app that really lets you get creative. You can create light displays and even create a playlist of effects to change colour and pattern on a loop. If your looking to create pixel art I recommend you buy the extension as well as some of the options via that app won’t work on just the 6 panels you need more.
The Key features of the Twinkly Squares are:
- Instant Setup
- Combine the lights virtually to create stunning installations.
- App Controlled
- Compatible with your smart assistant
- Sync with Music
- Sync with gameplay – Compatible with Razer Chroma RGB & Omen light studio
Design
The square panels have 64 individual LED Lights per tile and the panel is broken up into an 8×8 grid with one LED light per block. You get one master tile that is the tile with the power cable so keep that in mind when creating your design. If you have tested smart lighting like this before some brands have limitations on what you can do no such issue with the Twinkly squares. You can really let your imagination run wild. For example, you can tilt them to look like diamonds and attach them corner to corner. The important thing is as long as you can connect the panels to each other the options are endless.
The benefit of setting up the squares is they are modular and set up is so easy as mentioned as long as you have all the panels connected to each other it will light up. We also found the product to be quite robust which is a plus to the overall build.
Here are a few design ideas you could do:
It’s not all good news we did find some negatives in regards to this product your internet router must be using a 2.5ghz network which might rule some potential buyers out of the mix. I am lucky as I was able to switch my router over. The lights will also use Bluetooth as part of the connection process.
Another negative we found was if this was your first time with the brand Twinkly you will notice the instruction guide is well a little basic.
When you open up the box there are a lot of clips and cables but the instructions just said “connect the tiles with the included cables and clips” wonderful thanks for the massive help! If you look via the app for help you won’t get much there either so setting up is really down to you using your common sense to clip the tiles together and basically hope for the best. Would it have taken that much to provide a bit more of a detailed instruction sheet?
You also need to consider the panels need to be mounted to a wall but if you’re going for a shape like the diamond you will need a lot of screws which are not provided as you need to support the anchor points. Depending on the shape you go to design this could result in a lot of nails in the wall which could be a negative to some especially if you rent a property. An alternative to consider is strong double-sided tape or even no more nails if this will be its final resting place.
Credit: Reviewed / Camryn Rabideau
The Twinkly App
Once you have come up with your creation and all the panels are connected to each other. You now need the Twinkly app. The first step is you need to map the design what this does is scan all the panels so the app knows where to send the lights and create that pixel-perfect artwork.
The star of the show when it comes to the app is the customization options via what is called the FX wizard you can literally do anything from setting the lights to a solid colour to selecting one of the preset patterns and you could even get creative and design your own pattern or upload a gif from your phone.
You will spend hours finding new designs and adding new gifs to display. You can even write a message using the drawing option and any designs you custom make you can save and display.
Smart Home Compatibility
If you’re like me you have a smart assistant like Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa which basically controls my whole house. The Twinkly squares just like the twinkly strings are compatible with all your smart assistants or Apple home kit. However, as I discovered in my last review the smart home compatibility is limited.
You can’t control the animations or select a new colour preset, what you can do is adjust the brightness and switch the lights on/off. It’s a useful feature I just wish it was not so basic and allowed you to select your favourite presets at least.
Are the Twinkly Squares worth the money?
The key selling point of this product is that you can design and display custom artwork and animated gifs in theory. If you look on the Twinkly website or Instagram you will see a lot of fantastic set-ups but if you take a closer look most of the designs for example the Andy Warhol Marilyn Monroe image that is iconic image will need twice the amount of panels provided 6 panels just do not cut it.
Let’s take a closer look at the cost the starter package (5+1) costs £239 giving you just 6 panels however most of the fancy designs require you to have at least 12 panels. So Twinkly offer an extension pack surely with an additional 6 panels? Wrong you get 3 panels for £99 so to create the 12-panel artwork you need to buy 2x extension packs taking your total spend to an eye-watering £437.
You will also notice the panels have their limitations each square contains one LED light and acts as a single pixel. What this means it’s a 3×2 panel you are limited to 16 pixels horizontally and 24 pixels vertically. The result of this is most gifs we tried to display don’t come out right as there are not enough pixels to accurately render all the elements.
Verdict
The twinkly squares are a talking point in any room that is for sure. They offer an innovative design that allows you to create a variety of interesting shapes for complete customization. Then you have the app that with 16 million colour options your options are endless.
I was also impressed that the panels can change colours and basically dance to music and this is the same when gaming the twinkly squares really do add a unique feel to any room. I have a new office/studio being built and they will be the first product to be set up once the office is built.
While the product is a great idea I do think that unfortunately, the price point is its slight downfall. The initial package (Starter Kit £249 ) is slightly on the expensive side and then having to buy multiple extension packs (£99 for an extension pack of 3 panels) makes this a very expensive product and due to the current cost of living at the moment this might be a stretch too far for some.
Product Rating
Design: 4.0 out of 5.0 stars
Twinkly App: 5.0 out of 5.0 stars5.0
Smart Home Compatibility: 3.0 out of 5.0 stars
Value For Money: 2.0 out of 5.0 stars
Overall ranking: 3.5 out of 5.0 stars – 3.5-star rating
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