Summer is over and the dark nights are creeping in more each day. But it’s not all bad news, so-called ‘cosy season’ is upon us as we spend more evenings snuggled in front of the TV under a blanket.
And you can’t beat a bit of ambience when it comes to upgrading your home entertainment setup. One inexpensive buy I added to my TV has been a game changer on this front – Tapo’s LED Strip Lights.
The lights have been an incredible addition and transformed how the TV – and room – as a whole looks on an evening. They’re super easy to control and change the colour via an app on your phone, while installation was also extremely simple.
I haven’t used this feature myself but they’re also compatible with Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant to control your devices with voice commands like Alexa, turn on the light please’. They’re so good I bought some for the TV in the kitchen too.
They’re currently discounted ahead of Amazon Prime Big Deal Days too, taking the price down to £14.99 rather than the usual £22.99, so now is a great time to pick them up. The advanced version is a bit pricier at £34.99, down from £44.99, boasting additional features like more detailed colours.
My only gripe is the sticky back isn’t brilliant and I have had to stick a couple of corners back down as they’ve peeled up, which is a touch annoying but not the end of the world. Making sure the TV is nice and clean before you apply them does seem to help a lot on that front.
The Amazon reviews are overwhelmingly positive, with an average rating of 4.5 stars out of 5. One said: “After recently updating our kitchen with a link of paint, some acoustic panels, and a new 55″ TV we thought it would be nice to use some LED lights on the back of the TV. They are extremely easy to setup with the app, simple cables with on/off button and were easy to stick to the back of the TV. The app is easy to use and provides some nice effects such as lightning. Really good product, but documentation is very basic.”
Another added: “Super easy to set up and configure, I have many products from TP-Link and all are very reliable. The LEDs are very bright and can be dimmed to a very subtle level. The app is very intuitive and setting up schedules is a breeze.”
One who was less thrilled wrote: “For this price I expected the app to have more customisable effects. Also colours aren’t “accurate” at all to what you choose on the app. That could just be my individual strip though.”
Elsewhere, Dunelm stocks some RGB Colour Changing TV LED Strip Lights for a budget-friendly £10, though be aware that the reviews aren’t glowing and average just 2.7 stars out of 5. Phillips also sells some very high-tech LED strip lights that react to the content on your screen, though they’re much more expensive at £189.99.
