Pros & Cons
-
- Bright, colorful lights.
- No hub required.
- Siri voice control.
- Extension strips available.
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- Pricey.
- Only works with HomeKit.
- No Alexa or IFTTT support.
Eve Light Strip Specs
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi |
| Dimmable | |
| Geofencing/Location Services | |
| Integration | Apple HomeKit |
| Requires Hub | |
| Scheduling |
The Eve Light Strip ($79.95) is a flexible rope of LEDs that you can install just about anywhere to add accent lighting to bookshelves, cabinets, entryways, and wherever else you want it. This brightly lit strip connects directly to your home Wi-Fi and doesn't require a hub, but as with other Eve devices, it only works with devices running Apple's iOS operating system. It's a solid choice for iPhone and iPad users and can be incorporated into HomeKit Scenes, but it doesn't support IFTTT applets or Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands. For that you'll have to spend a few more bucks for the Philips Hue LightStrip Plus.
Design and Features
The Eve Light Strip is 6.6 feet long and a little more than 0.5-inch thick (0.6 inches). It's made of clear plastic that can be bent or twisted without damaging the LED circuitry inside and has double-sided tape on its back for easy press and stick installation to most surfaces.
At one end of the strip is a 6-inch ribbon cable with a connector that plugs into a small 2.4GHz Wi-Fi-enabled controller. The controller then connects to an AC adapter. At the other end is an extension port used to connect additional strips ($49.95 each) for a maximum length of up to 32 feet. As with the Philips LightStrip, you can cut the Eve at 12.9 inch intervals if it's too long, but once you've cut it you can no longer add extension strips.
The Eve strip uses triple diode LEDs to deliver a full color palette and white light with a 2,000K to 6,500K temperature range. Each 6.6 inch section provides 1,800 lumens, making it a bit brighter than the Philips strip (1,600 lumens). As with other Eve products such as the Eve Room, the Light Strip only works with iOS devices, so if you're an Android user you're out of luck. It supports Apple's HomeKit, and by extension, Siri voice commands and HomeKit Scenes, but it doesn't support IFTTT applets or Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands, and you'll need an Apple TV or HomePod to control it remotely.
To control the strip using the Eve mobile app, you add it to your At a Glance dashboard page and tap its icon to turn it on and off. Tap and hold the icon to open the strip's settings screen where you can change colors, adjust white color temperatures, and adjust brightness. Tap the gear icon to reassign the strip to another room, change its name and icon, and tell the strip what color to use when powered on (default white or last color used). Here you can use the Transitions settings to set the pace for color transitions (Calm, Moderate, Default, Quick). The Calm setting gives you a slower gradual transition from one color to the next, while the Quick setting is instantaneous.
At the bottom of the screen are Scenes, Rooms, Types, and Settings buttons, as well as a button that takes you back to the At a Glance screen. The Scenes page displays all HomeKit scenes that are created in the HomeKit app and allow you to control multiple devices with a single button press or a Siri voice command. Here you can also set Timers and create Rules to have the strip react to other HomeKit-enabled devices such as door locks and motion sensors, but you'll have to configure your Apple TV, iPad, or HomePod to serve as a Home Hub in order to take advantage of these features.
The Rooms button opens a screen with a list of all of your HomeKit rooms and devices assigned to each. Tap any room to control the devices assigned to it. The Types button opens a screen where you can access all devices by type (Air Quality, Lights, Humidity, Power, etc). The Settings screen lets you grant access to your devices to other users with an iCloud account, assign Siri names, create Groups for your devices to control them with a single command, and access Settings for each installed device.
Installation and Performance
Installing the Eve Light Strip is easy. I followed the included instructions to connect the strip to the controller and then plug the controller into an outlet. I downloaded the Eve mobile app, created an account, went to the Settings screen, and tapped Add Accessory. I tapped Light Strip when it appeared in the list of devices and used the phone's camera to scan the HomeKit code found on the instruction guide and the controller. It took several seconds for the strip to be paired and added to my HomeKit home. I selected a room, gave the strip a name and an icon, and setup was complete.
I installed the Eve Light Strip on the back of a sideboard in my den and had no trouble adhering it to the back panel so that it could project light onto the wall. The strip worked well in my tests, delivering excellent color quality and a nice range of warm to cool whites. It did a good job of responding to my on/off requests using the app and Siri voice commands, and my Scenes worked perfectly.
Conclusions
If you're already using Apple's HomeKit platform to control your smart home devices and want to spice things up with some colorful mood lighting, the Eve Light Strip is a solid choice. It delivers relatively bright lighting with bold colors and a good range of warm and cool whites, and it reacts instantly to Siri voice commands. Installation is quick and easy as well. That said, it doesn't work with Android devices and doesn't support Alexa and Google Assistant voice commands or IFTTT applets. Nor does it offer the kind of third-party support that you get with the Philips Light Strip Plus.