Nanoleaf's Canvas, launching today, is the company's second HomeKit-enabled mood lighting product that follows its popular triangle-shaped Light Panels. Rather than using triangle lights this time around, Nanoleaf designed the Canvas to have a square shape with multiple connector ports for more design versatility.
What's more, the Canvas is touch enabled and puts thousands of lighting scenes at your fingertips without the need to use an app. The app and HomeKit availability are still available though, offering up multiple ways to control the lighting panels.
Design
Unlike the iconic triangle design of the Light Panels, Nanoleaf has designed the Canvas with a new square shape. Each Canvas square measures in at just about six inches on all sides.
When conceptualizing the Canvas, Nanoleaf originally planned to offer plain squares with uniform lighting across, but this wasn't possible. Each square instead has a noticeable cross shape in it, dividing it into four. The individual squares still light up in one single color, but you will see the crosshairs within each one.
I don't mind the crosshairs and in some ways they make the Canvas more visually interesting, but it could be a turn off for customers who were hoping for flat, uniform lighting across the entire square.
There are eight Canvas Light Squares and one Control Square, which needs to be centrally situated and accessible to touch because it's the square that features specific touch-based controls for the entire Canvas system, though all squares respond to touch.
The Canvas squares are more versatile than the previous-generation Light Panels, with multiple connection points on each square to allow for a wider range of designs that are offset rather than fully connected at each side.
Small rectangular connectors are used to connect two squares together, allowing for hundreds of designs. You get nine squares with the standard Canvas kit, and you can purchase an additional four with expansion kits that Nanoleaf is offering. Most of the photos in this review feature a total of 13 squares.
As with the Nanoleaf Light Panels, you can add on additional Canvas squares, up to 500 in fact, so you could theoretically cover an entire wall, though it would cost an absolute fortune.
Canvas compared to Light Panels
Canvas squares are attached to a wall with 3M adhesive like the previous-generation Light Panels. 3M adhesive is meant to be wall safe, but on certain walls, it definitely has the potential to cause damage, so that's something to be aware of. Because of the adhesive, it's best to decide on a design well ahead of time and a design that you can stick with for a long time because it is not convenient to re-arrange these squares.
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Article Link: Nanoleaf's New Touch-Enabled Canvas Offers Up Fun, Interactive Mood Lighting
