Nanoleaf Blocks are the pretty yet practical smart lights my home office needs
Mix-and-match squares meet add-on accessories
Nanoleaf has long had you covered for ways to illuminate your walls that go well beyond simply swapping out dumb bulbs for smart lights – but they’ve pretty much all been for show. The new Nanoleaf Blocks line-up is equal parts fetching and functional, adding useful shelves and pegboards into the mix for the first time.
This mix-and-match system says it’s hip to be square, with two sizes of panel. You can then add optional textured panels for a bit of variety. They’ve all been reengineered from Nanoleaf’s older square light panels, with a thicker form factor that should make them a lot more sturdy this time around.
Expect edge-to-edge illumination in full RGB, with more than 16 million colour shades through the Nanoleaf app. A physical controller attached to the first square in the set lets you turn the lights on, tweak brightness and toggle through various scene presets without reaching for your phone.
The big new additions are the light-up pegboard, which lets you stylishly display smaller gadgets like keyboards, game controllers or headphones – or simply give you somewhere to pop a pencil pot. The slim shelves are a neat way to declutter your desktop, too. Installation is a little more involved than Nanoleaf’s usual peel-and-press adhesive pads, though; you’ll need to break out the drill to secure each peg board and shelf.
Naturally Nanoleaf Blocks plays nicely with all the major smart assistants over Wi-Fi, including Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa and Samsung SmartThings.
There’ll be two kits available at launch. The Squares Smarter kit comes with six squares and will set you back $200/£180; the Combo XL Smarter Kit has squares, small squares, pegboards and shelves in the box for $250. Additional squares, textured squares, shelves and pegboards will cost $30 each.
US shoppers can pre-order Nanoleaf Blocks right now directly from Nanoleaf, or head to Best Buy, Home Depot or Amazon from October onwards. The range will be heading to Europe later in October.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor 
