Review: Minger’s smart strip lights make it easy to set the mood

Here’s some unsolicited relationship advice: A strip of inexpensive LED lights can turn any room into a date night destination.

I spent a month testing two of Minger’s Dreamcolor branded smart lighting strips. The first, a two meter long USB-powered strip, is perfect for providing bias lighting for your television. And the other is a whopping five meters long – more than enough to frame an entire bay window or highlight the area above your bed.

As they’re essentially the same – the length, price, and power source being the only differences between them – this review will cover both items.

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These strip lights are designed to be tucked away behind the curtains, stuck to the back of your TV, or otherwise recessed so that you only see the glow. The lighting strip itself isn’t going to win any beauty contests, but I did appreciate the quality of the build. These lights aren’t cheap — they’re just inexpensive.

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It may seem like a no-brainer, but I was pretty surprised at the difference in a room’s ambience using these compared to regular smart bulbs. Since they’re comprised of dozens of individual LED lights they manage to paint surfaces with rich colors over the length of the strip – something a Phillips Hue bulb can’t pull off.

Both lights have a sticky back and can be adhered on most surfaces. They include a three-button attached controller that also has adhesive backing. It controls the power, brightness and color, and has an option to put the lights in music mode.

The music mode is quite entertaining, it uses a built-in microphone to sync the lights to your music in four different settings. It works incredibly well. Upon first discovering it, I spent a good five to ten minutes clapping and snapping while watching in childlike delight as the lights reacted.

The lights use the iHoment app, which syncs with them via Bluetooth, it’s available on Android and iOS. It offers complete control over preset patterns, intensity, color, and the music mode. The app isn’t anything special, but it gets the job done and I didn’t suffer any issues or bugs while using it.

I found myself wishing the strip supported patterns that changed the color of individual lights, and I’d be especially grateful to get this product with Google Assistant or Alexa control baked in. Otherwise, there wasn’t anything I didn’t like about the lights.

They’re marketed as being waterproof, but I didn’t test that aspect because one set was USB powered and the other plugged directly into a wall outlet. Still, it’s good to know that a spill or splash shouldn’t be a problem.

I highly recommend these strip lights to anyone who wants to jazz up a room, create the perfect safe relaxation space, or set the mood for date night. The two meter lights cost $19.99 on Amazon, and the five meter lights are only $32.99.

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