Canadian lighting company Nanoleaf unveiled a brand new product, via their YouTube channel today, revealing a new take on an existing device, as well as other lines we’ve seen announced previously that are now close to release.
The new product is the new Hexagonal panels, which the company refers to as Nanoleaf Elements. These light panels take the standard Hexagonal tiles in another direction, using materials you wouldn’t normally see used in lighting products – in this case, wood (or at least ‘wood-like’!). Whilst the standard Nanoleaf Shapes – including the Hexagons – can reveal up to 16m colours, the new Nanoleaf Elements are designed for more subtle usage, and so only emit white light, but with adjustable colour temperature functionality via the company’s Circadian Lighting functionality. The light not only emits from the edges, but also through the material itself, which only adds to the more ambient, natural feel and look of the product. These Elements react to touch, just like their multicolour cousins.
The other fantastic announcement was that their Shapes lineup are going to get Thread support (sort of…), which is something we’d seen the company unofficially hint at a few months ago. This doesn’t include the company’s original panels or the Tiles, however, as they don’t have any form of Thread radio. This, in theory brings more of the company’s lineup into the Thread camp. However, the software update will make these products Thread Border Routers, which in the first instance opens up Thread to non-HomeKit users, Whether this means HomeKit users who don’t actually have an Apple Thread Border Router – which are the newest Apple TV, or the HomePod Mini – will be included here, which is not actually clear right now.
The company also gave us the smallest of sneak peeks at it’s next product, simply called ‘Lines’ which looks like light strips, although without the typical beads of light you get from the individual LEDs. The company kept its lips tightly sealed on this, so that’s all we can say for now.