These 3 Smart Lights Will Take Your Dorm Room to the Next Level

The best smart lights can make all the difference when it comes to decorating your dorm room. Their vibrant colors and convenient controls turn any space into a sanctuary for relaxing, studying, and entertaining friends. With a tap or voice command, you can choose colors to set the mood. From here, you can adjust the brightness and set a schedule for your daily routine.

With a variety of colors and automation options for these lights, the possibilities are endless. Maybe you can create a natural sunrise effect to wake you up in the morning, or create a cozy rainbow that automatically appears when you get home from work. Or maybe you want the ultimate party setup.

Read on to learn about three versatile types of smart lighting options that are perfect for any dorm room: smart panels, smart lamps, and smart light strips. Each offers its own unique features and benefits, so you can choose the one that best suits your style and needs.

Intelligently shaped panels

If you’re looking for the flashiest of the bunch, Nanoleaf Shapes are a great choice. The $199 Nanoleaf Shapes Light Panels are modular hexagonal tiles that snap together like custom puzzle pieces, connect to your voice assistant of choice, and add a healthy dose of chaos to your setup. With all sorts of brightness settings, color patterns, and pulsating music modes, these highly customizable panels are easy to assemble and offer the most immersive experience of any of the best smart lights we’ve used.

They’re especially great for gaming setups, as the Screen Mirror feature lets the tiles mirror your PC’s display activity with synchronized lighting. You can use your phone’s camera to lay out an AR version of your design, then stick these polygonal panels on your wall to nail the installation from the get-go. They can be controlled via the Nanoleaf Smarter Series app (iOS, Android) or by voice. Despite their hefty price tag, they’re worth the splurge. Still, there are more affordable and easier ways to change your mood.

Smart lamp

Don’t want to spend $200 on sticky panels all over your wall? Add this smart lamp to your space to add some effortless ambiance on a budget. Simply place it on a flat surface and it will spray colors over a wide area. You can program this lamp to wake up and turn off at specific times, and its shape is the perfect bedside or desk companion.

It’s dimmable, which is great for turning it on for bedtime and after hours. You can use this feature to program a sunrise or sunset effect. The Finger Sketch feature in the Govee app lets you draw color patterns in the app and apply them directly to the smart light. While it would be even better if it were wireless, you can’t have everything, especially at a relatively low price.

Smart light strips

You can define the edges of furniture and walls with light strips. Wrap them along your desk, bed or TV to add some definition and change the mood. With millions of color options and dynamic lighting modes, smart light strips can transform any dull corner of your room into a vibrant, vibrant space.

We particularly like the Govee Neon Rope light strip because it offers segmented colour control, meaning you can display multiple colours on the strip at once for a unique and eye-catching look. If you want to get really creative, you can create routines. For example, you can create a timer that changes from green to red to show how much time you have left until you leave for class or finish studying. The Govee Home app lets you sync your lights to music, which is perfect for creating an energising atmosphere at parties or a calming atmosphere when you need to focus.