Yeelight lightstrip review

Intro

A couple of weeks ago we reviewed the Yeelight light bulb.  We really liked the Yeelight platform so we decided to extent our setup with a Yeelight lightstrip. To be specific the Xiaomi Yeelight YLDD01YL Smart Light Strip. 

Specifications

Brand: Yeelight
Model: YLDD01YL
Type: LED Strip Light
Length ( m ): 2
Wattage (W): 12
Voltage: DC12V
Features: Cuttable
Beam Angle: 120
LED Quantity: 60
Color Temperature: 1700-6500K

Packaging

Product weight: 0.1500 kg
Package weight: 0.4700 kg
Package size (L x W x H): 20.00 x 15.00 x 10.00 cm / 7.87 x 5.91 x 3.94 inches

Does it fit in your mailbox?

It depends on how its packaged by the shipper. The box itself should fit but if it’s shipped in a bigger box than it probably won’t fit.

Features

●WiFi enabled
Control the Yeelight Smart Light Strip via smartphone, works with MIJIA, IFTTT and supports open API.
●Ambient lighting
16 million colors feast. Set the right ambience for any moment. Set the mood, change the ambience, feel different, feel better
●Bendable, adhesive, plug and play
Just tear down the adhesive tape on the back of the light strip, stick it to anywhere, plug the charger to create completely new indirect light effects
●One key operation
Slightly touch to turn it on or off, long press to change colors. Highlight features in your room and enjoy colorful life
●Add some music
It comes to make the lights dance in sync with the music. Download Yeelight Smart Light Strip App and start your magical journey
●Wireless connection
Build your personal wireless lighting system. The Light Strip can link with a variety of Smart Home devices to get wonderful experience

Review

Build Quality & Design

The lightstrip is made out of mercury-free soft PU material. So the strip very strong and flexible. It should have a IP65 rating (although a didn’t find any information about that on the box) so it should be water and dust proof. I not sure if you want to put this into your bathroom but in theory you can. The lightstrip is two meters of length and is cut-able in the size of your like. This is great if you want to put the strip in places that are smaller than two meters. However, one of the perks is that you cannot reuse the cut off parts of the lightstrip. So if you use one meter, than you are left with a useless other meter of lightstrip.

The light quality

The Yeelight lightstrip produces nice and natural colours but one thing that I noticed is that the colour is different than the lightbulb. If you look at the picture below you see that the lightstrip leans more to the yellow while the bulb leans more to the blue even tough they are the same colour in real life.

Usability

The lightstrip works exactly the same as the light bulb. 

Home automation compatible?

Yes, it is! Just like the lightbulb, you have to to put the Yeelight Lightstrip in LAN mode and you’re set to go! I connected all of the Yeelights to Home-Assistant with Home Bridge integration. This made it possible for me to add the lamp to Apple Homekit. Homekit allowed me to turn the lamps on and off by using voice commands in Siri and I also could create shortcuts in the iOS menu. I can recommend everyone to do this because you don’t want to do it the long way by unlocking your phone, open the app and then turn off the lights.

Including the lightstrip in Domoticz is easy. Follow the tutorial on https://www.domoticz.com/wiki/Yeelight

Pro / Cons

Pros

• It’s very affordable
• No Bridge is needed, but it is supported.
• Easy to use
• Beautiful color options
• Good quality design
• Compatible with most home automation platforms

Cons

• Comes without a physical button, you always have to use the app to turn on/off the light
• Need to use an app. It will not connect directly to platforms like Home Assistant without the Yeelight app
• big colour difference compared to the Yeelight bulbs.
• If you decide to shorten the strip, you cannot reuse the cut off parts.

Price quality

Price/quality-wise the Yeelight Lightstrip is great. It does nearly everything Philips hue does, but without the high price and the need for a Bridge! So if you are looking for a smart lightstrip, the Yeelight is a good option. 

Verdict

Concluding: It’s a awesome extension on your home lightning setup or even a great start if you don’t have any Yeelight Lightstrip or Light Bulb right now. 

Where to buy

You can buy the Xiaomi Yeelight Lightstrip (YLDD01YL) on Gearbest.