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TP-Link Tapo L900-5 RGB LED Light Strip Review Rating

Summary

The TP-Link Tapo L900-5 is a good LED light strip that is easy to set up and use. It struggles to shine in a crowded marketplace, but discounted Amazon pricing makes it much more appealing.

Pros

• A good buy at £17
• Easy to set up
• Tapo ecosystem is more extensive than similar or cheaper LED light strip options
• Cuttable design makes this usable for more practical installations

Cons

• Not extremely good value for money at full RRP

TP-Link continues to expand the product range within its affordable Tapo sub-brand.

Recently, this includes the addition of two LED light strips, the Tapo L900-5, which I am reviewing today and the slightly more expensive RGBIC multicolour Tapo L920-5.

Tapo L900-5 vs Tapo L920-5: RGB vs RGBIC Light Strips

There are two different light strips you will see available online, RBG and RGBIC. For Tapo, the L900 is RGB while the L920 is RGBIC.

They both have RGB lights allowing you to achieve a wide range of colours.

However, the RGBIC is named that way because it has an independent control chip (IC), this allows the strip to individually set the RGB colours. This, therefore, gives you are much more visually impressive effect.

However, RGBIC does come with one downside. With the more complex circuitry, you can’t trim down the strip. So if you are planning on installing LED lighting somewhere practical (under cupboards, etc), RGB provides a more flexible and neater installation.

Because you can’t cut the Tapo L920-5, TP-Link has covered the top of the strip with a PU coating which provides a water-resistant, durable coating to protect your LEDs. It is not rated for outdoor use, but it can probably handle a small drinks spill.

Specification

• 5m multicolour LED light strip
• Only one colour at a time (rather than the addressable/ RGBIC light strips)
• Cuttable strips (which you can’t do with RGBIC)
• Dimmable
• Schedule and Timer
• Voice Control with Alexa/Google
• No Hub
• 3M adhesive backing
• 5000-hour life span
• 2100 mcd max luminous intensity, which TP-Link claims is 20% brighter than anyone else.

Set-Up / App

Set up was standard for most IoT devices, though I would say it was a bit easier than average.

The only small thing was that I plugged the LEDs in the wrong way around. First, it looks like the plug is shaped to be plugged in a specific way which is what I did. I did not notice the arrow on the plug and strip, this needs to point at each other, which was the opposite of what I had done.

With the lights on, the Tapo app quickly identified the lights, and I was able to pass over my 2.4Ghz WiFi password without issue.

In Use

There is not a …….

Source: https://mightygadget.co.uk/tp-link-tapo-l900-light-strip-review/