Nanoleaf lights up its Matter products with its Essentials line

After announcing several new products at CES 2023, Nanoleaf officially launched its first Matter-compatible smart lighting products on Wednesday. 

Starting today, you can order Nanoleaf’s Essentials Smart Bulbs and Lightstrips. The bulbs come in A19 BR30, GUI10, and Downlight sizes and configurations, starting at $19.99 for a standard A19 bulb, or $49.99 for a three-pack of bulbs. All of the bulbs are capable of switching between millions of colors. 

Also: The best smart lights money can buy

The Lightstrip comes in two different smart home flavors: Matter or HomeKit. 

You’ll get a two-meter light strip capable of 16 million colors for $49.99. You can add a 40-inch extension to the strip for an additional $12.99. 

As a refresher, Matter is a new connectivity standard that promises interoperability between the various smart home platforms created by tech companies such as Google, Samsung, Apple, and Amazon — meaning you control a Matter product across all of those platforms and services, without having to worry about compatibility. 

As far as I can tell, Nanoleaf’s Essentials line contains the first lighting products to launch with direct Matter support, forgoing the need for a bridge. 

Also: The 6 best strip lights

That said, you will need a Matter home hub that doubles as a border router in order to use the bulbs or strip lights. Apple’s new HomePod and the latest Apple TV 4K Wi-Fi + Ethernet, or the Google Home Mini, Nest Mini, Nest Hub, and Nest Hub Max will all fill that role.

Still unsure about Matter and why it.. uh.. matters? Check out ZDNET’s handy guide.