LIFX Supercolor Smart LED Strip Lights 10ft (120" Kit), Color Changing Multizone RGB + Tunable White, 24 Color Zones, 2.4GHz, No Hub, Apple HomeKit, Alexa & Google Home, Music Sync, Dimmable

Why it's worth it

The Supercolor is far brighter than anything else here — 2,100 lumens from a 10-foot run — and it splits into 24 addressable zones that each hold their own color. It connects straight to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and works with HomeKit, Alexa and Google Home without a hub.

Get this one if the strip is doing real work, not just accent. Twenty-one hundred lumens over ten feet can light a small bedroom by itself. PCMag measured LIFX's color-zone strips at up to 1,050 lumens per meter, roughly double what typical budget strips put out. If you want to bounce light off the ceiling and actually read under it, nothing else on this list comes close.

The 24 zones each run their own color simultaneously, so gradients look like gradients instead of a slow fade between two states. LIFX leans into that with themed scenes — sunrise, vaporwave, holiday presets — and an EQ visualizer that moves the zones with the beat. It's the closest thing here to a light show that doesn't look cheap, and you can still drop it to one warm tone for bed.

From our review of 7 smart rgb led strip lights for bedrooms, by David Sinclair, Managing Editor

What we like

• +Get this one if the strip is doing real work, not just accent
• +The 24 zones each run their own color simultaneously, so gradients look like gradients instead of a slow fade between two states
• +HomeKit support without a bridge is rarer than it should be, and it's a real reason to choose this strip

What to know

• –The LEDs are visible
• –The app has a rocky reputation