Wyze Light Strip Review: Easy, Customizable Color LEDs Starting at $20
Wyze's entry-level LED light strip has a lot going for it.
Pros
- Reasonable price
- Simple installation
- Easy to control in the app or with a voice command
- Highly customizable
Cons
- Can only have one color on the strip at a time
- Feels a little flimsy
Disclaimer: We aren't recommending that consumers purchase Wyze products at this time. Over the past several years, Wyze has suffered from repeated data leaks and security breaches, including a 2019 user data leak, exposed databases in 2022, and exposed video files that same year. More recently, Wyze has seen both 2023 and 2024 security flaws that let at least 13,000 people see through other Wyze security cams owned by unrelated users.
Currently, Wyze's forum report on the latest breach includes an update from February 19, 2024: "Our engineering team has added a new layer of verification between users and event videos to prevent this from happening again. We've also removed the client library and will not be using caching until we can find a new client library and stress test it for extreme scenarios like we saw on Friday."
This response is a start, but Wyze has repeatedly struggled to reliably update its approach to security and meaningfully communicate with its users. While we have seen security companies bounce back from security problems in the past, we haven't seen this kind of improvement from Wyze yet. So we are not endorsing their products or any services where you need to create a Wyze account with your personal info.
We'll keep you updated on Wyze's security and privacy if our recommendations change. If you're looking for security brands that have made notable security improvements or have good privacy track records, we can recommend products from Ring, Google's Nest, Blink, and Arlo.
The color-changing Wyze Light Strip is easy to recommend. It's just 20 bucks for the basic 16-foot version, it's simple to set up and it offers a lot of features. Some of the options include control via the Wyze app or Alexa or Google Assistant voice commands, timers and scenes, vacation mode, a wake-up/sleep feature and the ability to sync the lights with music.
All of these things combined make the Wyze Light Strip an excellent overall value. Wyze's Light Strip does feel a little flimsy, which is something you'll want to consider if you anticipate moving your light strip around rather than leaving it in one place. In addition, it can only display one color at a time, compared with Wyze's Light Strip Pro, which can display 16 different colors on the same strip at once.
Even so, this light strip is well worth considering if you want to upgrade your home decor with simple, customizable color LEDs at a great price.
The basics
Wyze Light Strips come in two sizes: 16.4 feet for $20 and 32.8 feet for $36. Wyze also makes a premium LED light strip called the Wyze Light Strip Pro, which is currently out of stock. The Pro version comes in the same two size options, but costs $31 and $45, respectively. It has additional color-changing options and an epoxy coating that's supposed to improve durability. I haven't tested that model out yet, but will take a look when it's back in stock.
Your Wyze Light Strip purchase includes the LED light strip, a controller, a power adapter and 10 adhesive clips. I detail how to set up the Wyze Light Strip in this article, so we're going to skip that info here. In short, it should take about 10 minutes to install and the app provides simple, straightforward instructions to get it up and running.
For your money, you get an LED light strip, a controller, a power adapter and adhesive clips to help secure the light strip in place.
The details
Now let's delve into what using the Wyze Light Strip is like in practice. Here I'll discuss its various features and how they worked for me during testing.
Wyze app
The Wyze app is the main hub for your light strip. You can turn the light on and off, adjust its color or white light color temperature and dim it. This is also where you can customize your settings and try out some of the more advanced features.
The app is extremely easy to use. It's simple to find the settings and adjust them as needed.
You can control your light strip and access all of its settings in the Wyze app.
Voice commands
I paired my Wyze Light Strip to an Amazon Echo Show 5 and tried out some commands. It quickly changed colors, turned the light on and off and dimmed it for me. Here's a list of some of the commands I tried:
Set an on/off timer for your Wyze Light Strip.
- "Alexa, set 'Light Strip' to pink."
- "Alexa, dim 'Light Strip' to 75%."
- "Alexa, turn 'Light Strip' off/on."
As I hoped, Alexa even responded differently to "Set 'Light Strip' to pink" versus "dark pink" and adjusted the lights accordingly.
Timers and scenes
The timer feature lets you set an on/off timer for your Wyze Light Strip anywhere from 1 minute to 23 hours and 59 minutes.
As far as scenes go, Wyze has some options preloaded in the app, divided into color temperature and color scenes. The color temperature scenes range from warm to cool white light and include: Night Light (warmest), Cozy, Bright and Energized (coolest). The color scenes include: Energy (orange), Gaming (purple), Movie (blue) and Meditation (yellow).
You can create additional scenes in the app and customize them however you like.
Vacation mode
As you'd expect, Vacation mode randomizes your Wyze Light Strip by automatically turning it on and off to mimic being home.
To enable this option, go to settings and toggle on Vacation mode.
Wake-up/sleep feature
Wyze's Sleep Routines feature is designed to mimic the sunrise and sunset based on the time of day to help you wake up and fall asleep more easily. This highly customizable option lets you pick the duration -- anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour -- the start time and which days of the week you'd like to use Sleep Routines.
The Wake Up option also lets you customize the ending brightness and color temperature.
I can't say if Sleep Routines helped me wake up or fall asleep more easily, but the light strip did gradually get brighter and more intense in the morning and reverse the process at night.
In addition to Sleep Routines, Wyze also offers a Sun Match mode that changes the light strip throughout the day "to mimic natural sunlight." Like Vacation mode, you can set up this feature by simply toggling it on in settings. I found this feature unnecessary since I work in a room with plenty of natural light, but it might be a nice option if you work in a basement or anywhere without much natural daylight.
Music mode changes the color of the light strip every time it hears sound.
Sync the lights with music
The Wyze controller -- the connection piece between your light strip and the power adapter -- has a built-in microphone. If you set your LED strip to Music mode in the Wyze app, the strip will change color randomly (if you toggle on the Auto Color option) every time it hears a sound.
There are three preset options called Shadow, Leap and Flicker that respond differently to sound and how they cycle to the next color.
You can also adjust the sensitivity from low to high if you want your light strip to be more or less responsive to sound.
Working with other Wyze products
This light strip can also work with other Wyze devices. I set up a Rule in the app so that every time the porch light turned on, the Wyze Light Strip turned on, too (and as the color purple).
This isn't a particularly functional rule, but it was nice to see it working regardless. If you have a different set of Wyze products, you might find an automation that's a little more useful, but mine did work as expected.
Watch the Wyze Light Strip dance to music.
Final thoughts
The Wyze Light Strip has a lot of options at a great price. It's easy to set up and use -- and it has a lot of room for customizability. That said, this LED strip can't display more than one color at a time; only the Wyze Light Strip Pro can do that. And, while my light strip held up fine during testing (including being moved around my house), I don't think it would've held up with much more moving.
Overall, for $20 (for the 16.4-foot version), this is a solid product that can give your home a fun dose of color with minimal effort.
