Nanoleaf Canvas is a beautiful ever changing work of art

Nanoleaf are known for their wall mounted RGB panels that make gamers look cooler than you during a stream. Their products are cool but fairly niche. They’re not really the kind of thing I’d recommend to anyone outside of gamer culture.

That’s until I was sent the Nanoleaf Canvas to check out.

I’m genuinely so surprised by how nice these lights look. They have a surprisingly classy aesthetic and I wouldn’t necessarily associate them with the typical gamer look. Instead, they look like art that would be at home in regular, normal folk’s households.

Obviously these lights are to the taste of an RGB lover like me, but I even think they could win the tastes of someone more coloured light averse.

Setting up the Nanoleaf is about as much of a pain as you expect. Everything you need is in the box but that doesn’t make it foolproof. It’s about as frustrating as your average Ikea set up for a first timer.

The app has a layout tool you can play with, which is especially useful with the Canvas as they have offset connections which allow for more configurations but also need to be exactly correct to work. I also laid them out on a flat surface to see how shapes looked before committing to my wall.

They came with just enough stickers you’ll need to apply to make one mistake, and sadly I made a few more. Because they’re squares there’s a bit of effort to make sure they’re orientated correctly or they will look noticeably off.

Make sure you orientate the controller square correctly too. I initially had mine pointing a different direction which made the configuration assume it was pointing in a different direction. I wasn’t sure it mattered too much but when it came to moving patterns it was much nicer to have it face the correct way.

Once the stickers are on your wall they’re absolutely there too, as a pulled off piece of paint on my wall can testify to. This isn’t a complaint. They’re stuck on well and I think that’s great, just make sure you don’t try to pull them off without using the release tabs, even if they’ve only made contact for a second.

I ended up using a few extra 3M wall stickers I had from some hooks to replace my mistakes, and they don’t look as hidden as the ones that come with the Nanoleaf Canvas but once they’re on you barely notice because the thing looks so good.

Once they were on my wall and plugged in, they looked so good I forgot about any of the mostly self caused frustrations during setup. The textures to the squares give them a sort of satin finish, rather than the cleaner look of other Nanoleaf shape lights.

You can even set them to mirror your screen if you’re using a computer with the desktop app. Or just changing and editing your own colour palettes to match your mood and current aesthetic is also very satisfying.

They also work well with sound. There are a bunch of different sound based effects you can choose in the Nanoleaf apps that work well with different colour mixes or just general vibes. I’ve had bright coloured pulsing beats to energetic music, and soothing colours that change subtly to general sounds.

The amount you can change these light panels gives them so many different uses and looks that they feel like having an ever changing artwork, rather than just some random RGB wall style.

The RRP is listed as $349.99 for the 9 square starter pack but you can pick them up on deals much cheaper. At time of writing, Scorptech have them for $269 for example which seems more reasonable. That being said, I’ve definitely seen people have worse pieces of generic art in their house that cost far more than these do and they can’t even change them.

I am quite simply baffled by how nice they look. I’d never expected to try out these lights and genuinely come out thinking they’d be a great gift for most people I know.

They can be loud bright gamer rave paradise, or surprisingly classy and dare I say beautiful background notes in a room. The Nanoleaf Canvas truly smashed my expectations and in some ways my prejudices towards these lights.

They’re a beautiful addition to any home, and can suit many different tastes. They’re not cheap at $349.99 but can be found for less and the surprising versatility make them well worth a look. Especially if you have the cash to burn and want something that can be art, light, and spectacle all in one.

The Nanoleaf Canvas review unit was kindly provided by Rocket Comms.