Lepro AI Smart Lighting review: A dim use of AI

Lepro’s AI Smart LED lighting solutions are a twist on the classic. Across the range you’ll find similar features to other smart lights; customisable RGB colours, and smart home connectivity - but you’ll also find an AI assistant. Type in, or voice a mood or a vibe you’re after and the Lepro app will show you a collection of lighting options based on the prompt. It is novel, but not necessary.

To preface, I am skeptical of AI consumer products. I’ve been consistently disappointed by its results across a range of applications, like the lack of functionality in Apple Intelligence, or AI object detection in robot vacuums that doesn't actually detect objects. Not every trend has an application across every technology type. While some, like using AI to enhance productivity makes sense, lighting is a bit of a stretch.

Without the assistant Lepro’s Smart Lights are easy to set up and maintain, offer infinite options, and wholly effective lighting for any situation. They do everything smart lights should be able to. They’re great products that just happen to have AI.

I’ve been testing three Lepro products; the AI Smart LED Floor Lamp, AI Smart Permanent Outdoor Lights, and the AI Smart Outdoor String Lights. None have taken me longer than two minutes to connect to my home network, and so far they have stayed reliably connected. Simply plug in (with an adapter since these aren’t available in the AU plug), open the app to find the device ready to connect, enter your WiFi password, and you’re set.

Anyone who has worked with smart lighting before knows this is a flex. Many smart lights are finicky and can easily drop off your network for no apparent reason. As I type this, a Philips Hue I’ve been procrastinating resetting is turning itself on and off in my bedroom, and a Nanoleaf bulb is still failing to connect after six months of trying. Meanwhile all three Lepro lights are going strong, waiting to turn on when the clock strikes 5:30pm.

Setting up automations like this are simple, but they are quite limited. You can only use time as a trigger, but connected to either your Alexa or Google Nest device opens the options back up. Depending on what other smart devices you own you could turn them into sensor lights, or have them get real moody if it starts to rain. We are a HomePod household so the lack of connection to the broader ecosystem is a bit of a bummer. I haven’t even been able to find a way to jerry-rig something together using Shortcuts, which is my usual go to, but that is a me problem to solve.

Actually customising your lighting comes with infinite possibilities, most of them powered by AI. As I’ve already touched on, these lights come with an inbuilt AI assistant within the app. Simple talk or type out a prompt and be greeted with a range of lighting options. There is some rhyme or reason around the colours picked depending on mood. Prompting “I'm feeling happy” it will offer up brightly lit pinks, purples, blues, and oranges. Sadness on the other hand gets you more muted tones, and sparser lights. Festive or holiday lights tend to move, and use the colours you’d expect depending on the holiday, and if you need lights for work it goes with your typical white, fluorescent-style office lighting. These vary depending on which lighting set up you’ve got, but their vibes are pretty similar across the board.

Instead of the AI-generated lighting effects I would rather have access to an effect gallery. Having infinite options can get overwhelming if you don’t really know where to start. A public, browsable gallery would be a better starting point than an empty text box for most people.

To my joy, you’re not entirely tied into the AI ecosystem, you can still create your own effects, access Community effects, and share them for others to use. You can either pick the RGB or White section, and you’ll get a basic overview or a Precise View which lets you edit more sections of the lights. For the String and Outdoor lights Precise View lets you edit each bulb individually, while the Lamp is split up into cells across 26 rows and 7 columns which wrap around the cylindrical shape. These cells can be filled with whatever colours or designs you can fit into them. Colour gradients and stripes are pretty popular, but I tried my hand at drawing some basic designs using the cells, but alas these didn’t quite turn out.

Regardless of the colour or style you end up with, the lights illuminate the space well. Between the Permanent Lights, and the String Lights in my yard I no longer have to turn on my porch lights at all. It is a vibe, and is also keeping the possums away. Win, win!

On top of being functional, these can also be joyful. The lights can interact with other elements in your home like sound, changing colours and flow depending on the soundwave. You can set an external microphone, or just as easily use your phone to connect, but you’ll need to have your phone open the whole time. Navigating away from the screen stops the effect, as does trying to set it up with two sets of lights at once.

Right now Lepro’s AI range isn’t available within Australia, but you can still buy them if you’re willing to pay the shipping and in another currency. Even with the exchange rate, these are a little bit cheaper than your usual smart light solutions. The Floor Lamp is $159 USD, the Permanent Outdoor Lights start from $152.99 USD, and the String Lights from $55.99 USD.

Generally speaking Lepro has made a collection of excellent, beginner friendly smart lights. Combined with a compatible smart home hub you’ll have a huge array of options within your connected home, or you can just as happily use them through the app. As for the AI element, I’m not sold. While it can gather the general gist and suggest some sort of lighting set up, it feels like another case of AI for the sake of AI. An effect gallery with a simple search bar would fulfil the same brief, and give users something to spark their creativity.

If you’re someone who is all-in on AI then maybe you’ll see more use in these features than I do, but I’d rather pick a community-built effect or make my own than use a ChatBot to make one for me.