Twinkly's smart light curtain is my favorite smart home gadget of CES 2024 - Tom's Guide

(Image credit: Twinkly)

I've spent the past week sifting through the biggest announcements of CES 2024. And while useful gear like the Linxura Smart Home Controller and LG's all-in-one AI washing machine earned a spot on my roundup of the best smart home devices of CES, that doesn't necessarily mean they're my favorite. No, for me the unsung hero of this year's show was the Twinkly smart curtain lights.

This $200 canvas consists of smart LED string lights with the highest density in their class. Each of these pill-shaped lights works together to create animated graphics and ambient lighting on any wall. The curtain won't make your day easier and is pricey for decor. But this niche smart lighting system can enhance any living space whether it's through setting a room's mood with exciting color-changing patterns or looping a GIF to share with company on your wall.

The Matrix curtain sets up easily with two lightweight aluminum bars on each end of you can align and hang it up without tangling any of the string lights. You can fully map out and customize effects that play on this light display using the Twinkly app. Its Windows screen mirroring feature lets the smart curtain act as an extended display while you game or watch videos. This expands big, open worlds beyond your gaming monitor onto the wall space behind it for increased immersion. Expansive scenes like nature landscapes and city skylines pop while the colors react to in-game actions like explosions. 

(Image credit: Twinkly)

Beyond gaming, I can see this smart light curtain fitting into a living room or basement entertainment setup as live wall art. The Matrix's curtain form factor shakes things up since its string lights work together to form an image without a solid backdrop. I find the resulting aesthetic to look sleek and really helps colors pop to bring the image into focus. 

The Matrix is part of the Twinkly smart light ecosystem and can be expanded with additional Matrix curtains or connect to other Twinkly lights for bigger, synchronized installations. If you purchase the separate Twinkly Music accessory it pairs with the Matrix so that the lights can synchronize and react to sounds. Plus the curtain integrates into the most popular smart home platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Home for voice control and automation.

Twinkly's Matrix can be pre-ordered now on www.twinkly.com and on Amazon.com at an introductory price of $199.99. It comes in two variants; a 3.3 x 3.3-foot model with 480 mappable LEDs and the 1.6 x 7.9-foot model with 500 mappable LEDs. It will be available starting January 31, 2024.

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Senior Editor, Smart Home

Hunter Fenollol is a Senior Editor for Tom’s Guide. He specializes in smart home gadgets and appliances. Prior to joining the team, Hunter reviewed computers, wearables, and mixed reality gear for publications that include CNN Underscored, Popular Mechanics, and Laptop Magazine. When he’s not testing out the latest cooking gadgets, you can likely find him playing a round of golf or out with friends feeding his paycheck to a QuickHit slot machine.

Hunter started his career as an intern at Tom’s Guide back in 2019 while in college. He graduated from Long Island University Post with a degree in Communications and minor in Advertising. He has been vlogging ever since the iPhone 4 took front-facing cameras mainstream.

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