Corsair iCUE LS100 Monitor Back Lighting Kit Review - Introduction

Corsair iCUE LS100 Monitor Back Lighting Kit 

Today we're presenting the Corsair iCUE LS100, a kit that brings some smooth and vibrant lighting to the back of your monitors for an immersive experience, you might even call it a bit of ambi-lighting. Behind-the-screen lighting, or ‘Bias Lighting’, has long been medically proven to reduce eye strain and to help perceive colours more accurately than in pure white light. Ambient lighting may not be a new concept, as I’ve already seen similar effects years ago in Philips Ambilight TVs, but it’s a rather new thing in PC systems, at least as far as kits from the major manufacturers are concerned. Of course, you can find and purchase RGB LED kits on eBay or Amazon, which claim to provide ambient illumination, and they will, but sadly there is a camera involved.

The PC is usually located next to the monitor, so why not send the signal via USB? This way the PC can deliver info about the colours through the hub that powers the strips, providing you with proper ambient lighting behind the monitor, with much lower latency than with the kits mentioned above. NZXT was the first manufacturer on the market to offer a product like that, with the HUE 2 Ambient Kit introduced back in August 2018 (followed by version 2 with several improvements in March 2019).
Now, it’s time for a device from one of the RGB leaders, and by that I mean Corsair. Today we are testing their LS100 Smart Lighting Strips Kit, and more specifically the Starter Kit (CD-9010001-EU).

It’s a new ecosystem of iCUE-powered RGB ambient lighting products, spearheaded by the new iCUE LS100 Smart Lighting Strips. Through CORSAIR iCUE software, users can now experience fully customizable lighting extended beyond their systems to their entire room to create a more immersive gaming and media experience. iCUE LS100 Smart Lighting Strips can be placed either on the rear of a monitor or strategically around a desktop for amazing lighting effects, synchronized with all iCUE-compatible CORSAIR devices in your system and all external iCUE Smart Lighting devices.

•  Everything needed to create incredible ambient lighting is included with the LS100 Starter Kit: an external iCUE lighting controller, micro USB, and extension cables, 2x 450mm and 2x 250mm lighting strips, magnetic mounts, cable clips, and an external power supply. The magnetic mounting system makes installation simple on plastic or metal surfaces and offers the flexibility to move the strips or reapply them on other devices easily. The cable clips make for easy cable routing, resulting in a cleaner installation.
• The starter kit is ideal for a single monitor application. Two sizes of expansion kits are also available, with additional strips to set up for dual monitors, ultrawide displays, or further illumination in and around a desktop.
• The USB controller included with the LS100 Starter Kit features two separate lighting channels for the lighting strips. It has a power connector for its external power supply, and a micro USB cable to connect to a PC. The on/off button is conveniently placed for the user to turn off the lights without needing to disconnect the USB cable or adjust settings in iCUE.

 The aim is to better immerse you in games or create ideal moods for productivity and media consumption. We often see similar lighting strips inside cases, but these are intended to be used on the back of the monitor. Is this another case of a strange application for lighting, or does the practical aspect make this product a good choice? Does it work, and is this kit worth the rather steep price? Let’s read on to find out!