Where do you even begin with something like this? I suppose had I gotten my hands on the CORSAIR LS100 or another such ambient lighting setup before, the added context would have helped me better judge the iCUE LT100 smart lighting towers. I suspect most readers are in a similar position, however, with ambient lighting either being dismissed on a value to cost basis or as a gimmick because of poor or early adopter tech from the past. Today, an increasingly smart home can also find itself adorned with smart bulbs, which are a form of ambient lighting as well, and even that is a barrier many refuse to cross for a variety of different reasons.

There are ambient lighting solutions from established companies which come in the form of flexible RGB LED strips, and these also range from rebranded Alibaba specials to the same SMD RGB LEDs in a fancier dress. Setup and control options also help set these apart, and brand power no doubt matters too. CORSAIR wants to leverage their brand presence to add to their RGB ecosystem, and the LT100 is one of the fanciest dresses you will see RGB LEDs in. Coupled with a premium unboxing experience and build quality, the fairly easy setup, and both hardware and software lighting effects for control, you have a lighting form factor that may just be enough to get you to adopt this. Marketing the starter kit around a monitor as part of a PC workstation as opposed to the general living room with just the towers also is CORSAIR playing strong to their native audience. I am a touch surprised CORSAIR did not use their Capellix LEDs, especially as a selling point here is having 46 RGB LEDs per tower, and they would have been able to stuff a lot more Capellix LEDs into the same space. I suspect that might be their plan for the next version of both the LS100 Capellix and LT100 Capellix, though.

In its current form, I can see myself buying an expansion kit to get a fourth tower and complete the set for symmetry and more placement options. if everything about them were perfect, I could also see myself buying a starter kit as a gift, or even for myself if I did not already have these, although I would have probably gone with the LS100 over the LT100 to begin with. But as shown by the cons list above, the LT100 lighting towers aren't perfect. I will be the first to admit that the cons involving the headset holder and AC adapter may not be as important to many, but they irked me as I went through the setup process and while using these, especially because of the price point for the kits and the rest of the package arguably being better designed by comparison. Some of the lighting effects also aren't implemented very well, which could in part be because of the form factor, as a solid LED strip is essentially split into three non-continuous sections. The ambient lighting effects distinguish the LT100 lighting towers (and no doubt also the LS100) from other CORSAIR RGB products, and unfortunately, they were another case of "could be better." There is a lot going on here, and while mostly positive, there is enough of a misgiving here to where I am not really able to recommend these to others going into this with a mindset similar to mine. For those who have run out of things to RGB-fy and the urge to get more ambient lighting still, especially in the iCUE ecosystem, well, you could do much worse than the LT100 lighting towers.