LED strip applications are no longer limited to lighting Christmas trees and Halloween costumes. They have now become a popular way to add color to living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, and more. RGB led strips have always been used in applications that require colored lighting, and a new strong competitor is the RGB+W LED strip. White LED chips are added to the RGB (red, green, blue) mix, creating an RGB+W LED strip, you can check our RGBX LED Strip Series if any interested.

So what’s the difference? Which is better? In this article we will discuss RGB vs RGBW LED strips.

Table of Contents

1 What is RGB LED Strip?
2 What is RGBW LED Strip?
3 What is the difference RGB Vs RGBW LED Strip?
3.1 Light Color
3.2 Color Rendering Index
3.3 Brightness
3.4 PCB Pin
3.5 Controllers
3.6 The Application
3.7 Price
4 Which is better?

What is RGB LED Strip?

RGB LED strip uses a 3-in-1 LED chip made up of red, green and blue chips. It can produce a wide range of colors by mixing the three and looks almost white with all three at full brightness.

What is RGBW LED Strip?

RGBW (RGB + White) LED strip uses a 4-in-1 LED chip made up of red, green, blue, and white or 3-in-1 RGB LED chip plus a separate white LED chip.

What is the difference RGB Vs RGBW LED Strip?

Here we will discuss RGB vs RGBW based on the following features:

Light Color: RGB LED strips are red, green, and blue, while RGBW LED strips are composed of red, green, blue, and white. RGB LEDs create a color close to white, it cannot create a pure white tone. An extra white LED chip allows to obtain more real and more bright white light.

Color Rendering Index: RGBW can offers higher CRI, so RGBW LEDs can accurately reflect an object’s original hue more clearly. This means better quality of color reproduction when using RGBW.

Brightness: RGBW is an extension of RGB, implemented by adding white pixels to make RGBW 4 color pixels. Therefore, RGBW is brighter than RGB, with higher light transmittance and lower power consumption.

PCB Pin: RGB and RGBW LED strips can be easily recognized by the connectors on them. There are 4 pins on RGB LED strips and there are 5 pins on RGBW LED Strips.

Controllers: RGB+W lighting controller has five outputs, one for each color and one for power. Since RGB has one less chip, it only needs four. The controls must also function differently to control the white part of the LED in RGB+W.

The Application: RGB strips are usually used for lighting projects without special requirements, but RGBW can achieve more types of color mixing with greater color reproduction. RGBW strips are more suitable for environments that are more complex and provide more accurate lighting environments, such as hotels and shopping malls.

Price: Because RGBW LED strips contain white chips and complex manufacturing processes, they also provide more applications, so RGBW LED strips are more expensive than RGB led strip.

Which is better?

After learning about RGB and RGBW LED strip lights, which is the better choice? When you are choosing between RGB and RGBW, it is very important to consider the application. If anyone is looking for basic RGB colors but not the requirement for pure white light, an ordinary RGB LED strip will be more efficient, effective, and cost-effective. However, if there are higher requirements for colorful decoration, and pure white light is required to be lit alone and then mixed, then RGBW strips will be the right choice for task lighting.