Starga LED is a 13 watt striplight from HelloLights.com wich they are pitching as a “new”. Imagine our chagrin when upon close inspection it appeared that the Starga LED is all but identical to the original Ecoxotic Panorama LED (pictured above) launched more than four years ago. Now the selling of old stock is not at all unexpected, as is the renaming of the myriad of LED designs produced in China but usually old technology sells for, you know, less money.
The 13 watt Ecoxotic Panorama LED launched in October 2009 with a retail price of $99 and the price dropped to $89 not long after the Ecoxotic brand gained some traction. Four years later the 13 watt Starga LED comes in the exact same color flavors, all blue or white with a splash of blue lights for exactly the same price fo $89.
Meanwhile, Ecoxotic has moved on to the Panorama Pro which has been improved again and the 19 watt version now retails for $69. There’s nothing wrong with HelloLights selling overstock lights, in fact we encourage the reuse of older lights for beginner aquarists. After all, LEDs are supposed to last five years or more, and if they’ve never been used then they should be plenty bright.
Sure HelloLights is offering a buy 2 get 1 deal on all their Starga LED line so you can get 36 watts of LED for about $180 but you can get all sorts of great LED lights with up-to-date diodes and much better features. If you’re going to spend that kind of coin at HelloLights you might as well spend it on the great deals they have on metal halide bulbs.
