When you want to buy LED strips and make an offer to a LED strip supplier, you will be asked which model you need, RGB or RGBW?What’s the difference?The difference between RGB and RGBW has been a top topic for many people. They have been appearing in various lighting project proposals over the years and have also had an impact on lighting design. Today, let’s analyze the difference between RGB and RGBW in detail.

What is RGB led strip light?

It is designed from the principle of color light emission based on multiple combinations of three optical primary colors: red, green, and blue. RGB LED strips are considered as lights of three colors: red, green, and blue. When these lights are stacked on top of each other, the colors are mixed and the brightness of this mixture is equal to the sum of the brightness of the two lights.

What is RGBW led strip light?

A 1:1:1 mixture of the three primary colors of RGB can in principle yield pure white. But now, in response to popular demand, a new product has emerged in the lighting world; RGBW! RGBW LED strips add a white sub-pixel to the RGB LED triple primary colors to form a RGBW quad-color pixel.

RGB LED lights have been around for many years, offering more possibilities for lighting design and applications. But now, thanks to technological advances, a new product, “RGBW” – to which a white chip has been added – has emerged. RGBW adds a white sub-pixel to the original RGB three primary colors, creating the RGBW four-color pixel LED light.

RGB VS RGBW : Difference Between RGB And RGBW LED Lights

Features	RGB Strip Lights	RGBW Strip Lights
Chip	3-in-1 chip	4-in-1 chip
Color changing	RGB	Complex
Brightness	Bright	Ultra-Bright
Price	Normal	Medium

1)RGB LED lights use a 3-in-1 LED chip that consists of three primary colors; red, green and blue.

RGBW LED strips have 4-in-1 chips which include red, green, blue and white chips. 

2)Full Spectrum: RGBW can create more interesting color combinations than RGBW led strip light.

3)CRI: RGBW With a much higher color rendering index (CRI) value than RGB lights, RGBW LED lights allow for more illumination and visualization of colored surfaces every time.

4)Application: RGB led strip light can use for no special lighting project, RGBW  can come true warm white, cool white, natural white color pure white channel, so RGBW can be used for complex lighting project.

Why do we need pure white ?

While RGB LEDs can theoretically produce white light, they do not produce pure white light. However, dedicated white LED chips can provide a purer white color and allow you to select additional warm, pure or cool white chips. Additional white chips also create greater possibilities for color mixing with RGB chips, presenting more and richer color variations.

Which is better? 

After learning about RGB and RGBW LEDs, you must be wondering, which is better? Well, the better choice depends on the application. If you only want basic RGB colors with no pure white light requirement, then basic RGB LED strips are better, more efficient, and more cost effective for you. However, if you are looking for a mix of white and RGB light options, then RGBW is a good choice for you. RGBW LEDs give a different bright white color and it also has a special RGB+WW+W controller.

When choosing between RGB and RGBW LED lights, you pay extra for the white chip. RGBW fixtures project a cooler shade of white that enhances the color palette and is excellent at producing pastel colors. Adding white to any standard color produced by regular RGB can produce the desired shade without sacrificing saturation.

Choose different controller

RGBW led strip lighting needs a controller of five output ports , each output port for each color control and one for power. Since RGB has one less chip, only a controller of  four output ports. In order to control the white portion of the LEDs in RGBW, the controller must function differently.

Closing Thoughts

You may be considering which led strip light you should buy. It depends on your budget and lighting requirements. RGB LED strips are relatively inexpensive and will meet most lighting requirements. If you have the budget and need special color effects, RGBW strips are the best choice.