A quite high quality device by the looks of it, no wonder it is $90!
Interesting to see that each LED is individually dimmable when the device is not a display (the 3 LED drivers are 16 channels each, and there are 48 LEDs total). Looking at the animations on the article, you should only need 8 channels or so to get the top to bottom effect, using a higher voltage boost to get the LEDs as series strings. It's a fairly expensive LED driver to have that many of them, but I guess designing it that way adds flexibility in future. (A "flickering candle" effect maybe?).
The use of the discrete Nordic IC rather than a module definitely suggests a higher volume product to justify the cert costs, especially as the device is not pushed for space.
Finally, the power management side is also quite premium, with a high current switching battery charger. Looking at another review[1], it appears to come with a mains adaptor permenantly wired to the base, rather than use Micro USB. As the pogo pins are quite small, the mains adaptor might provide a higher voltage e.g. 12V to reduce the current through the pins, and so a more expensive switching charger is used to step this voltage down for the battery. The battery wiring appears to be doubled up as well for a higher charge current by using more connector pins, so it can probably charge quickly in 2.5 hours or so (0.5C). Surprised they didn't just use a larger connector and wiring, again this isn't a small product.
Interesting to see that each LED is individually dimmable when the device is not a display (the 3 LED drivers are 16 channels each, and there are 48 LEDs total). Looking at the animations on the article, you should only need 8 channels or so to get the top to bottom effect, using a higher voltage boost to get the LEDs as series strings. It's a fairly expensive LED driver to have that many of them, but I guess designing it that way adds flexibility in future. (A "flickering candle" effect maybe?).
The use of the discrete Nordic IC rather than a module definitely suggests a higher volume product to justify the cert costs, especially as the device is not pushed for space.
Finally, the power management side is also quite premium, with a high current switching battery charger. Looking at another review[1], it appears to come with a mains adaptor permenantly wired to the base, rather than use Micro USB. As the pogo pins are quite small, the mains adaptor might provide a higher voltage e.g. 12V to reduce the current through the pins, and so a more expensive switching charger is used to step this voltage down for the battery. The battery wiring appears to be doubled up as well for a higher charge current by using more connector pins, so it can probably charge quickly in 2.5 hours or so (0.5C). Surprised they didn't just use a larger connector and wiring, again this isn't a small product.
[1] https://www.macrumors.com/review/casper-glow-light/