The Best Smart Lamps of 2021: Our Top Picks
Smart lamps are an awesome way to harness the power of Alexa, Google Home, and other voice assistants to control and customize the lighting in your home. You can choose multiple bulb colors, set schedules and scene options, and even adjust lighting on the go.
Further reading
From the pioneers of smart lighting to some new and inventive brands, here are our picks for the best smart lamps of 2021.
Philips Hue Iris
Philips Hue is highly esteemed in the world of smart lights, offering one of the most robust lineups in the industry. The Philips Hue Iris is its latest smart lamp, which is notable for its unconventional design. Taking some of its design cues from the previous Philips Hue Bloom, the Iris sports a more spherical design that makes it perfect as a spotlight on a desk. It’s great for accenting wall art, and there’s a bit of residual glow around its translucent base, too.
It doesn’t disappoint with its performance, delivering strong light that can light up corners and small spaces easily, and colors also have a deep, vibrant glow. That’s important when it comes to creating the right ambience. And since it’s part of the Philips Hue family, it can be paired with other smart lights from the company to deliver some breathtaking light scenes.
Read our in-depth Philips Hue Iris review
The Glow Light from Casper
The Glow Light is a unique smart light in that it doesn’t change into a million different colors, and it can actually be controlled without the app. Just flipping the lamp from one end to the other activates it. The Glow Light is designed to help you fall asleep by starting out bright and gradually dimming over 45 minutes.
The Glow Light is also portable, which means you can take it with you if you wake up in the middle of the night to get a drink of water or navigate through a darkened home — and the light remains dim enough not to wake anyone else. Although the Glow Light can be controlled through gestures, there is an included app that gives you even more customization and power over the lamp.
CET “Tree of Light” Smart Table Lamp
If style is your chief goal, you’ll love this little LED light inspired by bonsai trees. It’s also very versatile — there’s a small Bluetooth speaker for playing soothing sounds from your mobile devices, and a Qi standard wireless charger for charging your phone. Touch controls allow you to adjust the brightness of the LED light, or press and hold to active a sleep mode that shuts off after 30 minutes.
The CET Tree of Light is made of metal and cherry wood, and the LED light is a 20-watt equivalent, so you won’t be using it to light up a whole room, but rather as an accent or nightlight. Keep in mind that you may need to take thicker cases off of phones to successfully charge them wirelessly like this.
The C by GE Sol Smart Lamp
The C by GE Sol Smart Lamp is just as futuristic as it looks, with a smart speaker built right into it. The lamp has Amazon Alexa onboard, so you can turn the lamp on and off with your voice, and even use it to set timers, check the weather report, and play music.
With plenty of different colored lighting choices, you can easily select the perfect shade for your mood and use lighting colors to promote a better sleep cycle. Sol is compatible with a wide range of other smart home devices, so you can have a truly connected home. The The C by GE Sol Smart Lamp isn’t small — it’s about the size and diameter of a basketball — unlike some of the other more compact devices on this list. So, be sure you have enough room for it in your space.
Aukey Touch RGB Lamp
This 360-degree bedside lamp from Aukey is one of the coolest lamps to play around with on this list. For starters, each of the three main lighting functions is controlled by touching the aluminum base. One tap turns on the light, a second tap allows you to adjust the brightness, and one long-press lets you change the bulb color. The warm white light and color modes are each rich and vibrant, bringing life to rooms that need it. Before bed, set the lamp to blue for a calming hue to wake to in the morning. Or, if you’re stuck indoors, set it to green to bring a more natural, earthly presence to your living space. If you’d rather let the lamp do the choosing for you, there’s an Auto-Cycle mode, too.
The Aukey lamp takes up about as much space as an Amazon Echo speaker; it only measures 8.5 inches tall and nearly 4 inches wide. Its compact size makes it easy to unplug and reposition this lamp in any room of your house. We did find that the power cord can be a bit temperamental if it isn’t positioned correctly. You can stop this problem in its tracks by adjusting the Aukey lamp to avoid catching anything with the cord.
Amazon Echo Glow
The Amazon Echo Glow provides a significant amount of entertainment and functionality. It connects with any Echo product, and it’s interactive. Its unique Rainbow Timer can be enacted through a simple “set a timer for” command. It brings a fun, colorful light show to your space.
You’ll know the time is winding down when the glow color transitions. It can work as a visual cue to let you know if something is almost done cooking or let kids know it’s time to get ready for bed. The lamp can mimic a flickering flame, create a dance party atmosphere with its disco lights feature, and more. You can also set specific settings on Glow to prevent your child from accidentally finding inappropriate content. A subscription for Amazon FreeTime can limit your Echo Glow to kid-friendly audiobook and music titles.
Read our in-depth Amazon Echo Glow review
What are the advantages of smart lamps?
Smart lamps offer a lot of advantages over traditional lighting, the least of which is energy-saving. Smart LED lights use less power than halogen or fluorescent bulbs, and the scheduling features mean you can automatically turn the lights off at a certain time without lifting a finger.
You can also use smart lamps as security. If you can tie your lamp into the rest of your smart home and have it activate when a security system detects motion, you provide the illusion that someone is home even if the house is empty.
Smart lights can serve dedicated purposes that traditional lights can’t meet, such as the Glow Light helping you fall asleep or providing on-the-go illumination.
What should you consider when looking at smart lamps?
Smart lamps can become a staple product in your home. Many people are first exposed to smart products through smart lighting, and smart lamps are a direct extension of that. These lamps often feature equally as many (if not more) features than a standard smart bulb because they are designed from the ground up to serve a specific purpose.
When shopping for a smart lamp, first consider its use. Where do you want to place this lamp? Is it for reading, lighting up a room, or ambience?
Consider whether the lamp needs to be plugged in at all times or if it can be placed after being charged. Lamps that don’t require a power connection provide more flexibility in placement throughout the room and are often best for ambience instead of utilitarian lighting.
What features are included in the lamp? Some lamps can pulse the lights in time with music, while others can only cycle through colors on command. You should also consider how smart its smart features are. Does it work with Amazon Alexa and Google Home, or can it only be controlled via the app?
What is your budget? Smart lamps range in price from $30 all the way up to $200 or more. Lamps that provide ambience often cost more, but lamps that can light up a room or that aren’t from as well-known a brand can be found for lower prices.
Editors’ Recommendations
