Light the way with Bluetooth-enabled Yeelight Bedside Lamp

If you need a little bit of light at night but don’t want to disturb others, the Yeelight provides just enough illumination. You can fully adjust the color, warmth, brightness, and timing with an app on your iPhone.

Company: Xiaomi Product: Yeelight Bedside Lamp Price: $69.00 Compatibility: any Bluetooth-enabled device Colors: silver base Date: March 1, 2016

I’ve had more fun testing out the Yeelight Bedside Lamp than one is supposed to have with a lamp. It’s just so cool. The first thing you’ll want to do is download the free accompanying app. It isn’t strictly necessary to have the app to use the lamp’s basic functions, but you’ll have access to more features if you do. The app will walk you through the simple Bluetooth setup, and you’re ready to go.

You’ll see the lamp listed within the app as Yeelight Lamp, but you can change the name to whatever you like. My daughter changed mine to The Illuminator. By tapping the menu button in the top-right corner, you’ll have access to all of the setup and timing features. There is a lot to play around with here. I like the Night Mode, where you set nighttime hours and when you tap the top of the lamp, it comes on with low illumination. You can also set a Sleep Timer, Schedules, Wake-up Light, and more.

Once you tap the Power button, you’ll see the lamp control screen. Tap Hue to access the color picker; slide your finger left and right to choose from seemingly unlimited colors. Slide your finger up and down to control the brightness. Tap the White button to get a similar controller for shades of white, ranging from a nearly blue-white to an antique yellowish white. Tap the Flow button to let the lamp flow through all the colors of the rainbow. It’s quite soothing to watch. The Yeelight is also a neat conversation piece when you have people over. It’s very much like a digital lava lamp.

Do keep in mind that this lamp has a 10W LED bulb. It’s not going to be powerful enough to light up even a tiny room. But it would make a fantastic party light, nightlight, gradual “alarm clock,” and nighttime companion light when you want to be able to see but don’t want to blast your eyeballs or anyone else’s with a full strength light.

I never thought of lamps as being something fun, but the colorful Yeelight Bedside Lamp is a fun lamp. Stylish and filled with features, it’s the lamp you didn’t know you needed. You can find the Yeelight Bedside Lamp on Amazon for $69.00; the accompanying app is free on the App Store.

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