Ikea's Glowy Doughnut Lamp: Smart Home Star

Ikea's Varmblixt lamp, first seen at CES 2026, delivers a captivating blend of design and smart home functionality. This approximately foot-wide, doughnut-shaped lamp, constructed from durable ABS plastic, offers ambient illumination suitable for various home settings.

Setup for the Varmblixt lamp is designed to be straightforward, involving QR code scanning and connection to a chosen home platform. Although initial connection attempts sometimes required proximity adjustments to the Wi-Fi router, the lamp ultimately integrates well with major smart home ecosystems, including Apple Home/Siri, Alexa, and Google Home, supporting the Matter standard.

The lamp excels as a gentle light source, ideal for creating ambiance, providing accent lighting, or serving as a decorative centerpiece. Its color options range widely, and it supports adaptive lighting. While it lacks advanced features like music syncing, its core smart capabilities are robust.

Smart home integration significantly enhances the Varmblixt lamp's utility, allowing instant adjustments to brightness and color via various apps. Users can easily set automations and scenes, such as the lamp activating upon arrival home or in the morning. Voice control is also fully supported through popular assistants.

Despite its smart features, a minor drawback noted was the remote's occasional responsiveness issue after prolonged app control. However, the lamp features a manual power button for on/off and reboot functions. Overall, the Varmblixt lamp offers high quality and impressive smart features for its nearly $100 price point.