Benefits
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Beautiful donut design
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Works on tables and walls
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Strong, high-quality ABS plastic
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Essential support for multiple smart home platforms
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It’s easy to change the bulbs
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Various color options
Evil
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You’ll need a smart hub, either your own or an Ikea one, to control this light
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The remote control struggled to function properly when I switched to the app’s controls
When we see pictures of the new Ikea smart-ready Varmblixt lamp at CES 2026, we immediately said “I want one.” A beautiful donut of radiant joy was an instant winner. Now that I’ve tested it, even at its $100 price, it’s still the best smart lights I saw it. Here is the reason.
The Ikea lamp is smart, stylish and feels at home.
The Swedish furniture and meatball company has introduced a fun, ambient light that you can fit anywhere in your home. I smart home and general support for Matter making it incredibly easy, compatible with Apple Home/Siri, Alexa, Google Home or Ikea’s own app. Consider placing it in the entryway, living room, bedroom, bedroom or on the wall as an accent piece. Let’s see how it works.
Interesting lamp design from Ikea
The Ikea lamp is about a foot wide with a smooth, solid surface.
Measuring around a foot in diameter, the Varmblixt comes with a cord, a small on/off remote control and little else. The donut-shaped cover looks and feels like smooth ceramic, but it’s actually hard ABS plastic. That makes the bulb less likely to break, but you’ll still want to avoid placing it in places where it’s easy to bump it.
A lamp base isn’t just for flat surfaces. You can also mount it to the wall with a few screws, giving you many other installation options. What happens when the light inside burns out? Ikea has a push button that opens the donut, allowing you to lift it and change the light inside if needed.
This lamp allows you to place it on the ceiling, and the cover comes off when you need to change the light.
As is new Ikea security sensors I testedsetup was as simple as scanning a QR code and going out to my favorite home environment (Apple Home in this case) to connect… well, almost. In this review, I had to try several times before the connection was completed, finally moving the lamp closer to me Wi-Fi routerwhich seemed useful.
Ikea is selling its smart Dirigera hub to enable smart light controls, but you don’t need it if you have any device that can act as a home hub, including a Nest speaker or hub, an Echo speaker or smart display, an Apple HomePod or the new Apple TV. That’s a good deal, since the Dirigera costs $110, making this smart light a worthwhile investment.
Comfortable ambient light and low light
This lamp is not limited to the lighting of the voice, although it shines there.
The Varmblixt lamp won’t win awards for cheap lumen output: It’s designed for a much softer light than most lamps. flood lights and LED lights I tested. That makes the lamp well-suited for ambience, accent lighting or a fun centerpiece on a table. Once the lights go down at the party, they will really start to shine.
That quiet light can have very productive purposes, too. Hang a lamp on the bedside table and it can be a cozy reading lamp. Hang it in the hallway (perhaps connected to a motion sensor compatible with Matter), and it will be a quiet night light. In the entrance hall and equipped with a timer, it could greet those who came home late at night from work. I tried the lamp in many places and couldn’t decide where I liked it.
The brightness controls are native to the lamp, no matter what platform you’re using — something I’ll discuss below — and the color options range from warm reds to blues. Ikea also offers a mode to choose your color from across the rainbow and turn the dimmer (which reacts to ambient light levels) on or off. There are no advanced features here like music sync, so you’ll have to manage the changes yourself through the app, but that takes a few seconds.
The Smart Home features elevate this lamp in all the right ways
These smart controls are handy and there is no learning curve.
The Ikea lamp is great, the best with Matter support and everything related smart home communication. No matter what app you’re using, you can quickly adjust brightness and color with sliders and icons.
The Matter smart home standard and Apple/Alexa/Google compatibility also make it easy to set up automations and scenes. Apple Home, for example, suggested scenes such as opening when you get home or in the morning, and you will find the same options on all platforms.
Scenes and automation allow the Ikea lamp to do its own tricks.
Automations also allow you to connect the behavior of a smart light bulb with actions similar to your own smart lock To turn it on, trigger the motion sensor and other useful tricks depending on the other technology you have in your home. And you can control the lamp with voice assistant of your choice.
The only issue I noticed was that after using the app controls on the lamp for a while, it seemed to stop controlling the remote, which I found to be a bit hesitant after that. I only noticed because I made sure to check it out, since the app’s controls are superior as long as your phone is nearby. There is a manual button on the lamp to turn on/off and restart as needed.
Final thoughts on the Ikea Varmblixt smart lamp
The Ikea lamp is for anyone looking for ambient lighting in a stylish package.
The Ikea round lamp has proved a welcome presence in my home, and its clever features elevate it to a high recommendation for anyone looking for ambient lighting. While operation with the included remote seemed a little iffy in my testing, the app’s controls and default options were excellent. The overall quality is also much higher than you’d expect from Ikea, which helps explain the nearly $100 price.
This glorious donut is at home almost anywhere, including both tables and walls. If you want a special lamp, think about how to use it.
