Interior designers and lighting specialists agree it’s best to have more than one light source in a room, a mix that might include overhead, accent, and task lights for a layered approach to illumination. Umbra’s two new compact LED smart lamps – CUP and CONO – are both designed to fill in the roles for task and ambient lighting with a slew of technological options that far exceed mere mood lighting.
Color adjustable LED bulbs and lamps have become increasingly popular for their ability to bathe rooms in mood-enhancing spectrums with the swipe of an app or tap of a lamp. This is especially true amongst Gen Z; weaned on gamer and influencer culture, and content-creation groups that regularly use colorful LED-illumination as a backdrop for TikTok and YouTube videos.
Nanoleaf’s various modular wall mountable kits have been popular for producing that effect, and now they’ve partnered with Umbra to launch two lights, each equipped with the ability to create over 16-million colors and dimmable from 100% brightness down to a barely-on 1% luminescence, with Nanoleaf’s mobile App at the heart of the user experience.
The CUP Smart Lamp designed by Paul Loebach lives up to its moniker in shape and purpose, a small desk/bedside lamp rated to glow up to a 320 lumens with 16+ million achievable colors for up to 25,000 hours of use (or 8-10 years). While washing the room in reds and blues might be a welcome mood setting option, we’re more thankful of the lamps tunable range of white light, allowing to tune normal white light from warm to cool.
The lamp + storage solution operates using a built-in USB-A cable, making it suited as a desk companion when connected to a laptop or desktop. There’s also a USB-A charging port for recharging devices, ideal for anyone who prefers to keep their phone at arm’s length a their desk or bedside.
The second Umbra smart light is a bit smaller, but more flexible in its application. The CONO Portable Smart Lamp is essentially a wireless rechargeable light shaped like a cone with an X-shaped base. This form allows the CONO to be stationed facing upward or set onto its side. Additionally, the X-shaped base makes for a secure grip while carrying the small light around.
Umbra collaborated with Quebec based ALLSTUDIO to produce the playfully-shaped CONO. Equipped with the same Nanoleaf LEDs within, the portable lamp is also capable of producing a gamut of 16+ million colors like the CUP. Output is a bit more modest, rated for a maximum of 130 lumens (approximately 9 Watts), so think of this as a secondary or tertiary addition that can be placed onto shelves, as uplighting near plants, or outdoor socializing during the evening.
The CONO houses a rechargeable lithium-Ion battery that glows up to five hours via USB-C, and is rated for a lifespan of around the ballpark of 25,000 hours (or 8-10 years).
Both Umbra’s CONO and CUP smart lamps support the Matter standard, which enables them to pair with smartphone and tablet devices for wireless operation and easy smart home ecosystem integration. And because both lights are built around the Nanoleaf App and/or a Smart Home Ecosystem, it allows these lights a range of features well beyond on and off: lighting designed around our Circadian rhythms, holiday-themed lighting scenes, custom scheduling and remote access when connected to a smart home system like Google Home, Apple Home, Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, and a Thread Border router’s mesh network.
The CONO is available for pre-order in either Grey or Sierra for $95, and you can sign up to get notified for the CUP’s availability here.
Source: design-milk