Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Review

Introduction

Three years on from its original viral moment, the Varmblixt doughnut is back. Only this time it’s gone smart as part of Ikea’s big Matter over Thread push.

The original version made a name for itself as a chunky, glowing orange ring that looked more like modern art than a lamp. This new version dials things back visually with a frosted, matte glass finish, but quietly adds a full smart lighting setup underneath.

It’s the same sculptural design, but now with colour control, dimming, and that all-important cross-platform compatibility thanks to that Matter connectivity. 

Read on for my full Ikea Varmblixt smart lamp review.

Design and placement options

• Quite large
• Wall or table mount

As mentioned above, it still looks like a big glowing donut. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is the finish. 

The original bold orange is gone, replaced with a frosted white glass tube that diffuses light much more softly. You can still make it glow orange if you want, it just doesn’t scream it when switched off.

Physically, it’s not a small thing. At 30cm across, it’s got real presence. On a wall, that works in its favour. On a table, it can feel a bit like you’ve parked a sculpture where a lamp should be.

It’s designed to do both but the wall mounting does feel like the more natural fit. It looks intentional there. On a sideboard or coffee table, it borders on bulky.

Installation is refreshingly simple. There’s the normal Ikea flatpack-style instructions in the box but you really won’t need them. 

A single screw holds the backplate in place, and the glass ring clips on over the top. That’s it. On a desk it’s obviously even easier than that.

The actual light source lives in that backplate; it’s essentially a short light strip wrapped into a circle, with the glass acting purely as a diffuser.

There’s a fabric-style nylon cable running out the bottom, which is a nice touch, and a physical toggle switch tucked underneath for manual control. It does need constant power, so cable management is part of the deal.

That constant power does mean that it doubles up as a Thread mesh extender too, but more on that in a bit.

Features

• Matter compatible
• Comes with wireless remote

This is where things get more interesting, and slightly more complicated than you would probably like.

The lamp ships with a Ikea Bilersa remote, which is actually its own standalone Matter device. That’s both clever and, at times, a bit confusing.

Out of the box, the remote isn’t paired to the lamp. Pairing them is straightforward (weirdly, it will use Zigbee for this), but there’s a catch. If you then add the lamp to a Matter ecosystem afterwards, it unpairs the remote. Which feels a bit backwards.

Once everything is set up in the default smart-but-not-smart mode, the remote can cycle through 12 preset colours, adjust brightness, and handle basic on and off control. 

However, if you bring it into a wider smart home setup by pairing it via Matter, you can reassign it to control pretty much anything; not just limited to the Varmblixt lamp itself. 

You could, for example, have some button presses assigned for lamp control, but also have some combinations controlling other things like blinds, heating or any other smart home automation.

The lamp itself is a Matter over Thread device, so it plays nicely with platforms like Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home, assuming you’ve got a Matter Controller and a Thread Border Router in place.

These are built into a wide range of existing devices like Apple TVs, Echo smart speakers, Google Nest devices, Eero routers and even things like refrigerators, monitors, TVs and soundbars from Samsung.

You can also go down the Ikea route with the Dirigera hub and its app, but unlike some ecosystems, you’re not really unlocking anything dramatically new by doing so. The feature set is fairly basic across the board.

There are no fancy gradients or dynamic effects here. It’s more old-school smart lighting. Pick a colour, adjust the brightness, maybe tweak the white temperature, and that’s your lot.

Ikea’s approach is very much part of the company’s wider shift away from Zigbee and towards Matter over Thread.

Pairing is straightforward if you’ve done Matter before. Simply scan the code, pick your platform, and you’re off.

The lamp supports multi-admin as well, so you can share it across ecosystems without much fuss. In testing, it happily lived inside my Apple Home while also being accessible via Alexa and Home Assistant.

There’s something quite nice about how flexible it is. You can go full smart home integration, or you can ignore apps entirely and just use the included remote.

A lot of people will probably do exactly that. Treat it as a “smart-ish” lamp rather than a deeply integrated one.

Performance

Once set up, the lamp mostly does what you’d expect.

Colours are well judged. Not overly saturated, not washed out. The whites are particularly nice, with a good spread from cooler tones through to warmer, more ambient shades. It works well with adaptive lighting in Apple Home, which helps it blend into a wider setup.

Brightness is limited though. At 180 lumens, this is never going to light up a room. It’s there to create a mood, not replace your ceiling lights.

Response times, when connected, are quick enough. Commands land fast and transitions are smooth, especially when cycling through colours.

Connection stability was a bit hit and miss during testing. There were occasional dropouts where it would disappear for a few seconds before coming back online.

Should you buy it?

FAQs