C by GE Sol combines LED lamp, Amazon’s Alexa in futuristic package

Amazon’s Alexa started out inside the original Echo, but I always knew she would turn up in other products.

The C by GE Sol ($89, amazon.com), an LED table lamp, is one of the more interesting Alexa-enabled products I’ve run across.

Sol is a thin ring of LED lights about the circumference of a basketball. It looks a lot like a Dyson fan.

There are actually two rings of lights. The outer ring is white and the inner ring is multicolored. The LEDs are behind a thin plastic diffuser.

C by GE is a line of smart lights that includes regular (white light) smart bulbs, color-shifting bulbs and the Sol table lamp.

Sol is more than just a lamp. It has a hub built-in to communicate with the other types of C by GE bulbs as well as the Alexa voice service.

As a lamp

Sol is a really futuristic-looking lamp, but it won’t be lighting your whole room. Sol’s outer ring gives off 550 lumens of light (about one 60-watt bulb). Users can choose the color of the white light — from cool white (6,500K) to very warm white (2,000K).

The light is pleasing, but the white LEDs face outward from the center of the lamp’s ring. The placement works best if the Sol is on a table, with the ring parallel to a wall. At any other angle, the light might shine in your eyes. The diffuser over the LEDs is nice, but at its brightest setting, Sol can be a little harsh if you’re looking right at it.

It’s nice to be able to be able to change the temperature of the light, and you can also choose from 10 brightness levels.

The inner ring of LEDs is multicolored and is used for notifications. When you call to invoke Alexa, the entire inner ring glows blue to indicate that she’s listening.

The ring also shows spinning colored light as it’s powering up and glows bright red when you have Alexa on mute.

The inner ring can also act as a clock, with red and blue lights moving around the inner circle as hour and minute hands. The clock is kind of gimmicky. You can’t adjust the brightness, so if the Sol is in a bedroom, you’ll want to turn it off.

If you set a timer, you can have the inner ring show how much time is left. The ring starts fully lit, and the LEDs turn off as the timer counts down until time runs out as the last LED turns off.

The app

To configure Sol you’ll need to download the C by GE app for your smartphone. Setting up the Sol is much like setting up an Echo: You choose from the available Wi-Fi networks, enter the password, and the app will transfer the credentials so you can control everything. To use Alexa, you’ll need to sign into your Amazon account.

The app is easy to use. There are icons for different preset scenes like “Wake Up,” “Bedtime,” “Get Home” and “Movie Time.” You can define what happens when you invoke the scenes. You can set the temperature of the light and its brightness, and if you have other bulbs connected, you can control them in the scenes as well.

You can also schedule individual lights or scenes to come on at specific times.

Alexa built in

Sol is the first light I’ve seen with Alexa functionality built in.

It’s as if GE put an Echo Dot into the base of Sol.

The microphones do a good job of picking up voice commands, and Alexa works as you’d expect, with a few exceptions.

You can use any of the Alexa skills to do things like call Uber or order a pizza. She’ll also tell you the current temperature or sing you a song. You can stream music from Amazon, iHeartRadio, Tunein and Pandora. Other music sources will be added later.

But, like other third-party Alexa integrations, you can’t use Sol to make or take calls to other Echo devices. You also can’t make Sol part of a multiroom music group, but you’re not going to mind, as Sol’s speaker isn’t going to fill the room. Sol’s speaker is better than an Echo Dot but not by much — at least the Dot can connect to an external speaker. Sol has no audio outputs.

Also, the Alexa integration inside Sol doesn’t have ESP (echo spatial perception).

ESP is the technology used in a home with more than one Echo device.

If more than one Echo can hear you issue a command, they’ll decide amongst themselves which one will answer.

I set up Sol in my living room, which also has an Echo Dot. When I asked Alexa to do something, both of them answered, almost simultaneously. You’ll want to place Sol away from any other Echoes.

Conclusions

Sol has a bold design and would be useful in a home office or bedroom. It might not be a bad choice for your first Alexa device.

As a lamp, it’s only good as an accent light. I also wish you could turn on the colored LEDs on the inside ring.

Sol doesn’t have the adjustability to work as a desk lamp or as a reading light.

Sol is more for mood lighting. It would be good for a dorm room or perhaps a kitchen or a bedroom accent light. The color temperature app control is good for helping you fall asleep and wake up.