Moonside Lamp One review: a futuristic lava lamp

Like all smart lights, the Moonside Lamp One is easy to set up. Just plug in the USB cord, download the app on your phone, sync it via Bluetooth, and you’re ready to rock. You’ll also have the option to connect your Lamp One with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, or IFTTT — although you’ll need to create a Moonside account to access the requisite Wi-Fi connection that’s needed for this functionality.

As for the Lamp One itself, its construction is underwhelming. The shade is built from frosted plastic, which makes it a bit more durable than glass, but feels cheap when handling it. It’s also incredibly lightweight — I’ve found myself accidentally knocking it over during testing more times than I’d like to admit.

The device can be turned on and off remotely, and there’s also a nifty power button hidden away at the bottom of the device. I’m a fan of this positioning, as it’s tucked out of the way and gives the Lamp One a sleek appearance that’s almost entirely dedicated to the array of lights hidden within its circular walls.

The lights are truly the star of the show with the Lamp One. The LEDs inside provide a range of 16 million colors, have a 10-year life span, and can produce 120 dynamic color zones. It’s these dynamic zones that make the Lamp One come to life, as it can reproduce a variety of effects. From dancing flames and bouncing orbs to strobing lights and blending colors, there’s almost no limit to what the tiny lamp can do. I spent my first 20 minutes with the Lamp One simply scrolling through all the options, before settling on the Rising Rainbow as my theme of choice.

The smartphone app allows you to set a single color for the Lamp One, change its brightness, or choose a theme (like Dancing Beat, which sends colors racing up and down, or Candy Mix, which slowly merges colors across the shade). You can also design your own color scheme, or have the device react to nearby sound. The reactive sound function doesn’t work quite as well as expected, as it would only trigger if I bumped the table it was on or picked up the device.

All the other features, however, more than make up for this shortcoming. The list of themes is absolutely staggering, with dozens of unique options up for grabs. Moonside says that more themes are constantly being added — which should hopefully give the smart lamp some longevity in your home.

While the Lamp One has some impressive lights, it falls short in other areas that are just as important for a smart lamp. For one, it does not yet have HomeKit support. Its smartphone app also had quite a bit of lag when running on Wi-Fi, and oftentimes it wouldn’t respond at all until switching over to Bluetooth.

There’s also only a bare-bones tutorial to get you up to speed with how everything works. As a result, you’ll be left fumbling around with all the menus and buttons as you discover what they do on your own. An online manual is offered — but it’s not in-depth enough to cover everything you need to know. Coupled with the unresponsiveness of the Wi-Fi mode, it can be cumbersome to learn the Lamp One’s intricacies.