Outon S1 Floor Lamp Review: Adds Color To Any Room!
retail price: $89.00
Disclaimer: Outon sent us a unit of the S1 floor lamp free of charge to review, but all thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are our own and were not discussed with the company prior to publishing.
When I started rearranging my home office a few months ago, I knew there was a dire need for better lighting that was functional, minimal and ideally, aesthetically pleasing. As someone who takes forever to choose furniture and decorate, there are still some sparse areas of my home office that I’m working on, but the lighting situation has improved greatly thanks to the Outon S1 smart floor lamp. Thank you to Outon for sending us a review unit of the S1; they did not get to preview this review prior to us publishing it. We set up and installed this lamp ourselves and I’ve been using it everyday for the past month and it’s brightened up my space quite a bit. Let’s take a closer look.
minimal and perfect for small spaces
Outon was originally created in 2016 as a Hong Kong based company and is known for creating lighting fixtures from floor lamps like the S1 to table lamps, string lamps, chandeliers, and more. As of this video, the S1 is currently open for funding on Indiegogo and we’ll link the description for it below. It’s priced at about $90 USD and features a brightness of 3,000 lumens and varying LED colors that can add mood to any space.
The S1 stands at a height of about 70 inches and is essentially a standing RGB strip with an adjustable lamp at the top. It has a very thin matte black frame and can sit in corners or in tight spaces behind furniture. I specifically wanted to put it in a corner of my home office next to a sofa and it was the perfect location. The RGB strip reflects against the wall and users can customize the temperature and colors of the RGB as they see fit. I’ll touch more on the customization options later on in this review. The light that projects from the top of the lamp is also adjustable in varying shades of warm yellow to bright white pigments. It impressively lights up the room more than I anticipated it to. You can also rotate it in multiple directions to have it point at various walls if desired.
Included with the lamp are the plug, the various pieces of the lamp that require a bit of assembly and also a remote. There’s also an app you can download to customize the lamp too.
quite the installation process
I was very excited to receive this lamp but quickly realized after opening the box that it would require a decent amount of installation. The video Outon shared with us was helpful, but not necessarily the most detailed when it came to guiding us through how to install the lamp. You’re given metal slots, the base, poles, 16 screws and an RGB strip that you’ll need to put all together yourself. While it’s somewhat repetitive, once you figure out between the top and bottom, the rest of the pieces come together fairly easily. You’ll also have to physically place the RGB strip in through the slots. This basically means you’re assembling the entire lamp yourself like Ikea furniture.
I am pretty sure Outon is still figuring out some of the production packaging kinks when it comes to distribution as we were missing a pole that should have had a screw hole on the bottom of the lamp base. The lamp is still usable without the final screw holding it in place at the bottom, but it wobbles when being picked up or moved around. They’ll hopefully have this sorted out before shipping out to customers.
customization at your fingertips
Truly, the biggest challenge the S1 has is the work required to put the lamp together. I was a little nervous at first glance with all the pieces laid out, but now that the S1 has been sitting in my office for a couple of weeks, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well this lamp works and looks. The remote it comes with requires two AAA batteries (included) and you can adjust virtually everything using this remote. You can change the brightness, rotate through different modes, and select to only turn on or off the RGB or turn on or off the lamp individually. You can also rotate through five different lighting modes of the lamp itself or change the rhythm sensitivity when the lamp has audio reaction on.
Speaking of audio mode, if you’re looking to place this lamp in the living room, you can also have the RGB lights sync with music so that it changes and dances with your playlist. This is fun for game rooms or when you have guests over in the living room to liven up the surrounding environment.
The S1 can also be paired via Bluetooth to Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant so you can have it turn on or off with your voice if you’re too lazy to use the remote. This is great if you’re looking to put the S1 in your primary bedroom, as you can also set the lamp on a smart timer and have it turn on and off at designated times. This makes the S1 pretty competitive with the functions smart lights have in smart homes nowadays. I’ve been truly impressed with all the features this $90 floor lamp comes with and can see it comfortably placed in any room of a home thanks to its many capabilities.
an app that works
There’s literally an app for everything now and while I was originally cautiously optimistic about the Smart Life app that the S1 pairs with, I was pleasantly surprised to find it working so well. In this app, you can pair multiple lamps (if you have them), but you can also customize the colors even more than what you can do with the physical remote. In the app, you can change the color and brightness directly for both the RGB strips and the lamp. There’s also a quick night mode that turns off the RGB and sets the lamp to a warmer yellow that is comfortable on the eyes in preparation for sleep.
There’s also an area where you can preselect recommended scenes, which are the blend of RGB lights that show on the strip. These range from cool themes like ocean and forest to warmer vibrant shades like birthday and Christmas. There’s also options for you to create your own configuration and allow them to breathe, flash or remain static. The app is also where you’d be able to toggle music mode or set a timer. Once again, that’s pretty much everything you want to see from a smart RGB product.
final thoughts
All that being said, I think Outon has a great product in the S1 floor lamp. They placed all the features you might use and need in it without creating an overly bulky product with unnecessary functions that might overwhelm you. The S1 can blend into any setting and is fully customizable at your fingertips through both the remote and app or even through voice. It also works well as both an RGB light and a lamp. The only true downside I see to the S1 is the amount of work it takes to put it together initially. I’d gladly be willing to pay a little more to have it pre-assembled a bit more for me to have less stress trying to figure out how to get the thing up and running.
Lida
Always the number cruncher, the former narrative journalist turned data scientist, can’t help but find herself bursting with excitement with each new generation of tech gadgets. After all, predicting future trends is Lida’s forte. Any gadget that survives Lida’s torturous, adult working woman itinerary of over 700 notifications a day deserves praise!