【Pihit】

Amazon's Alexa voice assistant can Pihitno longer be contained to the company's Echo devices.

From smartwatches to Echo clones like the Eufy Genie, device makers are eager to integrate Alexa voice controls into everything imaginable. Late last year, GE announced the C by GE Sol, the world's first Alexa-powered smart LED lamp that requires no additional hardware or setup, and now it's finally available.

You plug it in, connect your Amazon account, and -- boom -- you're living in the future.

I've been trying out the Sol for the last couple of days and it's slowly started changing my routine for the better.

Resembling a Dyson bladeless fan, the Sol is really just an Echo with a 13-inch (diameter) LED ring mounted to it. Its design screams sci-fi, but it's not going to match everyone's interior decor. I prefer a spartan and minimalist aesthetic for my home furniture so the Sol actually fit right in with my dull gray, white and black furniture.

At $200, though, the Sol had better be more than just an Echo + LED lamp, and it is. In addition to the outer LED ring, which you can use voice controls to adjust the brightness and color temperature of, there's also an interior ring that doubles as a clock.

I was totally confused as to what the red and blue light were after setting the Sol up, but then I noticed the red and blue lights were moving. The blue light is the hour and the red light is the minutes.

The clock movement is clever and reminiscent of one those pretty albeit hard-to-read clocks that you'd find in like the MoMa Design Store, but you get used to instantly. And if you don't like it, or it bothers you when you're sleeping (if you put the Sol on your bedside table), you can always turn it off completely within the C by GE app.

So, the Sol is pretty and pricey. But how did it change my life? The same way the Echo and Alexa did when I installed it in my home in 2015: voice controls FTW.

Smart lighting for better sleep

You don't realize how profound voice controls are until you've lived with them for years. They truly enable multitasking in ways that were never possible before. It's true you don't need a Sol to get voice-controlled smart lighting -- there are plenty of smart lights like Philips Hue that can be controlled by Alexa or the Google Assistant -- but this one's an integrated one.

It's completely hassle-free and requires no extra hubs or "bridge" to be connected to work. If you've ever used Philips Hue smart bulbs, you know the bridge that plugs into your router and essentially is the connecting tissue between them and the Echo or Google Home can sometimes go down and require a reset. You won't have any such problems with the Sol because it doesn't need any middleman hub.

With Sol, I used Alexa commands to not just turn it on and off, but also dim and brighten its LED ring. I also used commands like "Alexa, set Sol light to warm white" and "Alexa, make Sol light cooler" to adjust the color temperature based on time of day. At night, I'd switch from the blinding white light to a warmer orange.

Blue light has been linked to having harmful effects on your health, including causing eye strain and sleep disruption. And while the Sol's LED light isn't explicitly designed to combat blue light like Soraa's Helia smart lightbulbs do, I've already started to feel like it's easier to drift into sleep when I've switched the warmer tones before bedtime.

Call me lazy, but voice controls just make it a whole lot easier change lighting scenes. (You can also use the C by GE app or the touch-sensitive buttons on the top of Sol to change the brightness.) And maybe it's all psychological and I'm the victim of a placebo effect, but I'll take it if it means better sleep and better health.

Still does all Echo and Alexa things

And, of course, the Sol does all of the regular things an Echo does like play music from its built-in speaker, and respond to voice commands and questions. You can ask Alexa for the weather, for sports stats, to order you a pizza, to add things to your shopping list, etc. The list goes on and on.

The built-in mics generally do a good job picking up your voice, but I noticed at least one shortcoming.

In my apartment, I have two Echo devices, an Echo in my living room and an Echo Dot in my bedroom. While testing, I muted my Echo Dot and replaced it with the Sol and did what I normally did: I asked Alexa to do XYZ from both rooms and in my kitchen, which is within equal distance of both of the Echo and Sol.

Usually, both my Echo devices would hear my Alexa prompt, but only the closest one would respond, preventing any kind of annoying repetition. But with Sol, it just doesn't seem to have any spatial-awareness. Nine out of ten times, it would trigger simultaneously even though I was closer to my Echo. I don't know if it's because of the mics inside of Sol aren't as advanced, but it something to consider if you live in a smaller place.

Small quibble aside, I really like the Sol. I wish it was a lot cheaper and the speaker quality was a little better, but I have to give it to GE for nailing pretty much all the basics on the first try. GE's also making other smart lights under the C by GE umbrella that closer to what Philips Hue offers, but nothing beats an integrated design. Now, GE just needs to make Sol more affordable and the smart home revolution could finally gain ground.

C by GE Sol Alexa-powered LED lamp

The Good

• Alexa-powered LED lighting is awesome

• Does everything an Echo does

• Doubles as a futuristic-looking clock

The Bad

• Pricey at $200

• Not as spatially-aware as Amazon's Echo devices

• Speaker could be better

The Bottom Line

GE's C by GE Sol Alexa-powered smart lamp is the beginning of bringing intelligence to previously "dumb" home devices.