LumiCharge Smart LED Review: An Abundance of Features in Need of Pruning

The $200.00 LumiCharge Smart LED Lamp, also known on Amazon as the SEO stuffed LumiCharge LED Smart Adjustable Desk Lamp and Universal Phone Charging Dock – Wireless Charger, Touch Control 3 Light Hues, 10 Brightness Levels, Motion Light and Clock with LED Display attempts to take away desktop clutter. Unfortunately, designers failed to recognize that smartphones already did that. A simpler version with fewer features and a better finish should be the company’s next project.

What we like

The basic design of the LumiCharge Smart LED Lamp works. The well-made hinges allow the lamp head to tilt and rotate, putting light just where needed. The multiple types of light and three levels of brilliance make for good work illumination and ambiance support. I manipulate the lamp head swivel a little gingerly as an earlier review unit arrived damaged. I was able to see what went wrong in shipping and would like to avoid that in the lamp plugged in on my desk.

The Smart LED Lamp delivers 10W of wireless charging. See notes in What could be improved on how to enhance that experience. A USB port in the back of the lamp supports charging another device via a cable.

Along with those options comes a flip-up front that hides a rotating selection of USB-C, Lighting, and micro-USB connectors for direct charging. Again, see upgrade notes in What could be improved.

The lamp looks good, and its sensitive touch panel brings light to any situation, however, the over abundance of extraneous features adds clutter rather than taking it away.

What could be improved

Rather than write a narrative, I will list what I think requires improvement on the LumiCharge Smart LED Lamp. Here goes:

• A matte finish to hide fingerprints.
• Elimination of all clock features except time, date, and temperature. Between smartphone and smart speakers, no one needs an alarm or a timer. Especially one that takes several button pushes to configure. If it takes multiple manual pages to explain a feature in a consumer device then the feature should be eliminated. It took me several tries to permanently turn off the alarm, so I tried several ways to silence it. The clock includes a battery backup, so even unplugged the alarm will sound. Find a simple clock component for future devices, or better yet, don’t include features that are already more easily available on other devices.
• Ideally set the clock, via synchronization, from the device in addition to simple setting operations via buttons.
• Eliminate the need to turn on wireless charging. I own several wireless chargers and none of them require activation beyond sitting my device on the pad. Frustration arises when uses think a device is charging, but discover it isn’t when needed. The little blue LED that informs charging status isn’t enough.
• Put control for the motion sensor light on the touchpad. It is odd that a touch device includes one manual flip switch on the back to turn a feature, in this case the motion sense, on or off.
• A dimmer or softer motion sensor light. It can be blinding up close. Eliminating the motion sensor would not decrease the value of the lamp. Consider the motion sensor turns on the lamp to its last setting without a light of its own.
• Reengineer the charging dock to support devices with cases (such as being able to increase the height of the connector).

LumiCharge Smart LED Lamp: The Bottom Line

I never like writing bad reviews. The LumiCharge team spent a lot of time designing features into their Smart LED Lamp. But I don’t think people want a Smart LED Lamp. I think they want an LED Lamp that lights up and perhaps charges a phone easily. Even on the charging feature, however, each option requires some improvement. The overly complicated central clock feature makes the entire lamp appear dated, even with its blue LEDs. Perhaps the LumiCharge Smart LED III will find a better design balance. The answer to “Is it too much?” in the case of this lamp is clearly “Yes.”

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LumiCharge provided the LumiCharge Smart LED Lamp for review.

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