The Sol looks like a Dyson fan, but it's actually a funky-looking lamp with Alexa built right in. Worth $200?
Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa is popping up in all sorts of new places this year -- and now, you can find her in this funky-looking lamp from GE. It's called the Sol, and it's basically a smallish Amazon Echo with a big halo of light growing out of its head. Click through to learn a little more about it.
The Sol's ring of light is actually two rings -- one on the outside that serves as the lamp, and a blue one on the inside that serves as an Alexa indicator light.
That interior light works just like the ring of light on the top of an Amazon Echo. It lights up blue whenever Alexa is listening for a question or command, and it glows red whenever you've got Alexa on mute.
You can also turn on a pair of lights that indicate the time -- red for the hour and blue for the minute. This shot was taken around 8:55, for instance.
Along with Alexa voice commands, you can control the Sol in the C by GE app, as well as schedule it to wake you up in the morning.
You can also control the lamp's brightness and the volume of the speaker using touch controls on the top of the base of the lamp.
The lamp is color-tunable, meaning you can change it between an orangey, soft white glow and starker white daylight setting.
The lamp isn't quite as bright as a standard 60W incandescent bulb, though.
The difference is even more clear when you take the lampshade out of the equation.
The Sol costs $200 -- which is $20 more than the original Amazon Echo's retail price. Is the addition of a lamp worth the extra cash? Check out our full review to find out.