Dyson Lightcycle Morph Review: You'd Be Off The Mark To Think This Is Just A Lamp
Just like the Dyson Lightcycle that we reviewed a couple of years ago, this takes the story of a lamp much further than how you would expect a lamp to be.
You’ll be asked this question, mostly by folks who don’t enjoy the finer things that life may allow you to afford. Is the Dyson Lightcycle Morph worth the Rs 58,900 that you are paying? The thing is, most people look at this as a table or floor lamp. It is more than just that. Just like the Dyson Lightcycle that we reviewed a couple of years ago, this takes the story of a lamp much further than how you would expect a lamp to be. Be it the design, the multi-joint arm that can be twisted and turned in many ways to get the light exactly where you need or the benefits of altering light for your time zone, which cannot be replicated on a spreadsheet. This is, therefore, luxury at its best. And the most accurate light you can have lighting up your workstation or living room.
First things first, what is morph in Dyson Lightcycle Morph? This is the biggest change as far as the design goes and defines the name as well. Instead of the straight sliding arm that the Dyson Lightcycle has which allows you to adjust it forward and backward and weighted for height adjustment too, there was no way to make the Lightcycle throw light at an angle. It would always be straight down. The Dyson Lightcycle Morph changes that with a longer and a multi-joined arm that can be twisted and turned. The LED head can be rotated 360-degrees while the joints allow you to direct the light around in all sorts of angles and directions. Straight up at the ceiling for indirect light? Can be done. Highlight a painting or a fixture on the wall? Can be done. Reading light for when you are sitting on the couch? Yes, please. A lamp that can stand beside your workstation table? Sure, why not.
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And last but not least, magnet latch and direct the light back down into what looks like a perforated and fairly tall stem that joins to the base, and you can get a really nice and soothing ambient light glowing up the entire room just about right. This is just about right for watching a movie or a spot of F1 2021 on the PlayStation console. I did notice though that it was quite easy to accidentally touch the touch-sensitive sliders for illumination and temperature controls, something you’ll have to be careful of, when twisting the arm around to adjust the Dyson Lightcycle Morph. These controls have been retained as is from the Lightcycle and the placement remains the same as before too. The ideal way to move this head around would be to actually hold it from just where the white panel finishes and the grey panel starts—but mind you, when the lamp has been on for a while, this will be a notch warmer than tepid and you’ll have to use the white plastic layer area to maneuver this.
And that brings me to the still unique way the Dyson Lightcycle Morph stays cool and keeps the LED light cool. There are 6 LEDs bunched together, to light up the room around you. The maximum rated illumination is 14.3-watt, which anyone who has any experience with LED bulbs would have a fair idea how bright those would be. Connected to these LEDs is a vacuum sealed copper tube that is designed to move away the heat generated by these LEDs—you can see this tube if you look closely on the underside of the arm leading to the light fixture at the end of the arm. Dyson calls this the Heat Pipe Cooling technology. There is precisely one drop of water of water in the tube, which evaporates to dissipate heat along the pipe as it condenses and then cools down the entire assembly of the Lightcycle. At this point, it returns to the LEDs, by the way of capillary action. A physics experiment that started with the Lightcycle continues successfully with the Dyson Lightcycle Morph.
The Dyson Link app on your phone—this is free for Android phones and the Apple iPhone—allows you to configure this according to your timezone too. And much more. Using the data such as time, date and the GPS coordinates from the Dyson Link app, it can calculate the exact brightness and colour temperature of the natural light around you in the synchronized mode—this sharing of data happens every 60 seconds. And this is true for anywhere in the world you may decide to travel with the Dyson Lightcycle. I suspect that much like the Lightcycle, the Lightcycle Morph also uses the 32-bit microprocessor as well as an optical sensor that can tune the light’s brightness and colour temperature according to the ambient changes. If you intend to leave this in auto mode, it’ll smartly get that job done. The colour temperature range is between 2,700-6,500 kelvin. And you always have manual control for light warmth or coolness as well as illumination intensity.
What I do miss is a genuine night mode. Even at its lowest brightness setting of 100 lumens, the Lightcycle Morph much like the Lightcycle, is too bright for a bedroom environment just as you start to turn in for the night. Unless it is the ambient light mode using the stem. For instance, I couldn’t really use the Lightcycle for a kid’s study table, because that light, even at its warmest setting, seemed too bright. A brightness mode that goes lower than the current lowest setting would add to the versatility of this accurate lighting.
You can also set your year of birth, which Dyson says helps the Lightcycle in adjusting the amount of light needed in certain modes to match the most comfortable setting for the eyes—the older you get, the more light you need, is the conventional wisdom. But this may not exactly be true for everyone. For instance, my father continues to prefer a light less bright than what I may use for reading, and he finds that much more comfortable—so you’ll probably find the illumination sweet spot at some point, and this is a subjective comfort thing.
The Last Word: Dyson Lightcycle Morph Is When Luxury Gets True Tech Smarts
You really don’t have to justify to anyone why you’ve just spent Rs 58,900 on the Dyson Lightcycle Morph. This is pure luxury infused with smart tech, coming together to make what is perhaps the most accurate light in a lamp form factor. There’s an integrated USB-c port too for charging your phone or tablet while at it. Just adding to the utility. Dyson says these LEDs would not degrade for at least 60 years, that pretty much means this lamp will last your entire lifetime, and still chug along maybe after you are gone. It is practical, it is cutting edge and it will get people talking as it stands humbly on one side in your living room. That’s more than enough bang for your buck from a true luxury piece.
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