REVIEW – The Eve Flare is a lightweight, battery-powered, plastic ambient lighting sphere that can be controlled by Apple HomeKit to adjust the lamp’s brightness and color. Want to control this lamp using non-Apple devices too? The lamp can also be upgraded to work with Matter over Thread. Read on to see what I think!
What is it?
The Eve Flare is a white plastic sphere with a lamp inside that causes the shell to glow and provides about 90 lumens at full brightness. The base of the lamp has rubber feet. Within the center of the base, there is a power button to turn the lamp on and off and a mode button to change the color of the lamp. The base also has gold contacts for the pogo feet on the charging base to contact and a metal ring that can be used to support the lamp from above. The lamp battery can run for 6 hours and the lamp has an ingress protection rating of IP65. The lamp must be paired with Apple HomeKit or a Matter-compatible hub to change the brightness of the lamp and to customize the color.
What’s in the box?
- Eve Flare smart LED lamp
- charging base
- International plug adapters
- instructions
- contact form
Hardware specs
- Light – Built-in 90 lm LED
- Operating Range – 0° – 40° C / 32° – 104° F, 0% – 80% Humidity
- IP65 Water Resistance
- Built-in Battery: 6+ hours
- Charging Input: AC 100-240 V, 50/60 Hz
- Communication protocol – Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread
- Dimensions – Ø 25 cm
Design and features
Unboxing
The Eve Flare smart LED lamp comes in a full color box with pictures of the Eve Flare on the front, back and top and a photo of the Eve Flare in use in two different settings on the sides. Information about the lamp is printed on all sides.
Inside the box the Eve Flare is held in place with cardboard sections and below the lamp are separate boxes for the base and for the charger.
Setup
Setting up the Eve Flare involves setting up the hardware and the software.
The hardware setup is rather straightforward. The power adapter comes with international adapters for most of the world; there are no adapters for the type of plug used in Lybia, Nabmbia, and South Africa. The adapter can be used without a voltage adapter.
The lamp is charged by a base that has two pogo contacts that complete a circuit with concentric circles on the base. The instructions and marketing call this wireless charging. I think in the United States wireless charging almost always means that an item is powered through electromagnetic induction. While “no wires” are needed for this to be powered and charged, be warned that this is not compatible with the Qi standard and similar devices. The power adapter fits into the underside of the base and then the power cord just fits in the space created by the height of the feet of the base.
After the charger is set up the Eve Flare smart LED lamp generally aligns to connect to the base without much effort. If the lamp is on then it will blink off for a split second when the lamp is set on to the base. If the lamp is powered off there will be no indication that the lamp is charging.
Without setting the lamp up with Apple Home, the lamp can be controlled by the two buttons on the base of the lamp. The power button can turn the lamp on and off and the color button cycles through the preset color choices: orange, scarlet (red), cherry (magenta), capri (blue), jade, and green.
When using the mode button the brightness is always at 100%, even if the brightness of the previous setting was lower. I think that it would be intuitive to have a long press on the power button to change the output (vary it from 0% to 100% until the button is released) and a long press on the mode to change the color as it sweeps through the available options.
The software setup is also easy. The Eve Flare smart LED lamp is designed to work with Apple Home right out of the box. To add the lamp to Home, all that is required is to scan the QR code located on the bottom of the lamp or inside the box. Once added to Apple Home the software can be used to change the color, brightness, and saturation. The interface also has a wheel to change the white point temperature. The software can also be used to set up scenes and automation to dynamically and automatically change the lamp settings based on conditions programmed into the software,
Setting up the lamp on the Eve app is just as easy. The Eve software is the way that the firmware on the lamp can be upgraded. While I was reviewing there was an upgrade pushed to the lamp. I didn’t notice any change and I’m not sure there is a change log. The Eve app is also the way that the HomeKit Flare can be upgraded to work with Matter over Thread.
The Eve Flare is also designed to work with Matter through the Thread Bluetooth interface. The Thread interface is not active until a Thread network is sensed and only then can the Eve be upgraded to work with Matter. Devices that are Matter controllers that are also Thread border routers include a HomePod Mini, a Google Nest Hub Max, and an Aeotec SmartThings hub. Unfortunately, I don’t own any of these items so I don’t have the option of controlling this lamp with anything but Apple Home and The Eve app.
The Eve app is centered around supporting an entire ecosystem of Apple Homekit devices. I really only have this one lamp so the app looks pretty spartan with the single device added and also looks like there are far too many ways of sorting and categorizing only one device. I think that the app has a lot of options buried in menus and sub-menus and setting gears, etc.
Design
To evaluate the design of the Eve Flare smart LED lamp it is necessary to appreciate how the lamp is intended to be used. Most lamps are designed to provide light so that objects may be seen more clearly, or so things may be appreciated with a particular quality of light. For instance, stage lighting may illuminate a performer in any number of colors or brightness, and desk lamps may illuminate a desk. Stage lighting is never observed directly by the audience and people don’t generally stare into desk lamps. The Eve Flare is different in that is it designed to be looked at. The lamp is illuminating but it is also designed as an object that may be appreciated. The closest analog is a campfire or fireplace that has burned down to a bed of coals. A typical use for this lamp may be to provide ambiance at a party or gathering, a nightlight, or to provide light when the mood requires it.
The Eve flare has a maximum brightness of 90 lumens. This is rather low by the standard of most lamps, but any brighter and it would be difficult to appreciate the glow of the lamp by looking directly at it. The brightness can be turned down to 1% using HomeKit, but the lamp does not noticeably diminish past 15%. By some liberties with engineering conversions, when the Eve Flare is at 15% the light approximates a single candlepower. This is an accurate description from my point of view.
The outside plastic case has an orange peel finish that protects the lamp from glare from other light sources and probably camouflages scuffs or scratches if they should happen to occur. However, the exterior finish makes it easier to see the weld seam where the two halves of the lamp are fused during the manufacturing process. This is a minor detail and doesn’t affect the operation or performance of the lamp, but it would be interesting if they could design this so that the end result is bead and crevice free.
The Eve Flare smart LED lamp is designed with IP65 water resistance so that it can tolerate multi-directional low-pressure water jets for at least 15 minutes. Users should feel free to position this outdoors as long as it isn’t going to be submerged. Because it is glowing, spherical, and lightweight, I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets tossed around at a party. However, I don’t believe that the plastic exterior or the lamp internals are going to survive drops onto any hard surfaces.
Performance
The Eve Flare lamp lasted for 6:20 on the brightest setting and so met the stated battery capacity of 6 hours. Using the Eve at around 30% I was able to have the lamp stay lit for over 24 hours.
When pressing the power button on the base it sounds like a button on the top of a retractable ballpoint pen and it seems intuitive that it should work similarly. However, the button will register a press at even the slightest pressure so it takes some getting used to in order to tell if the lamp is on or off.
When the lamp is powered off using the button on the base it cannot be controlled by HomeKit. When HomeKit has turned the Eve Flare off (by setting the output to 0%) and then the lamp is switched off and on, the lamp will glow for just a second and then output the desired setting (0%).
What I like
- Unique Product
What I’d change
- hardware color selection and brightness
Final thoughts
It may sound irreverent coming from a contributor to The Gadgeteer, but at first, I was questioning, “Why does this need to be smart?” After some reflection (while being bathed in a magenta light from the lamp) I realize that with the integrations into HomeKit, the Eve Flare smart LED lamp can be automated to change the output to match the mood of a certain scene. For instance, the lamp can output bright blue in the morning when an alarm goes off at a certain time. The blue color will boost alertness to help you wake up. At the end of the day, based on the time, the lamp can be set to output a dim yellow-orange. The warmer color simulates sunset to tap into your human circadian clock and it can help promote your body’s natural sleep cycle and the release of melatonin when used at the end of the day.
However, I see this product mostly contributing to an established mood and the person using it making a decision about how to set it up. Does it need to be automated for this? I don’t think so, but using a device to program the color and intensity is certainly easier than pressing buttons. This is sort of a niche product and it isn’t exactly cheap, but if after reading this review you feel the glowing sphere is calling to you, head over to Eve and get yourself some Flare. If you are looking for a less automated, more waterproof version of this lamp, check out the Loftek LED Floating Pool Light Ball.
Price:
Where to buy: Eve and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Eve.
