Geek Review: Dyson Lightcycle Morph Task Light

Everyone needs lights in their life, but not knows how to get it right. Which is why some homes are bathed in white light, while others use yellow light, and why sometimes we go over to a friend’s place and find it too bright or dark – we’re accustomed to the level of brightness at home, but nowhere else. 

With the Dyson Lightcycle Morph, light intensity or lack thereof is not even a consideration. This light is equipped with Dyson’s machine learning technology that lets it automatically adjust the brightness and warmth of the light according to your location and time of day, via in-built light and motion sensors, as well as a GPS-driven algorithm. This is all possible after syncing your phone to the light via the Dyson Link app, which is pretty much a staple for most Dyson products these days.

Basically, when you enter the room, the Lightcycle Morph will automatically switch on, and it will automatically transition from warm to cool at night or in the day respectively as it detects the time the sun rises and sets in your area. It even fine-tunes the settings even further depending on your age and the day-night cycle in your area, which is pretty cool.

Just don’t be fooled by its strange shape or small lightbulb – it is actually a really powerful light that gets the job done and then some. Unlike the original Lightcycle from 2019, there are now additional directional inputs thanks to a new rotational arm that can be extended outward for greater reach. The lightbulb arm can even rotate 360 degrees vertically so it can be used to bounce light off a surface, or light up objects that are directly above it – something most other task lights in the market are unable to do. 

But that’s not all the Lightcycle Morph can do. As its name suggests, the entire arm can retract onto the perforated stand (which, at this point, probably resembles an exhaust pipe from a monster truck), where a magnet hooks onto the lightbulb with a satisfying snap, morphing it into an ambient lamp.

Cool, huh?

As it turns out, this seemingly gimmicky function is actually pretty useful as it essentially turns into a mood light, which is perfect for when you just want a sliver of illumination for when you’re about to go to bed, or catching a movie in your room.

The Dyson Lightcycle Morph retains much of the minimalist-yet-futuristic design aesthetic as seen in the original Lightcycle and other Dyson products. The matte metallic silver finish on the arm and stand contrasts well with the glossy white paint on the lightbulb cover and base. Standing at 523mm (20.6 inches), this is easily one of the tallest desk lamps you might set your eyes upon.

And for additional utility, it comes with a USB-C port on the stand so you can charge one additional device (albeit slowly) on it. As we’ve said before, this looks very much like it could fit seamlessly onto any Star Wars set simply for its looks alone, and it certainly is a looker on your desk, especially when it’s on its mood light mode.

Dyson does a stellar job with perpetuating its seamless user experience on the Lightcycle Morph in the assembly stage, too. Right out of the box, the unit just comes in two main parts: the arm and stand, and the base. Accompanying it are the other necessary components, such as a stopper to attach the arm onto the base, and a 18W power brick with accompanying cable.  Assembling the task light itself is a rather simple task; simply affix the stand onto the base, twist the stopper at the bottom to lock it in place, and then plug the power cable below it.

This entire process made much easier with visual instructions printed onto under the lid of the box itself, as well as a mounting area to attach the arm onto the base sideways. A QR code is also present for new users to scan and install the Dyson Link app onto their phones (though it should be noted that this step is entirely skippable if you want to use it manually). 

The lightbulb section looks identical to that of the old Lightcycle, with tap/slide touch controls for power, brightness and warmth topside, as well as buttons to activate auto brightness, an ambient light sensor, as well as a motion sensor. While this is in line with Dyson’s minimalist approach, the touch controls aren’t the most responsive, and might take a few taps or swipes to actually register. Thankfully, you can access these controls via the Dyson Link app, the use of which will greatly minimise the need to physically interact with the lamp aside from adjusting its position.

Speaking of which, the arm and the stand are actually much more durable than they look. They swivel to and fro and interlock smoothly thanks to well-oiled axes and pulley-like attachments in the joints. The ability to move the arm around in such a buttery motion is a rather satisfying feat, even if it is a small matter. More importantly, the ability to extend the light fully gives the Lightcycle Morph even more reach than the regular Lightcycle, which offsets the latter’s major disadvantage of having a rather short arm, despite being able to extend as well (but not as much as this model). 

Rotating the light arm so that the bulb faces outwards also grants that satisfying return. Need to cover a larger surface area with the Lightcycle Morph? Just bounce the light off the wall. Need to quickly scan the area for a possible insect flying around the room? You can do that too. The ability to shine the light in more ways than just downwards is probably something you never knew you needed, but is such a welcome feature. This alone means you don’t need to worry about additional lights.

That said, the Lightcycle Morph does “lose” out to the original Lightcycle in the fact that the light cannot be physically moved downwards. What made the old Lightcycle great for precision tasks such as drawing, sketching, or even miniature painting was that it can be moved closer to the subject at hand for an even brighter surface. You can’t really do that on the Lightcycle Morph, as it is only fixed on the horizontal axis. The only way to offset this issue is just to max out the brightness, but it still isn’t as good as just moving the light down to the subject itself.

As such, does this really mean that the Dyson Lightcycle Morph is a direct replacement to the Lightcycle? Not really, as it is really only meant to be a variant to serve different purposes. Both lights are equipped with 1,000 lux brightness on the LED bulb, but it is what that brightness is used for that separates these two from one another (if you’re being really picky, that is). For its ability to rotate and “morph”, one could consider the Lightcycle Morph the generalist to the Lightcycle’s specialist.

But for S$799 (S$1,199 for the Floor variant), the Dyson Lightcycle Morph is our personal recommendation, as it costs just as much as the original Lightcycle. The sheer utility that it offers alone makes it a much more attractive prospect to give your desk the literal glow-up it deserves.