Xiaomi Yeelight Candela – Review

Xiaomi Yeelight Candela – A beautiful modern looking lamp

The Yeelight Candela is a product that, on paper, is right up my alley. This portable lamp from Xiaomi has a sleek design, a nice warm hue… and it can be controlled by an app. How well does it perform and what are the pros and cons? Let’s find out!

Design and specs

Wait… is this from Xiaomi? For real? When I think about the brand Xiaomi, I think of affordable tech and nifty gadgets. I however never, never, never… associate them with style, elegance and home decoration. And yet, here we are: looking at a well designed and minimalistic lamp. Put this in a home decoration magazine, and nobody will look twice. Or actually they will, because this lamp looks great.

The Yeelight Candela stands about 20 cm (7.9 inches) tall and has a diameter of about 9.4 cm (3.7 inches). It has an aluminum base and a clear frosted glass lampshade. Turning on the lamp really gives off the vibe of turning on something warm. The color temperature of 1800K was a solid choice by Xiaomi. The light intensity can be changed from very soft to quite bright and illuminating, enough to help you read a book late at night.

With 410 grams the lamp is very light (Ha! You get it? You get it?) and portable. You can easily place it wherever you want in the house. Completely free of wires, I might add, since it has a builtin 2500 mAh battery. This battery lasts you about 8 hours. It can be recharged with a provided micro-USB cable. 

Performance, ease of use and app

How does a light perform? Well… it shines! Literally and figuratively, this piece of tech creates a beautiful warm atmosphere. Especially at the softer settings, it can ‘up the mood’ in many rooms. Or even outside, if you wish. The lamp isn’t waterproof, but since it’s portable, you can really take it anywhere you like.

You adjust the light by simply twisting the top of the lamp. Twist it back and forth quickly once, to activate ‘Candle Mode’. This mode makes the light slowly ‘flicker’ to appear as if the flame is alive, like a real candle. I get the idea, but I don’t like the execution. The flicker isn’t subtle enough to get a real convincing ‘candle effect’. To me, this mode is more annoying than relaxing. I would just keep it on a setting you like and not mess with ‘Candle Mode’, but to each their own of course!

There’s also an included app you can download, with which you can control the light or set a timer. It works as intended, but the app doesn’t really add that much. Controlling the light manually is probably quicker. It’s also simply more satisfying. Find a setting you like, set it once, and you’re done. I didn’t find a real need to play with settings in the app. Unless you heavily invest in a plethora of different Xiaomi / Yeelight products, I’d say give the app a pass.

One cool last feature though: if you have more than one Candela light, you can easily synchronise them. This also works without the app. Turning one of your Candela lights on, automatically turns on the others with a matching light intensity. Turning it off at the end of the night, also means turning all your other lights off. Quite a handy feature!

Price and Verdict

The Yeelight Candela costs about €40. I think that’s a very fair pice. It might not be the cheapest Xiaomi gadget, but that’s not really how I see this product. It’s not really a ‘gadget’ to me. I could absolutely see this kind of lamp being sold in a luxurious furniture / home decoration store. And they’d probably get away with asking at least twice this price. The design of this lamp is great, making it easily worth the price tag.

No USB-C and only an 8 hour battery are my only real quirks. If you keep it connected and you can hide away the cable though, that solves all your problems. I have no trouble recommending the Yeelight Candela to everyone looking to add a little style, warmth and light in their home.