LED desk lamps--they've improved with better tints. Anyone here have recommendation?

I have an old Tensor lamp that I use by my bedside and it puts out a lot of heat... enough that you can burn your hand by touching the head. I started looking around for a multi-tint LED desk lamp and there's a huge range of choices available. If you have one of these, please share your experiences / recommendations. Thanks!

Yeelight has one that's 95 CRI, adjustable color temperature, powered by USB, and has a small internal battery. I think they're under $40 on some of the big Chinese sites, though I haven't looked since I bought one to give as a gift a couple years ago.

I picked up one at Walmart on Clearance that has a decent tint for $3 that also has a built in wireless phone charger it doesn't come with a power supply but a USB cord that I've plugged into a 2.1A USB AC adapter. The first desk lamps were using either 5mm type LEDs or luxeon/cree type emitters but now some are using small SMD chip emitters perhaps some using COB too. The one I got has SMD chips.
I guess the main advantage in the one I have is it can be powered by a power bank when you lose AC power.

Our local Dollar Tree has Sunbeam brand LED desk lights for...you guessed it... $1. You are definitely not getting high CRI and the tint is slightly cool but it's not a bad little touch sensor desk lamp with 3 settings.

It's actually built pretty well, I've used it daily for a year or two now. It's probably better than some $10-$20 ones I've had before.

I'm looking to get a lamp that has at least 2 or 3 different tints (if 2, none above 5000k... some have 6000k), at least 500 lm, and 9W output. Variable illumination control, or at least 5 stepped ramps. There are a few good contenders. Saw one model for $24.99 that has all of this. But then I spotted one for about $52 that has dual output and a pretty sleek design (in addition to WiFi enabled control).

Zak said:

Yeelight has one that's 95 CRI, adjustable color temperature, powered by USB, and has a small internal battery. I think they're under $40 on some of the big Chinese sites, though I haven't looked since I bought one to give as a gift a couple years ago.

Click to expand...

Yes, Yeelight seems to be a co-branded name with Xiaomi or Philips, as they tend to appear together a lot. One I'm looking at is by Xiaomi Muiji.

I received the Philips Xiaomi desk lamp. My initial impression was soured by a few problems.

1. It does not ship with a USA plug power supply. It comes with an EU plug that then requires an adapter for a USA power socket. However, it should be possible to find a substitute power supply native for 120v that won't require an adapter.
2. The 4000k CCT 82 CRI product specifications led me to believe this would be a warm leaning neutral. Because of that, my initial impression had me feeling it was on the cool side of neutral white. Now after using it at night, I'm finding it's more balanced, more neutral than first thought. And actually, as far as reading lights go, it's better on your eyes. I'm just so used to a very warm Tensor lamp that burned like raw incandescent orange.
3. The documentation is atrocious. You have to install a "Mi Home" app for remote control of the light, which opens up a few more features. But... the directions do not achieve joy. My supported Android phone cannot find the lamp, so I cannot connect. On-line I discovered a few tips about using WiFi, but there's no setting I could find in the app for that. Plus, it has to be a 2.4GHz network... while most everyone in the USA is now using 5GHz.

The app allows for remote control and for some things like setting a timer. But, I really don't need those features. And as far as updates go, I expect at this point since this Version 2 was released in 2014, with no Version 3 having appeared 5 years later it's doubtful there will be a need for firmware updates anyway.

It's a very sleek, modern looking lamp that has ample brightness and versatility. I'm expecting I'll grow to liking it more over time. If the Mi Home app was better, I think this could've been a successful seller in the West. But 5 years after release, there's still no US based retailers offering it.

By the way, here's some power specification details:
Power supply: 100~240v AC, 50/60Hz, 0.3A, output: 15V, 12W maximum.
Lamp: 12V, 0.75A, 9W

It appears that the power supply can handle more power than the lamp would require. This means a 12V 1A (12W) power supply could work, which is found easily with lots of choices. I looked up a number of them and some are nicely designed for being space conscious (unlike the supplied power supply that looks like an obtrusive wall wart). Vast majority are black, but I found one for $4 that comes in whilte (photo 1, photo 2).

Updated previous post with additional information. I'm waiting on a power supply I ordered with a US plug. Hopefully it'll work out OK.

I ended up getting two different power supplies rated at 12V 1A (12W). The first one didn't work... the lamp came on but exhibited strange behavior. Once on, the controls stopped responding. No undue heat or smell of any kind and the lamp function went back to normal once I put it back on the original power supply.

The second one... was a winner! Oddly, same listed specs, but the lamp accepted it and worked fine. It's a higher quality power supply with nice sturdy casing and thick wiring. I don't know if there is something substandard about the first one, but it was cheap enough ($2.50) not to bother me. The good one was $4. Well worth it, as it's a slimmer, more tastefully designed power supply than the original one (even if it had a US plug).

As for programming the Mi Home app... still went nowhere with this. I got further using an old 5th generation Apple iPod Touch. In the iOS version of the Mi Home app, I was able to detect the lamp's WiFi signal and data was passed such that the lamp indicator changed from flashing amber to solid blue. That means it found and attached itself to the in house WiFi network. Yet... the Mi Home app had a "time out" when attempting to finish the connection. The app still doesn't have the device registered, so there's no way to control it remotely. At least the flashing amber LED issue was solved. In a dark room, you could see it. No doubt, a little piece of electrical tape covered over it would do the trick... still--nice to know the lamp actually could get onto the WiFi. Now the hope is that a future version of the Mi Home app will solve this issue. It's not a deal breaker... the lamp still works great. I really like it.

UPDATE: I was able to make a little more progress on Android. I have an older HTC One M8 running Marshmallow Android. I was able to get the Mi Home app installed and it found the lamp. It was able to successfully pass WiFi info to the lamp and it responded. However, the final task was for the Mi Home app to bind to the lamp by showing it as an added device. It failed to do that. I did see a message to "bring lamp closer to router", but despite doing that, just 10 feet away, I had the same problem. I confirmed the lamp has the correct info, by changing the WiFi name. As soon as I did that, the status LED on the lamp started flashing blue. Then, once I changed the WiFi name back, the LED stopped flashing and remained solid blue (with no network info, it would flash amber). So, the lamp is on the WiFi network. My hope is that a future version of the Mi Home app will possibly address this issue. I've notified Xiaomi.

My only other gripe is that there's no emitter tint adjustment. There are some LED lamps that offer this, simply by providing multiple banks of LED's grouped by CCT range. The neutral white tint is OK, with just a touch of green. I tested a minus green filter on it and it was a nice shift that had minimal impact on overall output. So I'm going to carefully cut an ellipsoid shape of the filter and use an adhesive specially designed for attaching tempered glass protectors. It should be good enough to look natural.

PartyPete said:

Our local Dollar Tree has Sunbeam brand LED desk lights for...you guessed it... $1. You are definitely not getting high CRI and the tint is slightly cool but it's not a bad little touch sensor desk lamp with 3 settings.

It's actually built pretty well, I've used it daily for a year or two now. It's probably better than some $10-$20 ones I've had before.

Click to expand...

I know this thread is geared more towards lamps not at the low-end, nevertheless wanted to comment on some of these.


A couple are available from a "dollar store" for $4 each, which seem decent. But, any lamp for ~$1 from these stores cannot have been designed for that target cost, generally seems like some sort of acquisition from a liquidation, discontinued model etc.


These lamps have 3-level touch dimming and run only from 3xAA (no USB or other input) so I tend to use them lightly. That won't stop me from wiring one to a USB adapter manually though!

Funny thing with one, initially touch control did not work so I opened it up. The sticky metallic patch use as a touch pad on the inside had detached; pressed it back in place and lamp worked fine.


One annoyance with these is they do not "remember" the last setting so every time turning on/off, need to cycle through the settings. I noticed this with cheap flaslights as well. The better ones power back on at the same setting as when turned off. I assume the better-quality lights do this?



Dave

Dave_H said:

I know this thread is geared more towards lamps not at the low-end, nevertheless wanted to comment on some of these.


A couple are available from a "dollar store" for $4 each, which seem decent. But, any lamp for ~$1 from these stores cannot have been designed for that target cost, generally seems like some sort of acquisition from a liquidation, discontinued model etc.


These lamps have 3-level touch dimming and run only from 3xAA (no USB or other input) so I tend to use them lightly. That won't stop me from wiring one to a USB adapter manually though!

Funny thing with one, initially touch control did not work so I opened it up. The sticky metallic patch use as a touch pad on the inside had detached; pressed it back in place and lamp worked fine.


One annoyance with these is they do not "remember" the last setting so every time turning on/off, need to cycle through the settings. I noticed this with cheap flaslights as well. The better ones power back on at the same setting as when turned off. I assume the better-quality lights do this?



Dave

Click to expand...

Yeah, definitely not a high end option but nonetheless a decent budget option for a cubicle, dorm, etc.

I honestly have no idea how it achieves it's price point. Here's the actual lamp I'm talking about:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07LDJJW4Q/?tag=cpf0b6-20

$8 on Amazon with fairly high ratings, yet somehow $1 all day every day at my local dollar store. They have been getting shipments in for the past year or so and they keep selling out...so I'm guessing some sort of massive liquidation, but there seems to be a endless supply.

So yes, not high end at all....but for $1 I couldn't resist one to try for my son's room...and it's been working fine for well over a year now.