LED Desk Lamps with well thought out features and warm tint -- what have you found?

Off-topic Chatter
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A while back I was looking for a desk / bedroom LED lamp that has touch sensitive controls, a composite light system (rear and down facing LED banks), no PWM, and good neutral/warm tint with flexible arm. The Xiaomi Philips Smart Lamp (v2) turned out to be it. While the tint was a bit leaning cool from neutral, I solved that with optical adhesive affixed filter sheet trimmed to fit. The lamp also came with a WiFi enabled communication module where a phone app would be able to control it. That didn’t work, because of issues with specifying the USA region. I couldn’t even do it specifying China. But this wasn’t an important feature for me. Anyway, 4 years later and the lamp still works great. There is no problem with ramping or brightness order, as there are direct access touch controls easily tapped.

I’ve been looking for a second, smaller LED lamp that would cost about half as much or less, and possibly have the precise specs I want:

  1. CCT of 4000k ~ 5000k. If more than one tint, this would be the FIRST tint that comes on by default, or there’d be a way to lock it in to one specific tint – either memory, or a fixed configuration.
  2. Mode memory that remembers the last intensity and tint used, AND will retain that even if unplugged for a few hours.
  3. If there’s a built-in battery for cordless use, you can turn off the battery and have the light come on when plugged in only.
  4. Ramping should be smooth and at a moderate pace (not too fast or too slow)
  5. Top end brightness doesn’t need to be super powerful – the other features are a priority.
  6. Wish list: mechanical switch such that the light can be controlled from a wall switch contrlled power socket.

From all I’ve seen, it appears like most of these new LED lamps don’t have mechanical switches. They’re all touch sensitive or tactile electronic. This means you can’t have the light switched on and then control on/off from a wall switch. Rather annoying.

I bought 3 different desk LED lights recently. Two of them have built-in batteries and one doesn’t. All of them have multiple CCT modes and brightness modes.

The other REALLY ANNOYING PROBLEM I encountered, is that none of them start on the warm CCT. It’s either neutral or cold. One of them requires you to tap 3 times to get to warm. So there’s no single mode ON/OFF functionality with the switch. You must go through each tint.

The ones with batteries cannot run directly off of A/C and leave the battery alone. If you do have them plugged in, they use the battery and then the battery is simultaneously charged. There is a tiny black physical switch in the back of one that appears to function as a lockout. The soft-touch control becomes inoperable. But sadly, this also disconnects all power to the lamp and thus it loses memory. And that means you have to reset it for each CCT mode.

In terms of brightness, some of them are stepped and some smooth ramping. However, one ramps smoothly too fast and the other a bit too slow.

So…
Anyone here found a nice LED desk lamp that meets the spec requirements I’ve listed above?

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I don’t recall what happened to my LITOM, but that was a nice one. Later got a Winmor

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08C24FCR9/

which I still got around here somewhere. Both of these lock the temp and I’m almost sure the brightness, too.

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Thanks. Good to know about the Winmor.

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THIS is the one I’m returning (got it in white). Thankfully AliExpress does enable returns for some products. Of course, they make you jump through hoops. Like creating a video. My phone made it 100Mb, so I had to upload it to YouTube, then download it in compressed format.

The concept is pretty good… but implementation falls short. 3 tints, stacked sequentially… so it’s ON–cold-warm-neutral–OFF. Which is a PITA. There’s separate brightness levels memorized for each CCT, which is a really neat feature. BUT, if you use the lock feature (prevents accidental ON), you lose your mode memory. Stupid design. Max brightness is excellent for a light this size. It has a built-in battery that the maker claims is 3000mAh.

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I got one of these a while back. It has touch controls. It remembers the brightness and color settings. 2 USB A ports on the side to charge a phone etc. Plenty bright.
It’s kind of big and the arm doesn’t rotate.
But I like it,
All the Best,
Jeff
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BD5FRFRD/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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This is the one that I chose for my mom.
I don’t know if it has what you’re looking for, but she likes it. :+1:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OY4H6QE

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Not budget but suppose to be pretty good.

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Wow, $199 and up! :money_mouth_face:

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Also the one I mentioned has a power off timer. And “RG0 standard in IEC 62778, no blue light, no flicker” whatever that means.
I just noticed there is a new version that’s brighter and has C and A charge ports.
All the Best,
Jeff

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Thanks, Jeff!

That could be a strong candidate. I noticed one feature highlighted is a memory for preferred setting. You set a brightness level and tint, then save it to the memory switch for instant recall. That’s very unusual. I also like that this doesn’t have a built-in battery – so many are coming with that now, but for a static light you want plugged in, the battery doesn’t make any sense.

I found another light that looks decent and has independent brightness and tint controls, but unfortunately it comes with a battery. Still, at $25, not a bad price…
EXCEPT… a recent review indicated that the internal battery exploded. LINK
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CHWKY5QG/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza

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Beautiful lamp!
Yeah, at $229 USD, that’s pretty far above budget-level. I wonder how long they’ve been in production.

Apparently they’ve got a slightly cheaper one at $200, without the swing-arm. LINK

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I don’t have one but if came up in other forum or maybe here at some point. Cost is relative if you work from home or spent a substantial time at a desk. The operating cost per hour because a lot less than most flashlights ;). They make a lot of AV stuff with varying degrees of reviews.

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No battery!!! Good grief, why would you want one in a desk or bedside light?
Particularly if the battery is a grade B or a pull. And not easily replaceable.

I use the one I have as a bedside light. I have it pointed at the ceiling and even on the lowest setting it’s still plenty bright.
On my version the power button light is bright for a bedroom, but makes an OK night light.
I see the new version has a nighttime mod that dims things.

The only “issue” I’ve had is the base is about level with my head. With no tactile anything, finding the power “button” is hard in the dark - even though it is lit when off.

I solved this by putting a couple of thin foam squares to “frame” the power button on two sides.
One of them covers the brightness max button - so I don’t get blasted by accident. I can still ramp it up using the brightness slider.
All the Best,
Jeff

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For some reason, having portable desk lamps appears to be a desired feature for enough customers to inspire manufacture. I have to wonder if it’s something to do with challenged home areas where outlets are minimal. There is also the benefit of light on hand if the power goes out – something to consider. The problem is, most of these lights won’t last more than 4 or 5 hours on high, about 15 to 20 hours on low.

Btw, I don’t know if you have any power outlets that are controlled by wall switches… but if you do, there is a solution for using LED lamps. What you can do is get an incandescent lamp (e.g. like ones they used to call “Tensor” with mini halogen bulbs), and then stick in an LED bulb. I did that with one light and it works great. The only trouble is, it’s very hard to find LED bulbs of top quality. I got one model that has a good tint with no PWM, but I’ve found they last only about 2 to 3 years. They should last 10 years at least!

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Last night I was watching “Mannix” and the curly bulb like 3ft away from my head began blinking and fizzing. Muted the teevee. Outside I heard some grumbling, so figured a transformer blew up like what happened a while ago. Didn’t lose power either time, but I didn’t want “blinking power” to fry the bulb, so turned off whatever lights I had on at the time (ie, not many).

Got one of those usb-powered LED bulbs with the “stick” filaments, so plugged that into a powerbank while I hit the attic to see if I could see anything outside in the distance. Heard a lot of sirens off in the distance, but didn’t see any “emergency” situations, etc.

Anyhoo, guessing the built-in batteries would be for similar functionality, ie, portable light with its own power. Need some portable light for a shed, workbench, etc., where power may be unreliable or just unavailable, and you got built-in battery power, Just In Case.

Oh yeh, some desk lamps also advertise being able to angle the head up, so that it could be used as an area-light. So there’s that.

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Also meant to say the bottom is covered in a cloth like “felt” for a non-scratch surface.
Too slippery. I put some rubber(?) dots on mine and it stays put now.
4 of these mounted somehow above a work table would make a heck of a lighting solution.

Also, for a work area light, consider some video lights. I have some of these.
I added white paper to the inside of the barn doors to push some of the scatter back toward the work area. Also work well as ceiling bounce lights.
They come with power supplies, but have the option of using battery packs,
GVM lights from BHPhotovideo.
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Gary, on that battery version - One of the 1* reviews said his lamp base exploded!
While others said the battery didn’t last.
If the exploding base review isn’t BOGUS - as so many on Amazon are - that’s exactly one too many for me. He does have pics showing the damage.
All the Best,
Jeff

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I am using a Mi Desk Lamp 1S. Nothing too fancy, but it is cheap, has decent flicker free high CRI between I think 6000K and 2700K, and you can either use it with the default Xiaomi Smarthome Spyware, or flash it to Tasmota, WLED or similar, as it uses a generic ESP32 microcontroller. USB to UART dongle and soldering iron required, as well as a bit of reverse engineering.

It also has a single knob that allows for easy operation without any active smart !@#$.

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I had seen that one before… and it had some negative reviews a few years back. Might’ve been just issues with an early release. More recent reviews seem fine. The product page says you can register the device to be controlled through Google or Alexa. I’d no clue about those 3rd party firmwares you can flash. You have to solder in a special dongle to make it possible?

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Good to know! I saw a 4.4 average rating and figured it’s OK. But yeah, that explosion report was from Jan 2024! Crazy. Definitely one to avoid.

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AFAIK the only way to flash it to open source is soldering in a connector for a flashing dongle, yes. Maybe there is some OTA update hack by now, but it did not exist when I got mine at least. They also advertise TIR (edit: fresnel) lenses now, pretty sure mine does not have such a thing, so seems to be updated.

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