As many are spending more time these days at home or at our home office, at some point you’ll likely find yourself in need of a little extra light. It may be for your desktop or night stand. You may even need a better lighting source for your eBay or Kijiji photos or need to shine a little more on those Skype or Zoom calls. For those needs, the versatile AnthroDesk Dimmable LED Desk Lamp might be the bright choice.
The lamp ships in three pieces, almost flat. There’s a heavy base, a future-looking foldable off-white ABS plastic arm with silver accented LED lamp head which snaps together in seconds and a power adapter with an extra long 10-foot or 3 metre cord.
Endless Lighting Possibilities
The most outstanding feature of this lamp is the almost endless number of lighting position possibilities. The base swivels 360 degrees, the vertical arm 150 degrees. The lamp head arm can also fold up and down 180 degrees and the lamp head itself can twist up to 270 degrees side to side. In essence, with its ergonomic design, you’re able to light the area you want how you want.
Its rectangular lamp head ( approx. 2-inches x 10-inches) contains an array of 30 LEDs which emit 10W of power, delivering the same light as a standard 60W bulb while saving you coin on your monthly electricity bill. Lighting is controlled from a touch panel on the front of the vertical arm. There are three lighting modes; Bright white for daylight (15 LEDs), a hued yellow (15 LEDs) for late night reading or both, where all 30 LEDs are illuminated for maximum brightness. The light emitted is soft and easy on the eyes – although lessons learned, it’s not a great idea to look into it directly.
Also on the vertical arm conveniently located are your brightness up and down controls as well as your power switch. Around the side a few inches up the arm is the power jack and a handy built-in USB-A type port for charging USB powered accessories.
While the light offers great lighting, there are a few things I think could be improved upon in future updates. Functionally, I feel the control panel could be a little more touch sensitive. While you can change modes with a simple single touch of the control, with the brightness controls and on/off switch, you need to give it a physical push with one finger while holding the back of the vertical arm with another.
On the side of the arm, I also think the power jack could be moved lower or to a less conspicuous place. The USB port, while a great idea is not as functional as it could be. It outputs 5V (volts) but at only 500mA (milliAmps) which is insufficient for many smartphones. Some phones may charge but relatively slowly, others not at all. With today’s technology I think they may have been able to make this port at minimum, 1000mA (1A) similar to a standard iPhone charger or even more.
The manufacturer should also better label the product. As such, there are no markings on the unit as to its brand, model, origin, certifications like CSA or UL or any specifications except for a small vanilla generic leaflet with a few technical specs and instructions that ships in the box.
Regardless, at under $40 CAD from Amazon.ca, the AnthroDesk Dimmable LED Desk Lamp seems so far to be a decent bang for your buck, given the the LED desk lamp’s flexibility and lighting possibilities despite a few of its shortcomings.
Gadget Rating: 3.9 / 5
#Anthrodesk #Accessories #ModernDesign #Ergonomics #Office #Lights
Greg Gazin, also known as the Gadget Guy and Gadget Greg, is a syndicated veteran tech columnist, communication, leadership and technology speaker, facilitator at Crestcom International, blogger, podcaster and author. Reach him @gadgetgreg or at GadgetGuy.ca.
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