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The best LED desk lamp
By Anna Perling This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, Wirecutter and Engadget may earn affiliate commission. Read the full LED desk lamp guide here. After consulting lighting and optometry experts, and spending 32 hours researching more than 40 desk lamps and testing 15, we think that the TaoTronics LED Eye-caring Table Lamp (TT-DL13) is the best lamp for most tasks that require focused light. It has the most brightness levels, color temperatures, and adjustability for customizing your lighting, and its light panel has the least glare. The TaoTronics LED Eye-caring Desk Lamp (TT-DL13) has seven brightness levels, with the top level more than bright enough for typical desk tasks; yet no matter how you position the lamp, its frosted panel prevents glare—other, pricier lamps created annoying reflections or bright points of light. It also has one of the most intuitive control panels we've seen, and its slim, unassuming shape looks good on a desk or a nightstand. The Fully Lumen LED Desk Lamp is virtually identical to our top pick—the only difference besides branding is that the Fully weighs a half pound more. But it's more than double the price of our top pick when purchased on its own. It's half off when bought with our pick for the best standing desk, so if you plan to buy both, we recommend buying the lamp from Fully for a one-stop shopping experience. If you're not picky about controlling brightness and color temperature, the IKEA Forså is a classic architect-style lamp with a replaceable bulb that you can swap if you want a different light temperature or color. It's also the most adjustable lamp we tested, and it's available in more colors. Its classic style may work better with different design schemes if you're not into the sleek, modern look of most LED desk lamps.
This is the desk lamp of your (robotic) dreams
It's back-to-school season. For some of you, this means needing a fancy new lamp for your home or dorm room desk. Unfortunately whatever Walmart, Amazon or IKEA may have in stock won't come anywhere close, both in terms of looks or functionality, to Anodos' RAL 9000 desk lamp. The Japan-based firm, which was behind one of the first connected set-top displays, decided to create a crazy, sleek lamp with an LED display, six cameras, a motorized arm and sensors that help it determine its positioning. There are no pricing or availability details right now, but we sure hope it goes on sale at some point. Because who wouldn't want one of these on their desk? Doesn't matter if you want it for school, work or simply for fun.
Dyson built a lamp that burns for 37 years thanks to satellite tech
Dyson has put its know-how to use improving vacuums, fans and more. Looking to tackle lighting woes, the British company built the CSYS line of lamps that'll burn bright for 37 years. Using Heat Pipe technology, the lamp uses a system similar to what's found on satellites to keep eight LEDs cool and prolongs their life. The heat is pulled away from the bulbs and directed through an aluminum heat sink that spans the length of the lamp's shaft. Each of those LEDs sits in a conical reflector to cut down on glare and added eye strain.
LuminAR robot finally shows us what pico projectors were meant for (video)
Still looking for an excuse to buy a pico projector? We might just have the perfect thing. LuminAR, a project of MIT student Natan Linder, is something like a sentient desk lamp of the sort that will make any dedicated Pixar fan's heart skip a beat. It can follow a user's actions, using a camera to detect gestures and beam information down to augment whichever reality they're currently experiencing. Interestingly, the whole thing is built into a bulb socket, meaning it could be thrown into any lamp you like -- if you can do without the whole automatic motion aspect. It's based on what looks to be a Microsoft Lifecam Show webcam and what is certainly a Microvision Show WX projector, which is both focus and care free. There's a demo video after the break but, sadly, little hope that this thing will be replacing your current desktop lamp any time soon.
T'Light lamp for major nerds with good taste (should such a thing exist)
The T'Light lamp isn't the first one we've seen which boasts things like chargers, docks and USB. It is, however, the nicest looking one we've ever seen. The modern stainless steel lamp has an iPod dock in its base, plus a USB port and a jack for charging laptops -- though there's no adapter for MacBooks as of yet, apparently. The T'Light is available now for $90 -- hit up the source for more details.
LEDSAUR Tyrannosaurus Rex desk lamp makes chewing through paperwork less monotonous
We'll be straight with you: it was pretty much love at first sight for us and dinosaur bones, and while we've always harbored a secret desire to someday acquire a real T-Rex fossil for our private collection, the LEDSAUR is probably our best shot at anything even close to that. Besides taking on that famous shape we love, this carnivorous piece of lighting is pretty stylish, with each of its vertebrae represented with an LED. The lamp is made of stainless steel, it's bendable, and it comes with a remote control. It's sadly only available in Japan for the time being, and runs between $115 and $270. [Via CrunchGear]
Robotic AUR desk lamp doubles as collaborative lighting assistant
If you've just not been in the DIY spirit of late, and would rather your lamp console you than just brighten up your surroundings, the AUR desk lamp should do the trick. Concocted as part of a Ph.D thesis on human-robot fluency and nonverbal behavior, the robotic desk lamp "serves as a non-anthropomorphic robotic platform," and was conceived around a 5-DoF robotic arm to "evoke a personal relationship with the human partner without resorting to human-like features." The so-called objective lamp seeks to "explore the relationship that can be maintained through abstract gestures and nonverbal behavior alone," and is animated using a "custom pipeline enabling the dynamic control of behaviors authored in a 3D animation system." A lot of fancy phrasing, we know, so click on through to catch it on video and let things sink in.[Via Pasta and Vinegar]
