Great value, versatile, little clip-on lamp which adds light anywhere you need it
Very impressed with the Semlos 38 LED Clip-on Light, it is a very low-cost lamp that has a surprising feature set, a couple of strange design decisions but overall I’m very happy with it.
– Great flexible ‘neck’ that holds in place well
– Strong clip
– The defuser helps make the light less harsh
– Colour tone choice is a really nice touch
– The controls are a bit awkward in my configuration
– The Clip is larger than I would like
– Can go very bright, but is adjustable so when you want it dimmer it can be
So the main reason I ordered this lamp is to use it as a light source for an aquarium I have planned to set up, it will be a shallow tank and this lamp should quite nicely just sit above and light it up. I was mainly looking for a lamp of this style with a nice long neck to easily clear the top of the tank and be long enough to nicely sit above the tank.
The lamp looks nice and feels well made for the price, the lamp head is textured black metal and the neck has a rubberised coating which makes it feel nice and allows plenty of grip when you are adjusting the positioning or angle of the head.
When it comes to using the lamp, it does use a USB port for power and a wall port adaptor is not provided so if you intend to plug it into a wall socket make sure you have an adaptor ready. The control unit is built into the cable and I am sure in most scenarios this is fine for I’ve got the cable tucked behind the desk the lamp is clipped to and ideally I would have the cable in a cable tiny cage under the desk but as I need to access the controls I have had to leave it loose and I need to reach under the desk to control the lamp, and unfortunately if the lamp is on then the power turned off at the switch and then back on then the lamp does not automatically come back on, if this was the case then I would have put a smart socket there to control the power.
The lamp is very bright considering its size and price, on the controls you can toggle between two colour tones with is a really nice option that you don’t see very often. You can also control the brightness which is useful. I have included a video of me changing through the different colour and brightness settings showing how they light up a surface. The defuser helps to relieve the harshness of the light but I do think for my needs I might remove it to help increase the light output.
One strange aspect of this is that the clip comes with two little fabric bands around each side, almost like little sweatbands, I have no idea what purpose these are meant to serve but I removed them, which was a bit of a pain, I had to cut through them with a knife but the stretchy material made it difficult.
Semlos 38 LED Clip on Light Gallery
cycling through the settings of the lamp
Semlos 38 LED Clip on Light
£14.99
Pros
- Good brightness options
- Colour tone choice is great
- Good build quality and materials
- Very adjustable
- Amazing value
Cons
- Having to turn it on with the power button every time limits it’s uses
- Strange sweatbands
