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We added three new picks: the Uplift E7, Humanscale Nova, and Anglepoise 90 Mini Mini. We also expanded our Other good desk lamps section, adding new options.
We moved some of our previous picks—the Possini Euro Magnum, TaoTronics LED Lamp, and Franklin Iron Works’ Bronze Turnbuckle LED Lamp—to our Competition section.
A great desk lamp can transform your workspace—both functionally and aesthetically. It can reduce eye fatigue and help you better see what you’re working on, and it can set the right mood for getting work done. A great lamp can also be a design statement. After researching over 51 desk lamps and testing 16, we’ve chosen our favorite desk lamps in a variety of styles and prices.
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Why it’s great: The Uplift LED Desk Lamp E7 with Clamp is a nearly perfect desk lamp in its practicality versus price: It’s lightweight yet stable, affordable but not cheaply made, and slender but capable of stretching high and wide, to cast a glare-free and adjustable light wherever it’s needed.
The E7 isn’t going to win any style awards, but the lamp’s rangy, simple design is unobtrusive. Kindly put, it’s utilitarian. Because this lamp clamps onto a desk’s edge (an optional desk base is available, for $20), it doesn’t require a lot of space. And once it’s assembled (PDF), its three-part adjustable aluminum arm can impressively reach—like an NBA center—up and outward, craning 34 inches up and 43 inches wide when fully outstretched (PDF). It took just a few minutes to assemble the lamp and secure the clamp to our desk, and it was easy to do.
The lamp’s on/off control would be better placed on the lamp head, rather than dangling from the cord in the form of a cheaply constructed plastic power switch. Photo: Michael Murtaugh
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The 11-by-1-inch LED assembly is sheathed in smooth aluminum and shines up to 685 lumens bright (more on lumens here), with an adjustable head that nods up or down in a 190-degree range of motion. We wished the lamp head could also rotate to each side, but the two lamp arms make up for this drawback with gymnast-like flexibility: The first joint of articulation bends 110 degrees, and the second articulation point offers an even more limber 210 degrees—allowing for seemingly endless angles for the lamp to shine its light. Watch the video here to see more detail on how the lamp can be adjusted.
There’s no app integration or smart programmable options, but in everyday use, the E7’s simplicity proved to be a virtue, not a vice. The E7’s controls are tasked to a single square button on the LED light bar, allowing for stepless dimming and brightness adjustments with a tap or long hold. It took only a few uses for the controls to become an intuitive “Look ma, no glancing required” motion. Uplift also makes our top pick standing desk, so we know it’s a reliable company (and if you happen to be shopping for a desk, you can usually find discounts when bundling accessories).
Flaws but not dealbreakers: Because the clamp needs a 2-inch lip to attach to (adjustable up to 2¼-inch thickness), not all desks may be able to accommodate the desk attachment without having to be pulled away from a wall. The lamp can’t tilt back at the base beyond a fixed angle, and the top arm can fling back with some velocity if positioned beyond 90 degrees. The power switch is made of cheap plastic. And, unlike most desk lamps, this lamp includes a two-part power cord instead of one continuous length—which could create an unnecessary point of breakage (and also doesn’t look as tidy).
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This minimalist desk lamp provides a soft, glare-free adjustable light, and when it senses no one is around, it shuts off automatically to save energy.
Get this if: You want a soft, glare-free, uniform light source that won’t tire the eyes and can double as serviceable video-conference lighting.
Why it’s great: The minimalist Humanscale Nova LED lamp provides a soft and uniform light without any distracting glare, flickering, or harsh shadows—making it our favorite lamp for working in front of a computer. The lamp achieves this uniform pool of light by adding a diffuser lens over the LED array. The Nova also has a touch-bar control running along its top arm. So dimming from 100% down to 14% brightness requires only an intuitive sliding motion, which we easily became accustomed to using without even a glance.
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A big reason we liked this lamp was its effortless, silent adjustability. Whether tilting or swiveling, any adjustment required only one hand. The flat, 5-inch light head adjusts up and down and swivels nearly all the way around, so light can be aimed from varying heights and angles. We were also impressed with the Nova’s easy assembly. Just drop the preassembled arm and light head into the weighted desktop base, plug in the Nova, and it’s ready to use.
The Humanscale Nova’s ungainly dual power cord setup—one powering the LED, the other for the charging base—detracts from the sleek minimalism of the lamp itself. Photo: Michael Murtaugh
The Humanscale Nova lamp head rotates fully to the left and right, which is handy for bouncing light off walls when you need a little indirect illumination. Video: Michael Murtaugh
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Power, dimming, and occupancy sensor controls are all incorporated into a single touch-sensitive strip, an interface that is easy to operate without even a glance. Photo: Michael Murtaugh
The lamp’s slide gesture control is intuitive and responsive, and it can stop precisely at the brightness point desired. Video: Michael Murtaugh
When stretching the lamp to its highest reach (nearly 29 inches), we could illuminate the majority of our 70-inch-long desk with only a gentle tapering of light at the far edges. But when we needed to focus light on an exacting task—like installing new keyboard switches or removing a bee stinger with tweezers—we could pull the arms downward just above the desk to cast a shadow-free, even light.
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We also appreciated the memory setting, which turns the Nova to its last-used brightness level, as well as a built-in energy-saving occupancy sensor, which turns the lamp off automatically when it’s left alone. And if you’re regularly logging onto video calls, you might appreciate the Nova’s ability to soften harsh shadows when it’s used at low-medium brightness.
Flaws but not dealbreakers: Although this lamp can reach far forward, its two-piece arm cannot tilt backward beyond a subtle angled position. The automatic energy-saving on/off sensor failed us only once, when we were in a still, long reading mode and had the lamp blocked with other items. But once we positioned the Nova normally, that never occurred again. We’ll keep an eye on this feature.
The Nova is also available with a desk clamp, a wall mount, a cooler 4, 000 K light, or with extended arms for even greater reach (expect delivery to take a bit longer with these customizations added). There’s also an optional charging desktop base equipped with two USB-A ports and Qi wireless charging, but that brings with it a second cord trailed by its own hefty power brick, giving the lamp an ugly pigtail and marring an otherwise minimalist design. Unless you’re in dire need of additional ports/power, skip this option.
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This uncomplicated desk lamp uses LED bulbs instead of built-in LEDs, and it’s the most flexible model for positioning light just where you want it.
Get this if: You want a simple desk lamp with a replaceable bulb and an iconic design that suits most office decor.
Why it’s great: The IKEA Forså is one of the most physically adjustable lamps we tested (second to the Anglepoise 90 Mini Mini). It has three lamp-arm hinges, a tall spring-loaded arm that rotates 180 degrees, and a lamp head that rotates 360 degrees, so you can aim the light anywhere. The metal lamp also has a heavy base, to prevent toppling.
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Unlike with many other lamps we tested, with this one there’s no confusing touch interface to tap or to slide your fingers across—there’s simply an on/off switch on the cord next to the base.
The IKEA Forså’s on/off switch control is simple to operate. But it’s as basic as they come, sans any dimming or color-temperature options. Photo: Michael Murtaugh
IKEA’s energy-efficient, chandelier-style E12 bulb isn’t the brightest of the bunch—a modest 200 lumen brightness. So you might want to replace it with a different bulb (up to 40 watts). Photo: Michael Murtaugh
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Flaws but not dealbreakers: Not everyone liked the look of the lamp in a real-world setting. One tester said it looked clunky. And we thought the shiny coat on the black version (no longer available as a desk lamp) made the Forså look more plasticky than it did in online photos. The newer, nickel-plated version we tested in 2022 is a nicer finish, but it’s also a fingerprint magnet. As of 2022, it seems the Forså is no longer sold in various colors and finishes, as it used to be; the only available color we saw was the nickel-plated one.
You can’t adjust the Forså’s brightness or color temperature, but you can choose
