It really is the ideal portable table lamp. It’s versatile, dimmable, comes in a bunch of different colors, lasts an entire evening, and allows you to customize color temperature as well.
What we didn’t like about the Poldina Pro
The most obvious downside of the Poldina Pro is the price—$169 is a lot for a rechargeable LED table lamp. However, we’d say it’s worth it for the impromptu ambiance it brings anywhere you need it. And if you want to exert control over your lighting situation, nothing provides that better.
Specs
What we looked for
We passed over battery operated lamps, preferring rechargeable table lamps instead. While battery powered options tend to be less expensive, extra costs (and waste) quickly add up once you factor in all the batteries you have to buy. Our selection of lamps was a mixture of popularly recommended best sellers, the most frequently purchased options available on Amazon, as well as a couple more designer choices we recognized from our Instagram grids. We did our best to avoid cheap, poorly made lamps, as we’d rather invest in one that will last a long time rather than something that will give out after a few uses.
How we tested
We evaluated the lamps based on the controls they provided (dimming, light temperature, etc.), their ease of use, how long they lasted on a single charge, and the quality of the light they cast on the table. We know that a lot of the factors that go into choosing a table lamp are subjective—they depend on personal tastes and the spaces the lamps will occupy—so we focussed primarily on more technical aspects. However, visual aesthetics did play a part in the lamps we chose to test in the first place.
Noah Kaufman
Noah Kaufman
Noah Kaufman
Our initial test involved charging the lamps completely and then leaving them on to see how long they would last. We figured that 8 hours was plenty of time for a very long, languorous, summer evening dinner party—so we left them on throughout the workday to see if they’d make it to the end. If the lamp had settings (which ideally they did) we tested those to see how easy and intuitive their controls were.
Others cordless table lamps we tested
Zafferano Pina Pro
The Pina Pro has a glitzy reputation—It was the table light of outdoor dining according to the New York Times, and is still ubiquitous in restaurants around New York City. It’s small, unobtrusive LED bulb casts a broad cone of warm light that illuminates a whole table. Overall, it’s a spectacular lamp and offers the same controls as our top pick. But unlike the Poldina Pro, which shines light up at your dining companions as well as down at your food, the Pina only casts light downward. When not supplemented by additional lighting it gives the dinner table a bit of an interrogation room vibe. Still, it’s a fantastic lamp with a sterling reputation.
Balmuda Lantern
The Balmuda lantern looks like an old-fashioned hurricane lamp, and has a dimmer setting that mimics the flickering of fire light. You can hang it in a tree, and you can carry it around like you’re lost in a haunted forest. The problem is, this lamp had, by far, the shortest battery life. At full power it only lasted about 3 hours before shutting off. For the Balmuda-level price tag we hoped for more.
ZTFLOS Cordless Table Lamp
This generic Amazon table lamp shows up under a variety of different brand names and came with a long run of positive reviews on the site. You can find it under the names JONEMO and NEWSEE as well. It has a nice bell-shaped shade to cover the LED light bulb, and has three different color temperature settings. It lacks a dimmer, which is a big negative, and while it stayed lit more than 8 hours, many on Amazon have complained that their models have gone kaput as quickly as 10 minutes. At $20 it’s unquestionably affordable, but keep in mind those longevity issues before you checkout with it.
La Luz Table Lamp
The La Luz light looks a lot like the Poldina Pro. It also casts a nice light for a fraction of the cost. But you aren’t getting any control over brightness or color temperature, which is what helped make the Poldina Pro so versatile.
HAY PC Portable Lamp
This lamp, from beloved Scandinavian home decor store HAY, is better suited for general living room ambiance than dinner table lighting. Its thick, squat shape takes up more space on a small dining table than we’d like. The charger uses a micro USB, but the cord is angled in a special way so that it can plug into the bottom while the lamp is still standing up. However, if you lose this cord or try to charge it with a conventional micro USB, you’ll have to lay the lamp on its side. Also, the dimmer is located on the bottom of the lamp, making it one of the hardest to use.
HAY Pao Portable Lamp
This HAY lamp is even larger, making it an even tougher sell for lots of dining tables. Make no mistake though, this is an extremely cool lamp that casts plenty of light. So if you’re in the market for an attractive, general-purpose lamp, this would make a good choice.
Cordless Mushroom Table Lamp
This lamp is exceedingly cute and a nice, affordable alternative to the HAY options we tested. Even wider than the Hay PC, this may not be the best choice as a table lamp for a dining room or outdoor patio, but if you are looking for a whimsical bedside lamp or nightlight, this one is a great option.
LED Table Lamp
Another top selling generic Amazon lamp, this one has three temperature settings but no dimmer. It casts a pleasantly diffuse light, but we weren’t fans of the impossible to miss power button that looked like it belonged on a 1990s Gateway computer tower.