And in the red corner, also fighting out of China by way of LightWedge, weighing in at a svelte 1.5 ounces.. the reigning, defending champion of premium booklights - THE ReLight Rechargeable Book Light.
Well folks, something happened along the way to my switching to the ReLight book light. At $29.95 (well, I paid a bit more in a retail Borders location, but it's available online for $30) it was supposed to be the premium book light. Sleek, slender, dockable, rechargeable, dimmable - it's a light fit for kings.
So what's funny? I hate it! Well, ok, I don't hate it - it's one of the nicest lights I've tried (and I've tried a number of them, mostly before starting this blog). The thing is, it's four lights cast a glare onto the reader screen. In fact, every booklight I've tried with 1 to 4 circular LED lights does the same thing. With one exception.
The Capstone Multi-Pose 4 LED Black BrightBook Booklight is as big and bulky as it's name is long and unwieldy. It uses 3 AAA batteries which should tell you it's not the lightest light on the market. My FedEx scale calls it 2.4 ounces. It's about 3 inches long, 1.5 inches wide and 7/8 inch thick. It's also very cheap at $9.95 (currently on sale for $8.95 at Barnes and Noble's web site).
It extends to an impressive 5" tall when fully extended (although you have to point the LEDs near your eReader, so in practice, it's a bit less. The LED head rotates to about 35-40 degrees right or left. This actually came in handy last night at a concert I attended with my father - the opening act was atrocious, and he forgot a book light. I was able to point this light at both our readers.
The light is so bright at it's brightest setting that I can light my Kindle or nook indirectly - no LEDs pointed at the screen. Therefore, reflective glare is not an issue. The ReLight, while beautiful looking (well, for a book light anyway) is not strong enough, and needs to be shone right on the screen, hence the circles of reflective LED you tend to see.
At $8.95, and with my propensity for losing (or giving away) book lights, I'm going to buy a spare one just in case it disappears off the shelves.
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I have had as many book lights as probably have been manufactured. I agree with my son. This is the killer light. I was able to read my Nook from the excess light from Scott's light in a pitch black concert arena. Amazing.
ReplyDeleteWe have the capstone and believe it or not, we use it to read actual books. Works great for those too. It's the best one we've tried and we've tried many of them. The swivel head is great as it illuminates both pages without repositioning the light itself, the battery life is quite long and it folds up quite compactly.
ReplyDeleteI agree that there are much lighter weight book lights, but they are also lighter in features and quality.
I'm biting my toungue to not make a comment that you both had your readers out during a concert. A concert hall is not your living room, if you want to read, stay home. Oops, my toungue let loose. Nevertheless, thanks for a great review.
So much for tongue biting! In our defense, it was a horrible, horrible opening act. The eReaders went away once John Mayer hit the stage. Or at least, we thought it was John Mayer, to be honest, I was too far away to see.
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