Daniu 33cm/100cm LED Magnifier Lamp on Banggood5 weeks ago I bought this LED magnifier on "preorder"; with Canada Post Direct shipping it came to CAD$32 or a hair under US$25. It shipped a week later than promised so I missed it for Christmas, but now they're in stock.
It arrived in a pretty beat-up box, but the unit inside was unharmed. Bubble-wrap and a custom cut EPP foam brick around the head.
First impressions: Good usable size, all metal arms, cast alloy base, even metal knuckle joint for the lamp itself.
Base was not user-friendly due to my desk having brackets in the way; however I had a resin base that I could get to clamp down. Base is better-than average build quality; in fact, overall that's how I'd describe the whole thing.
The LED ring/lens head is made from a single piece of spun aluminum; inside is a dual-LED illumination ring with Blue-White & Warm-White LED channels; you can illuminate either or both at once. The lens is held in by a threaded ring, not clips or adhesive.
However, the illumination level is "borderline"; those of us used to using one of these with a 22W T9 Circline bulb as both magnifier and swingarm desk illumination will be sorely disappointed. For most uses as illumination on what you are viewing, however, the LED ring is fair to good; I found that by removing the diffuser ring as seen in the video below, illumination improved greatly and even was useful for lighting up the desktop, though still not even close to a 6W flood bulb in a desk lamp.
https://cloud.video.taobao.com/play/u/3388301779/p/1/e/6/t/10301/234633372172.mp4They do not include a USB power pack; this saves you money but you have to source your own rated at 5V/2A. I'm using a 1.5A rated one and it does not seem to load up at all; after running an hour it was barely warm. I intend to do more testing and see what actual consumption is with other power sources.
And finally, lens is a nice ground glass unit 105mm/4in diameter; however the 5X advertised is entirely wrong (I knew this just seeing the lens in the video, though); measuring the thickness it is more like 5-6 diopter, or approx 2.5X magnification. This is what I was expecting, so not really disappointed there; a 5X lens this large would tend to distort the subject so much as to be pretty useless for my purposes anyways.
All in all, excellent build quality right up there with many of the US name brands; not Dazor quality, but definitely a whole lot better than the price indicates.
And finally, here's the glamour shot; my Christmas present to my bench doing its job.
Good reach, good enough lighting, plus a STEAL at approx $25 US. I think I may be able to squeeze just a little more out of it by upping the operating voltage a hair; we shall see.
Oh, and just to make sure there's no doubt of this being TEA:
On the bench getting its cable fixed is the PERFECT mic for Discord: a good old Labtec Verse 700 series; rescued from the thrift just in time for the TEA Time Power Hour coming Saturday. mnem