Every lamp in this comparison says 10,000 lux somewhere on the box. Fifteen of the sixteen really do hit it. The catch is where: the Beurer TL30 gets there about 4 inches from its panel, and the Carex Day-Light Classic Plus gets there at 14. That gap separates a lamp you can use while you eat breakfast or answer email from one you have to hold in front of your face like a phone on a video call.
So this guide skips the wellness talk and sticks to the specs that decide how a light therapy lamp fits your morning: what shape it is, how far away you can sit and still get the full dose, whether you can warm the color up, whether it shuts itself off, what it weighs, and how long the maker will stand behind it. Every lamp sits side by side in the full light therapy lamp sheet, sortable on all six.
The field: Verilux, Carex, Circadian Optics, Northern Light Technologies, TheraLite, Beurer and Luminette. That's nine tablet-style light boxes, five desk lamps, one floor lamp and one pair of light glasses. Every one is a brand-name model with a long, well-rated sales record. One thing up front: light therapy is a treatment, so if you're using it for seasonal depression and not just to wake up, run it past your doctor first.
What "10,000 lux" actually means
Lux measures how much light lands on a surface, which here means your face. It isn't a property of the lamp the way watts are. Light spreads out as it travels, so the same panel that delivers 10,000 lux at 6 inches delivers far less at 18. Every honest manual prints the two numbers as a pair. Verilux's HappyLight Luxe manual says "10,000 lux (photopic measurement) at 6 inches." Carex's Classic Plus user guide gives 10,000 lux at 12 to 14 inches.
10,000 lux, the clinical standard, in big friendly type on the front.
10,000 lux at one specific distance, usually in small print. Sit twice as far back and you get a fraction of the dose.
Circadian Optics, which sells four of the lamps here, doesn't publish a 10,000-lux distance for any model. Its FAQ just tells you to sit 5 to 18 inches away. We left those cells blank on the sheet instead of guessing.
Slopsheets says: Read 10,000 lux as half a spec. The other half is the distance, and that's the number that decides whether the lamp fits your morning.
Distance at 10,000 lux: the column that matters most
This is the spec we'd sort by first. A longer distance means the lamp can sit beside your laptop or across the breakfast table and still do its job. A short one means the panel has to be right in front of you for the whole session.
The lamps fall into three groups:
- 12 to 14 inches. Carex Day-Light Classic Plus (14 in), Northern Light Technologies BOXelite (14 in), Carex Day-Light Sky (12 in), TheraLite Aura (12 in) and the Northern Light Technologies Flamingo floor lamp (12 in). These are the big panels, and the size is why they reach.
- About 6 inches. All five Verilux HappyLights: the Luxe, Lumi Plus, Touch Plus, Lucent and the Duo desk lamp. Close, but a 6-inch lamp propped on a desk next to a keyboard works if you lean in a bit.
- Under 6 inches. The pocket-size Beurer TL30 (10,000 lux at 10 cm, about 4 inches, per its manual).
Reviewers point at the same weak spot. Reviewed's hands-on review of the HappyLight Luxe liked the settings but flagged that the full dose only reaches about 6 inches. One third-party measurement puts the Circadian Optics Lumos 2.0 at roughly 8 inches for the full 10,000 lux, but the maker won't confirm that, so it stays out of the table.
Pay up only if: you want to use the lamp while doing something else, like eating, reading or working. That's when a 12 to 14 inch lamp is worth its size and weight.
Light box, desk lamp, floor lamp or glasses
Light boxes (9 of the 16) are flat tablets on a kickstand: four of the Verilux HappyLights, the Circadian Optics Lattis, Luxy and Lampu, the BOXelite and the Beurer. They're simple, mostly light, and mostly short-reach. The BOXelite is the exception: a big fluorescent box with a 14-inch reach.
Desk lamps put the panel on an arm so you can angle it down at you. The Carex Classic Plus and Sky, the TheraLite Aura, the Circadian Optics Lumos 2.0 and the Verilux HappyLight Duo all work this way. The Duo is really a gooseneck task lamp with a therapy mode, and some buyers say it feels more like a desk lamp than a light box.
The floor lamp, the Northern Light Technologies Flamingo, stands behind a couch or reading chair and angles over your shoulder. One note: Amazon's listing dates back years, while the maker's current spec sheet describes the LED Flamingo II, so check which version ships.
The glasses, Luminette 3, work differently. They never reach 10,000 lux: per Luminette's spec page they shine 500 to 1,500 lux of blue-enriched light down toward your eyes from just above them. The maker claims an effect equal to a 10,000-lux lamp, which we can't verify. The distance cell is blank for them on purpose.
Adjustable color temperature: comfort, not dose
Three lamps let you change the color of the light, all of them Verilux: the HappyLight Luxe (three settings, 3,500K to 5,000K), the Touch Plus (two) and the Duo desk lamp (three). The rest are fixed, from the TheraLite Aura's warm 3,000K to the Circadian Optics line's cool 5,500K.
Adjustable color is nice to have. A warmer setting is easier on the eyes at 6 a.m. and makes the lamp feel less like a dentist's office. The 10,000-lux figure, though, is always quoted at the maker's default setting, so don't buy color control expecting a bigger dose.
Don't overpay for: color temperature control. It makes the lamp more pleasant, but it's no more effective.
Built-in timer
Sessions are short, so a timer that shuts the lamp off is a small luxury that matters more than it sounds, mostly because you won't forget the thing is on. Four products have one: the Verilux Luxe (up to an hour in 5-minute steps, per its manual), the Lumi Plus (15-minute steps), the Touch Plus (10-minute steps) and the Luminette 3 glasses, which shut off at the end of a session.
None of the Carex, Northern Light Technologies, Circadian Optics, TheraLite or Beurer lamps has one. The Carex Classic Plus manual actually tells you to plug it into an external lighting timer if you want one, and a cheap smart plug does the same job for any lamp on this list.
Weight and portability
There's almost a 100-to-1 spread here. The Luminette glasses weigh about 0.1 lb (51 g) and the Beurer TL30 0.4 lb. The Verilux tablets come in between 1.2 and 2 lb, and the Lumos 2.0 at 1.3 lb. The arm lamps are heavier: the TheraLite Aura weighs 4.7 lb and the Duo desk lamp 4.8 lb. The big-reach lamps are heavy because the reach comes from a big panel: the Carex Sky weighs 8.2 lb, the BOXelite 8 lb, the Classic Plus 9.4 lb and the Flamingo 11 lb.
Circadian Optics doesn't publish item weights for the Lattis, Luxy or Lampu, so those cells are blank. The only figures we found look like shipping weights.
The catch: reach and portability pull in opposite directions. Every lamp that delivers 10,000 lux at 12 inches or more weighs at least 4.7 lb, and every lamp under 2 lb with a published distance needs you within about 6 inches.
Warranty
Northern Light Technologies leads by a distance, with a seven-year warranty on both the BOXelite and the Flamingo. Carex gives five years on the Classic Plus and Sky. Circadian Optics offers four years through its replacement program, and Verilux three on every HappyLight. The TheraLite Aura gets one year, which is short for a lamp that buyers say tends to droop and fail early. The Beurer TL30's US manual promises a limited lifetime warranty, while European retailers quote three years, so check the terms where you buy.
Warranty length matters more here than in most categories because the common complaints are mechanical: hinges that loosen, heads that sag, LEDs that fail in the second winter. Homes & Gardens named the Classic Plus its best overall and the BOXelite its best design, while calling the first bulky and the second expensive. Long warranties are part of what you're paying for.
Which light therapy lamp should you buy?
- Best overall: Carex Day-Light Classic Plus. It gives the full 10,000 lux at 14 inches with a big, forgiving panel and a five-year warranty. It's heavy and the color is fixed, but nothing else here gives you as much room to move.
- Best for most desks: Verilux HappyLight Luxe. A timer, three color temperatures, four brightness levels and a 2 lb tablet. You need to sit within about 6 inches.
- Best portable: Circadian Optics Lumos 2.0. A 1.3 lb lamp whose panel rotates 270 degrees and whose stem folds down to 13.8 inches, so it travels easily and still aims where you need it.
- Best built to last: Northern Light Technologies BOXelite. A 14-inch reach and a seven-year warranty, in exchange for size, a fluorescent tube that clicks as it warms up, and a steeper price.
Questions people ask before buying
How far should I sit from a 10,000 lux lamp? At or inside the distance the manual prints next to the 10,000-lux figure. For the lamps here that's about 4 inches for the Beurer TL30, 6 inches for the Verilux HappyLights, and 12 to 14 inches for the Carex, TheraLite and Northern Light Technologies lamps.
Do the cheap, small lamps work? The small Verilux tablets reach 10,000 lux at their rated 6 inches, so they deliver the same dose if you sit close enough. What you give up is room to move.
Are light therapy glasses as good as a lamp? They're a different approach: much lower lux, aimed at your eyes from close range. Luminette claims an equivalent effect. If you can't sit still in front of a lamp each morning they're worth a look, but they have the weakest Amazon rating in this group.
Sources / further reading
- Reviewed, Verilux HappyLight Luxe review, a hands-on review of the Luxe's settings, timer and short reach.
- Popular Science, The best light therapy lamps, a roundup that names the Lumos 2.0 its compact pick.
- Homes & Gardens, Best SAD lamps, which picks the Carex Classic Plus and the BOXelite.
- Carex Day-Light Classic Plus user guide, the source for the 12 to 14 inch reach and the five-year warranty.
- Verilux HappyLight Luxe manual, the source for 10,000 lux at 6 inches and the timer steps.
- Northern Light Technologies, BOXelite, the maker's reach, weight and seven-year warranty.
- Circadian Optics FAQ, the maker's 5 to 18 inch placement guidance.
- Luminette 3 product page, the glasses' lux settings and timer.