Customer Reviews

ReLight Rechargeable Book Light

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Essentially, booklights fall into three categories: ones that require batteries, ones that are rechargebale as long as you can connect it to your computer via a USB cable, and ones that have a cord and adapter or that you can recharge in a cradle. If you read in bed the first two kinds are useless. The batteries are so costly and last so little time--especially if you fall asleep with the light still on--that you might as well flush your money down the toilet instead of wasting it on a battery-operated booklight. Option B is not a booklight, it's a laptop light. I don't know why those things are marketed as booklights. In addition, all the products I looked at have startlingly short times between charges.

So that leaves us with option 3. I spent a long time looking at every product available (turns out there are two: Relight and IttyBitty Booklight both of which are very costly compared to battery and USB lights). In the end I opted for the Relight because it is the only product on the market that can be recharged in a cradle. It has a very long charge life and a short recharge time. The Itty Bitty light has bulb-life issues and the cord/adadpter model is now very difficult to get. I decided I didn't want to get involved with a cord in bed.

An earlier reviewer--a fan of the battery-powered Itty Bitty booklight, mentions some problems with the Relight that I have not encountered. The light has a bendable arm that can be lifted up or lowered. It is very bright while being confined to the page. It doesn't shine in your eyes unless you aim it at your eyes. It covers the whole spread of a book with its arcing light source. It has one of the drawbacks mentioned--the clip only allows you to slide a few pages of paper in, but I haven't really had a big problem with that. It stays firm and doesn't damage the books. Given the balance of +/- there is still no other reasonable choice.

I give them credit for a great idea, but it is poorly executed. For one, the clip is very difficult to manage. I've been using the Itty Bitty Book Light (original and Vol. 2) for almost 25 years, so I'm used to being able to easily clip my light onto a book. Relight's clip is very narrow such that you are able to fit very few pages into it. This makes it somewhat unstable. Also, the clip doesn't slide down far enough, so the whole unit sits too high up -- more instability. You can't rotate the tip of the light left and right (like with Itty Bitty), so you need to physically move the entire unit if you need more light in a particular area. Finally, and most annoying of all: for some reason, they designed this so that the light also shines directly into your eyes. If you look at the picture, you'll notice that there is clear plastic along the side of the light too, not just on the part that faces the book. As a result, the LEDs end up shining into your eyes. The Itty Bitty completely cuts off any direct line of sight between the lights and your eyes -- the way it should be. Of course, the Itty Bitty has its own set of drawbacks, but on balance, I would stick with the I/B for now.

Pros:
1. Rechargeable
2. Bright
3. High quality
4. Two brightness levels
5. Not as heavy as others
Cons:
1. Plastic clip is designed to attach to several book pages rather than the book cover. It can damage these pages.
2. Instructions warn against leaving light on charger all the time.

Update. After using this light for several months, it would not retain its adjustment. Rather, it kept falling onto the book. A temporary fix was to put fingernail polish on the hinge parts. However, the light is no longer holding a charge so I have replaced it with a different model. If it were possible, I would lower my rating for this item.

I was tired of replacing batteries or bulbs. As batteries were dying I'd suffer through poor lighting. I love not having to worry about that. This is a sleek booklight that provides plenty of light. It adjusts well for most book sizes. Only complaint is that the clip that hooks to the book is hard to open and doesn't open very far. Just enough to fit over the cover of a book. But the clip is tight and keeps the light in place.
Love that it recharges...will never have to replace batteries or bulbs again or suffer through fading lights.

I work nights outside in very limited lighting. I have to read copious material for a certification exam. This light has been a lifesaver as far as allowing me to read my books and not interfere with other activities in the area.

The light will function as promised and more as long as the charging instructions are adhered to. The rechargeable batteries are easily replaceable.

I've gone through nearly half a dozen book lights in the past year. The longest that any one lasted was two weeks. Bulbs burned out; wires broke; lights just stopped working for no discernible reason. When they did work, I often found myself having to readjust the light each time I went from one page to another (from the verso to the recto). With the ReLight, I've managed to avoid all such difficulties.

The light is bright enough on either setting (high or low) for me to read by, and I find that the light illuminates both open pages without any need for me to adjust the light or close the book half way (as some previous lights required). I have used the light with large hardcovers and standard, mass-market paperbacks with equal results.

There are a couple minor drawbacks, which cost the light the fifth star in my rating. The first is that the clip, as another reviewer noted, is not all that good. It fits only only a few pages. It would have been better, I think, had the clip been able to fit over the cover of a hardcover/cloth book, but such is not the case. The second drawback is the book's weight, which can cause the back of the book (where I clip the light) to sag unless propped.

These drawbacks, though, are relatively insignificant when compared to the benefit. In my case, it's that the thing actually works and illuminates all of both pages. Clearly, this book light is more expensive than many others, but so far, the light has been worth it for me.

I have owned many booklights. They fall in two types: Battery operated and Plug-in. The battery operated ones eat up batteries like crazy. The plug-in ones invariably have a skinny little cord running to the light that after time invariably shorts out and stops working (some of the battery ones do too, with similar failures due to the wires over time). My solution had been to use rechargable AA batteries, but the fast drain on the batteries meant that I was recharging more than once a week.

This booklight is different: small and seemingly well-built. The light is whiter and brighter than most booklights. It has two brightness settings and the lower setting is brighter than most booklights I have tried, and a pleasure to read by. On the lower setting the time between recharges is said to be 36 hours, and I am finding it lasts several weeks before a recharge is needed. One downside is that the instructions suggest not doing a lot of partial recharges but to run the rechargable battery all the way down, so while it would be convenient to put it back in the stand/recharger each day, I can't do that as it would partially recharge.

The page clip is a bit awkward but I adjusted easily to it.

Time will tell how long it lasts, but I am very optimistic based on the apparent quality and my experience so far.

UPDATE 8/1/09: One of the things I was looking for was reliability -- a booklight that would last a long time without trouble. From my iniial impression, I thought I had it. Unfortunately, within the first year it developed an occasional flicker. Not enough to make it unusable, but enough to be annoying. It can go for a week or two with no flicker, but then it starts again. It seems to as if something must be loose. So I am still using it, but am no longer as much in love with it as I was. The search for a great booklight continues...

UPDATE 12/21/09: Just thought I would update again. In August, I was worried about a developing flicker. Oddly enough, the flicker has disappeared, and the light has been working great for the last 3 months, and is now about 2 years old. I am back in love, and it is setting a new personal record for a long lasting, bright and reliable reading light and showing no signs of wearing out.

UPDATE 3/10/10: The end has come. The flicker came back with a vengeance, and the light became altogether unreliable and unusable. This light is a goner.

UPDATE 7/1/11 So in March of last year, I replaced the light that died with a new one. This week the re-charger unit died on the new one. So now I have owned two. The first lasted from February 2008 to March 2010 (25 months) and the second from March 2010 to July 2011 (16 months). That is too short for $30 book light. I downgraded my rating from 5 to 3 stars.

When I got this thing, I thought it was the greatest invention. The light was powerful without being too bright such that you could turn it on at night without hurting your eyes. It is slim and compact and I love the idea of the charger - no batteries to replace and no cords attached to you while you are trying to read in bed.

However.... I took it with me on a trip and on the first night, the light became dimmer. It so dim in fact that I can't even read to the bottom of the page when I have the book light attached to the book. Now I am left trying to find another one before my next trip. I'll buy a different product next time.

I've been using this book light for a few months now for night reading. It has 2 light settings. It has a nice compact fold and neat look to it. The rechargeable base has been the most beneficial to me as I tend to fall asleep only to wake up hours later resulting in a waste of battery life. The clip could use some major improvement. Think of it being like a big plastic paperclip and that is what you get on this light. It will only clip to a paperback cover or a small grouping of pages. It will slip onto the cover of the Kindle but when I do this, I always feel like it's going to break as it stretches the plastic clip. I usually just lay the light down and point it to the pages so this doesn't really affect me too much.

You'd be better off with a candle or an old flashlight, or to just not bother reading in the dark.

My wife bought this for me as a gift (and to help her sleep better) and at first I was impressed with the design, but after a few minutes I realized that the blue light shining in my eyes was really annoying. A bit of black electrical tape fixed that, but it makes you wonder if the designer ever used a book light. It looks slick, but functionally, ahhhh, not so good. And the clip is certainly not for use with a BOOK. You know, the thing in the name of the item, a *BOOK* Light?

Well, I could forgive bad design, that is a common failing of product design, but after a week or so of using it the lights went out. I noticed that by jiggling it around in the stand that it was never recharging at all and that if I held it at an angle it would charge up. But I'm not going to hold it while it recharges, so I put a rubber band on it to hold it at the correct angle. But after a few days that no longer worked. So, not only is the design pretty but nonfunctional, but the build quality is terribly bad.

So. I'm left with an expensive angled flashlight that doesn't work. Flashlights, how long have their been flashlights? 100 years? More? A lamp, some batteries, some wire. A flashlight. In an age when we can jam more computing power than existed on the entire earth a generation ago into a device that fits in the palm of you hand, we have a company that can't even make a flashlight that works. I wish I could give it a zero rating, or a negative rating.

Yes, it looks nice, but avoid it, you may or may not get one that works, is it worth the hassle it for a flashlight? Me? I'm so PO'd that I'll never buy another product from this company and I'll tell anyone who listens to avoid them, too. Maybe if enough people avoid their products they'll be no more and a company that knows how to design a book light will arise!

I can dream, can't I?