I was admittedly skeptical about whether a lamp at such a low price was going to hold up and not fail, fall apart or be just plain lame. While I would not exactly call this the Cadillac of SAD lamps, it has far surpassed my expectations of longevity and basic quality. I've had it now for over six months and had exactly zero problems with it. I plan to order one for my office. Living in the Pacific northwest, a nice bright desk lamp can make a big difference during the winter months. I actually don't know if this qualifies technically as a "S.A.D." lamp, since it didn't come with any documentation specifying that it puts out the proper light frequencies that are associated with this type of light, but it certainly has a placebo effect as though it was. Anyway, for a fraction of the price of a real SAD lamp, this would seem to be a very viable approximation of one, if not actually possessing these qualities; only someone more knowledgeable on SAD lamps could say for certain--the box knows not.