I’ve gotten the opportunity to play around with one of the offerings from TopBrandBox. In this case, it’s a small LED light, with a couple of features added to it, by adding a clever combination of sensors. In what I found to be slightly surprising, this light was actually useful.
The light is seven and a half inches in length, and around three quarters in depth, and a little over one inch in height; bear in mind though that users can position this in any direction they see fit. It’s a combination of plastics, with parts resembling an imitation of brushed metal. While it isn’t anything to write home about, it’s not offensive to look at either. I guess one could describe it as spartan, in its color palate, as the tones are all some version of a neutral/natural looking white or off-white. I’m not sure that this would fit the decor of rooms where every color fits and matters highly, but I’m not sure that’s the design of this LED either. Looking at the layout of the light, there is a sensor that rests dead center on the outward face, and it’s flanked by five LEDs on each side, underneath a plastic white cover. When triggered, they emit a fairly bright, frost white. The light seemed to cover an area that was board, but a bit shallow at the same time.
The light runs solely off of batteries, four AAA batteries in this case. They are inserted in one side, and slide down the inner length of the light. Once they cover is secured over the batteries in proper position, the light is ready to go. No one switch necessary, with the two sensors it has. First, there’s a sensor that watches for how much light is available at the moment. So long as there’s enough light, this LED will remain dormant. Once the light level drops below the preset threshold (it’s not accessible to the user), a Passive Infrared Sensor begins to work, and watches for movement. If movement is detected, the ten LED lights turn on, and remain on until about ten seconds of no movement is detected, at which the LEDs turn off again; were I to estimate the distance that it can pick up movement, my experience seemed to be that the light would pick up movement until around six feet. That’s it. It’s simple and it works.
Now as much as I appreciate the utility of this light, and my personal taste isn’t offended by a spartan design, it’s not that there isn’t places that I don’t see where it could have been designed differently or better. For example, how it fastens to the wall. The long, flat back side of this LED is a strip of metal. When the LED is shipped out, it comes with a magnet strip of commensurate size, attached to the back of the LED unit. This magnet strip can be removed, and fastened to the wall or other flat surface; the magnet has an adhesive side to it, so it likely can’t be removed (easily) once it’s in place, though the light can be removed from the magnet strip, to make changing the batteries easier (as an example). My first thought in see that the magnet gets fasted to the wall was: why not design it so a plain metal strip is fastened, while having the magnet be part of the LED? Doing it that way might allow users greater flexibility in where they’d care to use it. For example, sticking on the refrigerator door to illuminate the way for late night snackers came to mind, as well as the possibility that finding a replacement magnetic strip might be tricky, but users could find other adhesive strips or other metallic objects to stick it to, should the user decide later to relocate the unit. Frankly, having the adhesive strip contain the magnet instead of the unit struck me as straight up backwards, and gives this unit the feel of “single use”. Once the magnet is stuck to something, good luck finding a new one so you can move the light. I’m betting they’re out there, but you’ll have to order one from the net or hunt around town, should you feel the urge to the unit elsewhere.
So despite the “permanence” of this light, I do like it. I’m inclined to give it an 8, were I to stick it in a closet or something, where light can’t always reach. Slap some AAA batteries into it, and you’re set for a while, unless you move or something.
