Cordless table lamps are good at atmosphere, not at hard work. They run on a built-in rechargeable battery, charged by USB-C or a dock, and run time depends on brightness setting, battery size and battery age — our Lira, for example, is rated up to 8 hours a charge. The lamps in our range with a stated output give 30–200 lumens, against roughly 800 from a mains lamp with a 60W-equivalent bulb. Use them on dining tables, sideboards without sockets and bedsides — not as the reading lamp that is on five hours a night.
Every house has the spot. The sideboard with no socket anywhere near it. The dining table marooned in the middle of the room. The bedside where the plug is behind the bed, and the bed weighs as much as a small car. The cordless lamp promises to fix all of them, and within limits it does.
The limits are worth knowing before you buy, because a rechargeable lamp given the wrong job is a lamp that is always flat.
How do cordless table lamps work?
Inside the base is a rechargeable battery — almost always lithium-ion, the same family of chemistry as your phone — plus an LED and a small circuit that manages charging. You charge it by cable, usually USB-C, or by standing it on a dock: the Trio set comes with a charging station for all three of its lamps. Off the charger, it runs until the battery is done.
Charging takes hours, not minutes: the Lira takes around six hours to charge fully. Check what is in the box, too — the Lira includes a USB-C cable and its LED bulb, but no wall plug, so you will use a USB plug of the kind that charges your phone. Some cordless lamps, the Lira among them, take a separate E14 LED bulb; most of the small mushroom-style lamps have the LED built in.
Controls vary. Many of the smaller lamps have a touch control on top that steps through brightness levels, and some — the Nila and Momo among them — also change colour temperature, from a warm 3000K up to a cool 6500K. Keep them at the warm end after dark. Cool white on a dining table makes supper look like a works canteen, and at these outputs the lamp is there for mood, not for reading the small print.
How long does a cordless lamp last on one charge?
Three things decide it.
Brightness setting. On a dimmable lamp, running lower stretches the charge; running flat out drains it fastest. The headline figure on a listing is the best case — the "up to" in "up to 8 hours" is doing real work.
Battery size. A bigger battery runs longer, but makers rarely print the capacity, so the stated run time is the number to compare.
Age and temperature. Lithium batteries lose capacity gradually over hundreds of charge cycles, so a lamp a few years old will not run as long as it did new. Cold cuts run time too, temporarily: the same lamp gives up sooner on a chilly terrace than on the sideboard indoors.
Trust run-time figures only where they are actually stated. Where a listing gives none, plan on an evening rather than a week, and time it on the first night.
Lira Rechargeable Table Lamp · up to 8 hours
Brass, 41cm tall, with a 20cm shade in black or oatmeal, rated up to eight hours a charge — dinner, the washing up and the film after. USB-C cable and LED bulb in the box.
Where do cordless lamps actually work?
Anywhere the lamp is on for a few hours at a time and a cable would be a nuisance.
Dining tables are the classic. A table in the middle of a room is always a long way from a socket, and a lamp at its centre makes supper feel like an occasion in a way a pendant alone never quite manages. Restaurants and hotels use cordless lamps for exactly this reason: no cables across the floor, and every table can have one. At home, borrow the hotel trick: two or three small lamps down a long table read better than one big one, and because nothing is plugged in, they can move to the sideboard when the plates come off.
Sideboards and consoles with no socket nearby. This is accent-layer height, where a room's evening atmosphere lives.
Bedsides where the socket is behind the bed. A lamp used for half an hour's reading goes several nights between charges. (Our bedroom lighting guide covers the height to aim for.)
Outdoor tables in summer — but only with a lamp sold for outdoor use, rated IP44 or better so it shrugs off splashes and damp. Most cordless indoor lamps, the Lira included, are IP20: indoors only. The Glow Solar Lantern is the outdoor one — IP44, charged by the sun or by USB-C, and happiest brought indoors for the winter.
| Where | Typical use | Cordless? | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dining table | 2–3 hours | Excellent | No cable across the floor; one charge covers dinner |
| Bedside | Under an hour | Excellent | Short use, so several nights per charge |
| Sideboard, no socket | 3–5 hours | Good | Plan on charging every day or two |
| Outdoor table | 2–4 hours | Only if rated | Needs an outdoor product, IP44 or better |
| Main reading lamp | 4–5+ hours | Poor | Too few lumens, too many hours |
Trio Wireless Table Lamp Set · three lamps, one dock
Three slim 32cm lamps, touch-dimmable and IP44 splash-resistant, that live on a shared charging station and come off it for dinner. One for each end of the table, one for the sideboard.
Where don't they work?
As the main reading lamp. If a lamp is on from six until eleven every night, you will be charging it every day, and a battery cycled daily ages fastest. It is a brightness problem too: a reading lamp wants several hundred lumens on the page, and most cordless lamps are designed as mood lighting, not task lighting.
The same goes for a lamp that is the only light in a room. Put a mains lamp, or better a wired wall light, where the light has to work, and go cordless where it only has to look good.
How bright is a cordless lamp compared with a mains lamp?
Brightness is measured in lumens (our lumens vs watts guide has the full picture). The numbers make the point quickly:
| Lamp | Size | Light output | IP rating | Stated run time | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lira, black or oatmeal shade | 41cm tall | E14 LED bulb, included | IP20 | Up to 8 hours | £75 |
| Trio, set of three | 32cm tall | 200lm | IP44 | Not stated | £100 |
| Nila mushroom | 24cm | 150lm | IP20 | Not stated | £39 |
| Fungo mushroom | 23.5cm tall | 80lm, 2700K | IP20 | Not stated | £46 |
| Momo mushroom | 28cm tall | 30lm | IP20 | Not stated | £50 |
| Glow Solar Lantern (outdoor) | 17cm across | 35lm | IP44 | Not stated | £55 |
| Mains lamp, 60W-equivalent LED bulb | — | about 800lm | — | Unlimited | — |
A 30-lumen mushroom lamp is a glow. A 150–200-lumen lamp is a proper pool of light on a table. A mains lamp with an ordinary 60W-equivalent bulb puts out around 800 — several times more than any of them. That is not a flaw in cordless lamps; it is what they are for. Browse the full range of table lamps, or just the cordless and rechargeable ones.
How do you look after the battery, and charge it safely?
Top up whenever it suits you. Lithium batteries have no "memory", so partial charges do no harm. What they dislike is sitting completely flat for weeks. If a lamp is going into a cupboard for the season, leave it part-charged — around half — and top it up every couple of months.
Mind the temperature. Do not charge a lamp that is freezing cold; let one brought in from a frosty terrace warm up to room temperature first. Equally, do not charge in direct sun or on a radiator. Heat is what shortens a battery's life most.
Use the supplied cable and a reputable USB plug, not the unbranded bargain one, and charge on a hard surface rather than under a cushion or on the bed.
Do not charge a damaged lamp. If it has been dropped and cracked, got wet inside, feels hot during use, or the base has started to swell, stop using it and contact the seller. When a lamp finally reaches the end of its life, take it to an electrical recycling point — never the household bin.
If you rent, cordless lamps are one of the few lighting upgrades that leave with you — more in our guide to lighting for renters. And the same battery logic works on the wall: see how to choose a picture light for rechargeable picture lights.
