REVIEW – For over a year now, I’ve suffered with poor lighting for my Teams calls, yet had no desire to clutter up my desk with a lamp. What intrigued me about the Studio Lamp by Vari was the thin stand and, more importantly, the ability to hide it behind my monitors and yet still provide enough light for video calls.
What is it?
The Vari Studio Lamp is an adjustable lamp both in positioning and brightness that is made for a variety of work spaces.
What’s included?
- Studio Lamp
- Power Cable
- Instructions
Tech specs
- Max height – 35 1/4″
- Base width – 7″
- Base height – 5/8″
- Bottom hinge tilt – 36 degrees
- Middle hinge tilt – 180 degrees
- Top hinge tilt – 180 degrees
- Top hinge rotation – 270 degrees
- Warm, natural, and cool light settings
- Low to high brightness settings
Design and features
With a low profile base and thin, adjustable body, I was hoping that I could finangle the Vari Studio lamp into place without issue and was pleased when I did so. The cord was long enough to use with the standing desk as well. It can unplug from the back of the base which is nice for moving the lamp around.
The base itself has a button dial that you press to turn on and off and rotate it around to adjust the brightness. Towards the middle of the base there is a touch sensitive ‘button’ that adjusts the lighting from a cool, neutral, or warm light. I preferred the neutral lighting for day to day video calls, though the cool was definitely brighter. The warm light was best for lighting up the keyboard as it had the least harshness to the light.
I will say, when turning on and off the lamp, I definitely changed the light settings frequently as the touch-sensitive part is close enough to the dial that if you aren’t paying attention, you may touch it and not realize until you turn it on next.
The Vari Studio lamp folds up very nicely and is quite tall when fully extended. Three hinges can be adjusted to a wide variety of angles, while the top and bottom hinges can also rotate quite a ways to position the lamp just right. I hoped to be able to place the lamp just right under my monitors and that it would fit well in my workspace.
After clearing off some space on my desk, I set the Vari Studio lamp in place behind my monitors, where I hoped it would fit. My goal was to have the top of the lamp over my two work monitors with the light illuminating my keyboard.
It worked great, though admittedly, if I had two 32″ monitors, it might be cutting it close, but I had room to spare. Now, unfortunately, as you can see in the pictures above, I can no longer hide behind a shadow of a ceiling light when in a meeting. I was even asked if I had a new camera since there was such a quality difference by simply having the good, soft lighting that the Vari Studio lamp brings. When it was at the lowest setting the Vari Studio lamp only produced a very dim lighting. Full power while directly on me was a little too much light, but about 1/3 of a dial turn seemed just the right spot.
The simplicity of adjusting the lamp to just the right angle and having light with the push of a button was what drew me to the Vari Studio lamp, and it is what will keep it on my desk for (hopefully) a long while. Five years ago I had no need for a lamp. Now, I am grateful for the soft lighting over the keyboard and the ease of adjusting it to meeting mode when needed. Lastly, I have actually enjoyed turning the light up towards the ceiling and using it as a room lamp in the evenings, as when at full power, it is plenty bright to do so.
What I like about the Vari Studio Lamp
- Adjustable lighting
- Adjustable positioning
- Can easily sit behind monitors
What needs to be improved?
- It is very easy to accidentally change the light settings.
Final thoughts
Overall, the Vari Studio lamp not only worked perfectly for lighting up video calls, but by flipping the top hinge, made an excellent room lamp when I needed a little extra light. The height allowed me to place the lamp behind my monitors and have the light shine over, which kept my desk free from clutter. I am glad that I held out so long on a lamp, as I will be using the Vari Studio Lamp from here on out.
Price: $99.00
Where to buy: Vari Store and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Vari. Vari did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.
