What is the Fellowes Lily LED?

It’s a single-arm LED desk lamp on a round weighted base, sold by Fellowes to offices through furniture dealers. You’ll also see it listed as the ESI Lily, and it’s the same lamp under both names, with the same model numbers.

I went through the dealer listings, the spec sheet and Fellowes’ own catalog to see what you actually get for the money. For such a plain-looking lamp, it’s a lot of light.

What’s the Lily like to work under?

The Lily puts out 900 lumens from an 8-watt LED, which I’d call more than enough for paperwork, a notebook or a pile of bills at a desk.

The light is 5000K, on the cool side of white, the kind offices and schools use. It’s nothing like the warm, yellowish glow of a 2700K bulb, and it’s rated 90 CRI, a measure of how true colors look under it.

When full brightness is too much, say when the screen is doing most of the work, the dimmer takes it down a step. It has two settings, and the button sits on the base, right where your hand already is.

I really like the arm. It reaches 6 to 16 inches out from the base, and the shade adjusts too, so you can pull the light in close over a notebook or push it out over the keyboard.

The LED is rated for 90,000 hours, which is a long time for a lamp you switch on every workday.

It comes in silver, black or white. I’d go white on a light wood desk and black on anything darker.

What are the Lily’s downsides?

None of the dealers I checked shows an owner review, so you’d be buying on the spec sheet and the warranty.

The warranty paperwork doesn’t agree with itself, either. Fellowes puts 10 years on it, while dealers still print the older ESI terms of 15 years on the structure and 1 year on the LED transformer. Keep your receipt and ask the dealer which terms your lamp ships under.

The light doesn’t change color. The dimmer only changes how bright it is, so you get the same light at 10 at night as you do at noon.

Then there’s the base. It stands on its own rather than clamping to the desk, and it takes up a 6.4-inch circle, which you’ll notice in a corner where every inch is spoken for.

Who should skip the Lily?

If your desk doubles as an evening reading spot where you’d want a warm, cozy glow, this isn’t your lamp.

Prefer to read what owners say before you spend? The Best LED Task Lights for Small Desks is where I’d look next.

If you’d rather clamp a lamp to the edge and keep the whole desktop clear, this one won’t do that.

Still setting up the corner itself? The Work Nook has the desk, the chair and the rest of it.

Should you order the Lily LED or the Lily LEDx?

The plain Lily LED (LILY-LED) is the one I’d order. The LEDx (LILY-LEDX) adds a USB-A port for charging a tablet or another device, and keeps the same two-setting dimmer and 90,000-hour rating.

It also costs more, about $270, or roughly $80 to $110 over the LED. The one dealer I found selling it online asks you to confirm a business address. Delivery to a home takes a quote.

Fellowes’ own listing for the silver LILY-LED mentions a USB-A port, but the port is on the LEDx, so go by the model number rather than the description. It’s an easy mix-up to make, and a disappointing one if the port was the reason you ordered.

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