Mudder Portable USB Light Laptop Light for Keyboard Flexible Stick Dimmable Touch Switch LED White Light Lamp for Laptop Computer PC (Black)

I have a keyboard that could use an occasional light at night and didn't want the bulky desk lamp due to the small space available where this sits.This worked out well. I actually added some 2 sided tape to it and stuck it under the front of the monitor.The built in USB cord is of decent length, though I did need to add a separate USB extender so this would reach to the location of the PC these are connected to.The USB cord is pretty solid and holds it shape if you need to bend or twist it. a bit.The on/off button is touch activated, so no need to actually push a button.It's also more than bright enough to light the keyboard area, but not be in your face.

I like a super dim light. Just enough to see the laptop keys. This does the trick. It has a touch-sensor to turn it on/off to full brightness. But, if you hold that sensor, the light dims until its lowest setting (it will stop a min brightness, not at "Off"). Since it resets to max every time, I could see it being annoying if you want a specific mid-level brightness, but I'm only interested in the Min and sometimes Max, so it's perfect. Some lights I see, the lowest dimness is really just 50%, but this is closer to 10% as it should be.It's also thin (I'd say like a pencil) so it's as unobtrusive as a bar light can be, and easy to stash in a laptop bag. The neck is also metal and feels nice and durable.1 thing IDK how I feel about: The construction of the lamp housing. This consists of a thin metal tube wrapped around a thin hard-plastic clear tube, inside of which is a strip of LEDs. About 1/3 of the metal tube is cut away to expose the plastic and LEDs.So say you have it horizontal. Now say you want to roll/rotate it so it shines at a higher or lower angle (think barrel roll). It's really difficult to do because for you to grip it well enough to get the necessary torque, you're squeezing a thin metal tube, and probably also the exposed plastic. Additionally, the plastic tube is free-rotating inside the metal tube. Because of the strong neck, it takes some force to rotate, and the ability to grip it just isn't there. You can use some wiggle-trickery to work the neck to do what you want, it's just not the natural action one would perform to accomplish the task.Having said that, if you don't squeeze the lamp housing tube, I can't see many problems happening. I only used it once, will update if anything bad does happen in the near future.

Ok, even though I am a pretty swell touch typist - thank you 7th grade! - I still occasionally glance at the keyboard.Especially with that pesky top number/character row (pretty handy when I want to use a crude invective but I know it's going to be read by my Aunt Virginia). Where was I? Oh yeah, this USB light thing. Anyway, now that I am officially old and my current laptop (Chromebook actually) does NOT have a lighted keyboard ($%#$ you HP) I have a very hard time seeing the keys at night...even WITH the lights on. Anyhow, I searched the amazing purveyor of all things "stuff", Amazon, for a keyboard light and found this "Mudder Portable USB Flexible Stick Dimmable Touch Switch LED White Light Lamp for Laptop Computer PC" thing and bought it. Well, the dang thing works like a charm. A lot of light, the touch button is so soft I feel like I am on the Enterprise whenever I use it. For only eight bucks it is completely useful and let voila, low light, dim key problem solved! I definitely recommend it for the low light, eyeball challenged.So with such great enthusiasm why only four stars you may well be asking yourself (or maybe asking why doesn't this idiot shut up already). Well, the one tiny drawback is that if not positioned correctly there can be just a bit of glare off the screen which can be offputting. So, Mudder, ya want five stars? Put a small light shade on the edges of this thing so that its light is concentrated down on the keys and not the screen. Charge a buck more, still completely worth it.In summation: small, light weight, very easy to use, a lot of light, and best of all cheap! I recommend it.

It is very hard to tell the size of something like this, and I will say this is a much bigger light with a much longer gooseneck thing than I expected it to be. That turns out to be a very good thing, as it really is more like a decent desk lamp than a little dinky USB light that plugs into the side of your laptop. You can get the light higher up to get more of your workspace lit than you might expect and it dims and brightens nicely by just holding the switch on the end down. It doesn't get crazy bright, but it gets about as bright you'd expect it to get.I also like that the lights themselves are nicely shielded by the design so the light only comes out of the bottom, meaning no glare in your eyes if you position it the way most people are going to use this.The one downside is if you plan to travel with this or throw it in your backpack, it is going to be a bit bigger than you were probably expecting. But because the whole thing is so thin, it should still pack up pretty easily. How long it will last is very much TBD, but it is cheap enough that you can just replace it if it dies.

There are a couple USB ports on the back of my monitor. I plug this light into one slot, and bend its little arm so that it tucks behind my monitor. This way, it splashed light out from under my monitor, lighting my desk and keyboard in the dark, but stays out of my direct view so it's not blinding or distracting in any way. It turns on/off by just touching the end, which, even tucked away behind the monitor, is easy to find with my fingers and use effortlessly. I wanted an illuminated keyboard, but this solution works so well, that I don't even feel like I need an illuminated keyboard now. And this solution was way cheaper. I'm happy with it.