My team and I often get asked which daylight lamp we would recommend people buy. My current answer: The Beurer TL 95. As the successor of the popular Beurer TL 90, I think the new TL 95 surpasses its flagship brother in many aspects and is the overall best consumer-grade choice for people in Europe.

This article is an independent review. For the purpose of testing the Beurer TL 95, I have bought it and used it daily for multiple weeks. I am not affiliated with Beurer and there are no affiliate links in this text.

The Beurer TL 95 is currently priced slightly above € 150 on various market places while its list price is € 249. The lamp provides 10.000 lux at 25 cm using a comparably broad light area. The corrected colour temperature (CCT) of 6500K corresponds to daylight.

TLDR; – review in a nutshell

Why do I consider it my current favourite?

• 🟨light area: 37x30cm among the largest (-> reduces glare) for its price class while not bulky
• ☀️brightness: 10.000 lux at 25cm, brighter than the (larger) flagship model Beurer TL90
• 🌈spectrum: first daylight lamp to use best-in-class SunLike LEDs (+20% biological efficacy), CRI>95
• 🔅dimmable: suitable for different use cases
• ✨design: slim and elegant (suitable for office)

For an in-depth explanation, read on.

What I look for in a daylight lamp

I believe the best daylight lamp is one that

• gives you biologically effective illumination levels
  (I’d consider this ~1000 lux for optimal work performance, >1000 lux for circadian-rhythm-related purposes and >2500 lux for mood improvement)
• you use consistently, i.e. daily at roughly the same time in the morning.
  Therefore, your lamp should be comfortable to look at and aesthetic enough for you to not want to hide it from flatmates or co-workers.

For further general advice on daylight lamps and why the label “10.000 lux” can be misleading, see our page “daylight lamps”.

Now, why is the Beurer TL 95 a great choice for this?

Light area, brightness and glare

“You have to get closer to the lamp.” – “But it’s so glaring!”

That’s a representative conversation snippet I had with a coachee last week, when I explained to her how to properly use her daylight lamp.

As described on our page “daylight lamps” in more detail, I find it nearly impossible to get high illumination levels (2500 lux and above) without unbearable glare from small devices.

Unfortunately, there are not many daylight lamps below 200€ with a reasonably large light area (to reduce glare) to find in Europe. In many online comparisons, the Carex Daylight Classic Plus tops the list in this category and I do think it’s a great lamp, but it’s not easily available in the EU.

In the past, the Beurer TL 90 has been a good pick in my opinion, boasting a stand-out 51 x 34 cm light area for just a little above 100€. The presented Beurer TL 95 comes in second with 37 x 30 cm light area. This is something I still experience as okay and it’s a lot more area than for most consumer daylight lamps you’ll find elsewhere.

Brightness

According to its specifications sheet, the Beurer TL 95 delivers

• 14.000 lux at 20 cm distance
• 5.000 lux at 30 cm distance
• 2.500 lux at 45 cm distance

With 10.000 lux at ~25cm, this is brighter than most entry-level daylight lamps and also brighter than its older brother, the larger Beurer TL 90 (which offers 10.000 lux at 15cm).

These illumination values are more than suitable to boost alertness at work or shift your circadian rhythm towards an early-bird schedule. Even for mood improvement (winter blues or sub-syndromal SAD), 2.500 lux at a 45 cm distance are useful to work with.

A note on clinical SAD (“winter depression”): 2500 lux for 2 hours duration does qualify as an effective treatment protocol, comparable to the recommended protocol of 10.000 lux for 30 minutes. However, 2 hours is a long time for daily sessions. If SAD is your concern, I would recommend the higher-priced but even larger and significantly brighter BoxElite OS by Northern Light Technologies, to reduce the necessary session duration. It is the recommended light therapy lamp by the CET – Center for Environmental Therapeutics, a non-profit organization with world-renowned researchers in light therapy on board.
All that said, my recommendation shall not substitute the consultation with a doctor.

Spectrum

That’s an interesting one! The Beurer TL 95 is the first daylight lamp I know to use Sunlike LEDs, a currently industry-leading LED technology.

Usually, “full-spectrum white” in daylight lamps does not have to mean much. Manufacturer use the term quite generously and often use conventional LEDs or fluorescent light bulbs. This is not really a problem, as the blue spectral region that matters for the biological effects of light (around 480 nm wavelength) is nicely covered by conventional LEDs.

The SunLike Technology, developed by Seoul Semiconductors, does stand out here, though. A study from Basel has shown that SunLike LEDs have a 21% higher biological efficacy (as represented by melanopic strength) at the same lux level while being perceived as more visually comfortable than conventional LEDs. You basically get more bang for your lux. In a world where glare is a problem for the proper and regular use of daylight lamps, this is a substantial benefit.

Furthermore, a colour rendering index (CRI) of 97 (where 100 is the best) is also among the best that’s currently available.

SunLike LEDs are significantly more expensive than regular LEDs (like, more than double the price – I’ve talked to their sales guy when we built an own lamp), so I am quite impressed by Beurer to have used these.

This LED technology seems to be the major difference between the Beurer TL 95 and the similarly built Beurer TL 85. The latter is cheaper but lacks the SunLike technology.

Functionality

Dimming

The Beurer TL 95 is dimmable. Via a neat “flower” icon on the device’s touchscreen, you select your desired brightness out of 6 possible settings (image taken from the official data sheet)

This wouldn’t be a feature I’d looked for, had I not experienced its benefits during use:

• While usually, illumination levels (e.g. 1000 lux at work) are regulated solely based on the distance to the lamp, you can place this lamp where it suits you and dim it to the desired level.
• When starting your session, your eyes are particularly sensitive to glare. It feels nice to work your way up, step by step, to the desired level and give your eyes some time to adjust.
• On some days, for whatever reason, the glare of daylight lamps bothers me disproportionally much. While I’m tempted to just turn off other lights, the TL 95 allows me to just turn down the brightness one step and keep going. Remember that the best lamp is one that you daily? Being dimmable, the TL 95 hands you a lifeline to make this easier for you.

Timer

You can set the light to automatically turn off after 30, 60, 90 or 120 minutes. I’ve learned to appreciate this feature at work, as I schedule my work into blocks of roughly 30 minutes (this is called “pomodoro technique”). When you do that, too, then, in the morning, you can use the light to indicate when your focus time is over.

Design

Last but not least – I think the Beurer TL 95 looks very elegant.

Having a background in data science, I am much of a specs guy, usually rating design second to specs. But having tested different lamps in my personal environment, I have to acknowledge that design does matter. Whether co-workers comment on your lamp with “a ha… light.” or “wow cool!” (real comments!) does influence how much you like to use it daily.

I feel proud of my Beurer TL 95, at home and in the office. I think Beurer did a really good job here. The device is sleek, the light area is quite homogenous, and the user interface is intuitive.

The light area can be tilted so that the light can shine upwards, horizontally or downwards. This allows for proper illumination even if the light is placed above or below you.

Its elegance has been an influential factor in why the Beurer TL 95 has become my office bright light. Looking at alternatives, you can get a similarly elegant look from the cheaper but less functional Beurer TL 85, but not from other large-light-area daylight lamps I’ve encountered.

Conclusion

For its price of currently € 150, the Beurer TL 95 strikes me as an elegant allrounder that you can use for morning bright light as well as during work. It’s bright enough for all lifestyle purposes and has a large enough light area to not be overwhelmingly glaring. As the first daylight lamp to use the Sunlike LED technology, it offers a compelling technological differentiation from competitors in addition to its design.

I can recommend the TL 95 to anyone who aims at improving performance, sleeping better and more consistently or at becoming a morning person. Furthermore, it will benefit your mood improvement if you experience winter blues.

For whom may another option be more optimal?

• If you suffer from seasonal affective disorder (SAD / winter depression) and seek therapy, you may want to sacrifice design and versatility for a broader light area and more brightness. In this case, consider paying a little more (€ 249) and getting the Lumie Brazil.
• If you like the design but seek a cheaper option, the Beurer TL 85 may be worth considering. It looks very similar and is similarly bright while lacking dimming or timer features as well as the SunLike technology. At the time of writing, it costs € 125.

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