If you’ve eaten at a restaurant in the past couple of years, a cordless table lamp has likely illuminated one of your meals (and if you’re like me, you may have also fidgeted with them until you were asked to stop). These stylish, rechargeable LED light sources are practical alternatives to candles and battery-operated tea lights for both indoor and outdoor seating. They are also—my colleagues and I have come to learn—really great to have around at home as well.

Our top picks

• The best cordless table lamp: Zafferano Poldina Pro
• A smaller option: Zafferano Pina Pro

Plain and simple, a lamp that can go wherever, whenever is really convenient. Bring them out for late summer dinners in the backyard, arrange them in difficult-to-light rooms with inadequate outlet distribution, or use them for extra task lighting when decorating cookies at the table. Sometimes I use mine like a chamber stick for navigating from my bedroom to the bathroom at night. The possibilities really are endless.

We’ve come to really love the adaptable nature of these cordless lamps, which is why we decided to test a bunch to find out the best ones. Below you’ll find our top picks, as well as our reasoning behind why we chose them.

New in this update: We tested a new lamp, the Louis Poulsen Panthella 160, and added the Zafferano Pina Pro to our top picks as a more compact alternative to our winner.

The best cordless table lamp: Zafferano Poldina Pro

What we loved: In a dining setting, the faux lampshade design of the Poldina Pro by Zafferano casts a lovely glow both upward and downward, illuminating the table as well as the faces of you and your fellow diners. It’s classic, neutral design that doesn’t scream touch control LED light, making it great for both casual and formal settings.

Like many of the lamps we tested, the Poldina offers three color temperature settings as well as dimmer controls, but unlike other lamps, the Poldina Pro will save your chosen color temperature setting, so that it stays that way whenever you turn it on or off. Other lamps will just make you cycle through all the options every time you use them. It’s a small difference, but one that sets it apart from the pack.

The rechargeable battery cell has about nine hours of juice in it, after which it will begin to flash on and off to signal that it’s time to charge. Instead of a charging port in the lamp itself, the Zafferano lamps come with a convenient charging base instead.

Also, unlike its many impostors (and there are many similar-looking wireless lamps out there, so don’t be fooled), the Poldina comes with a 1-year warranty on the battery and a 2-year warranty for any defects.

Both in its versatility and its functionality, the Poldina Pro is a spectacular appliance to have on hand, not just for outdoor dining but for all sorts of makeshift lighting needs around the house.

What we’d leave: The lamp isn’t cheap, and while we feel that it is worth the extra money because of the unreliability of generic models, we understand that not everybody is prepared to spend that much on a cordless lamp.

A smaller option: Zafferano Pina Pro

What we loved: This is the lamp you are most likely to recognize as the table light from your most recent visit to a restaurant. They’re popular due to their compact size, which makes them unobtrusive on a cramped two-top. Like the Poldina Pro, the Pina Pro is dimmable and has three different color temperature settings. Unlike the Poldina, which casts light in two directions, the Pina focuses light downward. If we had to choose, we think the soft, bi-directional lighting of the Poldina makes it more versatile around the home as ambient lighting, while the Pina is better as a more focused task light.

What we’d leave: As with the Poldina, the Pina is also an investment; however, it is one worth making due to the flexibility it offers with lighting around the house. As mentioned above, the light the Pina emits is a bit sharper and less diffuse. If you’re looking for a soft glow, we’d recommend the Poldina.

How we tested cordless table lamps

We first evaluated the functionality and settings of each lamp. We wanted lamps that had unobtrusive controls/buttons that were still easy to find and operate.

We then placed each lamp on a table outside (in my editor’s outdoor patio), and compared how well they illuminated the surrounding space. This is obviously a subjective test, but it was helpful to rule out any lamps that were too harsh or dim.

Finally, we tested how long the lamps stayed illuminated after a full charge to find any discrepancies between reported battery life and actual battery life.

What we looked for in cordless table lamps

We limited our selection to rechargeable table lamps, leaving out disposable-battery-operated table lamps. We wanted to get as many “name-brand” lamps as possible, since they are able to offer warranties and customer service that generic lamps from Amazon won’t have. But due to the sheer popularity of some of those generic lamps, we chose to test the bestsellers and highly rated cordless rechargeable table lamps from Amazon as well.

We also tried to test lamps that would look good in a variety of design schemes and have the potential to work as outdoor lamps as well as indoor ones, and in a variety of circumstances, like as dining lamps or bedside lamps. We figured the best cordless table lamps would seamlessly blend in with any home decor scheme and add warmth and ambiance wherever they’re needed.

Other rechargeable table lamps we tested and liked

The Panthella is a beautiful designer lamp. It has an attractive dome-shaped “shade” and a high-quality opaque polymer body. The most notable detail is actually a small one. When shifting between its three brightness settings, the transition is noticeably smoother. More like a dissolve than a jump cut, if you will. Since the Panthella doesn’t offer the same level of variation, it’s ultimately not a top pick. However, if you find the design and aesthetic pleasing, you’ll be satisfied with this lamp.

There’s an undeniable charm to the Balmuda lantern, which takes inspiration from those old-fashioned kerosene lanterns once common on railroads, on ships, and in the hands of mysterious strangers on lonely moonlit paths. The light is controlled by a single knob, and it ranges from a bright white light to a dim flicker setting. Vibes-wise, this is suitable for indoor or outdoor use, as it creates a lovely ambiance with its gentle, diffuse glow. Our main issue with this light is that it had the shortest battery life of all the lamps we tested, going kaput after just three hours of continuous use.

This lamp is fun and playful, but more suited for a spot on a bookshelf in a living room rather than on a dining table. It has a warm light, a dimmer that operates by touch, and has a long, 10-hour battery life. One frustrating thing about the lamp is that it comes with a special angled micro USB charger that allows it to charge standing up. However, if you try to charge it with a conventional micro USB, you have to lay the lamp on its side. If you use the cord that comes with the lamp, this isn’t an issue, but we mention it because we received a model for testing without the special charging cord. That meant we had to make do with the other cords we had. We even tried buying a generic angled micro USB cord on Amazon, but none of them fit correctly. All of this is just to say: If you buy this lamp, do not lose the cord.

The shape and wide dome of this lamp aren’t ideal for a smaller dining table. Still, we wanted to test it out due to its popularity online. This is clearly a well-made lamp, and it became the most sought-after by other BA staffers based on its appearance alone. It has three brightness settings; however, none of them were particularly bright. The dimmer is also on the bottom of the lamp, which requires you to pick it up to change the setting. We’d recommend this as a desk lamp or for ambient lighting in a living room rather than for the table.

This is a more affordable alternative for those looking for a portable table lamp with more character. It is waterproof, holds an 8-hour charge, and offers a decent range of brightness settings. It’s broad, diffuse glow makes it suitable for a variety of places in the house. We think it’d be nice as secondary lighting on an outdoor table or as a night light in a child’s bedroom, but maybe a bit too casual for a formal dining room vibe.

Table lamps we don’t recommend