It’s not uncommon to use the phone’s LED flash as a torch light in a pinch, but the kind of light it delivers is hardly sufficient for serving as a functional lamp. That is, until you reinforce it with the Travelamp, a light diffuser that softens the phone’s bright, harsh flash into a soft, warm glow.
Made by Fred and Friends, it’s a small silicone band that straps around your phone, with a silicone lamp-like object on top to sit right above the LED. Once set up, it serves to function as a lampshade, covering the harsh light and spreading it around the surrounding area, while you read, write, or find something else to do because your phone is on the table serving as a lamp.
Designed by Sebastiano Tosi and Mattia Fossati, you simply stretch the Travelamp’s band to fit around the width of any smartphone, adjusting it so that the shade is covering the LED directly. It measures 2.09 x 2.32 x 3.66 inches (w x h x d), with the silicone band able to stretch to accommodate most any size of phone, although the product page recommends it for mid-sized or smaller handsets. Granted, we’re not entirely sure when you’ll find a use for this thing, since you’d probably prefer an actual lamp at the bedside table at home and we doubt you’ll ever end up in a hotel room without one installed.
Still, the Travelamp is one of those things that may come in handy, so it’s probably worth keeping around. It costs $8 when it goes on sale in the fall.