neewer 20" dimmable ring light

Best Ring Lights For Remote Teaching

Included in this guide:

(Image credit: CC)

The best ring lights for remote teaching isn't something anyone would have expected to need, but the times have changed fast and adapting is crucial. As such, getting the best setup for at-home remote teaching is now important and a ring light is a quick and effective way to achieve that.

You can have the best video streaming camera out there, but if the lighting is wrong the end result will suffer. Get the light right and it can make your video feed appear clear and high quality, even when using a built-in camera on a laptop, smartphone, or tablet.

Thanks to LED technology, ring lights are portable, inexpensive, bright, and highly effective. The idea is that they are able to project an even layer of light that creates the best possible illumination for a face when on camera.

But which is the best for your needs? Read on to find the best ring light for teachers.

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1. Neewer Ring Light Kit: Best overall ring light

Neewer 20 Ring Light — (Image credit: Neewer)

Neewer Ring Light Kit

A huge ring light that does it all

Color temp: 3200 - 5600k | Power: Battery and mains | Size: 20-inches

Massive 20-inch ring

Mains or battery power

Dimmable

Comes with stand

Expensive

The Neewer Ring Light Kit is one of the best available as it is designed for professional-level make-up work. The massive 20-inch ring light uses an array of 352 LEDs to create a broad and even spread of 44W of light that ranges from 3,200 to 5,600K, allowing you to avoid the too-white light that some ring lights deliver.

This is both mains and battery-powered, making it ideal if you want the option to move around, or sit somewhere not close to a power source. The size of this light offers a wide spread that can deliver a more even finish, ideal for any teacher who wants to illuminate more than just their face. So for a science teacher taking a class through a live experiment, for example, this is an excellent choice.

2. Rotolight Neo 2: Best ring light for video classes

Rotolight Neo 2

A portable yet powerful option from an experience company

Color temp: 3150 - 6300k | Power: Battery and mains | Size: 5.91-inches

Bicolor lighting

Mains and battery-powered

Highly portable

Not technically a ring light

Pricey

The Rotolight Neo 2 is a product built by a company with years of experience creating lighting at the professional level, for photographers and others. As such, it represents a lot of research and experience being distilled into a very small, highly efficient, and super effective form factor. Small enough to sit on a desk, in fact.

Pop this next to your display, laptop, webcam, smartphone – whatever – and it will illuminate you as the subject with a perfectly balanced light that creates the most lifelike representation. We haven't missed the fact this isn't technically a ring light, but it does exactly the same job, just without the option to place your smartphone at its center.

Both battery and mains-powered, this is super portable. Yet it offers a whopping 1,840 lux of bicolor light that is good for clear images at up to three feet, making it ideal for video lessons.

3. UBeesize Selfie Ring Light: Best affordable ring light

UBeesize Selfie Ring Light

All the power of a ring light but without the steep price

Color temp: 3000 - 6000k | Power: USB-powered | Size: 10.2-inches

USB-powered, ideal for smartphones

Three levels of lighting

Affordable price

Quite small in size

No battery onboard

The UBeesize Selfie Ring Light is a great option for teachers who don't want to spend too much. This compact ring light, at 10.2-inches, still manages to offer enough power for teachers on a video call with the options of three levels of warmth from 3000K up to 6000K as well as 11 brightness levels.

Some options come with a tripod stand while still being super affordable. There is also a USB power cable supplied, which can be plugged into a mains charger, a portable battery, a laptop, tablet, or smartphone – making it very versatile and portable.

The tripod also features a phone holder, perfect if you want to teach a class, see the students while still facing the light and camera, and remain hands-free. For the low price, the fact this comes with a three-year replacement cover for parts is very impressive.

4. Xinbaohong Clip-On Selfie Light: Best for iPhone and laptop

Xinbaohong Clip-On Selfie Light

Clip it anywhere to get lit easily

Color temp: 6000k | Power: USB and battery | Size: 3.35-inches

Super portable and clip-on

Powerful lighting

Dim mode

Affordable

Single light power

Not that many LEDs

The Xinbaohong Clip-On Selfie Light is a super affordable, mega portable ring light that easily clips to smartphones, laptops, tablets, and other devices. Essentially, anything that's 0.7-inches or thinner, this will clip to it. All that means this is a very easy to use device, powered by USB cable, which delivers a powerful 6000K light that's ideal for video class teaching.

This device offers bright and dim modes, but in the bright option the battery won't last long. Yup, this does work on battery alone, so it's travel-friendly, but since you're likely using it with a USB-capable device, charging shouldn't be an issue. At this price it's so easy to give it a try it's difficult to think of a reason not to.

5. ESDDI 18 Ring Light: Best dimmable and powerful ring light for video

ESDDI 18 Ring Light

For maximum light level controls, and lots of power, this is ideal

Color temp: 3200 - 5600k | Power: Mains | Size: 18-inches

48W power 18-inch ring

Lots of levels

Stand and case included

Mains power only

The ESDDI 18 Ring Light offers a large and very powerful ring light for a reasonable price when you consider the padded case, six-foot stand, and phone clip are thrown in, too. The light itself offers a wide range of color, from 3000 to 6500K, as well as the ability to vary brightness from 10 to 100. That's plenty of range from the powerful 432 LEDs that kick out a whopping 48W of light power.

All that makes this equally as capable when lighting a teacher for a remote class lecture or for covering a wider area to show off an experiment. The only downside is you will need mains power as that's the only option on this ring light.

6. Smoovie LED Color Stream Ring Light: Best color light

Smoovie LED Color Stream Ring Light

For a wide range of color options this is the LED ring light to pick

Color temp: Three modes | Power: USB | Size: 6 or 8-inches

16 RGB color modes

Tabletop tripod

USB-powered

No battery onboard

The Smoovie LED Color Stream Ring Light is ideal for anyone looking to offset the color of a room. That could mean helping to normalize the color but also it could be used as a feature as part of creating a mood for a presentation, say. This also allows you to pick three color modes within the white spectrum to vary the warmth and get an ideal facial covering when needed.

This is USB-powered but many deals (at time of publishing) come bundled with a 3,000 mAh battery charger pack too, making it truly mobile. There are 6- or 8-inch size variants, both of which are plenty bright enough for most rooms.

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Luke Edwards is a freelance writer and editor with more than two decades of experience covering tech, science, and health. He writes for many publications covering health tech, software and apps, digital teaching tools, VPNs, TV, audio, smart home, antivirus, broadband, smartphones, cars and much more.