Camp Essentials
Soft, even light that turns a dark campsite into a living room. We tested rechargeable lanterns on brightness, battery life, and handy extras.
A good lantern does what a headlamp can't: it lights a whole table or tent without blinding anyone. Modern rechargeable lanterns skip the corroded-battery hassle and often double as a power bank. Here are our favorites.
500 lumens of beautiful, adjustable light with warm-to-cool white plus fun color modes. USB rechargeable, with a built-in port to top off your phone. A 4.8/5 favorite.
A built-in hand crank means you're never fully in the dark, and the attached USB cable makes charging plug-and-play. A single dial dims it up or down. Great for power outages too.
Collapses flat to pack tiny and inflates into a soft glowing cube. USB-C rechargeable with a built-in solar panel and up to 50 hours of runtime on low. Waterproof, too.
A 1,000-lumen, 360-degree LED that floods a whole site with light, running up to 12 hours on two rechargeable batteries. A lot of brightness for very little money.
For a campsite or tent, 200–500 lumens is plenty — anything more can be harsh in close quarters. Look for adjustable brightness and a warm-white option, which is easier on the eyes at night than cold blue light.
USB-rechargeable lanterns avoid the dead-battery scramble and the corrosion that wrecks lights left in storage. Bonus points for models like the AlpenGlow that double as a power bank for your phone.
For emergencies and long trips, a hand crank (Goal Zero) or solar panel (LuminAID) means you can always get a little light without an outlet.
Pair a lantern with a good headlamp and power station for a complete lighting and power setup. Setting up a new kit from scratch? Start with our beginner's gear guide.
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