I've been testing this $59 ring light to improve video calls and social content — here's my final verdict

At a time when it feels like everyone’s trying to be an influencer, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get engagement on social media content. The truth is, you’re not going to get views on your social media content unless you have slick lighting set up to make your videos look polished, and that’s where the best ring lights come in. The Godox LR120 is a great solution to that problem — and it won’t break the bank.

This is a 12-inch ring light that has a built-in flexible phone holder to make filming social content easier. With an easy set up, simple controls and adjustable brightness and color temperature, working with the ring light is a walk in the park.

But the ring light is top-heavy, and can easily topple over. I had to be mindful when I was moving it around or adjusting the lighting angle. You can also find a wider range of adjustment and better versatility on cheaper rivals.

To find out more about how I got on with the ring light you can carry on reading this full Godox LR120 review.

Godox LR120 review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 12-inch ring light that makes content creation easier.
• What does it cost? The Godox LR120 Ring Light is available at Amazon U.S. for $59 and at Amazon U.K. for £44.
• Who is it for? Any budding social media content creators.
• What do we like? It has easy to use controls, lots of brightness and color adjustment, and an included phone stand.
• What don’t we like? It is top-heavy, so it’s unstable when setting up and moving around, while rivals offer more for less.

Godox LR120 review: Specs

Godox LR120 review: Price & availability

The Godox LR120 ring light is available at Amazon U.S. for $59 and at Amazon U.K for £44. The ring light is only available for purchase in black. It also comes in a pink colorway, but this is currently unavailable on Amazon.

This ring light is geared towards social media content creators, much like the Rotolight Ultimate Vlogging Kit, which is cheaper at $29, but is a lot smaller, so won’t give the same level of lighting as the Godox.

For something that can stand at the same height as the Godox, you may want to look at the Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light which is available at Amazon for $35. The Neewer light has more brightness and color variation, making it more versatile.

Godox LR120 review: Design

The Godox LR120 ring light is 12 inches wide, so you can’t miss it. The set up of the light is fuss-free once you take a quick look at the instructions, and it’s incredibly easy to operate, which I’ll cover more later on.

The base of the light unfurls into a U-shape that keeps the adjustable stand steady. I think a tripod setup would work better here though, as the stand of the light can be extended from 12.8 inches to 19.5 inches and is top-heavy — it desperately needs more stability.

Once the stand has been extended it can be locked in place, but I had to keep altering the base arms to make sure it didn’t topple over when I was using it. It almost lost balance a couple of times but I was able to catch it in time.

Where the adjustable stand attaches the base there’s a joint that can be angled 180º. This is great if you need to set up lighting from above, but you’ll need someone on hand keeping it steady as this method of operation is also very unstable.

\The head of the ring light can be adjusted by spinning it 360º and tilting 180º, so I was always able to get the right angle for the shot I needed. And it’s not just the positioning that’s adjustable, the light has 222 bi-color LED bead lights. This allows for soft color variation when altering the color temperature.

There’s a flexible phone holder that attaches to the center of the ring light for even lighting coverage. This is on a 360º ball joint so I could alter the angle of my phone easily. I had no problems switching the phone holder from portrait to landscape orientations, but I had to hold the base of the light steady while doing this to prevent the whole thing falling over.

The phone holder attaches via a tripod thread, so you can remove it and place a camera in the ring light, if you use one of the best cameras for vlogging, like the Canon EOS R50 V.

The light is powered by a USB-A cord. This is attached to the ring light and has the control panel built in. This can be powered by using a USB adaptor, plugging into your laptop, or using a power bank. Being near a plug socket would be better for a steady electricity source, but the option to use it anywhere is great.

Godox LR120 review: Controls

The Godox LR120 has a control panel built-in to the USB cable attached to the light. This meant I didn’t worry about misplacing a remote, and I just reached for the cable to change the settings.

Using the control pad, I was able to alter the brightness by seven levels, ranging from 10% to 100%, which can be selected using the plus and minus sign buttons. This gave me a lot of control over the lighting, but you get more range with the Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light and the Neewer Basics 5-inch Ring Light.

There are three color temperature settings to choose from using the ‘color’ button. The temperature settings are white, warm white, and warm yellow. I ended up using warm white the most as this gave the most natural looking results. This temperature variation is better than the Rotolight Ultimate Vlogging Kit, which only has a white light setting.

After 20 minutes of using the light, the control pad became warm to the touch. You would typically be using it for longer than this to film content. This isn’t necessarily an issue, but it isn’t something I encountered when using the Neewer ring lights.

Godox LR120 review: Performance

When I first turned on the Godox LR120, it slowly illuminated and wasn’t immediately too bright or jarring, which I appreciated. I positioned my phone in the flexible phone holder at the centre of the light and was immediately impressed by how flawless it made me look. It doesn’t produce the kind of harsh light that washes you out or exposes every tiny pore on your skin.

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The light has a CRI (color rendering index) of over 90, which means it replicates real world color well. I can attest to this as the color of my t-shirt stood out far more when using the ring light than when I took the same picture using natural lighting. However the CRI is not as high as the Neewer Basics 5-inch Ring Light, which has a CRI of 97+ and demonstrates vivid real world color even better.

The lighting was not as even or widespread as the Neewer Basics 5-inch Ring Light or the Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light in similar conditions. With that said, the Godox is a great light, especially for shooting video.

I used the light while plugged into my laptop using a USB-C adaptor. To avoid it leeching battery from my laptop I then used a power bank. This provides a more portable setup, but the light is so big that it needs to be used fixed in place anyway. If you want a truly portable light that can be used for a quick setup on the go, I would recommend the smaller Neewer Basics 5-inch Ring Light.

Godox LR120 review: Verdict

I would recommend the Godox LR120 ring light to anyone looking for effective fixed lighting for creating social media content. Although the ring light is movable, it is best kept in place as the base and adjustable stand are unstable given the top-heavy build of the light.

But there is a lot to love about this light. Setting it up is very easy, and the controls that are built-in to the cable are simple to use. The seven levels of brightness adjustment mean I can achieve the perfect lighting wherever I am. And the three color temperature settings also mean I can select the best option to complement my skin tone and I’m wearing so I don’t appear washed out.

The built-in flexible phone stand makes social content creation simple. However, I would recommend the Neewer Basics 7-inch Round Light for a similar setup and more reliable lighting coverage. The Neewer offers a lot more variation in brightness and color temperature, as well as being a lot more stable in use.