Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light review

Getting the best lighting for selfies and first person video shooting has become pretty much essential, so the best ring light should definitely be on your shopping list. Luckily, the Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light offers a consistent and reliable lighting solution.

It enhances images and video when using my phone, generating flattering but natural light thanks to its CRI of 95+. There’s also a range of 5 color temperatures from 3000-6500k, plus variable light intensities to make sure your illumination is on point. Meanwhile, the R06’s telescopic arm, adjustable light angle and 360º rotation phone holder all make for an easy and customizable experience.

Its fixed diffuser is quite thick, for very soft light, so if you want more contrast, look elsewhere. As a panel light, you’ll also need to give more thought to light placement to avoid shadows (typical ring lights provide a more even light over your whole face), but this also makes the R06 more flexible as a general purpose light than typical ring lights.

But there are a few small things to consider. There is no built-in battery support so the light will need to be plugged in at all times with the attached USB-C cable. And because of the building required to set up the light, it’s better suited to a fixed set up and not for on-the-go vlogging or shooting.

You can find out more in my full Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light review.

Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light review: Cheat sheet

• What is it? A 7-inch panel round light with a telescopic stand and phone holder
• What does it cost? The Neewer Basics R06 Round Light is available at Amazon for $35/£35
• Who is it for? Anyone who needs slick looking first person video or photos, or consistent lighting for productivity
• What should you use it for? Filming/selfies/consistent lighting for things like make-up or design
• What do we like? Lots of lighting, height and angle adjustment, and the phone holder is useful
• What don’t we like? No built-in battery support and too bulky to take on-the-go

Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light review: Specs

Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light review: Price & availability

The Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light is available at Amazon U.S. for $35 where prime members can get it for $26, and at Amazon U.K. for £35. There is a 1-year warranty included with the purchase.

The light can also be purchased directly from through the Neewer website for the higher price of $45. While the panel light comes with a 1-year warranty, purchasing directly from Neewer and signing up to their newsletter will further that by an extra year.

While I didn’t come across any niggles with the ring light, you may think the added piece of mind is worth the extra money.

If you need something more transportable, you may want to consider the Neewer 5-inch ring light which is $21. Or for something specifically for video, the Rotolight Video Conferencing Kit is $339 but is often discounted on Amazon.

Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light review: Design

The Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light is a panel light, meaning its LEDs are arrayed in a rectangle/square instead of a ring, such as the Neewer Basics BR60 5-inch Ring Light. The ring light will give an even lighting effect to your face when straight on where the panel will cause more shadows to your nose or eyes for example. That being said, the panel light is more versatile for other things like product photography lighting up a whole foreground.

The light had to be assembled but this was simple to do as everything screwed together with ease, although the built-in cable gets tangled pretty easily.

The panel of the light has a lot of adjustment, moving 180º horizontally and 210º vertically, helping me to achieve the perfect lighting angles — necessary given you can’t easily move the whole stand around due to its bulky design and mains-only power.

The light has a metal base which is weighted to keep the light completely stable. But the 7.08” base doesn’t make it heavy, since it still only weighs 38.8 ounces.

There is a metal telescopic column that meets the edge of the base. The column has a minimum height setting of 23.5 inches and a maximum of 33.1 inches. This meant that I was able to set the height based on whether I was sitting down or standing up, and could alter it based on where the camera I was using was positioned.

There is a phone holder that clips on to the column, and can be adjusted up and down along the full height of the column. The holder opens from 2.4 inches to 6 inches, so I was able to easily fit my iPhone 14 and it should be able to fit larger phones like the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

The holder also has a cold shoe mount, so you can fasten one of the best microphones, and a 360º bevel so you can adjust the angle of the phone for pretty much any situation.

The only thing missing from this 7-inch panel light is any sort of camera mount. If you need to stand up a camera for filming you will need a separate tripod.

Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light review: Controls

Neewer keeps the controls simple on this ‘basic’ round light. Unlike Neewer’s other lights, like the RP18 Pro, there is no Bluetooth connection, nor remote or Neewer App control.

The control panel is attached to the 6.2ft charging cable and has four buttons to control the color temperature, brightness, and power. The brightness has 10 levels of adjustment which changes by 10% each time. The color temperature has 5 different settings ranging from 3000K to 6500K.

There is a lighting setting for pretty much every situation, and the controls mean it is possible to have gentle lighting for more natural filming and photography scenarios. I found the light incredibly easy to control, and since the controls are attached to the power cord there was no worry of my misplacing it.

Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light review: Performance

After being blown away by the performance of Neewer's smaller 5-inch ring light, I was looking forward to seeing what the Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light could do. It is worth noting that this light is bi-color, so only white and yellow hues are used.

If you’re only using this light for portraiture this shouldn’t be an issue, but if you want to get a bit more creative, the lack of RGB lighting could be a con for you.

The light has a CRI (color rendering index) of 95+. CRI is measured on a scale of 0-100 and denotes how naturally a light shows colors on a subject, and a score of 95 is impressive.

The Rotolight Video Vlogging Kit ($29) has a CRI of 95+ but it has no adjustment like the Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light.

The R06 has a non-removable diffuser, which is very thick, producing highly diffused, soft light. It generated enough light to brighten up my face enough, but wasn’t at all harsh and gave a very natural effect. The level of adjustment with the light also meant I could play around with the color tones and brightness to find the right settings for me.

As a panel light, the R06 isn’t as well-suited to selfies as ring lights — the ring array allows a phone to go in the center, letting an even light hit your entire face to remove shadows (on your nose for example). Ring lights also cast a halo light in your eyes, which is often sought-after in beauty vlogging and photography.

On the R06, the phone can’t sit in the middle, and even in its holder can get in the way of the actual LEDs, causing shadows of the phone itself. You can get around this by placing the light separately to your phone or camera, but then you will also see facial shadows.

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That being said, for a setup where the light was simply illuminating my entire setting and not just focused on me, like in a video call, the light worked perfectly. So I would totally recommend this as a work from home studio solution. The panel array also makes this a flexible light for more than just selfie footage, so if you produce different types of content, it could be a great solution.

Power

Unfortunately this ring light must be plugged in when in use. While this is inconvenient as you’re unable to move around with the ring light, when in use, it actually has its perks.

Since it is plugged in via the USB-A cable connected to the light, you are ensured consistent lighting over long periods of time with no worries of the power of the light fading or flickering as the battery runs out.

If you do need to be on the move with it though, you can always plug in to a portable power bank. However, with the design of this light it is better used for a fixed set up.

Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light review: Verdict

The Neewer Basics R06 7-inch Round Light is a brilliant lighting solution for any home office or studio. At $35 it is affordable, it produces lovely, soft light and has a sturdy but customizable build.

There is a whole lot of adjustment with this light, letting you alter the height and filming angles to suit your setup. The panel array and adjustment of the actual lighting settings opens up many opportunities, from doing make-up in the mirror to shooting vlogging content to camera. If you’re looking for something purely for selfies though, I would recommend the Neewer Basics BR60 5-inch Ring Light — as ring lights produce a more even light over the face.

There isn’t any on-board battery support and this weighty light isn’t one you’ll want to move around, but once I set up the light at my desk I didn’t need to move it, so these are very minor issues. I loved the light for making short vlogs of my day and taking selfies with less harsh lighting — it is certainly a winner for me.