Despite almost always having awful distance vision, my close-up vision was something I could always count on. Unfortunately, as someone who’s heading into his mid-40s, it’s clear my close-up vision is not what it used to be and probably never will be. That’s where something like the Qooltek 2 LED Rectangular Magnifier comes into play.

Part of the problem with close-up vision is it’s not only about your eyes struggling to focus, it’s also about available light. That’s why the two LEDs in this product are so important. Once you place the required three AAA batteries (not included) in the handle and flip the switch, you get that last little bit of oomph needed to help put something small (usually print) into focus. Note that while this is a roughly 2x magnifier, it does have an oversized viewing window, which makes it seem an even higher magnification.

While in my testing I did in fact use this to see small print, it also came in handy when I was soldering together a hobby kit with some tiny and poorly colored resistors. If not for this, I’d never have seen the key yellow stripe, which made sure the polarity was correct when soldering it in place.

This is a fairly heavy, solid unit, so, while it’s not great for portability, it’s not something you’ll easily misplace. The excellent white LED light puts this over the top compared to magnifiers without it. On the downside, it can be a bit of a struggle to replace the batteries in the handle and the power switch can be rather more difficult to move up and down than it should be. However, don’t let that stop you from checking this magnifier out.

Thanks to Qooltek for the review unit.