Review: Missyee LED Light Box

A few weeks ago, I was sent a Missyee light box to review. I've never own a light box before so I accepted the offer to review one. Even though I don't have a light box, I do use one in my office, a light box that's built into the desk and powered by two fluorescent tubes — that's as old school as it can get, and the tubes don't last very long.

This light box is sold on Amazon USA under the Missyee brand and on Amazon UK as Yaufey brand. They are the same product.

The design is simple. It's just a huge piece of plastic board with LED lights beneath the white surface. The thickness is than 1cm. The unit is not too heavy as well.

At the time of this writing, purchase of the light box comes with these free gifts: a carrying bag, clips, stand, pencil, several pieces of tracing paper.

Be careful of the metal clip as it will scratch the surface of the light box. My light box already has several scratches. The plastic clip is more forgiving but the handle can be quick slippery at times — I've dropped that clip a few times already.

The stand provided looks rather cheap. Anyway, I don't use that. You may find it useful if you need to put the light box at an angle.

If you've seen another review on my blog of the Huion light box, you may find that the design is similar. I guess they come from the same factory, just marketed as different brand.

That's the touch sensitive power button at the top left. Note that there are measurements on the top and left. The light box I have is large enough to fit an A3-sized paper. The other size is A4 which might be more convenient because the A3 light box does take up a lot of space, even if the bezel is quite small.

The light box used LED backlighting. There are three levels. I find the 2nd and 3rd level of brightness adequate for tracing. The lights are rated to last for 50,000 hours. LED lights are meant to last long so I'm pretty sure this will last for quite a while.

One thing I really appreciate is how even the lighting is. The two fluorescent tubes in the office give me uneven lighting and does not look nice even if it gets the job done.

Here's the pencil drawing on a piece of paper.

I've just placed another piece of paper over the pencil drawing. I'll draw on this blank paper with my pen.

This is level 1 brightness. The lights can be seen, but barely.

To change the brightness, you just have to tap on the power button.

This is level 2 brightness, and it's bright enough for me to work with. I'm actually comfortable working at this brightness.

This is the brightest setting. Pencil lines can be seen clearly. The light can be a bit glaring though.

By the way, if you see that my photo isn't showing the lines clearly, it's because it's difficult to get the correct settings to photograph this accurately.

That's how it looks light when tracing the pencil lines with a pen. I'm using 80gsm paper. The pencil lines will still show through even on a 300gsm watercolour paper. The light is that strong.

This product is simple to use and there really isn't much I can say about it. It works as expected.

So if you find yourself in need of a light box, you can consider Missyee light box (Amazon USA) or Yaufey light box (Amazon UK). Check out other reviews on Amazon too.