Let there be light with this simple smartphone add-on
Stick a Flens in front of your phone's torch to bring up the brightness
No, we’re not trying to sign you up for some hokey new age religion – but this is one kickstarter project that’ll definitely help you see the light.
Flens looks like the kind of magnifying glass you’d get from a Christmas cracker. It’s so small it’ll fit on your fingernail, but its makers say it can turn a weedy smartphone torch into a much brighter beacon to help you find your way home, or illuminate that DIY job you’ve been putting off for ages.
The tiny lens fits around your phone’s LED flash and focuses the beam to where you’re pointing it, instead of trying to light up the whole scene. If it works as the team behind it claim it will, you’re getting ten times the amount of light you’d normally get from your phone.
It magnetically latches onto a tiny washer that sticks around your phone flash, so you can pop it on and off quickly rather than mess about with screws and cases. Flens reckons it’ll fit over most iPhone cases too, which is handy.
It’ll work with any iPhone all the way back to the iPhone 4, and plays nicely with the 9.7in iPad Pro too. Flens isn’t guaranteed to work on Android or Windows phones, but if the flash is smaller than 4.5mm round it’ll fit.
It’s not just handy for those times you could use a flashlight, either. Flens says you’ll be able to snap better photos at night, because you won’t need to get so close to light up whoever you’re snapping.
The tiny lens is drilled out of aluminium and uses toughened glass, so it should hold up to a daily beating should you use the tiny bundled lanyard to stick it on your keyring.
If you could use a little more light in your life, Flens is looking for support on Kickstarter now. Each one goes for €19.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor 
