Pantop Ø18 or Ø23: portable, table lamp or pendant?
Take a cordless Pantop Portable for a dining or outdoor table, the Ø23 table lamp for a sideboard or bedside, and the Ø23 pendant hung low over a counter.
Short answer: Put a cordless Pantop Portable on a dining or outdoor table, because at 30 cm it stays below a seated diner's eye line and needs no socket. Give a sideboard, desk or bedside the Pantop Ø23 Table Lamp, and hang the Pantop Ø23 Pendant low over a counter or breakfast nook where no surface can be spared.
Same bell, four sizes of commitment
Verner Panton drew the Pantop in 1980: a wide bell of a shade, flared and mounted aperture down. VERPAN, the Danish company set up in 2003 to produce his designs, now makes it in four versions. They share the silhouette, so the decision is not about looks. It is about where the light has to land and whether a cable can reach it.
The numbers that matter are height and weight. The two portables are 18 cm across, 30 cm tall and weigh 0.75 kg, light enough to carry with one hand. The Ø23 table lamp is 23 cm across and 38 cm tall at 2.3 kg, three times the weight of a portable. The Ø23 pendant has the same 23 cm shade but is only 16.6 cm high and 1.25 kg, because it is the shade alone on a cord.
Choose by the surface, not the room
Start with the place the light is for, then read across. The eye-line figures assume a dining table about 73 cm high, where a seated adult's eyes sit roughly 40–45 cm above the tabletop.
| Where | What the spot needs | Pantop to choose | Why, in numbers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dining table, no socket nearby | Light that stays under eye level and can be moved | Pantop Portable | 30 cm tall, so the shade sits 10–15 cm below the eyes across the table |
| Balcony or terrace | A rating for outdoor use | Pantop Portable | IP44, up to 7 hours per charge, 2 m USB cable for recharging indoors |
| Bookshelf or windowsill | A small footprint and a cordless light | Either portable; the Ø18 if it must match a mains Pantop | 18 cm across, so it fits a 25 cm deep shelf with room either side |
| Sideboard, desk or bedside | A fixed lamp that will not be knocked over | Pantop Ø23 Table Lamp | 2.3 kg and 38 cm tall, enough to clear books and objects |
| Kitchen counter or bar | Light on the worktop, nothing on it | Pantop Ø23 Pendant | 23 cm shade, 16.6 cm high, frees the full counter |
One row deserves a warning. The Ø23 table lamp on a dining table puts its 38 cm shade almost exactly at a seated guest's eye height, so people end up talking round it. Keep it for surfaces you sit beside, not across.
The two portables are not the same lamp
They have the same footprint and the same 0.75 kg, so they are easy to confuse. The Pantop Ø18 Portable lamp keeps the construction of the mains versions: a lacquered injection-moulded shade, an opal plastic diffuser and a chrome-plated metal base. It comes in the same eight colours as the Ø23 lamps, from Cream White and Chrome to Cherry Red and Dark Teal, so it can match a pendant or table lamp exactly.
The Pantop Portable is made differently. Base, stem and shade are painted polycarbonate, the dimmer and top bolt are brushed metal, and a 1.5 W LED runs through a three-stage dimmer. It is the only Pantop with a stated IP44 rating and run time, so it is the one for a terrace. It also has the wider palette: fourteen colours, including matt White, matt Black, Terracotta and Brass.
Our rule is simple. If the lamp will ever go outside, or you want to dim it as a meal goes on, take the Pantop Portable. If it stays indoors and must match a mains Pantop in one of the eight shared colours, take the Ø18.
Hanging the Ø23 pendant over a counter
A 23 cm shade is small, which is the point: it lights a working strip without a large pendant's visual weight. We would hang the lower edge of the shade 65–75 cm above the worktop, low enough that the bell hides the light source from someone standing, high enough to clear a kettle.
For more than one, divide the counter into equal zones and hang one pendant in the middle of each. On a 120 cm counter, two pendants go 30 cm in from each end with their centres 60 cm apart, leaving 37 cm of air between shades. Three on the same counter sit at 20, 60 and 100 cm, with 17 cm between shades, which reads as a deliberate row. Below about 15 cm of air the shades start to look crowded.
Which Pantop we would choose
For a small flat with one dining table and few sockets, the Pantop Portable is the first one to buy. It works at dinner, moves to the sofa arm afterwards and goes out to the balcony in summer, and its fourteen colours make it the easiest to fit an existing room.
For a bedside or a desk you use every day, buy the Ø23 Table Lamp. Its 2.3 kg keeps it put, and its 38 cm height lifts the light above a pile of books. For a kitchen with a counter and no spare surface, buy the Ø23 pendant, in a pair on anything 100 cm or longer. Buy the Ø18 Portable only when it has to match one of the mains Pantops exactly.
If you like the Pantop's shade but want a lamp that throws light to one side, our piece on Panton's Reflect table lamp covers the half-shade design. The rest of Panton's lighting is in the VERPAN collection.
