Today I have a newer light from Olight, the Freyr, a do it all light with RGB LED’s from Olight. It comes with a traffic wand diffuser to help utilize that RGB LED feature. Thanks to Skyben for sending this to me, I will have a link to where you can pick it up from them in the description below. Now let’s get into the review.
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Packaging & Accessories
No surprises here, Olight again has one of best high quality packaging jobs in the production flashlight world. Here you have a nice magnetic closure box, with a detailed picture and stats on the back as well.
Accessories include the Freyr, Customized Olight 21700 battery, MCC3A (Red inside) charger, Dual Direction pocket clip, Traffic cone, Belt Holster, and manual.
Construction
The Freyr take the rear tail cap and body tube from the Olight M2R Pro, and sticks a new larger head to allow for RGB LED’s and proximity sensor. The tail cap is magnetic with the tri-lug design and the tactical 2 stage button. This also servers as your attachment point for the MCC charger. The body features the rectangular shaped pyramids for a good amount of aggressive texture. It feels good in the bare hand or with gloves. The clip will attach at either end if you wish, although with the larger diameter head I am not sure you will want to use the clip much here.
The head is glued to the body tube here, and features the typical Olight electronic switch. It has a raised point in the center with a power level indicator in the middle. It has some very attractive twisted milling for style and heat dissipation too. There is a ring milled in to lock in the diffuser too which is nice. The blue anodized bezel is crenulated allowing light to leak out the front if on it’s face and turned on. The front optic/lens is one piece and plastic. More on the proxy sensor up front here later on.
Retention
The light comes with a holster thats more rigid then what you typically see with most flashlights. It’s designed so that the silicone diffuser/traffic wand sits point down in the holster and then the light inside it. If the light is put in the holster without the diffuser then it rattles and is not secure. The holster itself has a belt loop and dring behind.
Size and Weight
I measured the length at 136.5mm, minimum diameter 26.72mm. Maximum diameter at 40.30mm. Weight of the light, and battery is 190.8g, and the traffic cone adds another 34.9g and 124mm in length.
LED & Beam
Olight doesn’t specify exactly which LED is in this light, only that it’s 6500k. My guess by looking at it, that it’s a SST-40. Mine has a bit of green tinge on the lower outputs which isn’t uncommon. The white beam profile is a bit compromised by the 3 color emitters on the outside edge and the proximity sensor. The result for the white beam is a spill that’s more square then round. It’s noticeable at distances closer then 20ft.
The RGB LED’s also produce beam profiles that are far from round, the bezel of the light shows in the beams as a hard cut off edge. I found this a bit annoying as it doesn’t point light where you expect it to, and that point of impact changes as you switch color. This is common with all lights that put colored LED’s around the edges. With the traffic cone diffuser installed you don’t notice it. In it’s default configuration the proximity sensor will trigger with the traffic wand installed in any of the white modes. Make sure to read my UI section for how to disable it since it’s pretty aggressive.
Official outputs for the white modes are 1750, 850, 300, 5 lumens. Red is rated for 30 lumens, Green for 60 lumens, 25 lumens for blue. In my opinion red is quite bright, it works great for the traffic wand but is too bright to preserve your night vision on it’s own.
Heat & Runtime
I did my white runtime tests with the proximity sensor disabled. Turbo lasted for 2:30 seconds and the step down is to about 58% relative output. It maintains this fairly evenly for 2 hours before stepping down a few more times for a total output of 2:30:00. Max heat I saw during this was 50C and the light does appear to have active thermal regulation. I also tested the outputs of the 3 colored LED’s Blue ran for 12:06:00, Green for 13:35:00, and Red for an impressive 20:02:00.
UI
UI here is similar to other Olights but different with the addition of the RGB element of this light and the proximity sensor. First, the proximity sensor can be disabled via software, which I think you will want to do ASAP if you get this light. If the light is on, click the front button 15 times quickly until the light shuts off. Don’t worry you can basically click away till it shuts off. This will disable the proxy sensor until you remove the battery. It’s just too active to use the light in it’s highest output.
You have the 2 stage tail switch from the M2R Pro, and other tactical Olights in this form factor. Quick press either in full or half will leave the light on, where as a long press in either mode will lock the light on in momentary. While the pressures switch from Other models of Olight fit and work here, this isn’t rated to mount on a weapon.
The front switch is used for the RGB modes and moonlight in for white. It has memory mode, if you long press from off you get moonlight mode, a quick press gives you the RGB options and if used recently it will start in the last color mode you used, if not it starts in red. Once on it will cycle through Red, Green, Blue stop on the one you want and begin using the light.
Recharging
Recharging is other Olights with the MCC3A charging system, it’s very simple just plug the USB end into a 2A power source, and the other end will magnetically attach to the light to charge the 5000mAh 21700 customized Olight battery. Total charge time was 4:75:00. My graph isn’t complete due to the drops to zero that it does so I time these manually too. Max charge rate is 1.85A.
Pro’s
- I like the twist milling on the back of the head.
- For me it’s a good size in the hand
- Easy UI but a little different from Olights typical
- You can disable the Proxy sensor via Software.
Con’s
- RGB compromises the beam profile a bit
- Proxy sensor is aggressive if left on.
- No glass lens on top of the plastic
- You must use the traffic cone in the holster if you want a secure fit.
Conclusion
The Olight Freyr was advertised as a do it all light, but I am not sure I agree. The RGB LED’s in the reflector kind of spoils the white beam’s profile for short range work, and it really compromises the colored outputs. You also don’t have many white modes here. For me it’s a bit of a compromised light in those regrades. While the traffic cone works well here, it’s an expensive light to get just for traffic use. If you were in law enforcement and needed that traffic cone, or a bright white light that you didn’t need at lower powers this might fit that bill.
But for general use, hunting/camping there are better options for a general purpose light. Red here is too bright to preserve night vision, green and blue could be useful for blood tracking though. White is cool white, not really surprising but overall the package is a little hard for me to recommend fully except for special use applications. That said I do like the look especially the milling on the head and I am thankful that proximity sensor can be disabled, and that is remembered as long as you leave the battery in the light. 