Tag: Olight Review

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Olight Warrior Mini 2 Review (1750 Lumens, Listening to user feedback)

Todays’ video is on the brand new Olight Warrior Mini 2. Olight took feedback from the community on the original Warrior Mini, which I have done 2 previous videos on, and made some changes for the Warrior Mini 2. The Mini 2 follows in a similar manner on how Olight upgraded the S2R Baton II, into the Baton Pro with it gaining in length and features. Olight did send the new Warrior Mini 2 to me to review it and help promote their flash sale that starts tonight at 7pm Eastern Time. I will explain the sale further on in this review, but do know that if you’re interested in anything, using my link below will help the channel, and if you’re watching after the sale is over, I will have a code below where you can save 10% off regular prices. This will be a longer review, but it has chapters so make sure to skip around to see the parts your most interested in.

 

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Warrior Mini 2 Flash Sale Link: http://bit.ly/WarriorMini2FS

Warrior Mini  2 Bundle Flash Sale Link: http://bit.ly/WarriorMini2Bundle

Olight Flash Sale General Link: https://bit.ly/OlightLiquidRetro

 

10% OFF Coupon code: LQ10 Coupon Code will work during sales on non-sale listings only.

 

A little bit about that flash sale before we get into the review. It starts June 17th at 7pm Central time and it runs for 24 hours. You can get the Black or Tan Warrior Mini 2 for 35% off $67.46 during that time. They will also have a Warrior Mini 2 Mountain Sky limited edition color for $71.21. There are bundles for all 3 with the i3T Mountain Sky edition too for a few more dollars. Other sale items include the Odin which I have reviewed previously, the new Olantern Mini, and some Mega packs of Olight products. If you order during the flash sale you will also get a free Olight Fathers day Mini tool. 

 

Packaging & Accessories

Standard Olight packaging applies here with the white boxes, and nice glossy photo, and full of tons of information on the back. Inside is a pull out try with the light including the yellow read me card to help you get the basics of your light down and ensure success.

Accessories that come with the light are the warrior Mini 2 itself, Olight custom and proprietary 3500mAh 18650 battery (ORB-186C35), the MCC3A magnetic charger, lanyard, and carabiner style ring as well as a manual. 

Construction

Construction quality is typical Olight, quality machining, fit and finish with the design and anodizing here. The tail is a one piece design with the body tube, so the battery goes in only from the head side. The button on the rear is all metal exterior construction and features the tri lug design we have seen on other recent “tactical models allowing the button to be pressed more easily with gloves. It’s also magnetic but not strong enough to hold the light horizontally on the few painted metal surfaces I tested, it does tail stand though. The button itself is spongy, and fairly stiff. It’s a two stage actuation which I like quite a bit from a UI perspective but it takes a bit of muscle memory to know how hard to press to get into that first lower output mode. 

The texture on the body is aggressive but not sharp in the hand. I really like the feel of it. The downside is it’s aggressive enough to tear up pockets with pulled in and out during repeated use. Threads are smooth, square cut and nicely greased. Up until this point it’s all the same as the Warrior Mini. The one difference on the body tube is the addition of a pocket/lanyard clip indention at the rear of the light. I’ll talk about the options this opens up during the retention section of the review.

The head internally has a single short spring in the center, and then a ring with pogo pins for making contact with the proprietary batteries negative terminal on the top. This is the same basic design as the Warrior Mini, and the heads are in fact interchangeable. On the exterior the clip is captured. The button is the same as Olight has used in recent models with the LED underneath to indicate battery charge status. It can display, Green, Orange, and Yellow. 

The head is what’s the most different on the Warrior Mini 2, over the outgoing model. It’s longer overall, with an aluminum bezel that protects the glass lens (yes). Inside is still a TIR style optic, but a little different style, it’s deeper and has a clear center instead of a bubble center. There is also the proximity sensor in the bezel, it doesn’t have a noticeable effect on beam quality. 

Is it Safe?

Since I know this is what a lot of you are wondering I will make it it’s own section but talk more about how the proximity sensor and UI works in the LED and UI sections. The video is really best for this part where I demonstrate all this, so make sure to check that out. So let’s take a black synthetic sock and put it over the lens of the light to show what happens and that this one won’t melt any clothing. I will speed this footage up a bit to show that after stepdown the light will shut off after 1 minute if the lens is still blocked. I wasn’t able to get anything to make the tail cap turn the light on with a high resistance metal object. I tried Keys, Ball Chain, Coins, etc. 

Size and Weight

I measured the overall length at 118mm, minimum diameter at the tail at 23.3g, and maximum diameter at the head at 25mm.Weight with the battery and main pocket clip installed is 120g. The light is IPX8 water rated and drop rated for 1.5M. So the light grew in length by 11mm and weight by 15g over the original Warrior Mini that I have in the same accessory configuration. 

 

Retention

You have some new retention options from Olight with the Warrior Mini 2, First up is the pocket clip, this is similar to the one on the original Warrior mini, being that it’s a dual direction clip and can be used to clip onto a hat to use as a make shift headlamp, but the new clip on the Mini 2 is longer by 13mm. It can also now mount on the rear of the light if you wish for a no show deep carry carry. In the top position the clip is captured and won’t rotate, but when mounted on the tail cap it can rotate. The fit here is tight though so it takes effort.

It also has a clip style attachment for a lanyard point which can be mounted anywhere the clip can be mounted too. You can use the included lanyard here or on the clip if you wish. Or you can use the new Carabiner style ring and put a finger through it so you don’t drop the light. Both of these retention options will fit on either the top or the bottom of the light.

 

LED & Beam

The LED being used in the Warrior Mini 2 is the SST40 in a 6000-7000k tint. It has a little green tinge on the lowest modes but once you apply more power that fades substantially.  I have no problems with the SST40 LED but wish one of the neutral tint bins was used here. 

The beam is good through the TIR optic despite having the proximity sensor taking up some of the available room. There is a glass lens here, instead of the one piece plastic Lens/TIR optic that the Warrior Mini used. This, combined with the proximity sensor should eliminate the melting lens and clothing issues the original light had. 

Warrior Mini 2 on the Left, Original Warrior Mini on the Right

 

Overall the beam here is great for EDC in my opinion with a medium to large hot spot and quite a bit of spill, good for close up and medium to far range. With the tail switch this would be a good option to do a one handed grip of your weapon and have the light nearby in the opposite hand (Harris or Chapman style) if you wished. The one downside more of the light sticks up out of your pocket here with heads up carry which are key to those grips. 

 

Olight lists the official output modes as:

  • Turbo – 1750 – 500 – 200 Lumens with step downs.
  • High – 500 – 200 Lumens
  • Medium – 120 Lumens
  • Low – 15 Lumens
  • Moon – 1 Lumen

Turbo sees a slight bump with the Warrior Mini 2 as does the step down modes in Turbo and High outputs. The stepdown upgrades are only 30 lumens so it’s really hard to notice but the extra 250 on Turbo you can notice slightly. There is a very small amount of PWM that I can detect with my oscilloscope on Low mode, on all the other modes no PWM was detected. 

 

For Night Shots, please see the video.

 

Runtime & Heat

One minor annoyance with the proximity sensor is it’s made testing runtimes very difficult because even in High the light will shut off after 1 minute when it detects an obstruction doesn’t move. The white surfaces of my test rig reflect light well and make this feature turn the light off, and not step down. So I improvised and used a dark room with the light testing sensor about 3 feet away.

 

Olight lists turbo as lasting for 4 minutes on the Mini 2, and as you can see from my graph that lines up very well with what I saw, you only get top output for a minute before it steps down to 29% relative output over the next 3 minutes. After that it runs for 208 minutes (Exactly what the manual says) before stepping down 2 more times. Total runtime was 4:20:00. LVP on the battery was 2.75V. Max temp I saw during this time was 54C at 1:45, but during the bulk of the runtime the light ran about 41C. I also ran a runtime on medium and got numbers that were within 2% of Olight’s claimed runtime. I have every reason to believe Olight is telling the truth here. 

 

UI

The UI on the Warrior Mini 2 is the same that’s was on the Olight original Mini. It has 2 buttons for operation, first the two stage tail switch which is the more tactical operation, and then the standard silicone button up front for normal uses. It follows Olights basic UI for the most part. 

 

When you half press the tail button, you get medium in configuration 1, and then turbo 1750  lumens when you full press. This is in configuration 1, In configuration 2 the tail switch goes to turbo on half press and strobe on full press. 

 

UI is similar to other Olights but with some differences. Long press from Off to go to moon light mode, Double click to go to Turbo, and Triple click to go to strobe.There the front eswitch is mostly used as a mode switch but can be used to turn the light on and off from off as well.

 

The proximity sensor on the Warrior Mini 2 is the first time they have got it right in my opinion and I have not wanted to disable or remove it to make the light better. What they did right was to give the programming the ability to step the light down to safe outputs and temps if the lens is obstructed, but then step back up the light to its previous level when that obstruction is removed. It’s super simple, but no previous Olights that I have reviewed with proximity sensors have worked this way. The sensor is also unable to be disabled on this light from what I can tell. One minor annoyance with the proximity sensor is it’s made testing runtimes very difficult because even in High the light will shut off after 1 minute when it detects an obstruction. 

I would be a fool` for not mentioning that the Warrior Mini 2 has a lockout mode after what happened with the original Warrior Mini. I am sure Olight would like me to mention you should use lockout when carrying this light in your pocket. The manual does mention to lock the light if it’s left unused or carried to avoid accidental activation. To enable lockout hold the front button for about 3 seconds, when off, moonlight will turn on and then off to let you know it’s activated. The same will deactivate it. You can’t mechanically unscrew the light to stop any parasitic drain on the light, the light will work if any threads are engaged in the head of it. 

 

Recharging

Nothing new to report on the recharging front with the Warrior Mini 2. It comes with Olights newest MCC 2A charging system which is faster and denoted with the red ring inside. The magnetic charging system is convenient and easy but does require a proprietary battery (3500mAh in this case) and the Warrior Mini 2 is no different. The proprietary Olight battery goes with the positive terminal facing the head in this light though which isn’t always the case. This battery doesn’t have a plastic ring that stands proud and can be charged in a conventional charger like the Vapcel S4 Plus, or various Xtar chargers I have reviewed in the past. I did test the capacity of the included 3500mAh battery at 3398mAh so a little short of the rating but not too bad.

I saw total charging time take 2:35:00, and as usually my charging monitoring system doesn’t like the drops in current that the MCC chargers do so my graph is incomplete. Max charge rate I saw was 1.3A at 1:16:00 mark. Once full the battery measured 4.2145V. LVP was measured at 2.75V.

 

Pro’s

  • I like that you can mount the clip either near the front or the rear of the light but you pay in overall length.
  • Glass Lens = No melted lens issues
  • Proximity sensor here means the light isn’t going to melt clothing or damage itself, and the programming here is good
  • I couldn’t get the light  to come on with stuff in my pocket on accident via the rear contacts.
  • New carry option with the ability to mount the clip on the rear of the light, and new retention options.

 

Con’s

  • Longer than the Warrior Mini, which makes it less appealing to EDC in my opinion, but it’s safer to carry too.
  • Still cool white only options
  • Name, I would have called this the Warrior Mini Pro to mirror what Olights done with the Baton line.

 

Conclusion

So if you follow this channel and I hope that you do, you will know I have done 2 previous videos on the previous model light, the Warrior Mini. Overall I liked the light but it had a few issues, that occurred when the light came on accidentally while in people pockets for various reasons. This resulted in melted lenses and a few melted pieces of clothing. Well with the Warrior Mini 2, Olight solved that problem by using a glass lens and installing a proximity sensor, and I think their implementation here of those is good. 

On past Olight models, I have not been a fan of the proximity sensor, but on the Warrior Mini 2 I think they got the programming right to where it provides added protection so you don’t melt your clothing or burn yourself if the light comes on accidentally, but still let’s the light be useable since when the obstruction is removed from the lens the light goes back to its original brightness.

I wouldn’t have called this light the Warrior Mini 2, and instead called it the Warrior Mini Pro because it’s s similar upgrade on what Olight did with the S2R Baton II and Baton Pro, where output was increased as well as overall length. You don’t notice the brightness change much on the Warrior Mini 2 but the increase in length is noticeable, if you choose to EDC. 

Overall the Warrior Mini 2 is a nice light, and a good upgrade over the original with more performance, and more importantly it fixes the flaws in the original light with the added proximity sensor. This makes for a better flashlight thats much safer to use. I just wish it wouldn’t have grown in length as much as it did. 

So if you have made it this far you might be considering picking up this light, and if you are the flashsale that starts tonight June 17th will be the best time to pick up the light during Olights Flash sale and introduction of the Warrior Mini 2.

 

Sale Details

You have 3 colors of Warrior Mini 2 available on the sale. Black and Tan for $67.46 and Mountain Sky for $71.21. For about $4 more you can get a bundle with the I3T mountain sky edition too.

Odins are back in Black and gray for $118 and $125 respectively. There are bundle deals with Obulbs and the new Olantern Mini’s too.

Olantern Mini is being released for the first time in Black and Red for 25% off $44.96 and has a bundle option for the I1R 2 in Desert Tan.

There are also Mega Packs and Free tiers too to get free products or save more. Everyone who buys something will get a free Fathers day Multitool too. 

 

Warrior Mini 2 Flash Sale Link: http://bit.ly/WarriorMini2FS

Warrior Mini  2 Bundle Flash Sale Link: http://bit.ly/WarriorMini2Bundle

Olight Flash Sale General Link: https://bit.ly/OlightLiquidRetro

 

10% OFF Coupon code: LQ10 Coupon Code will work during sales on non-sale listings only.

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Olight Freyr Review (1750 Lumens + RGB LEDs, 21700)

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. 

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Olight Warrior Mini Recall News!

Here is the link to the official Facebook group post on the matter https://www.facebook.com/groups/Olight/permalink/3455317721188648

See my review of the Olight Warrior Mini at https://youtu.be/k-kKoWlt9Mk

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Olight Warrior Mini Review (1500 Lumens, Dual Switch, Tactical, EDC, 18650)

Today I have Olights new smaller form factor tactical light the Warrior Mini. It’s capable of 1500 lumens, runs on an 18650 battery and is available in 3 colors, black, a splatter camo, and the desert tan that I have here. Thanks to Skyben for sending this to me to review, please make sure to check them out in the description below.

 

Watch this review on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/k-kKoWlt9Mk

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Packaging & Accessories

Packaging is no big surprises from Olights the past year or so, it’s the white high quality sleeve over a plastic tray inside that houses the light and all the accessories. On the rear of the box you have details about the light and a runtime chart. Accessories include the light itself with the clip pre installed, Proprietary 3500mAh 18650 battery, MCC2A USB charger, Olight branded lanyard that attaches on the clip, and the manual. No extra orings on this light, but in most scenarios your opening it up to charge so it shouldn’t be a wear item, still a little 

 

 

 

Construction

The Warrior mini shares similar construction to a combination of other Olights, like the Baton Pro and the Warrior Pro. Quality is fantastic for a production light. The tail is a one piece design with the body tube, so batteries go in only from the head side. The button on the rear is all metal exterior construction and features the tri lug design we have seen on other recent Olights. It’s also magnetic and strong enough to hold the light horizontally. The button itself is spongy, and fairly stiff. It’s a two stage actuation which I like quite a bit from a UI perspective but it’s sometimes hard to know how hard to press to get into that first lower output mode. 

The texture on the body is aggressive but not sharp in the hand. I really like the feel of it, and hope we see it on future Olights. The downside is it’s aggressive enough to tear up pockets with pulled in and out during use. Threads are smooth, square cut and nicely greased. 

The head internally has a single short spring in the center, and then a ring with pogo pins for making contact with the proprietary batteries negative terminal on the top. This is a little different design than we have seen in the past but seems to be very compact. On the exterior the clip is captured. The button is the same as Olight has used in recent models with the LED underneath. 

The top of the head has a TIR style optic, with no glass lens over the top. There have a been a few reports online of this lens melting during extended periods of use, I didn’t see that on mine with normal stepdown. There is also a press fit plastic bezel. It has very small raised sections to let light out if standing on it’s head.

 

Size and Weight

I measured the overall length of the light at 107mm, maximum diameter at 23mm, minimum diameter is the same. The weight with the battery and clip is 104.8g. For comparison the warrior mini is between the Baton Pro and S2R Baton length wise. Diameter wise they are all within 1mm of each other. The light is IPX8 water rated.

 

Retention

As an EDC I found this carried well, I carried it in a front jeans pocket for a week every day and found it to be comfortable. I don’t mind Olights dual direction clips, they leave enough from for jeans but they can catch on things like a seat belt. This is a heads up carry, so if the light activates in your pocket, and there have been a few user accounts of this online, it has done damage to people’s clothes by melting them. For that reason I strongly recommend using lockout on this one. 

 

LED & Beamshots

The LED being used in the Warrior Mini is the SST40 in a 6000-7000k tint. It has a little green tinge on the lowest modes but once you apply more power that fades substantially.  I have no problems with the SST40 LED but wish one of the neutral tint bins was used here. 

The beam is nice through the TIR optic, but I wonder if something has changed with the material being used here from older lights as there are several reports of burnt or melted lenses with this it seems. So far mine is fine after extended runtimes. Overall the beam here is great for EDC in my opinion with a medium to large hot spot and quite a bit of spill, good for close up and medium to far range. With the tail switch this would be a good option to do a one handed grip of your weapon and have the light nearby in the opposite hand (Harris or Chapman style) if you wished. 

 

Olight lists the official output modes as:

  • Turbo – 1500 – 500 – 170 Lumens with step downs.
  • High – 500 – 170 Lumens
  • Medium – 120 Lumens
  • Low – 15 Lumens
  • Moon – 1 Lumen

 

Heat & Runtime

The light is able to maintain 98% of relative output until the 2 minute mark (Timed) before stepping down to 32% relative output. At this point the output is very flat for 3:34:00. From there you get another hour at about 12% relative output before stepping below. FL1 output runtime total was 4:18:00. If you let it continue going the light will run out to 8:33:00 suggesting there is no LVP. It shut off at 2.735V which I suspect is where the battery protection kicked in. Max heat I saw was 46C at the 10 minute mark. 

 

UI

The UI on the Warrior Mini is the same that’s was on the Olight M2R Pro. It has 2 buttons for operation, first the two stage tail switch which is the more tactical operation, and then the standard silicone button up front for normal uses. It follows Olights basic UI for the most part. 

 

When you half press the tail button, you get medium in configuration 1, and then turbo 1500  lumens when you full press. This is in configuration 1, In configuration 2 the tail switch goes to turbo on half press and strobe on full press. 

 

UI is similar to other Olights but with some differences. Long press from Off to go to moon light mode, Double click to go to Turbo, and Triple click to go to strobe.There the front eswitch is mostly used as a mode switch but can be used to turn the light on and off from off as well. If you plan to use this for EDC in a pocket make sure you know how lockout mode works too.

 

Recharging

The Warrior Mini comes with Olights newest MCCA2 charging system which is faster and denoted with the red ring inside. The magnetic charging system is convenient and easy but does require a proprietary battery (3500mAh in this case) and the Warrior Mini is no different. The proprietary Olight battery goes with the positive terminal facing the head in this light though which isn’t always the case. 

I saw total charging time take 2:35:00, and as usually my charging monitoring system doesn’t like the drops in current that the MCC chargers do so my graph is incomplete. Max charge rate I saw was 1.3A at 1:16:00 mark. Once full the battery measured 4.3145V.

 

Pro’s

  • Big fan of the desert tan color
  • Great fit and finish for production lights
  • Turns out to be a nice pocket EDC for 18650 size.

 

Con’s

  • Plastic inner bezel, more prone to scratching then metal.
  • Seems to be melting lenses if activated in an enclosed space, make sure to use lockout mode.
  • Proprietary battery, but this one will charge in a traditional charger

 

Conclusion

The two words I would use to describe the Olight Warrior Mini is “Practical Tactical”. Sure you can use it tactically, the rear tail switch despite being a bit mushy and a tad hard to predict works well, and I find myself using it in an EDC roll too, the two stage switch is so much better then just a one mode straight to turbo switch like you find on other tactical lights at least in my EDC style usage. The UI here is the same as other Olights too so you don’t really need to learn a new UI for just this light. The Olight TIR’s are my favorite too for single LED lights. 

Something’s don’t change though, that proprietary battery that’s required here means you have to use the Olight battery and pay a premium for it. It also has the cool emitter which is Olights standard MO. On a tactical light it might make more sense but on a light that does great as an EDC I would prefer neutral white strongly. 

Overall the Warrior Mini is probably my favorite recent EDC/Tactical light, and I can recommend it if your ok with the cool white and proprietary battery. I wonder what special edition color Olight will come up with next on this light.

Pickup the Olight Warrior Mini from Amazon via Skyben at the following links.

Black: https://amzn.to/2GHtORu

Desert Tan: https://amzn.to/3p72YU2

Cammo: https://amzn.to/32nI6OK

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Olight Odin Dedicated Weapon Light Review (2000 Lumen, 21700, XHP 35.2 LED)

The Olight Odin is Olights first purpose built long gun flashlight. It’s using a Scout mount, has a pressure pad and is capable of 2000 lumens. There have been a fair bit of sponsored Odin reviews, I strive to be different here and tell you how I see it. Thanks to Skyben for sending it to me let’s take a look and get to the review.

 

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Packaging & Accessories

Olight once again does a very nice job here on packaging. It’s very appleske with a white magnetic fold out box and a full color photo on the front with specs on the back. On t he inside everything is packaged very nice inside little boxes, etc. Opening the front cover you have the quickstart guide along with the light and all the accessories. There are quite a few accessories with this light including the light itself and the 4 direction mount. You also get the 5000mAh 21700 proprietary battery, the MCC2A magnetic charger cable, and the new locking pressure switch. Lastly you get a few small zip ties to help mount the pressure switch, a small allan key, and a few extra screws and manual.

 

Construction

The Olight Odin is made from aluminium and hard anodized in a fairly glossy black. Starting at the tail cap, you have a very similar recharging point that was on the Olight Warrior X Pro, with the longer lugs to help you find the tail switch with gloves. It’s a two stage switch with a half press being momentary and full press locking on the light. Around the rear button is another ring and what looks like a space for an o’ring this is for the included pressure switch to lock on to the light which I will explain later. On the sides of the tail you have some tear drop areas milled in place for grip and style. Inside there is a large spring loaded brass contact. 

Threads are anodized, square cut and robust. It does take several turns to get them off. This is one of the few Olights where the positive terminal of the battery faces the head. The body tube is smooth except for the Scout mount. That’s fine, remember this isn’t an EDC light or designed to be handheld, it’s designed to be mounted primarily. 

The head you can tell was milled as one piece but it’s glued on to the tail and is non removable. It has a little larger ring which I assume is to help with thermal for the electronics. Styling wise you have two milled away tear drops, about the size of an endmill. At the front there is a black bezel with small almost saw tooth shaped crenulations. The edges are reasonably sharp. The lens is glass (Good for cleaning powder residue off) and underneath that is a TIR optic. 

Mounting 

This light uses the “Scout” mounting system that Surefire pioneered with the scout series of lights. It provides a 2 post mount thats about 7.75mm off the body of the light. It’s an extra piece that’s screwed to the light with 2 small hex head cap screws with locking compound on them. When I backed the screws out with a 1.5mm Hex key.

Olight included their locking mount that is designed to fit onto a standard picatinny rail. It can mount on the left or the right, and face forward or backward. It utilizes two hex head bolts and comes with the appropriately sized hex allan key. I would recommend once you get it to where you like it, to put some blue locktite on these screws, to make sure nothing backs off during use. This mount has 2 positions on where you can mount the light either on what I will call the bottom or the side. In addition to this light can mount either direction.This mount also locks once the light is in place to help secure it. Lastly the light does have threaded screw holes in it so you can use other 3rd party mounts like my favorite offset mount by Arisaka Defense. You may have to get a little creative with these in the order you mount them to tighten down all the screws depending on what your mounting it on. The big thing here is you have a lot of options.

The pressure switch is an evolution of what we saw on the M2R and Warrior series of lights. It’s designed to go on a picatinny rail as well and is rubber so it can slide on top and to secure you can use the included zip ties. The big difference here is that the end that attaches to the light has a locking mechanism. Simply push the ring forward to engage 4 small detent balls to grip onto the light, pull this ring back to unlock. It’s pretty secure for normal use and won’t break free under normal conditions. I did see a few posts in the Olight Facebook group where people had the lock come loose during extreme combat type situations so your luck might very. I would recommend disconnecting the pressure switch during transport in a bag to prevent the light from coming on accidentally. Cable length on the pressure switch is 165mm.

Size and Weight

I measured the overall length at 136.6mm, maximum diameter on the light (not including the mount) is 29mm, minimum diameter is 24.16mm. Weight with the battery was 174.1g, adding the pressure switch it’s 222.3g. 

LED & Beam

Olight has recently gotten into the nasty habit of not defining the LED they are using on some lights, and the Odin is one of them. With the TIR optic in place you can’t see the LED either. What I can tell you is it’s a fairly neutral white tint at the Turbo setting and in lower modes it’s a bit warm.. The beam is almost all throw with the focus in the center. There is just a very slight spill and there are a few artifacts here, which I think are the edges of the bezel showing. This is perfect for it’s intended use as a weapon mounted light where you want a tight focus. 

Heat & Runtime

The Odin produces upto 2000 lumens on turbo and this lasts 2 minutes before it steps down to 52% relative output. I saw maximum heat at 60C at 2:40 of runtime. Normally I would say this is too hot to hold but since this light is designed to be placed near the muzzle end of a hot firearm it’s not really an issue. We saw one more step down at the 12 minute markand the light ran at a fading 42% output for 2 hours. At the end it had one more step down before stopping right at 3 hours of runtime. I would have wished to see Turbo last longer here but suspect the time is thermally regulated as we can see the temps heat up some after cooling off initially. Overall runtime is the best out of a 1” weapon light that I have tested.

UI

The UI here is pretty simple. On the light itself, the rear button has a half press which gives you the lower lumen mode, and a full press gives you the full 2000 lumens. If you press and hold in either mode the light is in momentary. If you do a quick press in either mode the light stays on. When the pressure switch is connected you only have the full 2000 lumens but the same press and hold gives you momentary and quick press gives you constant light. There is no strobe mode on this light. 

 

Recharging & Power

The Odin uses Olights Proprietary 21700 5000mAh battery which is required for this light. It’s one of the only recent Olights I can remember where the positive terminal goes in facing the head. Proprietary batteries are one of the things I dislike the most. This probably won’t be something you swap out a lot but if you want extra power be sure to buy one and keep properly stored in your kit. Olights MCC3 charging system here is a winner because it’s super easy to recharge and leave the light mounted on your weapon. It’s red when charging and green when charged, and this version charges up to 2A. Total charging time here was 2 hours and 7 minutes which seems pretty quick.

Pro’s

  • Use of the Scout mount meaning you have tons of mounting options to fit your application.
  • Complete Kit with a decent mount.
  • Good Beam for the purpose.


Con’s

  • Only is compatible with 21700 batteries, CR123A’s are not an option if your out in the field and need more light after several hours. 
  • Some possible durability issues with the locking pressure mount system.
  • LED used is unspecified but is Neutral White.

 


Conclusion

For me this is going to be the light I plan on leaving on my 16” build. The way I have it configured now it’s easy enough to remove if I want to, but I feel pretty confident in it’s ability to perform to leave it. I may end up picking up an offset Arisaka mount to get it a little closer to the hand guard. 

 

Overall I think this is a good light for most citizens and hunters. Before I would trust my life to it in a police or military role I would want to do more durability testing. With the current pandemic and ammo shortage of 2020, I didn’t put that many rounds through my AR during range testing but what I did shoot the light held up without issues. 

 

Pickup the Olid Odin on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2E2JxZN

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/v50nRek

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Olight Perun Mini (Special Edition) Review (1000 Lumen, 16340 Headlamp, Velcro Mount)

Today I have the Olight Perun Mini, a smaller sized version of the Perun I tested earlier this year. The mini I have here is the limited edition in the Orange color which I love. It uses a 16340 battery and doesn’t have have proximity sensor. Thanks to Skyben for sending this to me to look at and review. Let’s take a closer look at this lightweight headlamp. 

The Olight Perun Mini in Orange (Special Edition) https://amzn.to/32bCVlO

The Olight Perun Mini in Black https://amzn.to/3fu8cEs

The Olight Perun Mini in Black with headband https://amzn.to/3gVjsts

 

Special thanks to Zeroair for allowing me to use a few photos. See his review of this light at https://bit.ly/30iih0T

 

Thanks to everyone who is already following me on Instagram, and on this channel’s Facebook page, It really does help the channel grow. If you’re not already following links to everything will be in the description below. 

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Packaging & Accessories

The package stays consistent with Olights white textured boxes and color printing. Since this is a limited edition it shows the orange off nicely. On the back it’s full of features and specs. 

Several accessories come with the Perun mini, first you get the light itself with the clip preinstalled, the proprietary Olight 550mAh battery, a lanyard and lanyard threading tool/clip removal tool, the MCC magnetic charger, and then the velcro duty patch and manual.

A headband is available for the Perun mini, but it’s an optional extra and I don’t have it here for review. I talk a bit more about it in my retention section.

 

Construction

The light is made from Aluminum and in this special edition anodized in a lovely bright orange color. I really do love the orange and it makes sense for a headlamp. It’s not going to be as durable as black as colored anodizing is typically softer but I am ok with that. A Lot of the design ques here are from the larger Perun. You have a flat magnetic tail with Olights recharging system built in, and the slotting for the included lanyard. 

The body is the same milled pyramids that’s been on some other recent Olights, I like it, it’s a little different and a nice amount of grip. Internally the threads are anodized and fine square cut. There is a small spring in the head, and remember because this has Olights recharging the battery goes in positive down. The head itself trades out Olights typical blue accents for black. The clip and how it mounts is a little different on this and I mention that in my Retention section. The button is fairly large and sits flat in the head of the light. I had no issues with it getting pressed accidentally when pocket carried. 

 

 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the overall length at 61.5mm, maximum diameter at 21.5mm at the head, and minimum diameter at the body at 20.5mm. Weight with the included battery and clip was 51.8g.

 

Size wise it’s very close to the Olight H1R, Wowtac H01 I reviewed last week, and about half the size as the Olight Perun I reviewed several months ago.

Retention

As an EDC in your pocket the Perun mini carries very similar to the S1R or the H1R. The one big difference is how the clip. It’s a little different design in how it attaches to the light. It’s a friction fit, and captured but the ends have a little bulb on them to help reinforce that. To remove it though you need a small tool like a screw driver or blunt butter knife to just get it started and then it comes off. It carries deep in the pocket, it’s dual direction and there is a good amount of space for material at the top of the loop.

As a Headlamp this is where things get interesting. It comes with a hoop velcro patch I will call it. On it is a tube that rotates, the clip of the light goes into this tube and it secures the light. The idea is this could be put on a hat that has a place for a patch or a uniform, plate carrier, vest, etc and wear it on your chest. None of these are things I actually have at the moment so for me it’s not the most useful but I could easily sew Velcro onto something if I needed but it’s really a specialized application.

As I mentioned earlier the traditional around the head strap isn’t included with this light, it is sold as an optional extra and I don’t have one this time. But from looking at ZeroAir’s review you can see in the photo below (Used with permission) it looks like a decent strap. Instead of having a silicone set of loops like the H1R Nova or full size Perun had it has the soft side of velcro sewed on. The idea is you take the patch mount and stick it on the headband but when your doing this it doesn’t cover all of the hook side of the velcro so it’s left there scratching your forehead. With the light being as light as it is I think the patch mount is just too big, and the best solution would be to just cut the mount up a bit where not needed. Or use the mount from another light, the mount from the H1R works fine.

 

LED & Beamshot

Olight has gotten into an unfortunate cycle here where on some lights for one reason or another they don’t specify the LED they are using. That’s the case with the Perun Mini, all we know is that it’s cool white but I would guess about 6000k so not too cool. If I had to guess this might be using the same LED as the full size Perun so maybe the Cree XHP 50.2 LED. There wasn’t any PWM that was noticeable to me.

 

The beam out of the plastic TIR optic is all mostly flood, there is a hot center but it’s spread out over most of the beam, and there is minimal spill out the rest. This works well as a shorter range headlamp and short range EDC, I have no complaints, Olight does TIR optics well. The optic itself is plastic and textured as a way to diffuse the light.

  • Turbo – 1000 Lumens then step down to 250
  • High – 250 Lumens
  • Medium – 65 Lumens
  • Low – 16 LumensMoon – 2 Lumens

 

Heat and Runtime

I did my runtime tests with the included Olight High drain 16340 battery. Turbo starts stepping down after 1 minute exactly suggesting it’s a timed stepp down and by 90 seconds it’s at 25% of relative output or around 250 lumens. Here is tuns out for 1 hour and 25 minutes where it hits the FL1 standard. The light keeps running out to 1hr 47 minutes before Low Voltage Protection kicks in at 3.156V. Maximum heat I saw was 38C at just at 2 minutes. 

When I compared it to the full size Perun I was a little surprised at the results. The full size light doubled the amount of time in turbo (2 minutes) but high output although it was brighter it was exactly the same.Total runtime can be compared at 1 hr 47 minutes to 2 hr 47 minutes. 

 

UI

The Perun mini features Olights standard UI. It does not have the proximity sensor that the full size Perun had. So when off long press gives you moonlight mode. When off a single press will give you low, if you keep holding the light will cycle through low, medium, high. Double press at anytime to get turbo, and triple click to get SOS. It’s a basic no frills, low feature UI that anyone can understand. I would love to see Olight make an advanced UI that’s switchable like some manufactures are starting to do now. 

 

Recharging

The Olight Perun Mini includes a proprietary 550mAh 16340 battery. It has both the positive and negative on the traditional positive end of the battery. This is so Olight’s magnetic charging system functions when the battery is installed in the light. This is down on power slightly from what other rechargeable 16340 headlamps are shipping with by about 100mAh.

It also includes the MCC 1A charging cable, I do wish Olight would make the bases or USB side different colors as there are several version now of this cable. Charging for me took 1 hour and 5 minutes, and the fastest charging rate I saw was 0.75A, so just slightly over 1C for this battery. Charging stopped at 4.237V so slightly higher voltage then I would expect to see. 

Pro’s 

  • Limited Edition Orange
  • Nice deep cary captured clip for pocket use
  • Mode spacing is pretty good, turbo is a big bump up

 

Con’s

  • No LED is specified officially, it’s sad to see Olight go to this. 
  • The mounting system to use it as a headlamp isn’t a fully tested idea since it leaves exposed velcro where it’s likely to scratch you. That said it works well when mounted on your chest.

 

Conclusion

The Olight Perun mini is a nice update to the H1R as a light itself. I do wish they would possibly considering making a 18350 version to give double the available power without much increase in diameter. Maybe we could call that the Perun Short. 

 

As for the mount I think the light would have a larger appeal with a better more traditional head strap with the silicone mount like what has been used in the past, and then include the velcro mount as the optional extra. Instead Olight decided to do the opposite and compromised the lights functionally to fit this niche market. From a sales standpoint it doesn’t make a ton of sense to me as a way to launch the product but I am just happy we have a nice special edition orange from Olight too.

 

Overall not a bad headlamp if the mounting options fit what you need or you have a silicone mount you can use from another light. It’s more expensive than some of the low cost, small headlamps I have reviewed this year but the beam is probably one of the best, if you don’t mind cool white. I can recommend it as long as you are aware of the mounting options. 

 

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/cp3VG8e

 

The Olight Perun Mini in Orange (Special Edition) https://amzn.to/32bCVlO

The Olight Perun Mini in Black https://amzn.to/3fu8cEs

The Olight Perun Mini in Black with headband https://amzn.to/3gVjsts

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Olight i5T Cu Review (AA, 300 Lumens, Raw Copper, Great EDC)

Olight has another raw copper light out for all you copper fans with the Olight i5T Cu. This is a special edition of the i5T which has been released in several different editions in 2020. It’s a 2 mode light taking a AA battery with a deep cary pocket clip. It’s similar to the Olight i3T but larger. Thanks to SkyBen for sending this to me to review.

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Versions

There are a couple of versions of the i5T from Olight. There as a Shot Show edition they gave out to people, it was aluminum with a neutral white emitter, A CoVID relief special edition that was sold, it was aluminum and had some blue anodized accents on it, a normal black anodize and desert tan models, and the one I have here the in copper. Everything except the shot show edition has the standard cool white emitter. 

Packaging and Accessories

The i5Tcu came in what I would call a gift box. It’s a heavy duty white cardboard that’s finished nicely with a color photo on the front and a limited amount of details on the back. Inside the light was vacuum sealed in plastic with an anti oxidizer packet to prevent any patina from forming until it arrives in your hands. The only included accessory was the manual and GemTec AA battery that came preinstalled. 

Construction

No complaints here on construction quality, Olight does a nice job with these, and is one of my favorites when it comes to their raw copper machining. Everything is nicely chamfered, and polished. It also comes in the least oxidized state of any of the copper flashlights I have. The overall design here is a largely a scaled up version of the Olight i3T with a few differences. At the tail the buttons appear to be the same, as the i3T. The proud switch has a hard plastic edge and then a rubberized grip at the very top. It takes quite a bit of force to active the switch which I like. This one won’t come on in your pocket on accident. I do feel a bit of cell movement internally when pressing the switch which feels a little unnatural. 

The knurling on the tail cap is mostly horizontal with just a touch of vertical, mine seems to be not perfectly centered, like it is on the i3T. Not sure if this is intentional or just a slight manufacturing issue, either way it adds a nice amount of grip to unscrew the tail for battery replacement and style. Internally the tail section is made of copper too, and has nicely cut square threads that need a bit of grease.

The pocket clip is push on style but fits tightly, more on retention in a minute. The body itself has the double line spiral as the i3T does. It’s fairly deeply cut and the walls have minimal chamfer. It’s mostly for style but adds some grip to. The head is very plain, it has the model number and serial engraved into it and does not appear to come apart or it’s a one piece design. The lens appears to be plastic and be a one piece with the optic and reflector.

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length of the light at 95.5mm, diameter at 17.9mm and weight with an Amazon Basics High Capacity NiHM and clip at 112.3g. It’s a pretty heavy light, but that’s what you expect for copper

When I compare it to other similar lights I have, the diameter is a little smaller than my Reylight Pineapples or Ti LAN or the copper variants. Length wise it’s a little shorter too. If you liked the Olight i3T it’s just a little longer and slightly larger in diameter. It’s fairly comparable in size to the Olight M1T Raider, but smaller diameter and slightly longer. 

 

Retention

Retention on the i5T is good. I like to EDC 14500 lights, they are a good balance of size, weight, and most importantly diameter. This is especially true when I am wearing shorts. The i5T has a reasonably deep carry pocket clip, and on the copper model it’s a bronze PVD colored finish that fits pretty well especially after the light takes on some patina. It has a reasonable amount of room for material at the top too. It is using Olights dual direction clip which some love to hate. I will say my original clip on my i3T did snag not go back into shape. Olight did offer a replacement but it was only available in black, not the original PVD bronze copper it came with. It would be kind of nice if Olight included an extra clip with these special editions since they don’t seem to have spares.

 

LED & Beamshot

The i5T Cu here is running an Osram P9 LED in cool white. That said it’s not Olights typical 6500k, it’s warmer and more neutral, I would guess somewhere about 5500k or so. It does have a bit of a green tinge. The beam is using what Olight calls a PMMA lens. It creates a beam that is mostly a spot, with minimal flood. Good for EDC. There is a bit of PMW on low according to my oscilloscope and camera but I don’t notice it with my eye. If you are sensitive this may bother you.

 

Runtime & Heat

The i5T Cu is designed to run with 1.301.5V batteries so Alkaline and Ni-Mh batteries primarily. As you know from watching my other reviews I don’t run any light with Alkalines because they leak. Olight has provided the i5T with an Alkaline from the factory, so get it out and replace it with a high quality rechargeable Nickel metal hydride instead. 

For my testing I used an Amazon Basics High Drain cell, Previous testing shows these are slightly above 2500mAh, so basically on par with Eneloop Pro’s for half the cost. Peak output is right at 300 lumens and the light holds this for a timed 3 minutes before stepping down to right at 50% output where it runs for for just short of 2 hours and 30 minutes before stepping down and ran at it’s lowest mode. This time was the FL1 standard of 10% relative output. It eventually turned off completely at 5 hours and 45 min.  There is no Low Voltage protection built in to this light, so my battery had a voltage of 0.9V when I pulled it out. So when the light gets very dim, it’s time to switch the battery. Maximum heat I saw was 30.4C at the 3:30 mark.

I had read a few accounts of people running this light with Lithium Ion batteries so I wanted to test that too. Olight doesn’t recommend this and neither do I after testing. The light isn’t built for this at all, while it does substantially increase the output you will damage the light if you continue to do this due to the immense heat and increased voltage lowering the life of the LED. The light also doesn’t have low voltage protection so I used a protected KeepPower 800mAh cell to protect the battery from damage.

Total runtime with the Liion was 23 minutes to the FL1 standard, 31 minutes till protection kicked in. It’s a pretty linear decline until the 20 minute mark where voltage really starts having an impact on output. Temps are the big story here, this is the hottest light I tested when run this way and that makes sense given this is outside it’s designed mode of operation. Here a bit of a table of time and temps.

 

Time Temp in C Temp in F
0:00:30 36.1 96.98
0:01:00 40.7 105.26
0:03:00 53.4 128.12
0:09:00 69.3 156.74
0:15:00 72.7 162.86

As you can see the light gets dangerously hot, super fast. At 30 seconds it’s 36.1C at 3 minutes it’s 53.4C, at 9 minutes it’s 69.3 C, and at 15 minutes it’s 72.7C. To put this into a frame of reference most adults will have 3rd degree burns after 2 second exposure above 65C. So for this reason alone this light should not be run with Liion batteries it’s unsafe.

 

UI

UI here is super basic as it’s a 2 mode light. The light always comes on in it’s lowest 15 lumen mode and then if you press again you get the higher 300 lumen mode. There are no flashers or anything else. It would have been nice to see another mode to give you an ultra low 1 lumen mode. 


Pro’s 

  • Copper! With a great surface finish
  • Carries Well in the pocket
  • Good beam characteristics for EDC
  • Nice button

 

Con’s

  • Only Cool White is offered to the Public, there are probably better LED choices here too.
  • No moonlight mode
  • Pretty Middle of the road performance here. It would be nice to see 14500 support.

 

Conclusion

The Olight i5T Cu is a nice special edition light for general EDC, especially if you like the patina and characteristics that raw copper can develop over time. Olight’s timing is pretty good too with the positive antimicrobial characteristics of copper.That said you pay the price in weight here for copper, and I wish they would have went with a different LED and a more advanced driver. This is a basic light and it’s low mode is still too high for many who want a 1 lumen or less mode. Other then that it’s a nice high quality light I enjoy having around and I think you will too if you are a fan of raw copper. 

If your interested be sure to check out my link to where you can pick this up on Amazon from Skyben trading. 

Full Image Gallery https://imgur.com/a/w89SyWL

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Olight Perun Review (Is it really an upgrade?)

Olight has introduced a new right angle light with the Perun. The name comes from the Slavic God of Thunder. The Perun makes some kind of odd design choices from the fairly popular Olight H2R it logically replaces, that I will go through during this review. Thanks to SkyBen on Amazon for sending this to me to take a look at and review. This will probably be a longer review so grab your favorite cold or hot beverages and enjoy. 

 

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Packaging and Accessories

I think it’s fair to say Olight might just have the nicest packaging in the production flashlight world and one wonders what it adds to the cost of a light. The box is a heavy white cardboard with pictures of the light on the front, it’s a magnetic box that folds out from the side. On the back you have a nice summary of the light, along with features specs, and package contents. Inside your greeted with a quick start card that tells you to remove the protective battery spacer, and charge the light, new on the Perun are warnings to make sure to keep the lens free from mist and scratches or the lights sensor may prevent higher operating modes. 

 

Standard accessories include 3500mAh proprietary Olight battery 10A capable (ORB-186C35), pocket clip, Lanyard and lanyard threading tool, and 3rd generation faster MCC charging cable. No headstrap comes standard with the Perun, like it does for nearly every other right angle light on the market. Instead Olight choose to make the strap an optional extra or part of a bundle deal. The strap itself is very similar to what was on the H2R with only some screen printing on the side being different. It’s a magnetic mount and it’s easy to get the light on and off, and it will even work with the pocket clip attached although I don’t recommend it.

 

Construction

The Olight Perun is made from black anodized aluminum as expected. The body and tail cap are all one piece like we saw on the Baton Pro. While similar in design these two tubes are not interchangeable as they as slightly different lengths. Patterns are different as well, the Peruns texture is larger pyramids with the points not milled off. I think it’s attractive and aggressive looking but interferes with the operation some as I will explain in a minute. 

The head is a collar design, with the pocket clip only attaching here, While it is a dual direction clip, it’s quite far from deep carry. I measured 20mm of the light’s head sticking up out of my pocket, which for me is way too much for EDC in a front pocket. I could see someone clipping this on a vest, or backpack strap possibly. The backside of the head has some groves milled in for style and heat dissipation. The top of the light is where you find the large silicone button thats slightly domed and angled away from the lens. This is easy to operate with gloves and produces a good click for an electronic switch. It’s surrounded by a blue signature ring. The lens of this light itself is again surrounded by a blue ring. The lens itself is plastic, it contains a clear center so you can easily see the LED underneath. It doesn’t really have a reflector to speak of. On top of the lens is a blacked out section, when looking up at it you can see a sensor is mounted inside, and this is the IR sensor used to dim/turn off the light if something comes close to it. More on that here in a minute.

The strap is a high quality one with an over the head piece. The mount is magnetic to hold the light but it’s not strong enough to hold the light with any movement. There is a rubber/silicone strap that stretches over the light to secure it. It even allows for use with the pocket clip attached but it’s a stretch. Combine this design with the increased texture on the body and it makes rotating the light a little difficult, it’s best done so from the tail side, as if you do so from the head side it’s more likely you will unscrew the head from the light rather then rotate it. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length of the Perun at 112mm, maximum diameter at the head at 25mm, and minimum diameter on the body/tail at 23mm. Weight with the included battery and clip came in at 115.7g. 

The natural competitor here is the previous model, the Olight H2R. I measured the length of the H2R at 110mm, maximum diameter at the head at 25.3mm and minimum diameter on the body at 20mm. Weight of the H2R with it’s included battery and clip came in at 109g. 

Next to my Nitecore HC35 the Olight Perun looks tiny, that said the Nitecore is running 4 LED, and a larger 21700 battery. Be sure to make sure your subscribed so you can watch the review of the Nitecore HC35 coming in the next week or two. 

See pictures of the Nitecore in the video.

 

LED | Beamshot | Mode Spacing

Unfortunately Olight has not said officially what LED the Perun is using. I can tell you it looks like a quad package and is a fairly large domed emitter. My guess is it’s a Cree XHP 50.2 LED. It’s tint is pretty cool white, easily 6500k or greater. The beam pattern here is all flood with no real hotspot at distance thanks to the TIR optic. When I compare it to my NW H2R the first thing I notice is the huge difference in tint, and the second thing I notice beam angle. While both lights are all flood, the Perun is a little wider and slightly less throwy. Olight rates them at 12 meters of difference in throw, to the eye though it’s hard to perceive the difference. The IR sensor doesn’t seem to change the beam pattern here which is a good thing. 

Olight has recently started adding runtime progressions in the manual which is nice to see a manufacturer being honest about what their lights will actually do. For my own runtime testing I tested with the included battery. Turbo mode was good for just at 2.5 minutes and then it started stepping down from there to about 55% relative output for roughly 10 minutes. From there I saw one more step down to about 35% relative output for 90 minutes, We then saw 3 more major step downs over the next 60 minutes or so before the light ran in moonlight mode till LVP kicked in. Total runtime was just at 165 minutes. Heat was pretty well controlled, the hottest I saw during my runtime test was 104F at the 5 minute mark..

Here is the official output figures and mode spacing. 

  • Moon – 5 Lumens
  • Low – 30 Lumens
  • Medium – 120 Lumens
  • High – 500 Lumens
  • Turbo – 2000 Lumens

My comment on mode spacing here is that it’s a huge difference between the 500 lumens of high and 2000 lumens in turbo. While I would prefer something in between the benefit is that high mode can sustain itself without stepping down for 3 hours. 

 

PWM

I will insert some shots of my PWM tests here. There wasn’t any thing to see or find on my scope here. 

 

UI

The Olight Perun has the standard Olight UI many of us have come to know, and I like with the slower fades from off/on and between modes. From off, long press to activate moonlight mode at 5 lumens. To turn on in normal modes single click the switch, to change brightness level hold the button and the light will cycle through the 5 available modes lowest to highest. Double click to access turbo. Triple click to access strobe. The light also features memory mode for normal modes. 

 

Lockout can be accomplished when the light is off by pressing and holding the switch for 2 seconds until moonlight mode comes on and immediately shuts off. To exit lockout press the button for about 1 second until moonlight mode stays on. Personally I will just give the body of the light a ¼ turn to mechanically lock it out. The light features a short 3 minute timer, and a longer 9 minute timer. If these are setup (See the included manual) the light will automatically shut off when the end of the timer is reached. 

 

The other thing the Perun has is an IR sensor that when the light detects it’s too close to an object it steps down in brightness to 30 lumens and if held there past the 60 second mark it will shut off the light entirely. Olight warns in the manual and the card right inside the package that dust or scratches on the (plastic) lens may affect the lights ability to run in high mode. There is no way to disable this sensor in the UI of the light. 

 

In practice I found this interesting to use and experiment with and a little gimicky. Lighter colored object seem to make the light reduce output further away about 3-4 inches, where darker objects made that distance much shorter 1 inch or less. Angle of attack seemed to matter too, the distances were greater if the light was straight on to the object vs at an angle to it. For instance I could put the Perun right up to a wall at an angle and still get the full 2000 lumens, vs if I angle it straight on it turned off a few inches out. 

 

I see the thought process behind including something like this, as you see people on forums burning holes in their jackets and pants sometimes with high power flashlights that turn on accidently. But I think it’s a design flaw in the UI to not be able to turn it off. A scratch in the lens, or a dusty/super heavy rainy environment reduces the lights output substantially and potentially even shuts it off after 60 seconds.  Overall, I am not a fan of the IR sensor here when you can easily electronically or mechanically lock out the light instead.

 

Battery & Recharging

Olight choose to go with a proprietary 3500mAh 10A capable discharge battery for the Perun. However the somewhat exciting and unexpected news here is that you can use a standard button top generic battery as well in the light for everything except using the the magnetic charging system. I tested with a 3400mAh high discharge battery from Thrunite and the light ran well, even in turbo mode without a problem. The manual even points this out, it was all unexpected and quite nice to see.

Charging the included 3500mAh battery was accomplished with the new MCC 1.5A charger. I saw charge time take just at 4 hours from LVP at 2.88V and terminated at 4.17V. No voltage was detected at the tail cap and no charging speed issues. 

 

Pro’s

  • Slightly less output here in turbo means you no longer need a high discharge battery, but a proprietary Olight battery is still needed for charging.
  • A standard button top 18650 will work in the light, but won’t charge.
  • Attractive overall design, good head band if you purchase it
  • High mode sustains itself for 3 hours, but it’s only 500 lumens.
  • A little more runtime then the older H2R, and it can sustain high for longer.

 

Con’s

  • Making the headstrap an optional extra
  • Clip doesn’t make for a practical EDC due to how much of the light sticks up from your pocket
  • Lack of a Neutral White Emitter and true moonlight mode
  • No glass lens over the plastic TIR, meaning it’s more susceptible to scratches which can impact the performance of the IR sensor and potentially making the light only work in low.
  • No setting to turn off the IR/Proximity sensor.

 

Conclusion

The Perun is just an odd mix of what seems like a step backwards combined with small upgrades that don’t matter much for actual use. The result is a light that in my opinion isn’t really better then the model it logically was set to replace with the Olight H2R which I was a fan of. 

 

It’s nice to see Olight reducing the requirement of a high discharge battery being required here, allowing a higher capacity battery to be used. It’s also nice to still see and be mentioned in the manual that a normal button top 18650 battery will work, but not charge in the light. 

 

The IR sensor seems kind of like a gimmick, this isn’t a very practical light to EDC in front pocket like the H2R was, or other right angle headlamps like the Armytek Wizard or Elf is. So dimming when something is near isn’t super needed here. I could see it being useful to throw it in a bag and it won’t come on and melt something but we have electronic or mechanical lockout for that too which is an easier and more reliable option in my opinion and doesn’t potentially compromise the light if the lens were dirty, or scratched. 

 

The aggressive texture on the body looks good but again makes the light as a headlamp a little harder to use in the mount. 

 

Admittedly these are mostly things enthusiasts care about, if you hand the Olight Perun to a non enthusiast they are going to think it’s a great product. It’s bright, comfortable, attractively designed, easy to use, and bright, but for many enthusiasts there are probably better choices. Mine is going to probably go to a family member who is in need of a headlight and doesn’t care about the things I mentioned, for them it will be a nice fit. So with that said let me know in the comments if this is the right headlamp for you?

 

Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/JlhEwYs

Purchase the Olight Perun on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2RLFKnT