Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank upgrayeddme2
09-22-2020 at 12:27 PM.
TU. Olight has some good lights (I have a couple), but you pay a premium for the name and they keep trying to lock people into their proprietary batteries.
For an 18650, there are better alternatives for half the price like this Wurkkos FC11. It has similar total output to the Olight Warrior Mini but has onboard USB-C charging and a higher CRI (90+) for $30:
For a 14500 or AA light, the SP10S from Sofirn is unbeatable. Awesome output - 800 lumens, 95 CRI, excellent tint, and includes a high quality 14500 battery for $16:
Sofirn has nice lights. We all have small Keychain ones for camping and daily use. Budget light forum also has nice lights. I have a BLF 6 that is 1600 lumens. Trying to find reasons to buy olight. In their forum, several have complained of faulty switches, and tactical rail lights with faulty lasers.
FC11 and the Sofirn are much better deals for the money, just no magnetic charging. I've been bad during the last few Flash.... so sititng this one out. Works out to about $40 per light and 10 for the i3.. just don't see the value there even with the free m1t [which I got last time]. in the mega bundle. Warriors n Seekers feel like you get much more for the $.
Olight just does a very good job at marketing their products.
They have incentive programs where you can get free lights with purchases, and early access to sales such as this one. Get to a certain level and you can get items three days before the general public.
They have these "Flash Sales" often enough for the devoted to keep coming back for more.
They do various lights in special limited quantities, availability, colors, and materials such as copper and titanium.
These tactics often drive up the prices on the secondary market. Some lights actually sell on eBay for 2 or 3x times the original Olight price after a sell out.
Olight will randomly send out free lights and a variety of swag to customers as surprises, sometimes for birthdays but often for no special reason at all. Plus they are constantly doing giveaways.
They will sometimes make a very small amount of certain lights so that it is not uncommon for various lights to easily hit the $500 and above mark to create a frenzy for hooked collectors.
People get very deep into the Olight 'addiction' and it's not at all uncommon for collectors to own 20-100 lights.
As previously stated, companies such as Sofirn turn out some fine lights for $40, but regardless, Olight beats them in the marketing.
Olight has good quality stuff but overpriced and the one thing I can't stand about them is that they censored your review. To me censoring review is unacceptable just like what Amazon does.
I used to sell Olight products on eBay and Amazon. They make great stuff but they decided to make a mandatory minimum price that vendors could retail their products for and unfortunately the number of people willing to pay those prices just wasn't there. They want surefire and streamlight pricing for their product and it's just not going to have the same number of buyers at those prices. Even though I do really believe their product is better than surefire.
Olight is a popular flashlight brand in the general EDC community, however many flashlight experts are less enthusiastic about it. Many people had their first introduction to modern, li-ion powered flashlights through Olight and are understandably impressed with the performance, but Olight is fairly average in its market segment and incurs some potential downsides:
While many flashlights use standard sized Li-ion batteries, Olight uses modified, proprietary variants in many of their lights (adding extra electrical contacts and sometimes higher performance). Current models of these lights cannot charge standard batteries without the extra contacts, and a few models won't work at all with standard batteries. This detail is poorly advertised in Olight's product listings.
These proprietary batteries tend to cost more than standard batteries - sometimes much more. Some of them cannot be charged in external chargers or safely used in other flashlights.
The batteries have a notable failure rate. There are often posts to r/flashlight about charging problems in Olights, and the company's solution is nearly always to send a replacement battery.
The light output from most Olights is very blue ("cool white"), and usually has poor a color rendering index (CRI). Most people, after experiencing other LED offerings end up preferring a tint more similar to daytime sunlight ("neutral white") and a higher CRI.
There have been multiple revisions of the magnetic charging system, and they're not all interchangeable.
This should not be taken to imply that you should not buy an Olight product (even if it has all of these issues), or that you should not enjoy one you already own. Many people with extensive flashlight experience find one or more of these to be deal-breakers, though, and you should know that going in.
It is worth noting, however, that Olight generally provides excellent customer service.
The warrior X is 2,000 lm,uses standard 18650, has magnetic charging and it's $78. None of the mentioned lights have anything on it.
Depends on what you consider a decent light to be. Getting hung up on their claimed lumen is a joke at best. Personally I find the Warrior X to be an ugly Convoy C8 with poor LED choice. The warrior X uses dedomed XHP35 to achieve their brightness but due to this, the flashlight has an ugly green tint to it. If they used say an XHP 35 HI they could have achieved a better light.
Acebeam L16 and Nitecore P30 would be better overall in my opinion due to their choice of LED.
Now if you're looking for a flashlight that throws light FAR but not WIDE personally this is one of my new and most favorite lights to date: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087NX2P1P 26350 battery, 560+ meters of throw, laser beam like focus, and the size of a pill bottle at most.Very hard to beat flashlight in the category of price for performance.
Depends on what you consider a decent light to be. Getting hung up on their claimed lumen is a joke at best. Personally I find the Warrior X to be an ugly Convoy C8 with poor LED choice. The warrior X uses dedomed XHP35 to achieve their brightness but due to this, the flashlight has an ugly green tint to it. If they used say an XHP 35 HI they could have achieved a better light.
Acebeam L16 and Nitecore P30 would be better overall in my opinion due to their choice of LED.
Now if you're looking for a flashlight that throws light FAR but not WIDE personally this is one of my new and most favorite lights to date: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087NX2P1P 26350 battery, 560+ meters of throw, laser beam like focus, and the size of a pill bottle at most.Very hard to beat flashlight in the category of price for performance.
If the Olight's lumen claim is at best a joke, the lumen claim of those no-name Chinese companies is triple so. You don't have to like Olight or the Warrior's tint. That doesn't make those cheaper lights any better. They are exactly that- cheap lights. They may be decent and arguably a good value. Not everybody needs to or wants to drive a Kia. Just the magnetic charging would be well worth the extra $30 for many people.
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Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank upgrayeddme2
For an 18650, there are better alternatives for half the price like this Wurkkos FC11. It has similar total output to the Olight Warrior Mini but has onboard USB-C charging and a higher CRI (90+) for $30:
https://smile.amazon.co
For a 14500 or AA light, the SP10S from Sofirn is unbeatable. Awesome output - 800 lumens, 95 CRI, excellent tint, and includes a high quality 14500 battery for $16:
https://sofirnlight.com/sp10s-lh3...p0045.htm
They have incentive programs where you can get free lights with purchases, and early access to sales such as this one. Get to a certain level and you can get items three days before the general public.
They have these "Flash Sales" often enough for the devoted to keep coming back for more.
They do various lights in special limited quantities, availability, colors, and materials such as copper and titanium.
These tactics often drive up the prices on the secondary market. Some lights actually sell on eBay for 2 or 3x times the original Olight price after a sell out.
Olight will randomly send out free lights and a variety of swag to customers as surprises, sometimes for birthdays but often for no special reason at all. Plus they are constantly doing giveaways.
They will sometimes make a very small amount of certain lights so that it is not uncommon for various lights to easily hit the $500 and above mark to create a frenzy for hooked collectors.
People get very deep into the Olight 'addiction' and it's not at all uncommon for collectors to own 20-100 lights.
As previously stated, companies such as Sofirn turn out some fine lights for $40, but regardless, Olight beats them in the marketing.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
- While many flashlights use standard sized Li-ion batteries, Olight uses modified, proprietary variants in many of their lights (adding extra electrical contacts and sometimes higher performance). Current models of these lights cannot charge standard batteries without the extra contacts, and a few models won't work at all with standard batteries. This detail is poorly advertised in Olight's product listings.
- These proprietary batteries tend to cost more than standard batteries - sometimes much more. Some of them cannot be charged in external chargers or safely used in other flashlights.
- The batteries have a notable failure rate. There are often posts to r/flashlight about charging problems in Olights, and the company's solution is nearly always to send a replacement battery.
- The light output from most Olights is very blue ("cool white"), and usually has poor a color rendering index (CRI). Most people, after experiencing other LED offerings end up preferring a tint more similar to daytime sunlight ("neutral white") and a higher CRI.
- There have been multiple revisions of the magnetic charging system, and they're not all interchangeable.
This should not be taken to imply that you should not buy an Olight product (even if it has all of these issues), or that you should not enjoy one you already own. Many people with extensive flashlight experience find one or more of these to be deal-breakers, though, and you should know that going in.It is worth noting, however, that Olight generally provides excellent customer service.
Acebeam L16 and Nitecore P30 would be better overall in my opinion due to their choice of LED.
You could also go with the very popular tried and true TC15 for a lot less money on a much more usable light.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JCFY3N4
Review: https://zeroair.wordpre
Now if you're looking for a flashlight that throws light FAR but not WIDE personally this is one of my new and most favorite lights to date: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087NX2P1P 26350 battery, 560+ meters of throw, laser beam like focus, and the size of a pill bottle at most.Very hard to beat flashlight in the category of price for performance.
Acebeam L16 and Nitecore P30 would be better overall in my opinion due to their choice of LED.
You could also go with the very popular tried and true TC15 for a lot less money on a much more usable light.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JCFY3N4
Review: https://zeroair.wordpress.com/201...ht-review/ [wordpress.com]
Now if you're looking for a flashlight that throws light FAR but not WIDE personally this is one of my new and most favorite lights to date: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B087NX2P1P 26350 battery, 560+ meters of throw, laser beam like focus, and the size of a pill bottle at most.Very hard to beat flashlight in the category of price for performance.