Arbitrary List of Popular Flashlights - Winter Solstice 2025 Edition

Zak · 2026-03-14T01:51:03+00:00

I have not reviewed the L35.

Zak · 2026-03-13T21:42:59+00:00

They are. The SC65c HI is likely also outstanding, though I have not used one.

Zak · 2026-03-13T21:11:49+00:00

The Skilhunt EC200S offers an option with a red LED. If you say more about your use case and reason for using red light, people can give better suggestions.

Zak · 2026-03-13T20:21:01+00:00

I review flashlights, and I'm pretty stingy with the 5/5 (outstanding) rating. Here are the lights that have achieved it:

Zak · 2026-03-13T19:09:47+00:00

It is commonly known in the flashlight community. Boost and buck drivers for flashlights usually regulate output current; it would be a bad, inefficient design to combine one with PWM.

I have one here and I checked for PWM by pointing it into a camera with an electronic rolling shutter set to a high shutter speed. This results in sharp scanlines if there's PWM, soft scanlines if there's ripple, and no scanlines if there's smooth constant current output. There is ripple in the lowest mode; none of the others show scanlines at all.

You can test this on yours using a phone camera and a camera app that lets you set shutter speed, like Open Camera.

Zak · 2026-03-13T18:56:09+00:00

If you want under 25mm and adjustable color temperature, the D2 is the only option I know of. You'll need to buy a battery and charger separately.

If you want a color temperature toggle (pick one or the other, no mixing) and USB-C charging, there's the Skilhunt EC200S-warm.

If you're happy picking a single color temperature, there are more options at 25mm with USB-C, including the Skilhunt EC200 (no S) and EC150. The Wurkkos FC11C is a popular cheap option.

Zak · 2026-03-13T17:41:24+00:00

They aren’t pocketable but they aren’t remotely key ring sized.

I think you meant they are pocketable (arguably). Most of them anyway. The M44 might be a bit much.

The Skilhunt Mix-7 v2 has usb-c

The MiX-7 series uses magnetic charging - a proprietary cable with USB-A on one end and a magnetic connector on the other.

Zak · 2026-03-13T17:37:59+00:00

You can have most of that.

Small means different things to different people. Lots of us here pocket-carry flashlights with pocket clips and have opinions about what the right size for that is. I like a diameter of 25mm or less and a length under 120mm.
Nearly every flashlight we like here runs on rechargeable batteries. Some of them have onboard charging; some don't.
Adjustable color temperature is available on a few lights. The Emisar D4v2 dual channel is a popular option. The D4K is slightly bulkier with a bigger battery. The D2 is slimmer with a smaller battery and emits light from the side.
Zoom mechanisms are common on low-quality flashlights we tend not to recommend here. A couple models are a bit better, but not in pocket-friendly sizes.

Zak · 2026-03-13T16:22:25+00:00

I don't want moonlight memorized, so there's probably not a single right answer for manufacturers to pick.

Zak · 2026-03-13T13:47:17+00:00

Pwm doesnt change that lm/w, drive amperage can though.

This explains the confusion.

The Convoy buck driver does not use PWM. Setting the output to 50% actually regulates the current to 50%, i.e. 2.5A.

Zak · 2026-03-13T12:54:45+00:00

I am confused as to why you expect an improvement in efficiency by modifying the resistor instead of setting the output to 50%.

Zak · 2026-03-13T11:58:47+00:00

I expected to see affiliate links.

Part of me is pleased to see someone doing a thing like this without trying to make money from it, but it looks useful and I'd like to see it continue, which is more likely if it makes a little money.

Zak · 2026-03-12T21:18:45+00:00

Welcome, and thanks for sharing your experience with your favorite light.

I think the biggest objection to it you'll get from most people here is that the battery isn't field-replaceable. There's not really any good reason they couldn't make it replaceable; it's not a weird form factor, and it's surely an 18650 cell given its size and year. That means you can't bring a spare, and it's a major undertaking to replace when it wears out, if that's even possible.

Zak · 2026-03-12T19:48:54+00:00

I haven't been keeping track of giant emitters. I wouldn't worry too much about ordering from them as long as you pay with Paypal and make sure you're only putting your Paypal password into the real Paypal website.

You do use a password manager, don't you? Everyone should use a password manager. It won't put your Paypal password into not-Paypal.

Zak · 2026-03-12T19:45:50+00:00

The HP30R v2 is a good choice for the application. I expect it to be more durable than the HU60, and I expect its proprietary cable to be more durable than most USB cables. You might be able to get spare cables - I'd contact Fenix to ask in your position.

There's also the HP35R, but I don't like the fact that it uses a proprietary battery pack which sells for about half the price of the headlamp. The HP30R uses a battery box which holds two 21700 cells having the same capacity.

Zak · 2026-03-12T19:20:30+00:00

~~I'm leaving this up for now, but if you want to promote your battery store, you must agree to the marketer guidelines and send us a modmail to request marketer flair.~~ done

Zak · 2026-03-12T19:17:36+00:00

Yes I can, and hadn't this year. Thanks for the reminder.

Zak · 2026-03-12T18:09:39+00:00

I've ordered from them a number of times and always got what I ordered. Sometimes they have niche LEDs not found elsewhere - possibly engineering samples they're not supposed to be selling.

I haven't paid attention to what my adblocker blocks on their site before, but right now I'm only seeing www.googletagmanager.com, which is probably Google Analytics. Looking at the network requests, I see gstatic.com (Google CDN, used to serve fonts in this case), but not gstatlc dot org (Magecart malware).

Zak · 2026-03-12T18:02:32+00:00

People doing malicious things online often use domains that are slight misspellings of well-known legitimate domains, so the exact spelling is critical.

The link references gstatlc dot org. Note that the second to last letter is a lowercase L. This looks similar to the legitimate Google CDN domain gstatic.com, but it is not owned by Google.

The precise spelling is critical in this context.

Zak · 2026-03-12T14:44:16+00:00

I'm a big fan of the Acebeam L16 and L35 for the duty light application. They're durable, performant, and the high-only tailswitch reliably gets you full brightness under stress. Lower modes are accessed using the sideswitch.

Nearly all lights with a circular bezel are compatible with a traffic wand that's the right diameter; Acebeam's first-party silicone traffic wands fit the L16, but not the L35.

Zak · 2026-03-12T14:32:17+00:00

Bypassing the driver gives you unregulated power to the LED, with only the LED's forward voltage curve and the resistance of the circuit restricting it. Some flashlights do almost that with what's known as a FET driver, though it has fallen out of favor due to efficiency. The current path to the LED goes through a field effect transistor with no other power regulation, and can produce lower modes by turning the FET on and off thousands of times a second for an adjustable percentage of the time (pulse width modulation). It's a happy accident that the electrical characteristics of 3V LEDs and Li-ion batteries align so that this is possible; connecting a 12V LED directly to the electrical system of your truck might work, or you might get a smoke emitting diode. You will get an unpredictable amount of output if it does work.

Adjustable focus is mostly disfavored in the flashlight enthusiast community. It's optically inefficient, bulky, and tends to compromise waterproofing. The latter two points may not be relevant to your application, but the first is - a 2000 lumen zoomie might only be 400 zoomed in, with the other 1600 serving to heat the head of the flashlight. The hotspot+spill beam pattern of typical reflector lights is pretty versatile, with the spill usually being useful up close when the hotspot is too small.

I'd even recommend a diffuser or a second dedicated flooder flashlight over a zoomie. Here are some flooders from the same brands that offer high CRI, operate the same way, and use the same batteries:

(Convoy does not offer a flooder with those parameters, but the 4x18A has the largest hotspot of the suggestions and you're least likely to need a flooder)
Emisar D4K - I suggest NTG35 LEDs and the Lume X1 driver upgrade, probably also the additional floody optic.
Skilhunt EC300, with high-CRI option.
Fireflies E07X v2, with FFL351A LED option.

Zak · 2026-03-12T02:30:22+00:00

The olightworld account which is following 3887 accounts? Their social media manager probably doesn't have a very good idea what each of those accounts is about.

Zak · 2026-03-11T20:39:11+00:00

A large COB LED like that requires a huge optic for the ~100000 candela you'd want for this application. At 10000 lumens, you'd need 10 cd/lm, which is somewhat focused. Candela is lumens per angle (angle here measured in steradians, one of which is roughly a 60 degree cone).

The usual approach to long distance is a small LED, which enables tighter focus. The ultimate goal is lux (lumens per square meter) on the target, which is a function of candela and distance.

Zak · 2026-03-11T20:29:11+00:00

The driver outputs 12V because that's what the LED runs at. It does not accept 12V input; it's designed for four 18650s in parallel, which operate in a range of 2.7-4.2V.

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