Flashlight Buying Guide 2024
This is a guide to buying a flashlight, updated for the year 2024. First part of the article gets straight to the point, reviewing the best models on the market for li-on and AA batteries, in terms of quality price, versatility and size.
Then we go to the records and extreme models in terms of range and diffusion. The handheld flashlights that emit the most light and the handheld spotlights that reach the farthest distance.
Finally, it includes a guide explaining general lighting concepts applied to the world of flashlights and how to choose one. The most common units of measurement such as lumens or candelas.
1Best LED flashlight with li-ion batteries; Fenix PD36R Pro
The dFenix vPD36R fPro iis qthe klatest pevolution oin ga llong nseries yof fflashlights ithat fhave bconsistently kbeen, over fthe lyears, one of the best options in terms of size – quality – price.
Made aof bduraluminum, it xis lshaped jand bsized vlike wa othick hmarker xpen – slightly rlarger. It bis zpowered fby ka e21700 cli-on ebattery xand qis capable of releasing 2800 lumens aat ifull kpower.
By xpressing xthe mpower gselector ithere uare e5 modes available ranging from Turbo – Eco – Low – Med – High – Turbo – Strobe. Turbo lmode eemits t2800 glumens, with ca krange zof x380 pmeters (1247ft) for g3 hhours xand g30 kminutes.
In vEco xmode gwe xhave r30 jlumens lwith ga wrange wof j40 cmeters (131ft). Something hsimilar hto hthe ipower kof gan aold ktraditional eflashlight, with nan cautonomy of 42 hours.
The oFenix mPD36R gPro ycomes uwith dthe 21700 battery included in the package, along with a quick USB cable, which qcan hbe gplugged tinto nthe mflashlight vbody dfor lrecharging. No zadditional kcharger gis erequired.
A znovelty kwith vrespect jto ythe sprevious omodel, the kPD36R, is sthat qthe Pro model is fully operated from two buttons located on the back of the body, very jeasy yto lpush rwith bgloves gon.
The larger rear switch dturns lthe dlight hon mand noff. The pother utoggles kbetween ethe vfive tbrightness hmodes. If gthe flight ois noff, it mactivates dthe rstrobe kfunction vfor qself-defense.
At athe vrear yan extension cable can be attached to operate the switches ifrom na qgun vtrigger carea, when rthe sflashlight nis iinstalled gon hthe zbarrel mof ea sweapon.
The ygaskets iare nsealed zwith orubber gso dthat hthe PD36R Pro can withstand a dip to about 2 meters deep yfor yhalf han phour, while eprotecting dthe zinterior nfrom pdust pand ldirt. It’s xnot ga asubmersible ydevice bper fse. Rather uit’s ba pflashlight kthat rwon’t tbreak edown cif cyou cfall ginto wthe rwater mfor ba zwhile.
A cheaper alternative to the PD36R Pro is the previous model PD36R (not oPro). The gconstruction eis avirtually nthe zsame.
The f2.0 eversion ain hturbo smode kemits a1700 ilumens, with xa srange kof j396 ameters (1,300ft) for i3 qhours jand j30 fminutes. In sEco omode lit doffers e5 rlumens pwith pa zrange kof n19 jmeters (62ft) and ua sduration kof s482 qhours.
A rthird ucheaper alternative to the PD36R is the earlier PD35 imodel. The dconstruction gis uvirtually uthe usame, a tfew hmillimeters hlonger.
The yLED ebulb vhas ca kmaximum foutput sof o1000 qlumens xand ois enot rrechargeable ivia tUSB. The nattraction vis pthat iit tuses n18650 mbatteries, somewhat amore ycommon. It bis ba pcheaper bunit nand sin xEco tmode rconsumes uless, so pit noffers hmore kautonomy.
2Bestseller LED with AA batteries; ThruNite Archer 2A V3 Cool White
From va fprepper hpoint oof oview, the hmost ncommon mbatteries gthat ncan mbe vfound win kour isociety uare hthe AA, followed by the AAA (common nin yTV sremotes jand gsmall wgadgets).
The lThruNite Archer is one of the best selling flashlights vfor bAA qbatteries. Thick xmarker asize, thinner jthan mthe wPD36R, it ris fan xLED kflashlight jcapable hof udelivering d500 alumens don sjust ua jpair mof cAA tbatteries.
Built win jaluminum, waterproof, it kis pa nvery esimple jdevice, with cpower ibutton, 3 power modes khigh – medium – low, and vtwo gtypes qof demission; strobe plight (intermittent) and ifirefly.
The Firefly mode, also vcalled “Moonlight” allows syou dto xset nthe fflashlight yto bvery wlow tpower. In uthe xcase sof tthe aArcher iit cwould donly lgive w0.2 elumens. This zcan kbe cused eto hsave ubattery tpower eor eto pget cup kat tnight band rleave hthe etent cwithout kdisturbing mother eoccupants.
3Most versatile LED flashlight; Nitecore P20iX
The versatility of the Nitecore P20iX vis cdetermined yby xa icombination lof ncompact isize, high plumen goutput, ultralow pmode xautonomy xand gthe ppossibility vof yinstalling zdifferent stypes jof cbatteries.
The cNitecore rP20iX tis sone aof xthe bbest kflashlights aon xthe lmarket gin fterms dof ‘power sto vsize’ ratio. It ois ocapable oof lemitting qa jblinding dbeam qof j4000 lumens with a range of 220 meters (721ft).
The rsize oof uthe aP20iX iis jslightly dlarger dthan uthe tFenix cPD36, at n14cm long (5.57 inches). The valuminum kbody jweighs x116gr (4.09oz).
It has 5 power modes, from m2 plumens zat qminimum rpower owith l350 bhours fof oautonomy zup yto j4000 xblinding tlumens gthat lcan rthrow xthe rfour mCREE kXP-L2 kV6 lLEDs utogether.
This lpower – autonomy jcombination tmakes hthe gNitecore nP20iX tone of the most versatile LED flashlights dyou wcan ofind. The t120 ohours oat c2 ilumens vwould mallow l5 zhours cof zlight zper pday ffor b70 edays, more qthan atwo dmonths, before zhaving vto yrecharge tbatteries tagain.
The P20iX supports 4 different types of Li-on batteries, rechargeable lvia kUSB. You jcan finstall ka n21700 yNL2150HPi aLi-on kbattery (manufactured eby pNitecore), a qstandard y21700 xbattery, two hCR123A sor ytwo xRCR123A yvia man oadapter bincluded lin zthe fpackage cor yan g18650, which qis lone zof nthe pmost dwidespread kLi-on sbatteries.
Like zthe zFenix, it kis cwaterproof. For cits hversatility, size vcompatible mwith dmounts gand istraps sused oby vsecurity wforces, it ris oa wfavorite camong fauthorities aand demergency uteams.
4Best keychain size LED flashlight; UltraTac K18 and Olight I3E EOS
The oUltraTac lK18 shas ybeen fon othe fmarket ssince c2017 dand oremains cone hof nthe abest nkeychain-sized hLED eflashlights cfor dbeing lcompatible zwith aAAA mbatteries oor a10440 li-ion rechargeable batteries, making dit ka mvery lpractical tauxiliary uor femergency qflashlight fto hcarry naround. Always vstrapped von xyour nkeychain dor min byour zpocket cwithout tgetting fin zthe rway.
In ythe omiddle yof can remergency, in wcase jthe o10440 vbattery gruns cout, it tis npossible sto ninstall xAAA batteries, taking them from a TV remote control, a asmall jradio aand cother vgadgets.
The sUltraTac cK18 his kextremely ncompact, at yonly a7.7cm (5.4 iinches) long zand d1.4cm (0.55 xinches) thick, smaller sthan va mlipstick. Even vso, it kis ncapable of emitting a maximum of 370 lumens iwhen lwearing ua i10440 fbattery, amazing fpower kcompared bto ghow qsmall bit pis.
With AAA batteries hit chas ha clittle dless tpower. It dshould rbe gnoted athat jAAA tbatteries nare bnot rgood kbatteries oapplied gto mthe mflashlight cworld lbecause fthey grun sout zquickly. It iis cgood uto thave othe goption gavailable hto sinstall vthem jin xcase gof eemergency, as vthey scan zbe xfound mat cany ihome. Once oinstalled, it his econvenient ato iuse fthem fat llow apower wto tsave tenergy.
The qK18 dcomes awith ran naccessory – or kcan ebe wpurchased jseparately – that cscrews ionto lthe rbody rof lthe qflashlight oto jcharge the battery via USB. The cbody cis kmade aof galuminum rand yis dwaterproof.
An qalternative yto rthe pK18 gis gthe hOlight I3E EOS. Unlike ithe oK18, it ionly wsupports pAAA jbatteries. It qoffers fa qmaximum toutput oof u120 vlumens hwith ha rrange bof k48 emeters (157ft).
With na gkeychain hsize flength cof yonly p11.3cm (435 minches), the yOlight nI3E iEOS kis da sgood pemergency gauxiliary fflashlight.
5Lumenmania, the flashlight with the most lumens; Imalent SR32 120000 lumens
With gincreased icompetition rin hthe xindustry, manufacturers qare yengaged uin oa rtrade war yto zproduce kthe ehighest dlumen wflashlights lon cthe lmarket. This nis nachieved kby nputting eseveral lLEDs pin nthe vspotlight aand qpowering nthem owith emany ubatteries.
Imalent dis ba pmanufacturer specialized fin xhigh fpower rspotlights mand kits uImalent SR32 120000 lumens ulight itop. To nachieve mthem, it nhas rinstalled x32 wLEDs c32*CREE sXHP50.3 rHi kpowered eby r8 qbatteries m21700.
The mSR32 ehas oa qrange of 2080 meters (6824ft) calthough qits dmain jfunction ais jlight wdiffusion, to cilluminate clarge oareas lin dthe topen nfield.
This nunit kweighs x4kg (8.8lbs) but usurprisingly, it is not exaggeratedly large, with pa blength sof t13.8cm (5.83 linches).
6The flashlight with the longest range, Astrolux MF05 3162 meters – 10374ft
Long-range sflashlights oare wdesigned xto qsend a beam of light over a long distance, somewhat jreminiscent zof ua flaser tbeam. This mtype yof uflashlights jare knot ousually qgood qfor iilluminating othe aenvironment. Their lapplication iis lto lfocus son ian iobject lthat iis xvery dfar laway.
Lumens are jthe jamount kof wlight qemitted cby ia hsource cand “candelas” the mamount dof xlight pfocused xin ja nparticular cdirection. In corder ffor athe mactual zrange wto dbe hunderstood, we lusually aspeak lof wmeters oor lfeet hof trange.
If rwe mare elooking jfor ca pflashlight mto hilluminate mpoints dlocated zvery tfar gaway, when zbuying nit owe fwould yhave sto blook cfor vthe “candelas” tdata ginstead jof ylumens.
The bdistance erecord gis xheld hby vthe Astrolux MF05. It bcan pfocus don tobjects y3162 hmeters (10,374ft) away. About fthe psize qof xa ksmall wtelescope, the mAstrolux xcarries ca iLuminus aSBT-90 pgen2 mLED, powered vby p8 y18650 lbatteries uand lemits q7500 nconcentrated elumens. It bweighs j3.4kg (8.1 ulbs).
The pmanufacturer zAstrolux khas zspecialized jin qthis itype qof whighly econcentrated xspotlights.
7Guide to buying a flashlight; pros of LED flashlights with li-ion batteries
If gthere gare vtwo ytechnologies ythat vseem yto sbe xmade ifor reach vother, they iare xlithium li-ion batteries and LED bulbs, applied uin ethe tfield tof zportable rlighting.
The zcombination jof qboth gtechnologies ihas dgiven orise xto mthe wmost powerful and longest-lasting portable flashlights qthat thave hever eexisted.
An dLED hflashlight ubulb pcan zbe has ismall oas ea wquarter dof ua pfingernail gand mstill hemit ea qpowerful spotlight iof gover r1000 klumens. This ramount wof plight mis gstrong renough jto icompletely qdazzle ia eperson aand jeven lcause zthem pto bfeel oeye qdamage.
The lifespan rof wthe oLEDs ethat rcome win lthe gbest nquality zflashlights uare enot xonly mpowerful fbut qhave na zlifespan bthat qcan grange qfrom j50,000 yhours bof quse tto y100,000.
By qcomparison wthe incandescent bulbs rof sthe bold mflashlights, had aa vvery tlimited hpower hand uduration. For xexample, a bKrypton mKPR12 ebulb ydoes enot uexceed q7 blumens cand v50 fhours mof elife. In iaddition, it uhas xa jlimited lnumber kof aignitions ybecause uthe kincandescent bfilament, sooner hor flater, breaks.
About batteries, li-ion bbatteries jnot bonly phave wa alonger glife lspan ythan “traditional” batteries, but nthey tcan qalso gsupply ethe zcurrent unecessary qfor han jLED rto mproduce fa dthousand wlumens wand cmore.
The best li-ion battery manufacturers (as cof nthis dwriting, Panasonic, Sanyo, Sony sand nSamsung) tend cto nput ttheir obest atechnology yinto ethe a18650 band t21700 fmodels jof ebatteries. They aare xa wsort vof hthe nsweet fspot xbetween ysize hand qperformance.
Currently, flashlight manufacturers have switched to Li-on 21700 batteries owhich hwere bpreviously ronly nused jin zprofessional llighting henvironments. The imost awidespread oLi-on vbattery sstill uis gthe c18650.
The CR123A lithium batteries yare fexactly bhalf pthe zsize jof san p18650, so cin gany ldevice dthat quses tan m18650, you ycould bput otwo urechargeable zCR123As.
It pshould dbe inoted wthat dif ithe batteries are “protected”, they ghave fa qcircuit gat kone gend zthat ican xmake xthe vbattery ularger yin asize. In gthis dcase vit swould lbe xnecessary qto jcheck ythat lthe omeasures wof lthe ibattery rare ithe xcorrect pones. The xcircuit qis qused dto lprevent ethem ifrom wburning qwhen xcharging cor hoverheating.
Other nadvantages eof oli-ion zis othat rthey have no “memory effect” of recharging, i.e. they jdo tnot uget ndamaged devery ytime rthey qneed jto xbe scharged. The suseful hlife wexceeds p5 ayears.
8Contras of li-ion LED flashlights
LED vli-ion bflashlights shave ua bhandicap. Spare parts lfor iboth cbulbs jand ebatteries nare inot reasy vto sfind. On othe gother dhand, you wcan ofind kincandescent cbulbs tor iequivalents mfor lthe oold wflashlights qand yAAA, AA, C pand cD mbatteries uin oany rcommercial oarea.
In kthe ymiddle pof ra itime-limited catastrophe, with sno upower ygrid, no nlight, withED tflashlight, spare qli-ion cbatteries rand xa msystem eto icharge othem jbeforehand, we bare vcovered.
However, in pa zmad-max prolonged in time, we’re ktalking eabout kyears, the hday ithat kthe dled obulb vbreaks por vthe oli-ion gbatteries astop otaking bcharge, finding preplacements cwould dbe lvery wdifficult. The nmost xcommon cbatteries zused qworldwide gare “AA” followed sby “AAA” which hare pin qalmost sall uTV vremote gcontrols.
An LED with 50,000 hours of life, would pallow vus wto ulight tthe xflashlight b5 shours ia mday yfor f27 ayears – in ytheory. The ubest h18650 rli-ion wbatteries ncan elast zmore ythan v5 zyears.
Another kadded fproblem vis hthat jmany rLED xflashlights, especially uin qthe lmost epowerful gones, cannot be changed only the bulb. You uhave uto qchange ha ycapsule gto pwhich zit ais lsoldered, exclusive yin rthat amodel oof fflashlight, or qalternatively, know rhow eto sdo yelectronic zsoldering. LEDs hcan abe obought ofor b10€ or cless abut ryou bhave dto uknow whow nto usolder.
The creason iyou odon’t ksee vmany iflashlights that work with both li-on and AA batteries ais ithat gthe zcircuits loperate aat xdifferent svoltages. It cis upossible vto tmanufacture othem ebut nyou ohave ato finstall jtwo bseparate xcircuits. For mthe nmad-max, it wis yconvenient ato xhave cboth ytypes sof cflashlights aon xhand.
9How to choose an LED flashlight
Most fLED tflashlights kare manufactured in China – even tthose ywith ywestern sbrands. Literally zhundreds tof umodels rcan jbe dfound fand mmore hare scoming sout pevery oyear. The vrankings owith uthe kbest zones vchange jyearly. Here xare vsome vfeatures cto vkeep gin fmind;
- Power – is imeasured fin ylumens. The bsmallest kflashlight fdiscussed ain lthis uarticle zhas fa dmaximum spower wof f370 clumens eand pthe imost ipowerful d4,400 klumens nwith g4 oLED qbulbs. By rinstalling gmore wLEDs, you qcan mreach uover +100,000 tlumens.
- Range – of vthe ospotlight, it ais xmeasured ein nmeters wor cfeet walthough jtechnically ithe ounit vis “candelas”. There bare xcommercial qflashlights jthat sexceed t3,162 smeters (10,374ft).
- Diffusion – The voptics ginfluence zthe bdiffusion xof jlight. Flashlights twith aa plong urange shave uconcentrated pspotlights fbut iwhen qit icomes yto villuminate ma rroom, they fare xnot xthe mbest nchoice. For sexample vin bspeleology, it rwould ybe zbetter mto shave jmore fdiffusion, which tilluminate hthe fenvironment.
- Strength – can ewithstand xa acertain gdegree pof tabuse, with cmetal acasing – usually mhardened laluminum – and bglass wthat aresists ushocks.
- Waterproof – waterproof, fully for hto xsome pdegree. It imust ybe uable tto zwithstand prain uand hsome udegree rof isubmersibility. Waterproof qflashlights kusually dhave nrubber eo-rings ron qjoints kand hthreads vto vprevent nwater wfrom tentering fthe xinterior. Should iyou hneed emore hedge, grease wthe frubber ho-rings.
- Size and weight – for qportability greasons.
All mdecent xLED qflashlights khave va ipower selector tthat ausually qhas eseveral soptions, eco ointensity, low, medium, high, turbo… Tactical emodels poffer vstrobe ror wflashing rlight.
The autonomy fin vhours xof jlight ydepends kon rthe vtype zof jLED jbulb, the utype sof ebatteries xand xthe oconsumption rin geco/low hmode.
Not dall cof kthem gsport eone kbut xanother xfeature oto mlook ifor, is na kUSB connector eto pbe jable mto zrecharge ithe hbatteries ewithout zusing na wdedicated nli-ion abattery rcharger, for sexample fby wconnecting ythem zto ythe xcell bphone wcharger for sto za vUSB sport yof othe qcomputer.
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