For the longest time, flashlights were tubes, likely because the batteries going in were circular, and extruded tubes are cost-effective. Over the last while, we have seen a new breed of pocket lights like the Streamlight Wedge or the Surefire Stiletto that had a slightly different, more flattened structure. With this year’s show, we saw new versions of these lights and a bunch of other companies entering the fray.
Pocket Light Rundown
Coast Slayer Pro Red
COAST unveiled their new pocket light the Slayer Pro.
I am no stranger to items from COAST, which have half a dozen of their lights or more floating around the house. The new Slayer Pro is not out yet but it adds a feature that I appreciate over the Slayer. The Slayer Pro adds a red light, which those of us in the military really appreciate on a light. For those who don’t know red light helps maintain your eye’s ability to see in the dark, it’s also harder to see from a distance. The light has a white spotlight beam with four brightness settings: turbo at 1000 lumens, high at 530 lumens, low at 110 lumens, and moon glow at 10 lumens. The rechargeable battery on high lasts 2 hours, and on moon glow lasts 55 hours.
Fenix WT16R
It was nice to get a chance to check out the Fenix booth at SHOT this year as I haven’t got to see one of their newer lights in person for years. The WT16R caught my eye as an interesting pocket light.
Not everyone needs a tacticool light in their pocket. Some just need a few useful everyday features and the Fenix WT16R might be just what you are looking for. The magnetic base and back allow you to easily attach it to metal surfaces you might be working around. This, combined with the side floodlight, provides a bit of utility. I could use something like this when working on the vehicles. Just stick it to somewhere in the engine and use the flood. Both the flood and spotlights offer a high of 300 lumens. The spotlight also has a medium 100 lumens setting and a low of 30 lumens. On high, you will get almost 4 hours of run time, and on low, you are looking at 30 hours. The floodlight has the same lumens and runtimes as the high and medium on the spot with their high and low settings. The big difference is that the floodlight has a yellow safety flash, and you can stick to a barrier or disabled car to warn others.
Keyport Pocket Flare 2.0 Flashlight Module
While the Pocket Flare 2.0 Module is a bit different from the other lights on this list, we thought it was worth mentioning.
Keyport makes a series of modular tools that can carry your keys, have a knife, strap cutter or in this case the Pocket Flare 2.0 Module Flashlight. The Keyport ecosystem has some really interesting modules within it. I currently have the Neba Knife and can’t wait to add the light and strap cutter for a perfect car tool. These modules all slide and lock together utilizing the little tabs and the holes you see on the two modules above. The front light offers a high at 33 lumens and low at 4 lumens, while the lamp mode on the side of the light can do 90 lumens. This is the smallest of lights on the list so the runtimes reflect that. At high, you get 2 hours, and at low, you get 15 hours. The side lamp gets 1.5 hours, which is impressive considering the lumen jump.
Nitecore EDC27
The Nitecore EDC27 utilizes a small screen to let you know about run times and light levels.
A few friends currently use the EDC27 from Nitecore and have been pleased. Nitecore lights often pack a ton of features into their lights, and the EDC27 is no slouch. The turbo offers 3000 lumens with no listed runtime so you can assume that it isn’t that long; high of 1000 lumens lasts almost 2 hours, the medium has 200 lumens and almost 4 hours, and a low setting of 65 lumens and 11 hours, and ultra-low has 15 lumens and 37 hours of runtime. Along with these settings, you get a strobe at 3000 lumens, which varies the pause between flashes for extra eye-melting effects. The buttons for this light are also on the tail compared to the side of the first few we have shown.
RovyVon Angel Eyes E30
I have loads of time with RovyVon’s smaller Aurora lights as I use one daily and have given a dozen away as gifts. This was my first time getting to check out their larger lights in person.
The RovyVon Angel Eyes E30 is the first light on the list that takes normal and rechargeable batteries. You can buy it with or without the extra rechargeable battery, and without, you just need 2x AAA batteries to fill the space. Yes, that’s right, this light can utilize two different types of batteries. It has an internal lipo, and you can take your AAA’s or toss in another lipo, and when one dies, it switches to the other. The tail cap rotates to allow you to add the extra batteries in. The light offers 4 brightness settings: high at 1000 lumens for 30 minutes, medium at 200 lumens for 3 hours, low at 60 lumens for 8 hours, and eco at 10 lumens and 28 hours of runtime. The pocket clip can be mounted in both directions and works well attached to a hat to use as a headlamp.
Streamlight Wedge XT Everyday Carry Pocket Light
The Streamlight Wedge XT is a smaller version of the popular Wedge. I can only fault it for not being offered in Olive Drab.
The regular Wedge has been a popular light for Streamlight including among our writers. I was excited to check out the Wedge XT this year as it is a bit shorter, but not that the Wedge is too long. It comes in both black and coyote and as I said above sadly no olive drab yet hint hint Streamlight. The light has simple operation modes: a high of 500 lumens, 1900 candela with a run time of 2 hours, and a low mode with 50 lumens and 200 candela with a runtime of 11 hours. If the tail button is pressed 5 times, it locks the light to prevent inadvertent activation. If the tail cap is pressed 10 times in quick succession, you can change the order from high/low to low/high. The light is also backed by a limited lifetime warranty.
Onto the most expensive light on the list, the Surefire Stiletto Pro II.
The last light on the list has not been released yet, but the rumored price puts it at the most expensive on the list. As far as I know, the Stiletto, then Stiletto Pro, was one of the first lights to utilize the more flat form factor (correct me if I am wrong), and now we have the Stiletto Pro II. The pocket clip is reversible, so you can attach it to a hat. The first thing we want to mention is they finally joined the future and went with USB C (praise sweet baby Jesus). The next thing we want to mention is the massive increase in candela. It now boasts 35000 candela, giving it some impressive throw compared to the previous versions. The X300 Ultra is 10000-12000 candela for reference. On high where you will see the 35000 candela you get 1500 lumens (a 50% increase from the Pro) and 1 hour, on medium you get 500 lumens and 1.5 hours, and on low you get 25 lumens and 23.5 hours of runtime.
Final Thoughts on Pocket Lights
I know that I and a few of the other writers like the new form factor of these pocket lights. They feel more natural in the pocket like a folding knife vs a tube of M&M minis. We want to know your thoughts is this just a fad or is it the future? What light do you currently have in your pocket and why? Lastly which of the listed lights would you be looking at picking up?
A pocket light doesn’t need to be a tactical search beam to light up enemy bombers at night. It’s an aid for use in the field – where you need some light, not a bright laser pointing back to your position. Having been down that road with increasingly brighter lights over 1984 to 2001, I can say we are way past having common sense control the conversation. It’s now a lumen race to see who will get a medical discharge over retina damage.
I bought the Sidewinder Boot – with red filter – no other modes – and it’s great. A bit bigger than the ones above, but for a field light its fine for close in navigation. It runs 55 lumens on high for 8 hours, low runs for 90 – ninety – hours. That’s almost 4 days continuous and after months of intermittent use at night it’s still going strong – without blinding me or waking up everyone in the house.
Be careful what you ask for, I can remember needing transportation when I was young, and 400 horsepower seemed inadequate. However, it was a handful in bad weather, and I got real familiar with gas stations running 12 mpg. I was much better off with a six cylinder – don’t let the lumen race absorb your discretionary income like a raccoon on the bird feeder. High output lights can be budget bandits along with actually defeating the purpose of your needs.
all of these are underwhelming, and probably very expensive…comapred to sofirn IF23…4000 lumens turbo, cob flood and spot, full rgb not just red, strobe, sos, beacon for $30…and its a powerbank….having 300 lumens is just….meh