Olight has kicked off a new LED flash sale, ending 11:59pm ET 10/23/20. A couple of items have already sold out, but I’m told there are plenty of lanterns still available, as well as some of the other Olight LED lighting products.
The new Olantern is the star of the show. I received one for review, and although I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time with it yet, I have some very strong – and positive – first impressions.
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First, here’s the link to the Olight flash sale. If you are inclined, go ahead and browse around at the different offerings, and then come back here to read more about the new Olight Olantern.
To start off, this Olantern is available in 3 colors, grey, red, and blue. It’s a lantern, meant to provide 360° illumination.
It comes with two LED emitters that you can swap out, a standard diffuse white light emitter, and a “flaming module.”
The flaming module is a bit of a gimmick, but the kids will love it for Halloween. Olight also says you can use it to decorate your blissful moments with beloved one.
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The Olight Olantern has standard LED lantern properties – an on/off button, a hanging hook, and a couple of different brightness settings.
I want to be clear – this is not something I would have bought. Built-in rechargeable batteries? I wasn’t a fan, but Olight and several other brands have been convincing me.
This one has (4) built-in batteries, 18500 sized and 1900 mAh each. Runtime is said to be up to 80 hours. Max brightness is 360 lumens – remember this is all-around lighting, and it’s waterproof to IPX4 standards.
It has a good feel to it. My only complaint so far is that I didn’t read the manual before trying to turn it on. Apparently it was in lock-out mode. I gave it a full battery charge and then held down the button. Once it’s on, hold down the button to cycle through different brightness modes.
The yellowish flickering candle mode only has one brightness.
It is SMALL. That’s good. Remember what I said about this being something I probably wouldn’t have bought? I’m not so sure anymore.
I charged it with the magnetic charging cable – which is included – with my own USB wall adapter.
I hate replacing the large D-sized alkaline batteries in my other lanterns, which I keep around for emergency and blackout scenarios. With this lantern having built-in Li-ion batteries, I think it’ll stay at the ready for longer, and without the leaky alkaline messes I’ve been dealing with these past few years.
And did I mention how small it is? It feels very solid, and nicely designed. There’s a colored LED ring around the power switch, and that lets you know the rough battery charge level.
I have more testing to do, but so far, this is definitely a thumbs-up product.
Sale Price: $56 for the lantern, $61.14 for the lantern and an AAA flashlight
I have two D-battery-powered lanterns, and here is how they compare:
Olight Olantern is much smaller, and with built-in rechargeable batteries.
D-powered Competitor 1 is considerably less expensive, but not as bright. D-powered Competitor 2 is a little less expensive, but brighter and with a higher waterproof rating. It also has a red light mode that I have used once or twice.
I gave my parents an LED lantern a few years ago, and I’m debating whether or not to buy one of these for them now. I don’t have a lot of time to think things over, as this sale ends just before midnight ET 10/23/20.
If you’re not at all interested in an LED lantern, there are a couple of other sale items worth checking out.
There are also of course a couple of “free with minimum purchase” tiers:
- Over $99 get a FREE I3E (MAP: $9.95)
- Over $199 get a FREE M1T Plus DT (MAP: $59.95)
- Over $359 get a FREE Warrior X (MAP: $129.95)
If you have any questions, please let me know!
Here’s a 20 second intro video:
Update: Comparative Sizing
Eli
I started out my flashlight fascination with Olight, and purchased a handful of different lights from them. After spending a considerable amount of time on budgetlightforum.com, and learning a more about the various types of lights available from numerous manufacturers I’ve cooled on Olight significantly. I have no qualms in regards to the quality of their products, but over the past couple years I have noticed their marketing is much more focused on selling the latest new color of the same light, versus actual new or improved lights.
I’m not a tint snob, and I understand that for the majority of people a flashlight is more of a simple tool, so I don’t really have a problem with Olight primarily using cool white leds in their light. I will say however that the marketing scheme where you can only buy their lights at a somewhat “reasonable” price during a flash sale, is both gimmicky and annoying.
All that being said, I’ll finally get to the point of my post; If you’re in the market for an LED lantern, and want something with significant capabilities along with removable batteries, usb-c on board charging, and a very intuitive UI, I would strongly recommend the BLF LT1. This lantern was a passion project of a member of budgetlightforum.com that was well over 2 years, and many iterations of prototypes in the making. He essentially designed the lantern from the ground up based on the wants and needs of the blf community, and eventually presented the design to an established led flashlight manufacturer where it went into production.
I see the light is currently $82.99 with batteries on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=BLF+LT1&ref=nb_sb_noss_2
but you can currently buy it directly from the manufacturer for about the same price ($60.87 with batteries) as the Olantern:
https://sofirnlight.com/blf-lt1-lantern-rechargeable-tint-ramping-2700k-5000k-new-version-works-with-your-typec-charger-p0013.html
(even if you don’t get the sofirn deal in time, the LT1 can usually be had for $50-$60 from various websites i.e. banggood.com, aliexpress.com)
Stuart
The last couple of flash sales were centered around new product launches, and the adjacent deals at least seem to be mostly different for different sales.
In terms of marketing, some other companies have similar direct-to-consumer promos on occasion, but not quite like this.
It seems to be working for them, as certain things sold out within a few hours of the start of the sale.
I’ve looked at the prices and bought items at regular retail prices. Their regular retail prices are fairly competitive. It’s never a good feeling to know you could buy something for less if you wait or opt for a different color, but this isn’t unique to Olight.
I’ll also look into that BLF lantern, thanks!
Eli
I’m certainly not debating the effectiveness of their marketing, as like you said, they appear to sell out of most flash sale items regularly. Simply stating that I personally would rather see a more reasonable everyday retail vs. limited time offers, but obviously the hype is working for them.
As far as bang for your buck, it think there are quite a few brands that beat out Olight. Emisar is probably tops on my list as far as build quality, options, and features for the price. But there are several manufacturers that outperform Olight at a fraction of the price; Lumintop, Sofirn, Convoy, and Astrolux just to name a few.
blocky
Thanks for the tip as well. Love my Olights, but after reading up, I went with the BLF LT1. I’ve already got multiple worklights around the 5K color temp.
I’ll probably run it at my desk by USB when not camping.
MtnRanch
Thanks for the tip on the BLF LT1 – I’m in. The 2700 degree feature is what made it. For camping, the bright white light of a 5000 degree LED really feels wrong outdoors. As a work light, OK but at a campsite, it’s a buzz killer. Also the 1/4″x20 tripod mount means I can cobble together a wide base so it doesn’t tip over or I can hang it with a 1/4″x20 hook.
A recent bad experience with trying to get warranty service from Olight plus their non-stop “sales” has turned me away from them anyway.
Ron
1st time I’ve been forced to create an account and sign up for advertising. Was almost enough for me to say “Forget it.” Then the added displeasure of them not using standard address fields on their web page so LastPass couldn’t autofill and I had to type it all in. Hopefully the lights will be impressive enough for me to be less hacked off over their lovely customer relations.
Addison
I have breezed right by this, “Oh a lantern”. Nice write up, now I’m kind of wondering if I could get them by Halloween.
Stuart
That might be tight.
I’ve had very fast shipping from Olight, from both China and their warehouse in NJ, but there are no guarantees. I would say it probably won’t arrive by Halloween.
Nate B
Can you do a pic of the Olantern side-by-side with some of the D-cell units you mention? Yeah there’s one hand-held view but it’s still hard to get a sense of the size you mention several times!
Stuart
I’m sorry for the delay – I took some quick photos earlier, and then the entire day got away from me.
I added the photos to the end. I anticipated taking photos in better lighting, but it will have to wait. Hopefully these are clear enough.
Nate B
Thanks, those are great! Puts it right in context.
PETE
I used to have a fenix light that had a diffuser tip that looked like the center of that lantern. It was awesome, gave great light just like a lantern. I think i lost the light, and the diffuser is somewhere in the mess lol
Bryan
I really wish during these sales they would also sell the standard Warrior X Pro at a discount. I’m interested in the flashlight, but those 3 exclusive colors just aren’t my bag.
Koko The Talking Ape
Alternatives are the Black Diamond Apollo. About 3″x 5″ with folding legs that raise it to about 10″. It can also hang from the built-in hook, where it shines light even straight down. Dimmable, rechargable (or regular AA batteries.) Can also function as a power bank for your phone. The light is a pure white, neither bluish nor yellowish.
The Luci Base is also interesting. Inflatable. When inflated, it makes a cylinder like a short, glowing coffee can. It is solar powered, and can charge your phone. It also makes a warm white light, and the frosted vinyl prevents glare. So it’s actually pretty attractive. It is probably less durable than the Black Diamond though. If it springs a leak, it still functions but the light is not as even, and it looks kind of sad.
J.C.
I was looking at the Olight Lantern last night. I went to Amazon to compare it with the Streamlight Siege. I realize that the Olight is “newer” technology but the Streamlight Siege with 3 D batteries pretty much trashes it and the Streamlight was on “sale” for 35 bucks. I’m reminded that sometimes companies come out with “new” products that aren’t all they’re cracked up to be when you compare them to others. Yes, you can recharge the Olight but for less than half the MSRP when on sale, the Streamlight seems to be a much better deal. Thank you Stuart for being transparent about the fact that you wouldn’t have bought the lantern.
Stuart
The Olight is smaller and more convenient. If I were into camping, I would much rather have the Olight than the Streamlight. For “will I really ever use this more than once or twice a year?” type of stuff, the Streamlight and two sets of batteries should be enough.
I’m not a frequent lantern-type user, and I still have hesitation about built-in batteries.
Having experienced one in-hand, that definitely moved my needle a bit.
If I didn’t have any lantern right now, the Olight is a more serious competing alternative to the Streamlight, compared to a week ago when I didn’t know what it would look and feel like.
Bill
Color temp on the lantern?
I may have missed it somewhere but I can’t seem to find it on Olight’s website.
Stuart
I can’t find it either.
If I had to guess, I would say maybe 4500K or 5000K. It’s hard to say because it’s diffused. It’s definitely not 6000K, but also cooler than a 4000K flashlight I compared it to.
I’d characterize it as a neutral white. Much warmer than cool white, and a bit cooler than neutral-warm white.
Doug N
Another vote for the BLF LT1 lantern. Extremely well designed, rugged, great adjustable color temperature and brightness.
Olight makes great quality products, but then drops in the cheapest blue-white leds with lousy CRI. They should at least give customers the option of better leds, even if at a premium price.
DHCrocks
For lanterns I prefer something that uses standard batteries. I have two sieges for emergencies. The reason being is that for extended power outages, the rechargeable ones will be good for one night only, after the batteries run flat you’re out of luck with no way to charge. I can keep a box of D-cells and that is enough juice to last for several weeks with the siege. My only case use for lanterns is for emergencies. For work lights then I prefer rechargeable.
I really wish o-light would comeout with a stick flood light, something like the Milwaukee sticks. The magnetic charging on the o-lights are terrific and so easy to use, way better then a USB charger…
Tom D
I guess the smaller size is nice – but for that price I can get a M12 lantern and use it with the batteries I have – thought it’d be nice if the added a USB charger built into the M12 one.
Spencer Newman
I’ve purchased several olight products over the last while. I’m impressed with the quality and I like the lantern size. After all, it’s all about light, and I liked the Jack-O-Lantern filter that showed up free. It bugs me though that when I ordered them for my grand children that the Jack-o-Lantern is apparently a catch as catch can item. Now it’s too late to find them for my grandkids in Michigan.
I am very happy with their products. Although sometimes the products have sometimes too flashy colors. I prefer black as use as duty lights, but they generally work very well.