By:Mohammad-Ali Bandzar | August 5 2019
Full disclosure, I’ve owned this light for about 3 weeks now, I’ve been carying it daily using the included belt holster. Before this light I was carrying a no name $20 light off of amazon which is what I will be comparing this light to for the majority of this review. The review is broken up into segments which I feel are good points to compare flashlights with, but are in no particular order. This review is also in no way sponsored or endorsed by Olight
I got the tan colour because that was what was on sale, I personally think the blue front piece makes the light look cheap. I also think that the “rings” around the front of the light should have continued all the way to the lens for better heat dissipation and that metal kneurling instead of a glued on rubber grip would have made the light look to be more premium.
I’ve never personally used more than about 25% of the battery up, but that’s probably because I don’t use the light very often, and I charge it everyday using the included L dock. I also still find myself using my phone as a flashlight as it’s often already in my hands making it much more convenient. The battery is also incredibly difficult to find a charger for outside of the light as both contacts are on the same side of the battery. This could also be potentially dangerous if pressed against something flexible and conductive like aluminum foil as both contacts are on the same side, the battery would short out.
The light has 3 drivers(leds) which are capible of producing 3200 lumens in short bursts of a couple of hundred seconds, it still does not look all that impressive in the daytime because the hotspot is so wide.
I will admit that the L dock is very cool and convenient and helps me to remember to charge my light in every night. But it has its downsides. If you are on a vacation or traveling you have to remember yet another proprietary charger. If you forget/loose/break your charger you will have no way of recharging the light and seeing as no one in my area sells Olight products, I’d have to order one from their website, not only making my $200 light a paperweight while I wait, but I would also have to pay for shipping as Olight only offers free shipping on orders over a certain amount. Furthermore, this light won’t take any other brand of 21700’s even though it’s a commonly available size making it hard to buy batteries for. The batteries are also essentially impossible to charge outside the light as I have yet to find someone selling a charger designed for it.
It’s so bad that I don’t know where to start; the poor ui is the main reason that I decided to write this review. I find it’s lack of a tail switch incredibly inconvienient as it makes it hard to hold the flashlight either at eye level above the shoulder to look into a container (or over a wall), or downward like looking downstairs. The solution to this would be: to turn the light on, then reposition your hand to hold it more comfortably, but that is extra work and even more inconvenient when you want to increase/decrease the brightness of the light or turn it off. It’s lack of a tail switch also increases the time it takes me to turn the light on as I occasionally have to rotate the light in my hand in the dark to locate the switch by feel which becomes even more difficult when you are wearing gloves.
Having a tail cap switch also makes more sense because it prevents accidental activations( if you holster the seeker 2 pro with the button facing outward it will activate when you lean on a wall, or when your hip hits the side of an office chair it may activate.
The ui is also bad because it forces too many functions out of a single button, this light has 5 brightness levels, a strobe mode, a lock out mode, 2 timers and the basic on/off functionality all controlled by a single button. At least on my last flashlight which cost 1/5 as much had one button that was sort of pressure sensitive, a deep press was on off and a light press would cycle through its 3 brightness and 2 strobe modes. This more intuitive interface also allowed me to switch modes faster, as it would switch as fast as I could press the button instead of waiting for the modes to cycle through like the seeker 2 pro does.
The newly added battery indicatior, It’s impossible to check battery status/brightness level while the lights on and the battery indicator leds kind of ramp up down when the light is turned on/off which could result you reading a lower battery level than is true if you tried to determine battery level after turning the light off.(which is your only opportunity to determine battery level after turning it on)
The ideal user interface in my opinion would be a tail cap that did on off, then a side switch that cycled through the modes, with both switches allowing for instant access to ultra low(To protect night vision), turbo And the tail switch allowing for momentary activation. The side switch would cycle through the modes. A long press of both switches would lockout the light. And a light press of the tail switch would activate the battery indicator which would wrap around the tail cap. The perimeter of the tail cap would be a raised magnetic lip to allow the light to stand vertically, and the light would charge wirelessly through the tail switch in the L dock or maybe the tail switch can be metal and the contact points can be on it
It’s a decent fit/finish, but it makes one key trade off with other holsters, it uses a latch to hold the light in instead of Velcro or friction, which not only makes the holster useless for lights with other lengths, but is also a little bit had to relatch especially with gloves on, but at the same time it’s much more quiet to take the light out than it would be with Velcro. Furthermore, the holster could use some rubber in the area the belt goes through as I often find the light sliding further back on my belt when I stand. Then it is highly uncomfortsble when I sit back down, some rubber around the belt hole area would reduce this sliding. Or through the use of a plastic belt clip like the otter box which would allow for the easy removal of the light and maybe even work as a sloped tripod to use the light as a work light.
THANKS FOR READING