If it seems that I have made it my mission to compel everyone to buy a new LED flashlight this year, that’s because 1) there are excellent sales and bargains right now, and 2) I’m tired of seeing people wave $1000 smartphones around when a small dedicated flashlight would work so much better.
If you got through my post about Streamlight’s new LED flashlight sale without taking your wallet out, here’s another deal to tempt you with.
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Shown above is the Olight i3T titanium edition, their 1x AAA LED flashlight with a titanium body.
NOTE: Flash Sale Starts at 8pm ET 12/13/2020
If Olight’s different color options haven’t swayed you yet, perhaps this titanium edition will do the trick? It will be on sale, starting tomorrow.
Although this post will be centered around the i3T, following are details on the new flash sale.
Starting Time: 8pm ET 12/13/2020
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Ending Time: 11:59pm ET 12/17/2020
VIP customers (frequent spenders) have early-access to the deals, but nothing looks like it will sell out as rapidly as the recent Black Friday deals.
Check Out Olight’s New Flash Sale
The Olight Warrior Mini in red is a highlight of the flash sale. Although Olight emphasizes it to be an “everyday carry defensive” flashlight, it really is fantastic for everyday tasks, and without “tacticool” traits that the “defensive” marketing would suggest. This is a really good flashlight if you’re looking for something a little larger and brighter than an AA or AAA light.
Buy Now: Warrior Mini Red via Olight
Back to the i3T Titanium.
Olight touts its discreet carry, and they’re right to do so. It’s smaller than a penlight but larger and more ergonomic than a keychain-sized flashlight.
Oh, and if you plan on getting this or any other AAA flashlight, consider ditching alkaline and going with rechargeable or non-rechargeable lithium batteries.
See Also: Eneloop AAA Starter Pack via Amazon
See Also: Energizer Lithium AAA via Amazon
Olight says that the i3T Ti is premium and tough.
Yep.
Small and Mighty?
Yep. It has a max brightness of 180 lumens. If you need max brightness output for prolonged periods, you should probably carry a larger flashlight with a bigger battery. But, extra brightness can be good to have in a pinch.
The tailcap allows for easy operation and mode changes.
Olight touts its premium beam, and they’re right – it does have a very pleasing output.
Ah, the convenient pocket clip.
This comes in handy for pocket or bag carry, or when you want to clip the light to the brim of a hat to use as a makeshift headlamp.
What Readers are Saying About the Olight i3T
I had intended on a small post about the new Olight flash sale, with brief mentions about the i3T Ti and Warrior Mini, but reader comments in the Streamlight deal post prompted me to talk a little more about the i3T.
Shane said (trimmed for brevity):
I just bought the olight i3T EOS which looks to be the micro streams fraternal twin. This light is really amazing….save the short battery life when using the bright mode(21 min) I think. I can’t believe how bright it is for 1 AAA battery. It’s has a soft uniform beam that lights your work perfectly without glare, dark shadows and such. I didn’t know what to think of the clip at first but it is incredibly useful. I’ve never carried an EDC flashlight but I do now. It clips perfectly over my front pocket and I can’t even tell it’s there.
The i3T has become my EDC as well. I carry a pocket knife in my front right pocket, my phone in my front left, and the i3T is small enough it fits right next to my wallet in my back pocket. I swap out eneloop rechargable batteries, so the low life doesn’t bother me.
Should You Buy an i3T Titanium?
Olight will have other i3T flashlight colors on sale as part of their flash sale.
The black-anodized version will be $15.96.
The desert tan and green-anodized versions will be $17.56. I bought one via Amazon for $22 earlier this year.
If you’re *just* buying this light, don’t forget that Olight has flat $5 shipping on orders under $49, and free shipping on orders over that amount.
Should you spend MORE on the titanium version, which will be on sale for $29.56?
Titanium is somewhat of an exotic metal, and is something you don’t quite need. Think of this as another color option, as something you deliberately choose because you want it.
I have the Olight Warrior Mini in anodized aluminum and also anodized titanium, and there doesn’t seem to be any functional differences.
In blindfolded testing, I can identify which is which, as the aluminum version is slightly lighter. The Ti Warrior Mini weighs 125g with battery, and the aluminum version weighs 105g. I expect similar to be true for the i3T.
Titanium has excellent strength to weight ratio, and is also tough.
It seems that Olight’s titanium and aluminum flashlights have the same physical dimensions all around. With titanium having greater strength than aluminum, the same volume of material means that a titanium-bodied flashlight should be considerably stronger than an aluminum-bodied one.
With flashlights designed specifically around titanium bodies, less material can be used and still achieve high working strength. That is, flashlights designed to be made from titanium are often lighter without compromising strength.
Since the i3T Ti is a special edition, its form should be the same, which means a little extra weight but also a lot more strength.
Do you need this on-paper benefit? To reiterate my opinion, I think the titanium is more about aesthetics than anything else.
I’ll often pay a little more to get a flashlight, knife, or multi-tool in a color or material I prefer. This doesn’t affect the performance or use of the tool, but does give it a more personalized touch. I like having choices when it comes to everyday carry items. Would you have a preference between brown and black wallet? Same thing here.
You should absolutely consider buying an Olight i3T LED flashlight – it’s a bright, compact, portable, convenient, and very useful flashlight in my experience so far.
So, should you buy an i3T with a titanium body? If it sells out 5 minutes from now, would you regret not buying one? Get it. No? Consider one of the lower-priced aluminum models instead.
Buy Now: i3T Ti via Olight
Buy Now: i3T via Olight
Compare: i3T via Amazon
There are other ways to get the Olight i3T titanium, such as bundled with other larger LED flashlights.
John
Any overall recommendation on which to get (Olight vs Streamlight) for use odimRily copped to the bill if a cap? Weight, balance, brightness, ease of depressing on/off button)
Thank you…
John
typo:
“primarily clipped”
A W
If looking at a single battery light, Olight. The 5 lumen/180 lumen lights gives you more options than the 45 lumen streamlight. Or if you want more lumens in a slightly larger package, the i5T is also a good option.
Stuart
Streamlight feels lighter, Olight has 2 brightness settings and a broader central beam while the Microstream has a smaller hot spot. The Streamlight tail cap is noticeably stiffer.
Of the two, the Olight is more featured. If you didn’t favor one brand over the other, and budget wasn’t a factor, the Olight would be the better choice.
The S1R Baton II is also excellent, but as it’s a rechargeable light and more featured, it’s quite a bit pricier. Mini review here: https://14cyiuhvcgv.com/olight-s1r-baton-ii-led-flashlight-flash-sale-052920/%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Aaron
So I caved and opened the warrior mini that I ordered last sale, and I’m pretty pleased with the moonlight mode. I’m having trouble parsing their catalog though. I’d like to pick up a couple more that have the moonlight feature and this time actually give them as gifts for use in camping and nighttime reading. (I mean it this time I swear)
I see it in the warrior mini and the perun, are those basically the only small/affordableish devices that can do moonlight?
Stuart
S1R Baton II has a moonlight mode.
Aaron
Ended up getting the baton and Perun mini. And though I was sober at the time of purchase I somehow don’t remember deciding I wanted a perun mini for myself as well… But obviously that is what happened!
And the i3t is somehow brighter than my other lights that use 2x AAA? Glad to have stepped into the better-than-grocery-store flashlights segment
blocky
Love the i3t, but it does heat up on ‘high’. Titanium doesn’t conduct heat nearly as well as aluminum. Do you think that would be a durability issue for the circuitry, if one were using it regularly on ‘high’.
Theoretically, of course. These little lights don’t lend themselves to being ‘always on’.
I’d imagine it could be of concern for the S1Rii.
Stuart
Olight regulates their output and does so either via internal timer or temperature. (I’m not sure, but their manual has specific timings, and so it’s likely just timer-based.)
I’m sure they test things thoroughly so as to ensure safe operation, or at least I would hope they do.
The controlled step-down process is presumably to help keep internal temperatures under control.
There are some flashlights (other brands) that don’t have regulation and don’t use protected Li-ion cells, and they can get hot enough to pose a fire hazard.
Work lights tend to have more modest max brightness ratings, but are larger, and so they don’t often have to step down.
Now, titanium does have poorer thermal conductivity, but I’m not comfortable predicting anything. What I could do is run some tests with my aluminum and titanium Warrior Mini lights, and see what happens. That will give us temperature info, but nothing about long-term, durability.
Differences could also be minimal, depending on how heat is transferred from the LED to the housing.
In other words, I wouldn’t worry?
It’s worth mentioning that with other flashlight designs, the body material usually isn’t very important with respect to thermal dissipation – it’s mainly the material around the lamp head or LED emitter that’s important. Considering Surefure’s G2L designs, the head unit has a metal casing but the battery tube is made of plastic.
Speaking about the i3T specifically, the Ti and Al versions all look to have the same lumen ratings and runtime specs. I’d say that, in theory, you’ll likely reach a power supply limit from the AAA battery before the lights suffer from uncontrolled thermal build-up. That is, I wouldn’t think the flashlight would be bright enough to build up more heat than the aluminum or titanium body material could dissipate.
Olight has released titanium-body flashlights before as special editions, but I haven’t seen any user complaints about thermal dissipation thus far.
blocky
Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I’d be curious anecdotally, but agree it’s probably not a concern for these models.
I just ran one of my Aluminum i3t’s for 55 min on high, and it did not get past comfortably warm; probably will place an order for the Ti version tonight.
(55 min! Published runtime is 21min, presumably based on an Alkaline battery. So here’s another mystery for you circuit types–
I was using EBL 1100 mAh NiMH AAA (longer runtime was not my discovery, but I can’t find whether I read it from one of you fine folks here or elsewhere in a review.) I can’t measure whether it was putting out the full 150, but to my eyes, it was close to a fresh Alkaline, even at the end of the cycle.
…but maybe a slower full discharge on a moderate draw was helped by lower internal resistance of NiMH chemistry — which would also mean less heat-buildup. In any case, for my use, heat does not appear to be an issue, and I’m delighted to achieve even longer runtimes on my most used flashlight.
Stuart
It’s hard to say.
I found a product listing that approximates a Rayovac alkaline battery to have a 750 mAh rating.
Or it could be that alkaline batteries heat up more under load and their amp-hour rating will drop under such conditions.
It’s possible that the flashlight stepped-down from max brightness at some point to extend runtime, or that it started off at a lower brightness due to detecting the 1.2V voltage level, but there aren’t any official details about such behaviors.
Flashlight performance characterization gets very complicated, and fast.
In any case, flashlights designed around AA and AAA batteries usually won’t perform anywhere close to flashlights designed around Li-ion batteries, as alkaline cells that users might prefer can be very unforgiving.
JoeM
Ugh… I just need on/off and high brightness value, in something that can fit in the hand approximately like a pen. The Eneloops are a huge investment for me, but I know I’ll do it eventually. I just use so many batteries it puts investing in the Eneloops FIRMLY in the “Save Up for Them” category. Multiple chargers are needed, multiple sizes, and TONS of them.
My Mother stole my DeWALT 8V Max Flashlight, and that used to be my favourite. I need something better I can grab… though I still want another of the DeWALTs.
Stuart
Most users like having added features when spending more for premium flashlights.
There are plenty of basic penlights – what’s wrong with the brands or models you’ve tried or used to date?
JoeM
Well, the “Ugh” was me remembering that I have been planning to get an EDC flashlight for a while now, and the two threads being connected like this has reminded me of what I forgot.
I’m pretty much convinced on the Streamlight… I’m just finding the brightness in the pen lights to be on the low side. I’m relatively photosensitive, but I still need large amounts of light for certain things to contrast enough to see. I would consider a small, single function, High-Lumen Flashlight, with one of those really nice double-direction pocket clips, to be “Premium” enough for me. Hell, if it ran on Coil-Charged Rechargables, that would be even better. It would be a breeze to rig up a belt/pocket/whatever mounted Qi charger for it.
I just keep forgetting to actually set aside the time and money to GET the Streamlight… for now anyways… until the options improve. Or I somehow am rendered wealthy enough to build it myself.
Leo B.
Joe, perhaps the Lumintop EDC light would be right for you. It has a dual-direction clip, silent brightness selection, and some other nice touches. I highly recommend getting it with the 14500 cell.
https://www.amazon.com/Flashlight-LUMINTOP-Rechargeable-Magnetic-Waterproof/dp/B08K371RPX/
JoeM
Thanks Leo… but even that one, especially in Canada, is overkill. Simple clicky on-off is all I need. Just… Looking for something in the 100-ish lumen range, rather than the 45 like the olight and streamlight models. I like the clip that can hold it either direction part as well, but finding a VERY SIMPLE Flashlight seems to be giving more headaches than they’re worth.
Stuart
Nitecore MT06MD: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XKDKJ1W/?tag=toolguyd-20
I really like the Nitecore so far.
There’s also one by Lumintop, but I haven’t tried that brand yet: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07C9XP692/?tag=toolguyd-20
Coast? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001JT8MT2/?tag=toolguyd-20
The G20 is basic, but there are no published output data. The color temperature is also 7700K, which is going to be very blue-tinted.
Leo B.
@JoeM-This is very basic, and I’ve found it to be quite reliable. It runs one one AA battery, clicky on-and-off, bright, and a tough casing. Unfortunately, the clip is normal, but dual-direction clips seem to be attached to more complicated lights.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B006E0QAFY/
Ray D
I have Nitecore HC60 coming on to 3 years now. Use it for everything, wet, dry, hot, cold conditions and never missed a beat.
Dropped it on to garage concrete floor, no problem, turns on fine. Throws it in the carryon and fly around the world with it, no problem, charges anywhere via USB.