Mini Maglite Pro Review

Mini Maglite Pro – 4 stars

Summary

This classic 35 year old design has been updated many times by Maglite to today’s usefully bright 332 lumens. A simple, reliable tool, it’s also a stylish icon of torch design. It’s easy to use too. No buttons, no tricky combinations of clicks, just turn it on with a twist of the head and back again to turn it off.

Unnoticeable in a jacket pocket or handbag. For it’s size, weight and low cost, it is a must have in every household as a second or 3rd torch.

Brightness

The brightness of the Mini Maglite Pro, as tested, is 332 lumens, a level it can sustain for 2 1/2 hours on one set of batteries.

In the photos below, taken on Datchworth Green (our test spot for 600 to 1000 lumens torches), the first photo is with no torch, the second with the Mini Maglite Pro set to it’s most focused spot beam. You can see the white building (the Plough pub) 100 metres in the distance clearly enough, and the Datchworth village sign 10 metres away on the right is also just discernable.

Useful for

Traditionally the little torch you might have kept by the fusebox under the stairs or in dad’s toolbox, this latest version of the Mini Maglite Pro is now so much more powerful that it sits between ‘small torch’ and ‘handheld torch’ categories. It’s light and unobtrusive enough to keep on you every day. And you can buy AA batteries anywhere.

I’ve owned a Mini Maglites for decades, since before I was interested in torches, more recently carrying a Pro in my commuting laptop backpack for a couple of years and I’ve also taken it abroad. It’s useful as a house torch, though not your primary house torch. It’s a good 2nd car torch too, I have one in the glove compartment.

Notable features

You can only do one thing with this torch. Turn it on with a twist of the head. It doesn’t even have an on/off button.

That same action, twisting the head, also controls the spot to flood beam, although there’s not that much difference between spot and flood on this torch with it’s narrow head, but it’s still useful.

The Mini Maglite Pro has just one brightness setting:

• High: 332 lumens for 2 1/2 hours

Design

The simple, minimalist lines of the Mini Maglite design give you nothing to take offence to. It’s almost panatela-like shape is either attractive or not noticeable. You might think it cool, but you won’t find it unattractive.

In terms of usability, since it only has one function, and that’s accessible via the only moving part (the twisty head), there’s not much to comment on.

If you value simplicity, style and reliability, this is your torch.