Olight i3E Review

Olight i3E – 4 1/2 stars

Summary

A useful little keyring torch, this AAA battery-based little torch is unnoticeable in terms of size & weight. Usefully more effective than my iPhone’s flash, by a bigger margin than I was expecting, this torch is at the lower end of what we consider a ‘useful’ levels of brightness. In pitch black conditions as you can see below, it’s actually quite effective.

Just one brightness level, just one control: on/off.

Brightness

The large spot and almost no flood helps the i3E make the most of it’s 90 lumens in terms of beam. Appearing surprisingly bright for it’s small size & weight, it’s 90 lumens for 45 minutes is a decent runtime as well.

In the photo, from the end of the drive, it illuminates the house door 15m away and you can even make out The Tilbury (pub) sign in the distance, but not read it. The sight for The Plough (pub) 20m away, across the road on the right is not visible at all due to the optics of the i3E being biased towards a wide spot. Usefully bright for it’s size.

Useful for

This is a keyring torch. Possibly a handbag torch for someone who thinks that last few 30 grams of weight is important. Or even a first torch for a kid, as long as you’ve got them to understand they can’t look directly at the LED.

Notable features

A genuinely simple torch in terms of features, with just one moving part – the head – used to turn it on and also to change the brightness.

The Olight i3E has 1 brightness level: :

• High: 90 lumens for 45 minutes

Design

Not offensive, not particularly attractive, though it’s hard to see how such a small utilitarian device like this could be much more attractive. It is a thoughtfully designed little product, with some grippy bits on both the head and main body where you would hold it to turn it on and off. That’s all there is to say about this handy little keyring torch.