Olight M2R Pro Warrior Review

Olight M2R Pro Warrior – 4 1/2 stars

Summary

The Olight M2R PRO Warrior is an incredibly useful allrounder. For it’s relative size, it’s beefy 21700 rechargeable battery gives it more oomph than similar sized torches based on the skinnier 18650 battery.

Five brightness levels, from 1 lumen to 750 lumens plus a turbo brightness of 1,800 lumens (for 4 minutes 30s) plus strobe, SOS & beacon functions. The Olight M2R PRO Warrior’s 2-button set-up helps make all that functionality accessible.

Don’t let that playful (limited edition) orange exterior fool you, it’s tough & water resistant.

Prepare to be quite committed with the user guide to access all the features available from the 2 buttons, but it’s worth it to get so much functionality and power in a small package.

Brightness

The maximum brightness of the Olight M2R PRO Warrior is 1,800 lumens in turbo mode, before thermal cut-out turns it down, but it can sustain 750 lumens for 3 hours, slightly less bright that some others in the handheld class (950-1,050 lumens). It’s usefully small size comes at the expense of having less metal to dissipate heat. The first of the two photos taken on Datchworth Green is at 750 lumens, the second in 1,800 lumens turbo mode. The fixed beam has a wide spot and also a generous flood. The village sign 10m away on the right is clearly visible due to that generous flood, the white building 100m away also clearly visible, very much more so in turbo, demonstrating the usefulness of turbo.

Useful for

The usefulness of the Olight M2R PRO Warrior is down to it’s diminutive size combined with the main points of it’s specification: 750 lumens for 3 hours, 1,800 lumens turbo, high durability (IPX8 waterproof & 1.5m impact rating).

That’s why this torch is such a great allrounder. If you could only have one torch, this is a contender for that purchase. Small enough to carry in a bag or commuting backpack but powerful enough for a range of uses at the same time.

Notable features

The compact head of this torch produces a surprisingly focused spot beam.

It charges form Olight’s neat USB tailcap magnetic charger. A charging LED shows red when charging, green when charged.

The M2R Pro warrior also as an aggressive strike bezel on the front at the front for use as a self devence weapon.

The MR2 PRO Warrior has 6 brightness levels.

• Turbo: 1,800 lumens for 4 min 30s, then 750 lumens
• High: 750 lumens for 2 hours 40 min, then 250 lumens
• Mid: 250 lumens for 10 hours
• Low: 60 lumens for 40 hours
• Lower: 15 lumens for 130 hours
• Ultralow: 1 lumen for 50 days

The 1 lumen ‘moonlight’ mode is activated by holding the button down, whilst off.

The 1,800 lumen turbo brightness is activated with a double click of the side button whilst on or off.

The strobe function is activated with a triple click.

Tip: You turn this torch off with the tailcap. Using the front switch to turn it off from high just turns the brightness down.

Design

Most torches are black, so it makes a nice change to see something different. Not unique, but still unusual. It’s a good looking package, and is a nice size and weight to carry easily and comfortably.

It’s a useful feature of some Olight compact handheld torches, this one included, that the total volume of the torch is less that twice the volume of the battery inside. The downside is less metal means less thermal dissipation, meaning that the highest sustainable brightness is limited.

In terms of usability, I personally found it a little harder than usual to learn all the functionality of this torch. The 3 different types of click on the tail cap button took me a little effort to master too.