Olight Arkfeld

Olight Arkfeld specifications

Brand & Model	Olight Arkfeld
LED	?
Lumens	1,000 Lumens
Beam intensity	2,560 cd
Battery config.	Built-in
Onboard charging	Proprietary magnetic charging
Modes	5
Blinkies	Strobe
Reflector	TIR optics
Waterproof	IPX7
Review publication date	Aug 2022

Olight has a pretty broad selection of lights. They make some great keychain lights such as the i3E EOS and the i1R 2 Pro.  Olight also has EDC lights like the Baton series. But that’s not all… gun lights, tactical lights, high-power lights, general lamps/lanterns, and now branching out into things like knives and pens. For the most part, if it needs to be lit up, Olight has you covered. One of the things I love most about Olight is their attention to detail. Quality is generally fantastic, anodizing and machining are great… they just know how to make a solid product.

This particular model – the Olight Arkfeld – is a brand new model in the lineup. It’s a nicely portable EDC light that is honestly a bit intriguing. It’s pocketable, it’s rechargeable, it’s easy to use, and well… I gotta leave something for the rest of the review so please read on!

Package quality.

Some Olights come in fantastic heavy-duty two-part nested containers with splashy images of the light inside and meticulously arranged contents. Other lights, like some of the more EDC models, come in nice, but not overdone, packaging that feel like less of a presentation case and more of an actual carton to be recycled. The Arkfeld came in one of the latter packages. It’s nice, clean, and gets the point across without investing too much in the box. Sliding out the inner, formed plastic tray reveals:

• Olight Arkfeld
• Magnetic charging cable
• Manual

“Wait, that’s a flashlight?!” was my kids’ first reaction when seeing the Olight Arkfeld. And they’re not wrong. It looks more like a small remote for a TV streaming stick (think Roku or Fire TV) than anything else. The Arkfeld is a fairly flat, rectangle looking thing except that it is rounded a bit on the top and bottom to make it feel more natural in your hand. It is a bit slippery, as there is no knurling or anything of the sort (again, think “small TV remote”).

There’s a sturdy clip on the Arkfeld that is integral to its design. It’s held onto the back of the light by a couple of hex-head screws. The clip is very functional and seems to be pretty robust. The tail of the Arkfled is magnetic and can stick to all sorts of ferrous objects.

The switch is a bit interesting. It consists of an outer ring and a center button. The outer ring is referred to as the “selector”, as it allows you to switch between the white LED and a green laser. The ring rotates between two positions, as etched into the body. Point the selector to the left, and you get a green laser beam. Rotate it to the right and you get the white LED output. The ring has two nubs on top that help you to easily rotate it with your thumb. The center button is an e-switch that controls the usual stuff like on/off, mode changes, lockout, etc.

The selector ring sits at about the same height as the center button, so it does give some protection against accidental activations. I had the Arkfeld right in my front jeans pocket for a couple days, and I don’t think it ever activated unintentionally.  So it does seem to help, but there is an easy lockout mode if it gives you trouble.

Another thing about that switch…. As I read the manual, I saw it mentioned that “the switch is magnetically sensitive. Its function may be affected by nearby strong magnets.” Oh, well, I’ve gotta test that out. Sure enough, bringing a strong magnet near the switch can force it to switch between laser mode and LED mode. Interesting observation (precaution?), but not really useful.

This light is very much an EDC kinda light. Having 1000 lumens of moderately floody light is good for things like around the house/office, out for a walk, etc. Oh, and that laser? Great for presentations, entertaining your pets, or entertaining your kids that don’t mind pretending to be cats while you play with a laser.

As I mentioned earlier, there is no knurling on the Arkfeld. It’s very smooth all the way around. And the finish? It’s the bluest blue I’ve ever seen on a flashlight. I was a bit shocked when I first took the Arkfeld out of the packaging. The blue is extremely vibrant. I love blue, so I’m enamored by the look of it. But you better like blue if you’re interested in the Arkfeld because there’s no avoiding it. Edit: now that the Olight Arkfeld has been released, I see that it is available in your choice of four colors: Black, Blue, OD Green, and Desert Tan. Like any Olight I’ve handled, the build quality feels great. It’s bold, it’s solid, it’s unique… I like it. Most flashlights are pretty boring cylinders with lights at one end. The Arkfeld is a nice change in pace for flashlight design, and I appreciated it when companies think outside the box a bit.

Warranty:

• The Arkfeld is covered by Olight’s 2 year warranty.
• Within 30 days, contact the original seller for repair or replacement
• Within 2 years of purchase, contact Olight for repair or replacement
• The charging cable is covered for 1 year

If there’s one thing that some flashlight enthusiasts like to hate on, it’s the LED and the associated CCT and CRI ratings. There are more than a handful of folks at BudgetLightForum that are all too quick to dismiss Olight because they historically only sold Cool White LEDs. Earlier this year, Olight made a pledge to the community to listen to customer feedback. And I think offering CCT options is one of the key ways that Olight is proving this out. The Arkfeld is offered in both Cool White (5700-6700K) and Neutral White (4000K-5000K) options. The LED version is clearly labeled on the underside of the flashlight. Olight was kind enough to send both variants. They haven’t disclosed what model the LED is, but if I had to guess I’d say maybe it’s an OSRAM P9 or something along those lines.

It’s a bit tough for me to tell what is all stacked at the front of the Olight Arkfeld. There’s certainly a rounded rectangle of something, but I can’t tell if it’s glass over top of optics, or if it’s just a custom optic. Either way, it’s held in place by a black bezel. As you’re holding it, there is the laser on the left and the right side is occupied by a small TIR optic above a white LED.

I measured the two different versions with my Opple Light Master at 3 meters on the Turbo setting and got the following results:

Cool White model:

• CCT: 6285K
• CRI: 71.1 Ra
• DUV:+0.0044

Neutral White model:

• CCT: 4888K
• CRI: 67.8 Ra
• DUV: +0.0048

So there we have it. The two variants fall in line with regards to the CCT. And as is common, these are regular CRI (~70 Ra) emitters with a slightly positive (greenish) DUV. I don’t personally see the green, but I’m also not a great judge of that.

Speaking of green… in addition to the white LED, Olight has outfitted the Arkfeld with a green laser. I don’t have any fancy measurement equipment for lasers, so I’ll just mention the specs. This is a Class 1 laser with maximum output of 0.39 mW.  The wavelength is 510-530 nm. Max runtime is 122 hours.

Dimensions: 

Dimension Olight Arkfeld	Millimeters	Inches
Length	110 mm	4.33
Width	25 mm	0.98
Height	15 mm	0.59

Weight: 

Weight Olight Arkfeld	Grams	Oz.
With battery	87 grams	3.07

Flashlight size comparison with its competition

Group 1: Wurkkos TS10, Sofirn SP10, Reylight TI LAN, Olight Arkfeld, Sofirn SC31 Pro, Fenix E25, ThruNite Archer 2A V3

Group 2 Olight flashlights: Olight iXV, Olight Arkfeld, Olight Warrior Mini 2 CU, Olight Perun 2 “Clover Gradient”

The UI is pretty standard stuff and easy to get the hang of if you’ve spent any amount of time with an e-switch light:

Available modes: Moon, Low, Med, High, Turbo

Available blinky modes: Strobe

User interface:

From OFF:

• Press and Hold 1 second: Moon
• Press and Hold 2+ seconds: Lockout
• Single click:  turn On
• Double click:  Turbo
• 3 clicks: Strobe

From ON:

• Press and Hold: change modes (Low > Med > High)
• 1 click:  turn Off
• Double click: Turbo
• Double click + hold (press & release, press & hold): activate timer
• 3 clicks: Strobe

Mode memory:

• If you turn the light back on within 1 minute of turning it off in Turbo or High, it will come back on in the High
• After 1 minute of being off, Turbo and High modes revert down to Medium mode
• Moon and Low modes will be completely memorized
• Strobe mode cannot be memorized

Shortcuts:

• To Low: press and hold 1 second from Off
• To Turbo: double click (from Off or On)
• To Strobe: triple click (from Off or On)

Low voltage warning:

• There are four LED spots below the selector ring that display the battery level:
  • 4 green LEDs lit: >75%
  • 3 green LEDs lit: 50-75%
  • 2 green LEDs lit: 25-50%
  • 1 green LED lit: 10-25%
  • 1 red LED lit: <10%
• When turning the Arkfeld on, the indicator lights do a nice sequential ramp up
• After being on for a few seconds, the indicator LEDs turn off (again, in a nice sequential pattern)
• When turning the Arkfeld off, the indicator LEDs turn on again for a few seconds, then turn back off

Strobe/blinkies

• There is a strobe mode that can be activated with a triple click from Off or On

Lock-out mode: 

• Electronic lockout mode is enabled by holding the button down for 2+ seconds while the light is off

PWM

• There is no PWM present

Additional info on the UI: 

• With the selector ring in the laser position, the only UI options are single click Off & On, plus lockout

Time mode

• There is also a neat Timer mode, as seen on other Olights.  
  • With the light on and in your desired mode, do a double click + hold (press & release, press & hold) until you see a blink.  
  • One blink means that you activated a 3 minute timer.  
  • Two blinks means that you activated a 9 minute timer.
  • To switch between the 3 minute and 9-minute timers, after you’ve activated the timer, do another double click + hold.
  • Your timer preference (3 minutes versus 9 minutes) will be memorized for next time.

The Olight Arkfeld uses a built-in battery. I don’t see where Olight mentioned the capacity of the battery, but some charging tests showed that 957 mAh (4.33 Wh) and 935 mAh (4.22 Wh) were transferred during charging. Olight says the charge rate using the supplied MCC (magnetic charging cable) is 1 amp and a charge cycle should take around 2 hours. My tests showed that to hold true, observing a charge rate of 0.88 amps with different runs taking between 1 hr 56 min and 2 hr 2 min.

Lux was measured by a UNI-T UT383 BT at 5 meters. Lumens were measured in a homemade lumen tube using a TSL2591 sensor, calibrated with a Maukka calibration light.  Due to the built-in nature of the battery, current tests were not possible.

Lumen measurements

Note: Olight mentions in the manual that Turbo can only be activated if the battery is over 75%

Cool White version

Mode	Specs	Lumens @turn on	Lumens @30 sec	Lumens @10 minutes
Moon	1 lm	0.8	0.8
Low	15 lm	13	13
Med	60 lm	54	53	53
High	300 lm > 60 lm	272	271	269
Turbo	1000 lm > 300 lm	877	858 lumens	269

Neutral White version

Mode	Specs	Lumens @turn on	Lumens @30 sec	Lumens @10 minutes
Moon	1 lm	0.8	0.8
Low	15 lm	14	14
Med	60 lm	54	53
High	300 lm > 60 lm	283	280	279
Turbo	1000 lm > 300 lm	898	886 lumen	277

Well… this is a bit odd. In what I’ve seen before from Olight, they pretty much always hit right at specs. My observations here are around 10% lower than spec. Granted, my measurement equipment is amateur-grade, so I do expect some level of deviation. Oh, and the Neutral White version actually slightly out-performed the Cool White version (very close though). How bizarre, how bizarre.

Parasitic drain:

• unable to measure

Battery Life: Runtime graphs

Mode	Specified runtime	Measured runtime (ANSI)	Time till shut off
Laser	122 hrs	–	–
Moon	8 days	–	–
Low	41 hr	–	–
Med	11 hr 50 min	11 hr 57 min	11 hr 57 min
High	126 min + 34 min	2 hr 21 min	2 hr 21 min
Turbo	4 min + 110 min	1 hr 50 min	2 hr 4 min

I would show separate tables for the Cool White and Neutral White versions, but the runtimes came out within 1 minute of each other (at least in High and Turbo), so I didn’t feel that it needed to be repeated. Overall, I’d say these came out really close to what Olight claims.

ANSI FL1 standards: The runtime is measured until the light drops to 10% of its initial output (30 seconds after turning on). This does not mean that the flashlight is not usable anymore. The last column shows how long the light actually works till it shuts off. If there is a + symbol, it means that the test was stopped at that particular point, but the light was actually still running. This happens on certain occasions, with certain drivers, firmware, or batteries.

Peak beam intensity and beam distance measurements

Throw was measured at 5 meters after 30 seconds from turn-on.

Mode	Specs	Candela measured	Meters	Yards
Turbo, Cool White	2,560 cd	2,950	109	119
Turbo, Neutral White	2,560 cd	2,875 cd	107	117

Extra info: Peak beam distance according to ANSI FL1 standards: The calculated value of distance in meters at which the flashlight produces a light intensity of 0.25 lux. (0.25 lux is about the brightness of a full moon shining on an object).

Beam shots of the building are taken at 15 m (16 yd) using a Pixel 6 set to ISO 200 with 1/10 second exposure time

Beam shots of the playset are taken at 30 m (33 yd) using a Pixel 6 set to ISO 200 with 1/2 second exposure time. The trees in the background are around 65 m away.

Beamshots compared to the following flashlights:

• Olight Arkfeld, Cool White
• Olight Arkfeld, Neutral White
• Wuben X-0 Knight
• ThruNite T1S

Olight Arkfeld discount coupon code

Outside sales, please use our unique 10% off coupon code at checkout: 1Lumen

1lumen selects and reviews products personally. We may earn affiliate commissions through our links, which help support our testing.