Olight Baton 3

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Olight Baton 3 review

Olight Baton 3 s1r III specifications

Brand/modelOlight s1r III (Baton 3)
LEDN/A
Lumens1,200 lm
Beam intensity6.889 cd
Battery config.1*16340 (proprietary)
MaterialAluminum
Modes5
BlinkiesStrobe
ReflectorTIR
WaterproofIPX8
Review dateMarch 2021

Introduction:

Olight’s small S1R type flashlights are pretty popular. It has now been upgraded to a 1200 Lumen little powerhouse.

They must have had a specific use case in mind because they didn’t just update the flashlight itself, they also included a wireless charging device named: Baton 3 Wireless Charger. It’s a nifty piece of equipment and Olight is really setting itself apart from the competition with these types of inventions. It’s basically a power bank especially made for the S1R flashlights.

Package quality.

Its packaging is just like we are used to from Olight. High quality with just the number of necessary accessories. Inside the box you will find the following

  • The flashlight (Olight S1R III Baton)
  • Baton 3 Wireless Charger
  • USB-A to USB-C cord for charging up the power bank
  • Olight 16340 battery
  • Warranty card/manual

Flashlight in use

Because we’re talking about a 16340 type flashlight, you’d probably understood it’s a small flashlight. And that means it’s pretty tiny and a little hard to use when you have large hands. In that case you’d probably better off with something like a 18650 flashlight.

Since the Olight S1R Baton 3 comes with a uniquely designed power bank, you can imagine it’s also lacking a lanyard attachment ring on the back. The only other way to carry the flashlight (outside the charger) is with the 2-way pocket clip.

Oh, and don’t forget to remove the insulating film inside the flashlight as well. The one inside the charger is obvious when you open up the box, but the one inside the flashlight isn’t that obvious. Just a little warning. Also, the clip gets in the way while unscrewing or tightening the body again.

Having the wireless Baton 3 charger on you while on holidays is a neat little feature. It has a capacity of 3500mAh, while the 16340 battery has a total capacity of 550mAh. Enough for charging your little hot rod a few times without access to power.

Build Quality, and Warranty

In terms of build quality, it is a typical Olight flashlight. This means its build quality is really high. No sharp edges, and no blemishes on the coating of the flashlight. Just like you can expect from Olight.

The threads on the battery tube are pretty short but well lubed. They have 2 full circles of threading and that’s it. That has some benefits of course, but re-attaching the body is not so easy with the pocket clip installed, just keep that in mind.

At the backside of the flashlight is a magnet built in, so you can attach it to any metal object, and it’s honestly a pretty strong magnet as well.

When you look at the quality of the wireless charger, I also couldn’t find any problems or defects, but it definitely feels a bit lightweight. The coating has a beautiful matte finish but that also seems to be prone to scuffs etc.

Olight’s warranty is pretty good. Here are some of its details:

Within 5 years of purchase: Return the product to Olight and we will repair or replace it as long as the light is not working because of factory defects. This does not include obvious user wear or extreme damage.

After 5 years of purchase: Return the product to Olight and we will repair or replace it. We will assess the fees involved and will let you know once we receive it. More details can be seen here: https://olightworld.com/olight-warranty

LED, Lens, Bezel, and Reflector

Olight never really talks about the type of LED that is being used. This time it does say the color temperature, to which I am a bit amazed. The color temperature is actually printed on the bezel itself, which is also quite unusual. Mine has a cool white emitter with a temperature of 6000-7000K. A color temperature of 7000K is actually really cold, and may be unpleasant. But when I use the Baton 3, it doesn’t seem blueish at all. So that’s a good thing.

The bezel has the typical blue Olight coating and is impossible to remove by hand. So, you can’t look behind the TIR optic at the actual LED. That being said, you can see some characteristics of the LED, and to my understanding, it looks like a Luminus SST40 LED. It has those lines on the LED board, that are visible on SST40 LEDs.

The TIR optic almost looks like a reflector with a translucent center piece. The translucent center makes it hard to clearly see the LED. Because of this type of TIR, the beam has a very distinct (large) hot spot with a smooth spill that has no rings.

Dimensions and size comparison

  • Length: 63.17 mm / 2.48 ”
  • Head diameter: 21.1 mm / 0.83 ”
  • Body diameter: 20.3 mm / 0.8 ”

Weight: 

  • Empty no clip: 29.4 g /  1.04 oz
  • clip: 5.2g / 0.18
  • With battery+clip: 52.8 g / 1.86 oz

EDC Flashlight comparison

Size compared to other interesting EDC flashlights

Image 1, from left to right: RovyVon Aurora A9, Olight S1R Baton 3 (16340) , Sunwayman V10R Ti (163430), Jetbeam DM25 (18350), Solarforce L2M (18350).

Driver & User Interface:

Olight uses their home-made drivers and user interfaces. They are usually pretty well thought out, so I don’t expect and stupid setting or anything. Before we dive into this, I’d like to point out something special. The Baton 3 has 2 sleep timers. You can set the timer to 3 minutes and 9 minutes. I will explain how to enter the modes below.

Available modes:

  • Moon, Low, Medium, High, Turbo (Moon and Turbo are not part of the normal mode cycle)
  • Strobe

From OFF:

  • Single-click:  (to last used mode, mode memory)
  • Double click: Turbo
  • Triple-click: Strobe
  • Press and hold for 1sec: Moon mode
  • Press and hold more than 2 sec: Lockout mode

From ON:

  • Single-click: flashlight turns off
  • Double click: Turbo
  • Triple-click: Strobe
  • Press and hold: changes output modes from low to high (excluding moon and turbo)
  • Click + Click and hold (2H): select the sleep timer in any mode.

Shortcuts:

  • To Turbo: Double click from on and off
  • To Moon: Long press from off
  • To Strobe: Triple click from on and off

Sleep timer:

  • To activate the sleep timer, you have to do a double click while holding the switch at the second click. In the Anduril manual, this is shown as 2H (2 clicks and hold the switch pressed at the second click). This doesn’t mean that the output reduces slowly, but it will just turn off at either 3 minutes or 9 minutes.
  • When you activate the sleep timer, you see 1 blink (for 3 minutes) or 2 blinks (for 9 minutes). Just turn the light off to de-activate the timer.
  • I don’t really understand the use case of this function, except if it was ramping down slowly, because that can be used as a bedside lamp.
  • If you use the timer in Turbo, you will notice a decrease in output after 1 minute, because that’s the normal output drop.

Mode memory:

  • Yes, including Moon, not Turbo
  • There is a 10 minutes memory for High. After 10 minutes the flashlight will turn on at Medium.
  • Turbo has no memory, but will automatically turn on at High for the first 10 minutes after shutting of the flashlight. After those 10 minutes memory will bring it back on in Medium. This must be another built in safety feature.

Blinky modes menu:

  • Only strobe (3 clicks from either the On or Off position)

Low battery warning:

  • The switch has a very small indicator LED that shows different colors for battery life.
  • Green: 60-100%
  • Orange: 10-60%
  • Red: 5-10%
  • Blinking red: 0-5%

Lock-out mode:

  • Press and hold the switch for more than 1 second when the flashlight is off.

PWM:

  • Not visible by eye.

Batteries & Charging : Olight Baton 3 Wireless Charger

The flashlight is actually called a Olight Baton 3 Premium Edition and it comes with a Baton 3 wireless charger. It’s a case, especially designed for the Olight S1R Baton series. You can even charge the Olight S1R II (according to the manual). But the II edition doesn’t have the safety feature built in.

The safety feature will de-activate the flashlight when you close the lid of the power bank, while the flashlight while still being on. This feature only works with the S1R III.

The wireless charger has a capacity of 3500mAh, and is likely a 18650 battery. The battery inside the S1R III is an 550mAh IMR16340 with the code: ORB-16C05-10C and is a proprietary battery for the Olight Baton II and III. You can’t use a ‘normal 16340’ battery with this flashlight.

Charging the wireless charger takes more than 2 hours at 2A. But if you insert the flashlight, and the power supply can only manage 1A, it will charge the flashlight inside the wireless charger first. When the USB power can supply 2A, it will both charge the battery and wireless charger at the same time

You can charge the flashlight inside the wireless charger with the lid closed. You won’t see any charging indicator unless you open the lid again.

Please don’t make the assumption most people make. Since the battery has a capacity of 550mAh and the wireless charger 3500mAh, you could come to the conclusion that you can recharge the 16340 battery about 6 times (6*550= 3300), but in reality, the charging system also uses energy, so in reality you can only charge the 16340 three times. So please keep that in mind.

Performance

Lumen measurements:

All output numbers are relative for my home-made Integrating Sphere. It is set up with an Extech SDL400 Lux Meter for measurements including a Kenko PRO1D ND-16 filter. The base measurement is done with a Convoy S2+ that has been tested at 255 lumens.

ModeSpecs@ 10 min@ 30 sec@ start
moon0.5N/A0.870.87
low1210.7010.7010.70
med606161.2561.25
high300296301300
Turbo1200292 lm1214 lm1241 lm

When you look at these numbers, you can see that Olight’s numbers are always very trustworthy. Many other manufacturers use bogus claims, and this makes Olight also stand out even more.

Runtime:

The runtime test was done with the 50cm integrating sphere, including the Kenko Pro1D ND-16 filter and Extech SDL400 data logging Lux Meter. The tests were done with the included 16340 550mAh battery.

This runtime graph is pretty boring, I know. So below is just the first 1.5 hours instead of 36 hours.

The Turbo output is maintained for 1 minute at roughly 1200 lumens, when it starts dropping in 30 seconds to roughly 300 lumens. After 1 hour and 24 minutes it drops down to roughly 62 lumens and then turns completely off at 1 hour and 29 minutes and 50 seconds. In my book that is 1.5 hours.

High starts at roughly 300 lumens and continues that for almost 1 hour and 29 minutes when it drops to 62 lumens. It turns off at 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Medium mode runs for 7 hours and 39 minutes straight at roughly 62 lumens till it dies directly. There is no step down. (Olight advertised this mode at 7.5 hours)

Low runs for a ridiculous 34 hours and 19 minutes straight at roughly 11 lumens. It then turns off abruptly. (Olight advertised this mode at 33 hours)

I haven’t tested moon mode, but it is supposed to run for 20 days, and when I look at the above numbers, I think this could be correct.

Throw Measurement

Measurements were taken indoors at 5 meters with a high-end Hagner E4-X Lux Meter. (after 30 seconds)

  • Indoors (5m): 7675 cd = 175 meters / 192 yards of throw

Olight claimed an intensity of 6889 cd and 166 meters of throw. That’s still a bit lower than I measured, but not bad at all.

Beamshots

For the following beamshots I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 and a 50mm lens. manual settings: ISO1600, 1/4sec , F4, 5000K

The shed is about 65 meters / 71 yards away. 

Disclaimer: This flashlight was sent to me for review at no cost by Olight. I have not been paid to review, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects.

Final Verdict

Pros

  1. Premium edition includes a wireless charger
  2. Very bright for its size
  3. 2-way pocket clip
  4. Great runtimes

Cons

  1. The battery can only be recharged 3 times with a fully charged wireless charger.
  2. You can only charge it while plugged in. An extra battery would also have been useful
Reviewer Marco
Author: Marco

4.5 stars: ★★★★⋆

When you look at the quality and performance of this little flashlight, you must admit it’s pretty darn good. A runtime of up to 20 days from a 550mAh battery is pretty awesome. The included wireless charger is a very nice idea, and I think you can’t go wrong with this flashlight kit if you don’t mind the small capacity of its battery.

Buy Olight Baton 3 with our discount

Use our exclusive 1lumen discount code to get an extra 10% off anything you order at Olightstore.com (USA). Coupon code: 1lumen

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

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