Olight Warrior X Turbo

Olight Warrior X TURBO review

Olight Warrior X Turbo specifications

Brand / Model	Olight Warrior X TURBO
LED	Osram white flat W2
Lumens	1,100 lm
Beam intensity	250,000cd
Battery config.	1*21700
Material	Aluminum
Modes	2
Blinkies	strobe
Reflector	smooth
Waterproof	IPX8
Review date	August 2020

Introduction:

First, Olight introduced the Olight Warrior X, then the Warrior X PRO, and now the Warrior X Turbo. The X Turbo is actually a supersized X PRO with much more beam intensity. It outperforms it in terms of beam distance substantially.

The battery, charge system, etc are all the same, but the output and throw aren’t.

What you’ll get:

Olight is one of the few manufacturers that really spends time designing its packaging. The Warrior X Turbo’s packaging is just fabulous. The moment you have it in your hands, you just feel you have something high-quality in your hands.

• The Olight Warrior X Turbo
• Lanyard
• Holster
• Cigar grip ring (tactical ring)
• MCC3 charging cable

Handling of the light

Just like the Olight Warrior X PRO, the Warrior X Turbo uses only a single switch. It’s hard to describe the way it feels. It doesn’t feel like any other type of switch, which tells you something about the exclusivity of the flashlight. You’d have to use your thumb to operate the flashlight for On and Off, and changing modes all in 1 switch.

It has two modes, High and Low.

When you half-press the switch, it will turn on in Low-mode. A full click will turn it on in High mode, (or Turbo in that regard). But, if you hold the light in either (half-press, or full-click) for longer than 1 second, it’s working as a momentary-on. When you release the switch, the light will turn off.

If you shortly press it halfway or fully, the light will stay on in that mode. A full press will always be Turbo, and a half-press will always be Low, either momentary or continuously.

By default, the Warrior X Turbo has its pocket clip attached to the tactical ring. The pocket clip attaches to the light just underneath the tactical ring. You need to take off that ring in order to take the clip off. This system helps the clip staying connected to the light.

Inside the box, there is another tactical grip ring included. But this one is made of silicone with an aluminum ring on the inside. Please refer to the pictures to see what I’m talking about.

With all the knurling, you’ll have enough grip. But you could always use the lanyard that comes with the flashlight or use the holster that is designed and built well. Olight does a terrific job when it comes to design and quality. They do go the extra mile!

If you’re into remote switches, you can get the optional ROD-7 Odin, which is a pressure switch compatible with the Olight Odin as well as the Olight Warrior X Turbo.

Build Quality, knurling, threads, and anodization

When it comes to build-quality, Olight is definitely one of the top 10 highest-quality LED flashlight manufacturers IMHO. And they are doing it really smart. It’s not just the flashlight itself, but also the packaging. It’s like Japanese dishes. It needs to look good, feel good, smell good, and then taste good. Skip the smell and taste part for Olight flashlights, but the first impression is important. And Olight is doing that really good.

The first impression of their packaging is just something you need to experience. Smaller manufacturers don’t understand this part of the marketing, or it just costs too much. If they want to become mainstream, they probably have to look at Olight and how they are doing it.

All materials are looking strong and durable. Threads are smooth and o-rings are lubed. Anodization is great all around. The tailcap has 2 o-rings to improve its water proofness.

LEDs, Lens, Bezel, and Reflector

One thing that Olight is not so famous for in the flashlight community is the lack of specifications when it comes to the specific LED used. The product description of Warrior X Turbo doesn’t really tell much about the LED used.

But to me, it looks (and I’m actually pretty sure about this one) like an Osram KW CSLPM1.TG which is known as a W2 flat in the flashlight community. It’s a cold white emitter that produces a very intense small hotspot. Therefore it is mainly used in long-range flashlights like the Olight Warrior X Turbo. The tint or bin is unknown for this particular LED. If you look at the pictures you can definitely tell that this is an Osram W2. The LED sits very deep in the smooth reflector, centered well in the middle with a centering ring.

The bezel is blue and crenelated. It’s not sharp by any means, but the shape and color let the flashlight stand out from other flashlights. This is yes another branding design from Olight. If you put 10 flashlights in a row, and you were asked to find the Olight, it’s really easy to do by looking at the design and bezel. They don’t do this to all their flashlights, and the Warrior X Turbo Gunmetal Grey (limited edition) has a black bezel instead of blue.

Dimensions:

• Length: 157 mm / 6.18 ”
• Head diameter:  58.2 mm / 2.287”
• Body diameter narrowest point: 23.77mm / 0.937”
• Tailcap: 29.57mm / 1.164″

Weight: 

• Empty: 223g/ 7.87oz
• With battery: 296 g (  10.45oz)

Long-range Flashlights

Image 1: Its size compared to other well known, long-range flashlights

From left to right: Lumintop BLF GT Mini, Manker U22 II, Olight Warrior X Turbo, Astrolux FT03, Speras T1.

Image 2+3: Its size compared to the Olight Warrior X PRO.

Driver & User Interface:

I touched upon this in the ‘Handling’ section of the review. The Warrior X Turbo has output 2 modes: Turbo and Low. Both can be used continuously as well as momentarily.

Available modes:

• Low and Turbo

From OFF:

• Half-press + hold: Low (momentary)
• Half-press and release: Low (continuously)
• Single-click + hold more than 1sec: Turbo (momentary)
• Single-click and release: Turbo (continuously)

From ON:

• Half-press: turn off
• Single-click in Low mode: switch to High mode
• Single-click in Turbo mode: turn off

Shortcuts:

• You can get access to both modes directly from Off.

Mode memory:

• No.

Blinky modes menu:

• None

Low battery warning:

• The Olight Warrior X Turbo has a Vibration warning. It starts vibrating when the battery runs low.
• <20% battery = vibrates every 5 minutes
• <10% battery = vibrates every minute
• <5% battery = vibrates every 10 seconds

Lock-out mode:

• Unscrew the tailcap slightly.

PWM:

• Not visible by eye.

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

The UI is very straightforward and rather unique. The half-press vs full press functionality is quite interesting. The low battery vibration is another Olight ‘thing’. And all these little extra features make Olight a highly regarded brand.

Batteries and charging:

You may know that Olight decided to use proprietary batteries and charge systems. Personally, I’d prefer non-proprietary batteries and charge systems. It’s just another layer of annoyance for charging and carrying. I’d like to use my dedicated battery charger for charging multiple batteries at a time, and outside the flashlight, so I can use the flashlight while charging batteries.

The 21700 battery included is an Olight ORB-217C50 which is a 5000mAh proprietary battery. You can’t use this battery in flashlights produced by other manufacturers. Nor can you use other batteries in this flashlight. The Warrior X Turbo comes with the MCC3 (magnetic charging cable) and it doesn’t work with older MCCs.

From a manufacturer’s perspective, I can understand this decision, but from a user’s perspective with many flashlights and batteries, I don’t like it that much. Olight does this to provide the best experience possible, using their own batteries and charging systems. This will likely reduce the number of problems related to abuse or misuse of the battery, charging, or flashlights.

The charge speed is roughly 1.75A, while the manual states 2A. This is still reasonably fast, so a 5000mAh battery would take roughly 3 hours to charge. Whilst charging you will see a red indicator LED, which turns green when it finishes charging. This doesn’t mean the charge is completely finished because it keeps charging at a low charge rate after it turns green.

One thing I’m also not 100% sure about is the parasitic drain. If I take the switch off and measure the negative side of the battery and the battery tube, I get a current of 0.047Amps. This would mean that a battery of 5000mAh would be discharged in less than 1064 hours, which equals to 44 days. But this is likely not correct, because the switch and battery used in this light are not like your average flashlight. So this part can be taken with a grain of salt! If anybody knows how to measure this correctly, let me know. (ps. and the tools I need).

After the runtime tests, the battery was at 2.85 Volts.

Performance:

Lumen measurements:

All output numbers are relative to my homemade 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.

All of my readings were taken from a fully charged Olight ORB-217C50 battery. At the start, I measured a total of 1183 lumens. Measured after 30 seconds

Mode	Specified	I measured
Low	150 lm	159 lm
High	1100 lm	1131 lm

The specs and my measurements are pretty close.

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 manual says the following: 1100 lumens 100%: 6.5 minutes, 55%: 105 min, 27% 27 min and 14% 52 min. (1100 – 600 – 300 – 150)

When I look at the graph I can say 6.5 minutes to 51%. 51% for 96 minutes, 25% for 27 minutes and 13% for 50 minutes. (1183 – 611 – 300 – 158) That’s pretty close to what Olight is saying.

The total runtime in Turbo (or High) is 3 hours and 1 minute. The low battery warning: vibration, starts after roughly 1 hour and 35 minutes. I looked at my clock when I first heard the vibrating sound. It might be the second output drop around 1 hour and 43 minutes, but I think it has an earlier warning before it drops in output. The keeps buzzing every 5 minutes. And more often when the battery runs even lower.

Low mode runs extremely stable, straight for 11 hours and 30 minutes at 159/160 lumens. Probably a bit longer if I didn’t take some white wall beamshots before the runtime.. fail…
The manual states a runtime of 12.5 hours and that may be achievable with a fully charged battery.

Throw measurement:

Measurements were taken outdoors with a professional Hagner E4-X Lux Meter.

Measured at a distance of 20 meters I got the following:

• Low (20m):  33600 cd = 367 m / 401 yards
• Turbo (20m): 240000 cd =  980 m / 1072 yards

The specifications say 1000 meters, and yes, my measurements back that up. If I measured it at 10 meters I might have gotten that.

Beamshots

For the following beamshots, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 and a 100mm lens. manual settings: ISO1600, 0.5sec , F4, 5000K

The tower is about 450 meters / 492 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.

Overall conclusion

Pros:

1. High-quality flashlights
2. Great emitter choice
3. Plenty of beam-distance
4. Including battery and charging cable
5. Nice amount of high quality accessories

Cons

1. As an avid flashlight collector and user, I prefer non-proprietary batteries and charge systems

Rating: 5 stars ★★★★★

Rating a flashlight based upon the build quality, amount of accessories, and performance, the Olight Warrior X Turbo really deserves 5 stars. The only 2 cons I have are the proprietary charge system and the possible high parasitic drain. Unscrewing the tailcap should solve the latter, and the former may actually be a Pro for some! Taking off 1 star compared to what it offers is a little lame. 0.5 stars I would agree with though. 4.5 stars for this Olight Warrior X TurboI can’t state it enough that Olight is one of the few that does all the designs, branding and detailing so well. The Warrior X Turbo is definitely a great flashlight thrower. It reaches 1 kilometer of beam-distance in a relatively small package.