Remember the old original Coleman lanterns? Remember lantern fuel, mantles, etc.? A bit of a hassle, but they got the job done.

Then along came battery powered incandescent lanterns…one of my favorites (remember this?)

Today we have LED lanterns. There have been a number of such devices written up in the pages of TFB, including this posting by your humble author of the Streamlight “compact” lantern.

Not compact enough? Check this out – the good folks at Fenix Lighting sent this cool little VERY compact lantern for review, the Fenix CL25R.

So small – arrived in a tiny box complete with Fenix 18650 2300mAh battery and charging cable

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t bother to show the cable – it’s a common micro USB to USB plug. My bet is that most of the readers have multiples of that type cable.

Specs from the Fenix Web Site:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It truly is small – so small that it could easily be tossed into a backpack or even clipped onto your belt. Here it is alongside a compact Rayovac LED lantern:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Estimated run times for this little guy range from just over 2 hours on high to 880 hours on moonlight, depending on the type battery you use. The included battery is estimated at 600 hours, but if you step up to the 3400mAh Fenix 18650 cell the claimed run time is 880 hours on moonlight. Moonlight is quite useful for lighting up a small area, and imagine being in a power outage or on a long camping trip and enjoying over a month of run time. Even if their estimates are wildly optimistic and you get only half that time, it’s still a lot of time. Of course on turbo, it’s a different story. I can easily read in a dark room with the 50 lumen setting, and that’s good for almost 24 hours.

You can also use 2 primary CR123 cells, but not 2 RCR123 cells.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The CL25R also has a 1.5 lumen red colored steady beam and flashing beam – protect that night adapted vision or use it to signal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of my favorite features is on the underside where you replace the battery – the bottom is magnetic PLUS it has standard tripod threads. Stick it to anything metallic for instant area lighting.

Activation is via a small button on top that sits right next to the USB port.

If you have not yet figured it out, I really like this lantern. With an $80 list price, it’s readily available for around $60. As already mentioned, thanks to the Fenix Lighting folks for providing this light for review.

www.fenixlighting.com