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Olight, a manufacturer of EDC and Weapon mounted flashlights has received a lot of attention as of late. Many influencers in the online firearms community have brought Olight’s products into the spotlight. With the Chinese made product gaining such widespread attention in just a short amount of time, many would-be customers have postulated that any and all reviews for their (Olight’s) products are done by paid shills. This alleged shilling has turned many away from Olight all together. In this article, we review the Olight S2R Baton II EDC Flashlight.
The S2R Baton II ships with the light, a soft storage pouch, two pocket clips, a charger and a wrist loop (not pictured).
Here at The Firearm Blog, we pride ourselves on refusing to be paid for reviews. With that said, today, I’m going to review the Olight S2R Baton II purchased, of course, with my own money. I ordered the light on Amazon.com and received it via prime delivery two days later. However, if I needed/wanted to, I could have purchased it from Olight’s online store.
S2R Baton II – Specs
All the specs listed here will be from the Olight Website or the Included User Manual that shipped with the light.
- Waterproof IPX8
- Weight (g / oz) 98.5 / 3.47
- Length (mm / in) 100 / 3.94
- Head Diameter (mm / in) 23 / 0.91
- Body Diameter (mm / in) 23 / 0.91
- LED Luminus SST-40 CW LED
- Use everyday carry, key-chain, car, camping, fishing, household, EDC, general use
S2R Baton output
The Baton II boasts a maximum output of 1,150 lumens. The flashlight itself has 5 different modes of operation including a “moonlight” (0.5 lumens) mode and a “Turbo” (1150) lumen mode. Battery life naturally is based on each of the 5 standard modes of operation:
- Moonlight Mode (0.5 Lumens): 60 Days
- Low (15 Lumens): 100 Hours
- Medium (120 Lumens): 14 Hours
- High (400 Lumens): 4 Hours
- Turbo (1150-400 Lumens): 2+230 Minutes**
- Strobe – No light output or battery time listed
**The Turbo option will cast 1150 lumens for 2 minutes and then step down automatically to 400 lumens and then last for 230 minutes or roughly 3 hours and 45 minutes.
I do quite like the moonlight mode and can see its 0.5-lumen setting coming in handy at night when you need to find that lost item in the car and or briefly read something. In fact, I do this quite often in the cockpit of a plane at night to decrease the impact on my night vision.
Turbo Mode – Bright Flash or Burning flesh?
On the converse side, the “Turbo” mode I find to be completely useless. 1150 lumens is quite ludicrous for such a small light. On top of that, the Turbo mode heats the small frame up considerably in a short amount of time. I ran the light in turbo mode and in just a few minutes it had already heated up to 126 degrees and was hot to the touch! That being said the two-minute automatic timer is a good idea, but it merely turns the light down to the High setting which continues to heat the light up. All in all, it would probably find its best use with the lower four settings which are more than adequate for most EDC applications.
Operation
The light operates by way of a small side-switch neatly placed near the top-cap of the light. Long presses cycle through the various standard modes. The instruction manual provides detailed information on some of the special features the light has including entering moonlight mode, setting the integrated timer as well as a fairly odd locking mode where the flashlight will not respond to a “normal” button press. Perhaps for the lady that carries the light in her purse, this might come in handy to prevent unwanted battery drain.
The illuminated side switch gives you an instant battery charge indicator but is hard to find by touch alone.
The side-switch integrates a battery meter that displays a green light for 70% or greater battery charge, a yellow for 15-69% and red for a below 15% capacity remaining. I would have probably preferred a textured and or slightly more raised switch over the colored LED battery indicator, as the side switch can be hard to find, especially without the pocket clip mounted.
Battery
The S2R Baton II makes use of a 3200mAh 18650 rechargeable lithium battery which is charged magnetically through the tail cap charging cable. The Battery is not proprietary although on the website it says that the included battery is “customized.” Replacement rechargeable batteries can be had for around $10 or less online. Meanwhile, the OEM battery will run you nearly $19 online.
The Baton II uses the size of the flashlight to fill it with a powerful 18650 rechargeable battery.
The battery provides more than sufficient power for most settings, including the Turbo setting (if you’d like 1st-degree burns). I really appreciate the fact that the battery is rechargeable and the mechanism by which it is recharged is also a great point in favor of this EDC flashlight.
Charging
One of my biggest gripes with many illuminated devices like lights or red dot sights is that they use batteries. I absolutely hate batteries because not only are they heavy, they are also expensive to replace (also sometimes they explode). Fortunately, the Baton II ships with the rechargeable battery described above but With the IPX8 Rating, I find it great that they decided to go with a magnetic charging tail cap in lieu of more traditional USB type charging ports that we find on phones and other EDC flashlights.
The Magnetic tail cap is convenient and allows for fast charging at the end of the day. I feel like this is better than fiddling around with a traditional charging port. As an added bonus the tail cap can be snapped on to any surface composed of a magnetic metal. This can be a plus or a minus depending on if you store the flashlight in the same place as magnetic things such as your keys which would get stuck if in close proximity to the charging magnet.
Construction/Durability
The overall construction of the light is mostly solid. The light lens is a polycarbonate TIR type providing great shatter resistance but will inherently be susceptible to scratches. This is somewhat abated by the lens being recessed about 1/16th of an inch below the top cap.
The S2R Baton II ships with two pocket clips, one blue and one black. The clips themselves work fairly well but they are quite easy to bend. If the clip gets caught on anything while it is in your pocket it is liable to bend out of shape.
The S2R Baton II is just slightly longer and fatter than a standard swiss army knife.
The body of the light is strong and sufficiently textured to provide a decent grip. I personally would have preferred a more aggressive grip. If your hands are oily as mine often are, the grip texture provides little purchase on the light, mostly due to the slick coating of the housing.
conclusions
I had expected to walk into this review being disappointed, and broke, costing a hefty sum of $69.95. Kidding aside I was pleasantly surprised with the EDC light. It’s a tough, simple and practical design with some neat features that make it useful in good variety of situations.
Despite being made from 100% pure Chinesium, the light delivers a good balance of power, size, and weight. Overall I’d recommend the light if you’re in the market for a small, EDC light. I wouldn’t carry it into battle or on duty but for a working man’s daily carry, the light should provide faithful service without breaking the bank.
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