Olight I3T EOS Flashlight Review

The Olight I3T EOS flashlight is a single-AAA flashlight that has a forward clicky and a TIR optic to give great beam shape. Read on for testing!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Olight I3T EOS flashlight product page.

Versions

There’s only one version of this light.

Price

The MSRP and going rate for this light is $19.99.

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Short Review

A fine little simple light. I like the design, the switch is good, and I really like the simplicity.

Long Review

The Big Table

Olight i3T EOS
Emitter:	Philips LUXEON TX
Price in USD at publication time:	$19.99
Cell:	1xAAA
High Runtime
LVP?
Switch Type:	Mechanical
On-Board Charging?	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	180
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	232 (128.9% of claim)^
Claimed Throw (m)	60
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	64lux @ 4.21m = 1134cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	67.4 (112.3% of claim)^
All my Olight reviews!

^ Measurement disclaimer: Testing flashlights is my hobby. I use hobbyist-level equipment for testing, including some I made myself. Try not to get buried in the details of manufacturer specifications versus measurements recorded here; A certain amount of difference (say, 10 or 15%) is perfectly reasonable.

What’s Included

• Olight I3T
• Primary AAA cell
• Manual

Package and Manual

The I3T comes in what seems to be Olight’s new packaging. These are tear-strip sealed boxes made of reinforced card stock. Very nice material, and tamper-proof.

The manual is fairly typical of Olight. One paper printed on both sides, with a diagram and table, and then a bunch of different languages.

Build Quality and Disassembly

Like many Olights, this light has a nice feel in-hand. The anodizing is top quality and feels very smooth.

The new and fancy “double helix” Olight is so proud of needs to provide good grip for one-handed use. It does an okay job in this regard, but I found it to be not quite as grippy as I wanted, and yet a bit sharper than I like all at the same time.

The tailcap has a good bit of reeding, allowing easy cell swaps.

This is as far as I got the light apart. The head didn’t come off readily, and I didn’t fight with it.

The tailcap has nice thick square-cut threads and is unanodized. This does mean that physical lockout isn’t possible, but as this is a mechanical clicky, there’s no drain on the cell if the light is off. There’s also a spring on the tailcap. It’s not double sprung, but it’s stiff enough, and nice quality.

Size

Officially Weight 41g, Length 89mm, Head and body diameter 15mm.

By no means is this the smallest AAA clicky. It’s quite a bit longer than the ReyLight Pineapple Mini, and a little longer than the Lumintop Tool (mechanical clicky).

Retention

The pocket clip, which is arrives installed, is one of the new versions. It has the folded-over, clip-either-direction setup, and there’s a lanyard hole in the shoulder, too. At one point I didn’t like these clips, and while I still prefer the more traditional type, these have grown on me a little. Whatever you think about the clip part, it is held snugly on the body.

No lanyard or magnet is included.

Power

Power is provided by a single AAA cell. Olight does include a primary cell, but all my testing was done with an Eneloop AAA NiMH. As with most flashlights, the positive end of the cell goes toward the emitter.

Runtime is rated at 21 minutes for High. Output is in fact steady at around 230 for almost 10 minutes, then drops off steadily to around 80. 80 lumens is much higher than the next mode down (Low), and this is stable for another ~50 minutes.

With a projected runtime of 16 hours on Low, I didn’t test that mode.

User Interface and Operation

The switch is a mechanical forward clicky. It’s very clicky and clicks on the downstroke and upstroke. The click is quite loud.

Here’s a user interface table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	Low
Low	Click	High
Off	Half press	Momentary (Low first, another half press for high)

The light will revert to low as the next mode once off for 2 seconds.

Modes

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens
High	180	21m	232
Low	5	16h	~

LED and Beam

The emitter used in this AAA light is the Philips LUXEON TX. I can’t think of a single Luxeon TX I’ve tested before. I like the tint and the beam profile is good too.

It’s behind a TIR optic, which provides a fairly broad hotspot, and a reasonable amount of spill on High. On Low, the spill is hardly noticeable at all.

Tint vs BLF-348 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)

I keep the test flashlight on the left and the BLF-348 reference flashlight on the right.

Random Comparisons and Competitive Options

Here’s a relevantly filtered page on parametrek.com. The only other Luxeon TX light I’m seeing at the moment, in the AAA format, is another by Olight – the i3E. I have a few of those, and they’re good lights too. Very simple. But they’re twisty. So if you want the Luxeon TX in a clicky format, the I3T is your choice.

Conclusion

What I like

• Simple UI
• AAA format (with alkaline/NiMH support)
• TIR optic beam profile
• No strobe!
• square-cut, high-quality threads

What I don’t like

• Spirals on the side are too sharp but not grippy enough
• No Nichia option

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Notes

• This light was provided by Olight for review. I was not paid to write this review.
• This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
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