Coast Polysteel 600R Flashlight Review

The Coast Polysteel 600R Flashlight looks like a fun light, and Coast sent one out for review. It’s a plastic zoomy with batteries included.

Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Coast Polysteel 600R Flashlight product page.

Versions

There’s only one version, but the body is available in black, red, blue, green, and orange.

Price

These are going for $70 right now on the Coast website.

Short Review

As much as I wanted to like this light, there’s pretty much nothing I like about it. There are two big deal breakers for me though. First of all the size, which I didn’t find very obvious from the product page – you’ll have that settled here since I’ll make it clear. And secondly was the PWM. The PWM on this light is very bad, and even noticeable on the highest mode.

All that said, I think the light is most accurately represented by Coast, and while a bit expensive on their site, it’s available for less elsewhere. If this fits your criteria, and you can live with the PWM, then it is a nicely colored option.

Long Review

The Big Table

Coast Polysteel 600R Orange
Emitter:	?
Price in USD at publication time:	$70.00
Cell:	1xCustom 18650
High Runtime	Medium Runtime
LVP?	No
Switch Type:	Mechanical
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Chargetime
Power off Charge Port with no Cell?	–
Claimed Lumens (lm)	530
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	447 (84.3% of claim)^
Claimed Throw (m)	209
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	447lux @ 5.114m = 11690cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	216.2 (103.4% of claim)^

Cell:	4xAA
High Runtime
LVP?	Yes
On-Board Charging?	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	710
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	625 (88% of claim)^
Claimed Throw (m)	247
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	458lux @ 5.495m = 13829cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	235.2 (95.2% of claim)^
All my Coast 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

Coast Polysteel 600R Zoomie Flashlight
Battery Pack: 4xAA (cells included)
Battery Pack: Custom 18650 with onboard charging and USB out
Cigarette USB adapter
Wall USB adapter
Charge cable (USB to micro-USB)

Package and Manual

A Coast Polysteel 600R rechargeable flashlight is shown in its packaging, which features product images and text highlighting that it is rechargeable. The box rests on a wooden surface.

A product box for the PolySteel 600R focusing rechargeable flashlight is shown. The box features product images, specifications, features, warranty information, and technical details on a white background.

A black and orange flashlight is shown on the packaging, labeled COAST POLYSTEEL 600R, with the words Rechargeable and the model number 20526 displayed on a red and black background.

The image shows the packaging for a Coast Polysteel 600R focusing rechargeable LED flashlight, highlighting its pure beam focusing optic with diagrams of flood and spot beams. Model number 20526 is visible.

The box this light ships in is a big box, with lots of printing. Slip fit box, with reliefs for opening – it’s a nice box.

The light does not come with a manual.

Build Quality and Disassembly

The color is exactly what I’d hoped. It’s the right orange (or close enough). The whole body is plastic (aka “polysteel”). There’s some grip pattern on the body, too.

An orange and gray cylindrical object with a textured, tire-like pattern stands upright on a wooden surface outdoors.

A flashlight with a bright orange textured grip and dark gray ends stands upright on a wooden surface, with a blurred brown fence in the background.

A cylindrical flashlight with a textured orange grip and dark gray ends is standing upright on a weathered wooden surface outdoors.

The tailcap has a spring and is held together by three screws. Even the threads on the body are plastic, but they’re sufficient. You can also see the metal sleeve which runs inside the body – required for electrical connection from the tailcap.

The head does not have a spring but has this…. contact pad. It’s not a typical pad.

Here’s the business end.

I didn’t disassemble this light. It’s… glued? Or any way resists unscrewing enough that I didn’t want to fight it.

Size and Comps

The weight is 340g, but the dimensions are not mentioned.

The light is around 8″ long when in flood mode, and 8.25″ when zoomed in. It’s just under 2″ in diameter in the head area, and somewhat thinner in the body.

An orange and gray flashlight is placed horizontally on top of a two-dollar bill, both resting on a weathered wooden surface.

An orange and gray flashlight is placed horizontally on top of a two-dollar bill, both lying on a weathered wooden surface. The flashlight appears slightly longer than the bill.

A handgun pointed downward is in focus in the foreground, with a blurred one-dollar bill lying flat on a wooden surface below it.

This is not a small light. That’s fine, I often review not-small lights. In fact, some of my favorite lights are not small lights. But wow does this one carry big, for what’s essentially a single 18650 light.

A hand holding an orange and gray flashlight outdoors, with the person wearing a pink woven bracelet on their wrist. The background is out of focus grass.

A person wearing a pink bracelet holds an orange and black flashlight with a textured grip. The background is blurred grass. The word COAST is visible on the flashlight.

A hand holding an orange and gray flashlight with a textured grip, photographed outdoors against a blurred green background. The wrist has a pink woven bracelet.

Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. Mine’s a custom “baked” edition Nichia 219b triple. A very nice 18650 light.

A small red flashlight stands upright next to a larger, orange and grey flashlight on a wooden surface with a blurred background.

A flashlight is shown disassembled on a wooden surface. The head, with a single LED visible inside, is on the right, and the body, displaying three battery contacts, is on the left.

And here’s the light beside my custom-engraved TorchLAB BOSS 35, an 18350 light. I reviewed the aluminum version of that light in both 35 and 70 formats.

Retention and Carry

The only thing included for carry is the coffee-mug tailcap handle. Through this could be attached a lanyard or strap of some sort – but one is not included.

Power and Runtime

Coast includes two options for powering the Polysteel 600R. On the left below is the built-in 18650 with onboard charging and USB output. On the right is a 4xAA cell – 4x AA cells are included. These cells are in series – you’ll need all 4 to run the light.

Two black cylindrical battery holders are standing upright on a wooden surface. One holder is empty, showing its internal structure, while the other contains four AA batteries. A USB port is visible at the bottom of the empty holder.

Two black battery holders are standing upright on a wooden surface outdoors. The left holder is empty, while the right holder contains four AA batteries. The background is blurred.

These Duracells don’t appear to be different, but the holder seems fickle. In order to get my NiMH cells to work, I had to throw in a little contact magnet on the positive end of one. The NiMH are standard, so I really don’t know what was the problem. I can tell you that the light worked much more reliably on the li-ion setup. In fact, after the runtime with the AA pack, the light would no longer work on the AA pack. I couldn’t explain that either – the voltage from charged AA’s in the pack was just fine. Randomly later, the light did start working again with the pack – it was a problem I never could explain.

The lithium-ion pack has USB-out on one side of the negative end, and a micro-USB in on the other.

Close-up of the bottom of a black electronic device with a USB port labeled 5V/1A OUT and some text above it, placed on a weathered wooden surface.

There is no LVP at all on this light, at least with the lithium-ion pack. – that’s right, it discharged the lithium-ion to 0.0V. Furthermore, when charging the lithium-ion pack backup, it did not do so softly. It hit the completely depleted lithium-ion pack with the full current from right at the start.

Charging

Powerbank

It did seem to shut off when using the AA pack, with cell voltage around 1.15V.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
High AA Pack	710	5h45m	625	2.08
High Liion Pack	530	5h45m	447	2.08
Medium	155	9h30m	116	0.51
Low	42	35h	24	0.12

Pulse Width Modulation

PWM is present even on high. I found the PWM on low to be absolutely off-putting. Moving the light around on low makes an almost strobe-like effect.

Oscilloscope display showing a yellow square wave signal with irregular pulse widths. The horizontal scale is 5 ms per division and the vertical scale is 2 V per division. Various settings are visible on the screen.

Digital oscilloscope screen displaying a square wave signal with consistent high and low pulses. The time base is set to 5 milliseconds per division, and the vertical sensitivity is 2 volts per division.

Oscilloscope display showing a repeating square wave signal with regular pulses, yellow trace on a grid. The screen displays settings including 2V, DC, 5ms, AUTO, and a voltage value of -0.16V.

Here you can see a “baseline” – a chart with almost no light hitting the sensor.

Then there’s the Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight, which has some of the worst PWM I’ve seen. It’s so bad that I used a post about it to explain PWM! Here are multiple timescales (10ms, 5ms, 2ms, 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.2ms) to make comparing this “worst” PWM light to the test light easier. That post also explains why I didn’t test the WF-602C at the usual 50us scale.

User Interface and Operation

There’s a single switch on this light. It’s a mechanical forward clicky on the tailcap. It’s also completely normal-sized, despite looking tiny in the gigantic tailcap. The rubber has a lot of texture and impressively has Coast’s “C” logo.

Here’s a user interface table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	On^
Off	Half press	Momentary
Off	Repeated Half press	Mode advance (HML)

^ Generally the light will come on in high. If you multiple click or multiple half-press quickly enough, you will advance the modes. Normal forward clicky behavior.

LED and Beam

Coast doesn’t make a claim on what this emitter is.

Comparing the photo above to this incredibly handy list on BLF by CRX, I’d say it’s a Cree XM-L2, of unknown (but cool) temperature.

These beamshots always have the following settings: f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure. These photos are taken at floor level, and the beam hits the ceiling around 9 feet away.

4xAA pack first. Flood on the left, zoom on the right.

A dark, mostly featureless surface with a gradient ranging from dark blue to black. The text ZEROAIR.ORG appears vertically on the left side. A small dark object is partially visible at the top edge.

A very dark image with faint shades of black and blue. The text ZEROAIR.ORG is visible vertically on the left side. No distinct objects or details are clearly visible.

A mostly black image with very faint, barely visible text ZEROAIR.ORG oriented vertically along the left side. No other discernible objects or details are visible.

A circular white light beam with a bright center and a soft blue outer edge shines on a dark background. The watermark ZEROAIR.ORG appears vertically on the left side of the image.

A circular white light is centered against a dark background, surrounded by a blue halo. The website text ZEROAIR.ORG is vertically aligned on the left side of the image.

A circular, white light source is centered against a dark background with a faint blue halo around it. The text ZEROAIR.ORG appears vertically on the left side.

Lithium-ion pack second. The high is noticeably (but little) brighter.

A dark, mostly plain background with a faint gradient. ZEROAIR.ORG is written vertically along the left edge. A small, unidentifiable dark object is partially visible at the top right corner.

A mostly dark image with faint shadows in the corners. The text ZEROAIR.ORG appears vertically on the left side. Details in the center are not visible due to low lighting.

A nearly black image with the text ZEROAIR.ORG in vertical white letters on the left side. No other visible objects or details can be discerned.

A circular white light beam with a bright center and a softer blueish outer ring is projected onto a dark surface. The text ZEROAIR.ORG is visible on the left side of the image.

A bright white circular light is centered against a dark background, with a soft blue halo surrounding it. The text ZEROAIR.ORG is vertically aligned on the left side of the image.

A circular white light is centered against a black background, with a faint halo effect radiating outward. The text ZEROAIR.ORG appears vertically on the left side.

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

I compare everything to the Killzone 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!

Random Comparisons and Competitive Options

Here’s a link to a relevantly filtered page on parametrek.com. I use that site a lot! Most of those are not zoomie lights, so if zoomie is what you really need, then this could be your choice.

Conclusion

What I like

The color is great
The user interface is dead simple

What I don’t like

PWM
No LVP on included battery pack
4xAA pack was cell-picky and unreliable
The size

Notes

This light was provided by Coast 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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Coast Polysteel 600R Flashlight Review

Coast Polysteel 600R Flashlight Review

Official Specs and Features

Versions

Price

Short Review

Long Review

The Big Table

What’s Included

Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

Size and Comps

Retention and Carry

Power and Runtime

Charging

Powerbank

Modes and Currents

Pulse Width Modulation

User Interface and Operation

LED and Beam

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

Random Comparisons and Competitive Options

Conclusion

What I like

What I don’t like

Notes

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