Fenix E30R Flashlight Review

The Fenix E30R Flashlight is an 18650 version of the E18R and is basically the LD30 as an e-switch only light. Read on!

---

Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Fenix E30R Flashlight product page.

Versions

There’s only one version of the E30R.  There’s the smaller version I already mentioned if you want smaller:  E18R.

Price

I recommend you buy this light at BestLight.io.  That’s where I got it, and I can wholly recommend them.  They’re nice, and a nice company.

---

Short Review

I like this light a lot.  The only thing I really think it lacks is a very good low, and a better emitter choice.  Fix those two things, and this light would be right at the top of my list!

Long Review

The Big Table

Fenix E30R
Emitter:	Luminus SST-40
Price in USD at publication time:	$79.95 at BestLight.io
Cell:	1×18650
Turbo Runtime	High Runtime
LVP?	Switch Warning
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (A):	0.00001
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Chargetime
Power off Charge Port with no Cell?	All modes with cell.  Lowest 4 modes without cell (even head-only works).
Claimed Lumens (lm)	1600
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	1623 (101.4% of claim)^
Claimed Throw (m)	203
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	465lux @ 4.939m = 11343cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	213.0 (104.9% of claim)^
All my Fenix 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

• Fenix E30R Flashlight
• Lanyard
• Spare o-ring
• Charge cable (USB to proprietary magnetic)
• Paperwork and manual
• Fenix 18650

My package included a cell, and the package from BestLight.io also does; I’m not sure a package from elsewhere will.

Package and Manual

Typical new-Fenix package, with a magnetic closed flip-open front.  The light is in a plastic tray.

The manual is good, too.  Even includes a runtime graph!

Build Quality and Disassembly

This is a well-built, very flashlighty flashlight.  It has a good feel in hand and a very nice weight.

“Flashlighty” is hard to put a finger on – this one has it mostly.  The head is bigger than the body.  There’s more to it but…

Anyway, this is a solid light.  The anodizing has chipped off in an area or two (one of those can be seen around the clip below).  There’s no knurling; instead, there are the lines on the body.  They provide adequate grip.

The tail end of the E30R has a spring.  The head has only contact points; no spring.  That’s fine for this type of light – it’s not a weapon light anyway.  The nubs seen around the positive contact do not prevent the use of flat-top cells.

Threads on the body are thick square-cut, and coarse.  They’re very nice threads.  Also being anodized means that the light can very easily be mechanically locked out.

Size and Comps

Officially: Length:  99mm
Body:  21.5mm
Head:  25.4mm
Weight:  51g excluding batteries

This is a very nice sized 18650 light!

Much shorter than the Convoy S2+, (but really what isn’t.)

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.

I still have the E18R (and LD30 for that matter) bouncing around somewhere but this is the closest relative I had near my hands at the time of these photos.  I still love that little E16, but like the E30R, I very much wish the low was much lower.  (Absolutely love the optic on the E16.)

Retention and Carry

The main way for me to carry the E30R is going to be the pocket clip.  It’s a deep carry friction fit clip, which mounts only on the head end for bezel up carry.  It gets in the way of unscrewing the head just a bit but not too badly.  The shoulder is a bit broad and so sticks out more than I really want, but this does mean it fits over pockets very well.  And it’s quite springy, with a big-enough mouth, so it’s easy to get on to pockets in the first place.  The clip also has a couple of lanyard attachment points, too.

The other (and main) lanyard attachment point is on the tailcap.  There are two sets of two holes.

There is no magnet in the tailcap, and no pouch or anything provided.

Power and Runtime

The E30R runs on a single 18650 cell.  An appropriate cell is included.

The included cell is the Fenix ARB-L18-3500, a 3500mAh button top cell.

A couple of runtimes for you.  First Turbo, which hits the numbers claimed and steps down to a reasonable 950 lumens (aka “High”).  I stopped the test sometime after the switch began warning of low voltage.  Testing with a bench power, there was no evidence of low voltage protection.

The runtime on High was exceptionally stable until the stepdown.  I stopped this test too, sometime after the switch began a red flash warning.

Charging

The E30R also has onboard charging but does not require a proprietary cell to operate.  It is however a proprietary magnetic connection, which is exactly opposite the switch on the head.

The charge cable is USB to magnetic proprietary.

The magnetic end has an indicator, which will light even if not connected to USB power.  This brought up an interesting question during testing.  It seems that while charging, the indicator is powered by the USB side of things (or not, this part doesn’t really matter).  But after charging (and even while still connected to USB), the indicator is being powered by the cell.  So this small amount of current required to power the indicator on the magnetic connector can actually drain the cell in the light, even while connected to USB, once charging is complete.  The take-home is to remove the light from charging when charging is done, and to not store it on the charger.

Charging is good, at around 1A.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
Turbo	1600	1h27m	1643	3.80
High	800	1h55m	858	1.29
Mid	350	5h28m	364	0.46
Low	150	17h32m	152	0.20
Eco	30	70h30m	28	0.07

Pulse Width Modulation

There is no PWM.

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 one switch on the E30R.  It’s a side e-switch, with an indicator right in the middle.  The switch cover is a nice hard plastic, positively clicky with no wobble, and probably less than 1mm of travel.  It’s a very nice switch.  Also being exactly opposite the very similarly sized charge port might be a concern.  But I found just pinching these two made it a little irrelevant which I actually grabbed.  I can see that this might be annoying for some users, but it was not for me.

The UI isn’t extremely complicated, but it has a fairly nice set of features.

Here’s a UI table!  I think it’s a little updated from the E18R.

State	Action	Result
Off	Hold (0.5s)	Eco
On	Click	Mode advance (Eco>L>M>H>T)
Unlocked	Hold (1.2s)	Strobe
Strobe	Click	Eco
Off	Double Click	Lock
Lock	Double Click	Unlock to Eco
Off	Click	Battery Check^

It’s the double click for lockout that will get most users (me included).  But the update here is that there are multiple ways (most ways, in fact) to get to Eco.  I appreciate this.  Also it does not seem that there’s any mode memory here.  That’s a bit of a surprise…

^ Battery check, as follows:

Green constant on: saturated (100% – 85%)
Green flashes: sufficient (85% – 50%)
Red constant on: poor (50% – 25%)
Red flashes: critical (25% – 1%)

LED and Beam

In the LD30 is a Luminus SST-40.  I can’t see the temperature mentioned on the Fenix website, but ultimately it’s a bit green.  The optic again seems like one custom to Fenix.  I love the one in the E18R and E16, and this one performs somewhat similarly.

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.

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!  This category does have some competition.  The E30R is the shortest of the bunch though, and the new UI seems to make it a compelling consideration.

Conclusion

What I like

• Updated UI helps users get to Eco mode easily
• Still appreciate that Fenix doesn’t hide modes from the regular cycle
• Good beam profile
• Hits throw and output numbers
• Very good size for 18650 light

What I don’t like

• No LVP
• Green SST-40
• No direct access to Turbo

---

Notes

• This light was provided by BestLight.io for review. I was not paid to write this review.
• This content originally appeared at zeroair.org.  Please visit there for the best experience!
• For flashlight-related patches, stickers, and gear, head over to PhotonPhreaks.com!
• Use my amazon.com referral link if you’re willing to help support making more reviews like this one!
• Please support me on Patreon! I deeply appreciate your support!