Olight Warrior X Pro Flashlight Review – The Best Cree XHP35.2 HI Flashlight?

Olight just released a new version in the Warrior series of lights – the Warrior X Pro.  It’s not just a body upgrade, though (red is new).  It’s also an emitter upgrade!  Read on to see what makes this an unusual little light, and the best Cree XHP35.2 HI light available!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the official product page.

Versions

There are a bunch!  Some of these are already discontinued.

Price

The MSRP of these is $129.95.  As with most new Olight models, however, there’s a big sale going on now!

Flash sale date: 8:00pm October 22nd -11:59pm October 23rd EDT, lasting 28 hours;
VIP customers(above Silver) will have the early access to our Flash Sale from October 20th EDT.

Warrior X Pro Red, Green or Blue(Limited Edition), 30% off (MAP: $129.95; Sales price:$90.97)

Bundle: Warrior X Pro Red, Green or Blue(Limited Edition)+ i5T EOS（ODG), 40% off (MAP: $162.90; Sale s price:$97.74)

Olantern Basalt Grey, Wine Red or Moss Green, 30% off (MAP: $79.95; Sales price:$55.97)

Bundle: Olantern Basalt Grey, Wine Red or Moss Green+ i3T EOS（ODG), 40% off (MAP: $101.90; Sale s price:$61.14)

Olantern (Basalt Grey) + Warrior X Pro（Blue), 40% off (MAP: $209.90; Sales price:$125.94)

Olantern (Wine Red) + Warrior X Pro (Red), 40% off (MAP: $209.90; Sales price:$125.94)

Olantern (Moss Green) + Warrior X Pro（Green), 40% off (MAP: $209.90; Sales price:$125.94)

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Short Review

This light shares the dual switch interface of some of the other newer Olights.  I like it – and this is a good implementation of it.  Just two modes, so it’s hard to mess up.  I also love the use of this emitter – Olight is showing unusual dedication to providing a neutral white option of this light.  All in all, this is a nice light!

Long Review

The Big Table

Olight Warrior X Pro
Emitter:	Cree XHP35 HI (NW – Chemical Dedome)
Price in USD at publication time:	$129.95
Cell:	1×21700
Turbo Runtime	Low Runtime
LVP?	No
Switch Type:	Two-State Tail switch
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	proprietary magnetic
Chargetime
Power off Charge Port	with no cell?  No. with cell?  No.
Claimed Lumens (lm)	2100
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	2074 (98.8% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	32
Claimed Throw (m)	500
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	2030lux @ 5.932m = 71433cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	534.5 (106.9% 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 Warrior X Pro Flashlight
• Olight 5000mAh 21700 (customized, proprietary)
• Lanyard
• Charge cable (USB to proprietary magnetic charge base)
• Tactical ring (one installed, one spare for use without the clip)
• Pouch (stiff nylon)
• Manual

Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

In case you’re keeping score, this makes two red lights in a row reviewed!  This one is absolutely stark red.  Deep red, glossy finish with a sheen.  It’s a quite nice red.  And it’s very red.

The head of the Warrior X Pro is probably the second thing you’ll notice.

It’s a very “ray gun” head.  It’s good for cooling.

The bezel is somewhat sharp and great for striking.

The body is properly grippy.

With the tripod tailcap, the light will tailstand.

There’s limited printing on the light, but that includes branding, and a QR code, and a serial number.

The threads are quite long, anodized, square-cut, and smooth.  They’re very nice threads.

That brassy-looking bit in the tailcap is ever so slightly springy.

The head has a spring in the center, and around that spring is another ring.  Those three little dots aren’t innies, they’re outies.  

Those little dots make contact with the negative terminal on the positive end of the cell.

 

The tactical ring which has the lanyard hole (seen above) is keyed to the pocket clip (seen below) is removable.

In case you were wondering, some parts between the Warrior X Turbo and Warrior X Pro are interchangeable.

The bezel surprisingly comes right off.

Here’s an emitter shot.  It took me a while to figure out what this actually is.  More on that later!

Size and Comps

Weight (g / oz) 239 / 8.43
Length (mm / in) 149 / 5.87
Head Diameter (mm / in) 39.0 / 1.54
Body Diameter (mm / in) 26.2 / 1.03

If the flashlight will headstand, I’ll show it here (usually the third photo).  If the flashlight will tailstand, I’ll show that here, too (usually the fourth photo).

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

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.

Here are some other Olights!

Retention and Carry

There are a few ways to carry the Olight Warrior X Pro.  Probably the best will be this nylon pouch.

It’s a stiff (but not “hard”) nylon pouch, which affords primarily bezel up carry.

As you can see below, the light can go either direction into the pouch.  I wouldn’t really call it “usable” inside the pouch, but you could force the idea.

Secondly is the belt clip.  It’s a nice clip, which is physically restricted by the keyed aluminum tactical ring.  What that means is that with this tactical ring in place, the pocket clip can not fall off.  The clip has a couple of places to attach a lanyard.  The clip itself is also keyed – it’ll only go in this exact spot, which covers the cell orientation printing.

That clip specific spot can be seen below.

The clip is a bit of a “half-moon” style – but again is completely captured when the metal tactical ring is used.

The lanyard can attach to the pocket clip seen above, or through a loop on the metal tactical ring seen below.

Power and Runtime

Olight includes a cell that is required for the Warrior X Pro.  The ORB-217C50 is a proprietary customized 5000mAh 21700.

The cell is proprietary in that it will only charge in these style lights.  It’s customized in the sense that the negative terminal is exposed on the positive end, and the positive terminal is shrouded by a plastic ring.

This is the same style as used in some Thrunites, and there is a little bit of cross-compatibility.

Other 21700 cells will not function in this light, and other cells can not be charged in this light.

Below you can see why there’s the proprietary requirement.  Inside the head (the positive end) has a spring, and a metal springy part around the spring.  The spring makes positive contact, and the ring makes negative contact.  It won’t work any other way.

Here are a couple of runtimes.  That covers all the modes – there are only two.  The runtime looks pretty good – 2074 lumens covers the 2100 lumen claim.  That 2100 lumen claim is modified for this light specifically since the non-NW versions do churn out a little more lumens.   The Warrior X Pro holds that output for around 1m 15s, then steps down to around 1000 lumens.  The light shuts off after a few stepdowns, and that shutoff seems to be when the cell is completely dead.  I read 0.0V on the cell after every runtime.  That could be cell protection kicking in, or it could be that the cell is actually depleted.

Here’s the Low runtime.

Onboard charging happens through the tripod metal tailcap.

A charger is included.

This charger is the MCC1A/1.5A/2A and is standard among these lights now.  It’s USB to magnetic proprietary and can be used as a charging base for tailstanding.

One thing that makes me think the cell protection is tripped and not fully depleted to 0V is that charging doesn’t soft-start.  Basically, the charging “untrips” the protection, and then goes about charging around 2A.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
Turbo	2100	2m/100m/23m	2074	–
Low	300	8h	265	–

Pulse Width Modulation

No PWM on either mode!

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 only one switch on the Warrior X Pro.  It’s a two-stage e-switch, and is just like the Warrior X Turbo, as you’d expect.  This is a very good switch.  It works like this:  Press a little (shallow) for Low.  Press a little more (deeper) for Turbo.  The actuation point is just right, unlike some other two-stage switches.

Here’s a UI table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Shallow Press	Momentary Low
Off	Shallow Click	Low
Off	Deep Press	Momentary Turbo
Off	Deep Click	Turbo
Low	Deep Click	Turbo
Low	Shallow Press	Off
Turbo	Click	Off

I reported elsewhere that the only way to turn the light off from Low is through Turbo – that’s not actually right.  A shallow tap will also turn the light off!

LED and Beam

The emitter in this light threw me – Olight doesn’t typically report their emitters (!!!), but all indications were that this is a Cree XHP35 HI.

But what you see below is not like any Cree XHP35 HI you’ve ever seen.  That’s right.  In fact, this is a Cree XHP35.2 HD that Olight chemically dedomes (which does in fact make it “HI”).  That makes this the first light to be using the Cree XHP35.2 emitter!  And it’s smart of Olight to use this version and dedome it because that gives a very pleasant tint.

With how easily the bezel can be removed, if one wished to swap the emitter it’d be very possible.

Surprising to me was that there’s a bit of glow around the inside of the bezel!

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

Beamshots

These beamshots are always with 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 keep the test flashlight on the left, and the BLF-348 reference flashlight on the right.

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

Conclusion

What I like

• Olight committed themselves to the neutral white version, and I fully applaud that.
• Output meets specifications
• Complete package light
• Charging is good
• Another good implementation of the two-stage switch

What I don’t like

• Proprietary and customized 21700 cell
• I would be happy with a third mode in there somewhere, though that doesn’t play well with the two-stage switch.

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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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