Olight Baton 3 Premium Edition Review

The Olight Baton 3 Premium Edition is dropping! This is a very updated Baton, still using 16340 but with an output bump, and a charging case! It retains much of the look of previous Batons but so much is updated. Read on!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Olight Baton 3 Premium Edition product page at OlightStore.com.  It’s a referral link….  referrals are the reason Olight sends these lights to me to review, so I appreciate you clicking!

Versions

There are a number of versions.  First the packages – there’s the Premium package, which you’ll see in this review.  That includes the charging/carry case.  It’s available in black or red as standard colors, or blue, which is a limited color.

The light itself is also available as a separate item, but just black or red.

Price

You probably know how this works by now.  There’s a flash sale on release day….

Flash sale date: 8:00 PM March 18th – 11:59 PM March 19th EDT, up to 35% OFF

This specific combo (Red Baton 3 Premium Edition) is available for $64.97.

Here are some other combo deals!

Baton 3 standard Edition Black/ Red, 25% OFF, $48.71 (MSRP: $64.95)

Baton 3 Stand Edition Bundle (Black+Red), 35% OFF, $84.44 (MSRP: $129.90)

Baton 3 Premium Edition (with charging case) Black/ Red, 35%OFF, $64.97 (MSRP: $99.95)

Blue (Limited Edition), 35% OFF, $71.47 (MSRP: $109.95)

Baton 3 Premium Edition (Black/ Red/ Blue) + i3T Brass, 35%OFF $84.44 (MSRP: $129.90)

As you know, the price will go up after the sale (if there are even any more offered.)  Also as you probably know by now, clicking these links supports zeroair.org in that Olight will be more motivated to send items to me for review.

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Short Review

There’s a lot to really like about the new Baton 3.  There’s even a bunch to like about the Premium package with the charging case.  Output is fantastic.  The user interface is still good and reliable.  Charging works very well.  The charging case works well.  I don’t love the emitter temperature (6000K-7000K) but that’s kind of a known entity at this point.  Overall, and particularly at the flash sale price, this seems like a good deal to me.  Now I just need an orange version!

Long Review

The Big Table

Olight Baton 3 Premium Edition
Emitter:	Luminus SST-40 (CW (6000K-7000K))
Price in USD at publication time:	$48.71
Cell:	1×16340
Turbo Runtime Graph	High Runtime Graph
LVP?	Yes
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (mA):	?
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	Proprietary Magnetic
Charge Graph
Power off Charge Port	with cell: all modes without cell: no modes In wireless case: can be on when opened; will turn off when closed
Claimed Lumens (lm)	1200
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	1311 (109.3% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	5.6
Claimed Throw (m)	166
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	620lux @ 3.469m = 7461cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	172.8 (104.1% of claim)^
Claimed CCT	6000-7000
Measured CCT Range (K)	5500-6050 Kelvin
Item provided for review by:	Olight
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 Baton 3 Premium Edition Flashlight
• Cell (customized 16340)
• Charge case
• Charge cable (USB to USB-C)
• Cleaning cloth
• Manual and papers

Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

I realized when I was doing art for this review that… I have a bunch of Olight Batons.  I have some reviewed, sure, but I have so many that I haven’t even reviewed.  And a few of those batons are just about my most used lights – stock emitter and all.

That’s because whatever else you might say about the lights, they’re good enough.  The build quality is great.  The user interface is great.  The capacity is great (enough for EDC).  The output: great, especially on this new edition.

On the outside, not much has changed on the build.  It’s still a small 16340 flashlight, with a two-way clip, a TIR optic, and an e-switch.  All of these are good things.  The old Batons were, by and large, very solid lights.

The new edition, the Olight Baton 3 Premium Edition, boasts a new Luminus SST-40 emitter.  And yeah it’s cool (6000-7000K) (seven thousand Kelvin what)…  But it really pumps out the lumens.

The threads here are anodized, short, square-cut, and very smooth.

Inside is where we begin to see differences.  There’s still “a lot going on” in there but it’s different from previous Batons.

Here’s how:  The cell now is installed in “the normal” or “the flashlight” way.  This is a minor change but one I really appreciate.  One fewer thing that I have to remember is great.  I don’t have to remember that the cell goes the “wrong” way in my Baton now.

Another tiny update is in the pocket clip, but we’ll cover that later.

As usual, only the head comes off the body – no other disassembly is readily possible.

And here’s the big bit of interesting:  This charge case.  Or “Wireless Charger.”

More on this charger later, but for now here’s the disassembly of it.  It is held together by literally one screw:

The insides just slide right out.

What’s inside is unsurprisingly an 18650, but I’m unable to bring up the specifications for this 18650, unfortunately.  The Wireless Charge case states that the case capacity is 3500mAh, and there are 3500mAh 18650 cells, so that’s not really unreasonable.

This 18650 is soldered in, but is not also glued in or anything – if you can solder, it would be reasonably easy to replace this cell down the road.

The top snaps to because of these two magnets, below.

And below you can see three wires going to the top lip (at right).  The case responds in some way when the top is opened or closed, so I’m guessing (just guessing) that these wires play a role in that.  More on that later.

Yes, I scanned this QR code.  No, I wasn’t able to get any useful information from it.

Size and Comps

Weight (g / oz) 53 / 1.87
Length (mm / in) 63 / 2.48
Head Diameter (mm / in) 21 / 0.83
Body Diameter (mm / in) 21 / 0.83

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’s the Baton 3 with a couple of my other Batons.  These are both S1R Baton II’s (thank goodness we’re getting iterative names now, instead of names that just have random characters thrown in).  The lights are essentially the same.  There’s a different taper on the base.  There’s a different clip.  The reds of the previous and current are slightly different.  But overall, pretty much the same.

And while we’re on the topic of these other generations…. no let’s talk about charging later.

Retention and Carry

We can speak about the Baton 3 having two carry methods.  First is the pocket clip, which is mostly the same as previous generations, but with small tweaks.

It’s a two-way clip, which I don’t often love, but this is a reasonable implementation – being two-way doesn’t cause too much extra size.

There’s also a lanyard hole in the pocket clip, but there is no lanyard included.

Here’s the older Baton beside the Baton 3.  You can see a few clip tweaks.  There’s one fewer lanyard hole.  There’s a “flat” spot in the center of the clip, too.

Secondly, and possible as a carry mechanism, is the wireless charge case.  This case will hold the light safely and is great for throwing in a bag.

The light sits down inside the case but is easy enough to grab out.  I don’t think you’d leave the light in the case and for use but if you need a top-up, you can throw the light in there for a little while.  Basically, you’ll probably end up carrying the light and carrying the case too.  Separately….  Even more ideally, you’d have two Baton 3 flashlights and one case, and you could swap through them as needed, always having a charged light.

That black bit below looks like a button but it’s just the hinge.

The tailcap has the standard magnetic charging base, which can still be used as a means to secure the light.

Because of the two-way clip, the light can be used on a cap, too.

Power and Runtime

The Olight Baton 3 Premium Edition (and also the not premium edition) is powered by a single lithium-ion cell.

This is a customized 16340, with both positive and negative terminals on the positive end.  A “normal” (or “non-customized”) 16340 will not work in this light.

Not only that, but the positive terminal is recessed into a plastic shroud.  This shroud will prevent charging of the cell in most if not all bay chargers.

As I mentioned (or teased) above, the Baton 3 now has the cell in the normal orientation.  Here’s the previous generation and the current generation.  Now the cell goes in the correct way, with the positive end toward the head!

Here are a few runtime tests.  Note that I’m seeing well over the rated 1200 lumens out of this Luminus SST-40.  Pretty incredible for a 16340 light!  And this is held for around a minute, which is also nice to see.  At around that point, temperature starts to increase enough that you really shouldn’t want that level of output to continue out of a light this small.  The stepdown is to High level.  Low voltage protection is observed, with a switch warning (red) and the light finally turning off.

The High level of output has changed dramatically from previous generation Batons – down to 300 lumens from 600.  This level of output is held very stable for around an hour and a half.

Medium shows a similar level of stability, and for a very long time.

On bench power, I note the indicating switch changing as follows:

Above 3.7V – green.  The manual describes this as “>60%.”
Between 3.3V and 3.7V – orange.  The manual describes this as “10%-60%.”
Between 3.2V and 3.3V – red.  The manual describes this as “5%-10%.”
Below 3.2V – red flashing. .  The manual describes this as “<10%.”

It seems like the light shuts off around 2.6V on bench power, but with a cell I think it’s much higher – 2.7 or 2.8V, I believe.

Charging

Also, a feature of the Baton 3 is the Wireless Charge case.

This case claims a capacity of 3500mAh, and that’s feasible since the case contains a single 18650 cell (and 3500mAh 18650 cells exist.)

Here’s the cell.  I can’t get any further info on it, unfortunately, and I didn’t desolder it for removal.  In my heart of hearts I wish a few things about this case and specifically the cell.  First of all, I wish the case had a spot for my AirPods.  There’s no good spot for it, and I’m sure licensing would be ridiculous, but…. these seem to fit a theme, and why not just go ahead and marry the two.

Secondly, I really wish (and this is more of a “real wish”) – I really wish that this 18650 was [easily] removable, and was the same type that is used in the Warrior Mini (et al, really).  That really opens a world of intercompatibility that I like to see, and softens the blow of a customized cell in the Warrior Mini.  Barring that cell, then I’d rather have seen a high capacity 21700.  Possibly 5100mAh for probably no increase in size whatsoever…. That’d be a huge win.

The case itself is charged by USB-C – a nice concession by Olight here.  The case has two indicator LEDs.  The one seen below is for the charge state of the case.  I don’t see this information in the manual, but mostly I think it mimics the charge state indication of the Baton 3.  So below, you see it as orange – it can be red or green, too.

So we’re all caught up:

• The Baton 3 has a typical magnetic charge base.
• The Baton 3 Wireless Case has (for charging the Baton 3) a charge base just like on the MCC chargers Olight has used for ages
• The Wireless case itself is charged by USB-C

Now you might say, well if the cell is installed into the Baton 3 in the “normal” (but changed from previous generations) orientation, do older Batons charge in the wireless case?  Yes in fact they do!  Here’s my orange S1R Baton II charging in the case (and as a bonus you can see that the indicator light far right is orange.)

Above you can see the second charging indicator – it too can indicate red, orange, and green.  Though (again) the manual doesn’t state this, my experience says that the indication here is similar to that of the indicating switch of the light itself (which I covered above).  When the light is dropped into the case, this indicator lights

Here’s a view into the case.  As you can see, the charge base down there is the usual MCC charger.

And in case you also wondered, while the Warrior Mini has the same contact (MCC), it will not physically fit into the opening in the Wireless Case.

For charging of the actual case, Olight provides an appropriate cable, which is USB to USB-C.

This does mean that with the Premium Edition, you do not get the standard MCC charger.  I have no doubt that if you get the non-Premium (ie just the light), then you’ll get an MCC charger.  However, and you’re probably not going to like this suggestion…. If you’re buying this light, I think you should actually buy two.  Buy a Premium Edition to get the case.  And buy a regular edition not for the MCC charger, but so you can rotate out your Baton 3 lights in the case!

I couldn’t really find a great way of testing the Wireless Charger, so I tested with one of my other MCC charge bases, in the normal way.

Charging looks good, and happens at around 1A.  I also show the cell to take around 600mAh and when accounting for conversions (since I’m recording the 5V output and not recording at 4.2V), it’s probably more like a 650mAh cell or something around that.

I don’t have hard numbers on this but I did a number of discharge/charge cycles, using the Wireless Case for charging, and I can confirm that three full charges were achieved.  I can’t say it was “3.7x” since I have no way of knowing intermediate – it’s only reporting that it wasn’t completely charged.  Once I was into the fourth charge attempt and charging had stopped, I logged what it took to finish the cell.  Here’s that graph.

Not sure we can say it’s exactly 30% of capacity that was put into the cell, but I think we can safely say “close enough.”

A couple more points about the case, and I’ll do it here since I really don’t know where else.  Yes, the light can be in an on state while in the case and the case open.  Closing the case will turn off the light, though.  I am completely unclear how this works….

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
Turbo	1200/300	1.5m/75m	1311	2.39
High	300	95m	322	0.39
Medium	60	7.5h	66	0.07
Low	12	33h	11	0.01
Moon	0.5	20d	0.2	~

Pulse Width Modulation

There’s some sawtooth going on on the lower 3 modes, but I’m hesitant to call this PWM directly.

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

The Olight Baton 3 has an indicating e-switch on the head end of the side of the body.  The switch cover has a bit of texture, and is proud enough that it’s easy to find.  It’s also not so proud or soft that it will easily activate accidentally, at least in my experience.

However, the switch isn’t all that different from the switch on the Warrior Mini (read: it’s exactly the same), so if you had a problem with that switch (I didn’t) the, you can take note here.

Here’s a user interface table!  You’ll know this user interface from years.  The S1R Baton II uses the same UI.

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	On (mode memory)^
On	Hold (release at desired mode)	Mode cycle (Moon, L, M, H) (no Turbo)
Off	Hold	Moonlight
Any	Double click	Turbo
Any	Triple click	Strobe
Strobe	Click	Off
Strobe	Hold	Previous Mode
Off	Long hold (past Moonlight)	Lockout
Lockout	Hold	Unlock to Moonlight
On	Click and Hold (quickly)^^	Timer (Single blink: 3 minutes, Double blink: 9 minutes)
Timer	Click and Hold (quickly)^^	Switch between 3 and 9 minute timers.

^ Moon, Low, Medium, and High are memorized.  Turbo is memorized as High.
^^ The manual states this as “Double click and hold” but I think it should be  “click and hold” quickly.  Any form of double click ends in Turbo or Strobe.  The manual hasn’t been corrected yet, after all these years of this model.

LED and Beam

Olight has gone with the usual setup for the Baton 3:  A press-fit bezel, a TIR optic, and a cool white CCT (“6000K-7000K”).

What is new here is the emitter.  It’s a Luminus SST-40, which was also used in lights such as the Warrior Mini.  My records indicate the S2R Baton II also has this emitter, so the Baton has seen the emitter before, anyway.  Also in that case, the CRI was specified:  70 CRI.  Probably also the same in the Baton 3.

While this emitter is great for overall output, the cool white nature isn’t something I’d pick.  However I don’t think this light will be any harder to emitter swap than previous Batons, and that’s a known entity (ie, it’s possible.)

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

Despite the bezel stating that this emitter is “6000K-7000K” what I see here in testing is something much warmer.  It’s not “warm” but it’s not nearly as “bad” (my perspective) as 7000K might be.  Unfortunately, CRI is still a bit low, coming in under 70.

Beamshots

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 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

• Build quality is quite good, as usual
• Red colorway is the Iron Man colorway – I’m a big fan
• Full package includes charging and cell
• The user interface retains neat features from previous models, like the 3 or 9 minute timer
• Output does hit the claimed specification
• Wireless Case works suitably

What I don’t like

• Proprietary cells don’t work in bay chargers
• Very cool tint

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Notes

• This content originally appeared at zeroair.org.  Please visit there for the best experience!
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