Olight Baton 3 Limited Edition Summer Flashlight Review

The Olight Baton 3 Summer Limited Edition in limited edition blue titanium is dropping! This is an 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!

Bit of a quick post today.  Probably light on text too, but much of the usual data will be here.

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Olight Baton 3 Summer product page.

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.  And also now in the seasons series, which is another limited color.

Price

All the seasons go for $104.97 right now, but the Eternal is a bit less at $97.97.  Here’s my shareasale link.  Thank you for using it!

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Short Review

You may be saying to yourself “but Zero, didn’t you review a Baton 3, twice?”  Yes I did!  Here’s my previous Olight Baton 3 Premium Edition in red review.  Here’s the Olight Baton 3 Premium Edition in Orange. This Summer Edition is literally no different except in the body color.

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 charge case.  Output is fantastic.  The user interface is still good and reliable.  Charging works very well.  The charge 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.

Long Review

The Big Table

Olight Baton 3 Summer
Emitter:	Luminus SST-40 (CW (6000K-7000K))
Price in USD at publication time:	$104.97 at OlightStore.com (referral link)
Cell:	1×16340
LVP?	Yes
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (mA):
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	Proprietary Magnetic / USB-C
Power off Charge Port	With cell: all modes Without cell: no modes
Claimed Lumens (lm)	1200
Candela per Lumen	5.9
Claimed Throw (m)	166
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	392lux @ 4.358m = 7445cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	172.6 (23.4% of claim)^
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 Summer Flashlight
• Cell (customized 16340)
• Charge case
• Charge cable (USB to USB-C)
• Cleaning cloth
• Manual and papers

Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

You may have seen the photo on reddit:  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.

Summer gets a vastly updated body, which you can see below.

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 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 (non-‘3’) Batons.

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 some others Batons.

And specifically here’s the difference in body between the limited Summer and regular Baton 3.

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.

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.  In this case it has a nice “Summer” logo.

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.

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

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.

No runtime tests this time.  They’ll be the same as seen on the other Baton 3 review.

Charging

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

 

As I said in the other review, this charge case will also charge the previous generation Batons which use the MCC charger.

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

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

 

Below is 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 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.

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

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
Turbo	1200/300	1.5m/75m		2.42
High	300	95m		0.40
Medium	60	7.5h		0.07
Low	12	33h		0.01
Moon	0.5	20d		~

Pulse Width Modulation

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

Here’s a slower time scale.

For reference, here’s a baseline shot, with all the room lights off and almost nothing hitting the sensor.  Also, here’s the light with the worst PWM I could find.  I’m adding multiple timescales, so it’ll be easier to compare to the test light.  Unfortunately, the PWM on this light is so bad that it doesn’t even work with my normal scale, which is 50 microseconds (50us). 10ms.  5ms.  2ms.  1ms.  0.5ms.  0.2ms.  In a display faster than 0.2ms or so, the on/off cycle is more than one screen, so it’d just (very incorrectly) look like a flat line.  I wrote more about this Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight and explained a little about PWM too.

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), you can take note here.

Here’s a UI table!  You’ll know this user interface for 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

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.

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”).

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

Beamshots

These beamshots are always with the following settings:  f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure.

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
• Full package includes charging and cell
• The UI 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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