Olight i5T Plus Pebble Flashlight Review

Olight has released a new version of the i5T Plus flashlight: the Pebble version! It uses two AA-sized cells and is available in three CCTs!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a ShareASale link to the Olight i5T Plus Pebble flashlight product page.

Versions

There are a whole bunch of versions of the Olight i5T Plus flashlight. Notably, there are now two bodies – the standard helix/spiral and this new pebble design.  There are also multiple colors available – here can be seen black and orange (but there are other colors, too). And most importantly, now there are three CCT’s available! Cool, neutral, and warm white!

Price

These are going for $39.95 right now! Buy your Olight i5T Plus Pebble flashlight through my ShareASale link, please!

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Short Review

Well another orange Olight is never going to hurt my feelings. So step 1, I love that. I still like the light as a whole too, and I really like that Olight is listening and offering neutral and warm white (along with the standard cool white.) I also really like the updated design.

Long Review

The Big Table

Olight i5T Plus Orange
Emitter:	Warm White
Price in USD at publication time:	$39.95
Cell:	2xAA
High Runtime Graph
LVP?	Doesn’t seem to.
Switch Type:	Mechanical
On-Board Charging?	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	550
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	508 (92.4% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	3.4
Claimed Throw (m)	87
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	137lux @ 3.528m = 1705cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	82.6 (94.9% of claim)^
Claimed CCT	2700-3700
Measured CCT Range (K)	2900 Kelvin
Item provided for review by:	Olight
All my Olight reviews!

Olight i5T Plus Orange
Emitter:	Neutral White
Price in USD at publication time:	$39.95
Cell:	2xAA
High Runtime Graph
LVP?	Doesn’t seem to.
Switch Type:	Mechanical
On-Board Charging?	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	550
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	527 (95.8% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	3.3
Claimed Throw (m)	87
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	91lux @ 4.582m = 1911cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	87.4 (100.5% of claim)^
Claimed CCT	4000-5000
Measured CCT Range (K)	4600-4700 Kelvin
Item provided for review by:	Olight
All my Olight reviews!

Olight i5T Plus Orange
Emitter:	Cool White
Price in USD at publication time:	$39.95
Cell:	2xAA
High Runtime Graph
LVP?	Not really
Switch Type:	Mechanical
On-Board Charging?	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	550
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	512 (93.1% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	3.6
Claimed Throw (m)	87
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	136lux @ 3.661m = 1823cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	85.4 (98.2% of claim)^
Claimed CCT	5700-6700
Measured CCT Range (K)	5800-6000 Kelvin
Item provided for review by:	Olight
All my Olight reviews!

^ Measurement disclaimer:  I am an amateur flashlight reviewer.  I don’t have $10,000 or even $1,000 worth of testing equipment.  I test output and such in PVC tubes!!  Please consider claims within 10% of what I measure to be perfectly reasonable (accurate, even).

What’s Included

• Olight i5T Plus Pebble flashlight
• AA alkaline cells (2)
• Manual

Package and Manual

Note how the CCT is labeled on the side of the box.

Build Quality and Disassembly

I stated above that I like the new pebble design. It’s great – I won’t say it offers more or exceptional grip, but I still like it better than the helix/spiral. The Olight i5T Plus Pebble flashlight build quality is just great; no issues to speak of at all.

Another thing I do like is the reeding on the tailcap.  Very helpful for unscrewing for cell swaps.

Like previous versions of similar lights by Olight, the i5T Plus has a good bunch of copper in the tailcap.  This adds a nice bit of weight but the copper isn’t needed in order to carry the excessive current on High (to wit: the current on high isn’t excessive.)  So it basically seems like just a “nice touch” if you consider it a nice touch.

Size and Comps

Length: 5.71 in (145 mm)
Body Diameter: 0.7 in (17.8 mm)

Weight: 3.14 oz (89 g) (Including Pocket Clip and Batteries)

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.

I added this photo just so you could see all the different CCT emitters compared to my Convoy.

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 included way to carry this light is the two-way friction fit clip.  This one is black, but the black body has a blue clip.  I don’t typically love two-way clips, but this is by no means the worst iteration I’ve seen.  It’s fairly slim (noteworthy because the bulk of these two-ways is one big complaint of mine).  There’s a lanyard hole on the shoulder.  (No lanyard is included).

The clip is two-way but not reversible, but due to this, it’s conceivably usable as a hatlight.

Power and Runtime

The Olight i5T Plus Pebble flashlight runs on a two AA cells.  Lithium-ion is not supported, but all 1.5V types are.  I tested exclusively with an Amazon Basics NiMH cells.

Here’s a runtime on the higher mode for each CCT.  Low voltage protection is not seen, but the output does drop down very low, which will be noticeable. The manual states some certain timed stepdowns, and each light seems to more or less match the claim.

Note that blink at the end of the output, when the cell voltage is low. It’s notably different on the warm white version, and I can’t explain that. But the link is a nice warning that cell voltage is low.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
WW Low	15	54h	15	0.03
WW High	550-300-55	3m-30m-130m	508	1.31
NW Low	15	54h	15	0.03
NW High	550-300-55	3m-30m-130m	527	1.38
CW Low	15	54h	15	0.03
CW High	550-300-55	3m-30m-130m	512	1.38

Pulse Width Modulation

Low uses PWM (or something very much like PWM) but high does not.

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, with 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

There’s a single switch on the Olight i5T Plus Pebble flashlight.  It’s a proud rubber cover mechanical clicky on the tail.  It has an extremely good feel.  It seems a bit unusual in that it seems to have hard sides with an internal soft stippled contact point.  The hard sides make the action very smooth, and the stippled center bit makes it easy to grip.

This switch is exactly like on many other similar lights by Olight, such as the single-cell i5T EOS which I have also reviewed.

Here’s a UI table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	Low
Off	Tap	Momentary Low
On (more than 2s)	Click	Off
Off	Double click	High
On (less than 2s)	Click	High

LED and Beam

I can’t find it in the literature but based on searches on the web this is an Osram P9 emitter.  The light uses a TIR and has a beam with mostly spot and a little spill.

Here are all three emitters, in this order: Warm, Neutral, Cool.

The bezel states which CCT the light is – below is 4000-5000K.

They all have this same indication.

The bezel is flush, so light doesn’t escape while headstanding.

I’ve tried to be consistent, and keep the same emitter order all the way from top to bottom in this post. Left should always be warm white, neutral in the middle, and cool white on the right. That’s my order of preference, too. 😀  That same order can be seen in the photos below.

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

Olight’s used “whatever” emitter but is offering these various CCTs. I believe they claimed 70 CRI somewhere, but either way, that’s around what I’m seeing. So while they’re offering great CCTs, the CRI still has room for improvement. I’m still VERY happy that they went with WW and NW options!!

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

• Warm white emitter option
• Neutral white emitter option
• Good build quality
• Very simple UI
• Switch cover is surprisingly great
• Reeding on the tailcap makes for easy grip

What I don’t like

• Low CRI
• Just two modes – one more mode would be great!

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Notes

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