Olight iThx Keychain Flashlight Review
Some people received (including me) the Olight iThx keychain flashlight as a gift (with purchase), but I thought I’d test this twisty keychain flashlight, too!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a ShareASale link to the Olight iThx Keychain flashlight product page.
Versions
It looks like there are just two versions, and both can be seen in this post.
Price
While many people received the Olight iThx Keychain flashlight as a free “Tier gift,” they are available for purchase too. They go for $17.99, and you can click through to the Olight iThx Keychain flashlight with my ShareASale link!
Short Review
I’d say this is a pretty typical keychain flashlight. One place it falls short is in the charging – micro-USB. But if you still have and use a micro-USB, this could be a great keychain light for you! Aside from that, performance is all fairly typical of these tiny built-in battery keychain flashlights (which is to say: sufficient but not extraordinary.)
Long Review
The Big Table
| Olight iThx Green Keychain Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | CSP LED |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $17.99 |
| Cell: | Internal |
| Runtime Graphs | High Runtime Graph |
| LVP? | ? |
| Switch Type: | Twisty |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | micro-USB |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 150 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 149 (99.3% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 3.8 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 40 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 27lux @ 4.614m = 575cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 48.0 (120% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | – |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 6400-6700 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | Olight |
| All my Olight reviews! | |
| Olight iThx Red Keychain Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | CSP LED |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $17.99 |
| Cell: | Internal |
| High Runtime Graph | LowRuntime Graph |
| LVP? | ? |
| Switch Type: | Twisty |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | micro-USB |
| Power off Charge Port | |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 150 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 126 (84% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 4 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 40 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 38lux @ 3.631m = 501cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 44.8 (112% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | – |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 6800-7500 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 iThx keychain flashlight
- Charging cable (USB to micro-USB)
- Manual
Package and Manual
The red and blue can be differentiated by the color of the back part of the package.
I think Olight really considers the iThx a gift light – sent out as a thanks to supporters of Olight.
Build Quality and Disassembly
This is a fairly simple light, I’d say. Maybe that’s because it’s just a two-mode twisty. The build quality seems great, with a design choice here or there that is a bit annoying.
Between the head and tail (which don’t really come apart completely) is an o-ring.
The tailcap has a spot for a split ring to be attached. This bump out does not come off.
Here you can see both the red and green colorways of the Olight iThx keychain flashlight. It’s a great Christmasy combo!
Size and Comps
Length: 1.73 in/44 mm
Head Diameter: 0.60 in/15.2 mm
Body Diameter: 0.60 in/15.2mm
If the flashlight will headstand, I’ll show it here (usually the third photo). If the flashlight will tailstand, I’ll also show that (usually in the fourth photo).
Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. Mine is a custom “baked” edition Nichia 219b triple. A very nice 18650 light!
Also above is 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 only means for carrying the Olight iThx keychain flashlight is this split ring on the tail end. The part where the split ring attaches is not removable – even if you remove the split ring, that little knob will still be there.
The split ring is tiny but perfectly sufficient for attaching the Olight iThx keychain flashlight to a keychain!
Just like on the Surefire Titan Plus and the Olight i1R2 Pro, I’d rather this little knob be gone. It’s probably possible to permanently grind that off!
Power and Runtime
The cell that powers the Olight iThx keychain flashlight is built-in. It’s a 70mAh li-ion cell. As far as I can tell, there’s no way to access it or change it. Thus, when the battery reaches end-of-life, the light essentially does too.
Below you can see an assortment of runtime graphs. This is very standard for Olight keychain flashlights and is really nothing special. That said, generally, I’d suppose that keychain flashlights will be used briefly and up close, so this is good for that purpose.
Charging
On-board charging on the iThx comes thanks to a built-in micro-USB charging port. To access this port, loosen the head completely. The head is captured – it will not fall off and get lost. However, it’s captured to exactly the point you can see below – the micro-USB port is “fully exposed” here.
That level of exposure is not quite enough for me. Yes, the charging cables I used work fine, but they’re a bit hard to get into the port.
Near the charging port is a charging indicator. When the iThx is charging, this indicator is red. When charging is complete, this indicator turns blue.
An appropriate cable is included: USB to micro-USB. It’s one of these neat little short and magnetic cables.
Modes and Currents
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | 150 | 15m | 150 |
| Low | 5 | 6 | 5 |
Pulse Width Modulation
Neither mode for either light uses 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
The Olight iThx is a twisty keychain flashlight. There are markings on the tailcap to help a user know what to do, but of course, it’s very simple.
The markings are very easy to read.
Below you can see the gap in a state of “just” for each mode. Left is “just off” – the biggest gap. Middle is “just Low” – the mediumest gap. And the rightmost photo is when the light is in High, which is the smallest gap.
Here’s a user interface table!
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Tighten head | Low |
| Low | Tighten head | High |
| High | Loosen head | Low |
| Low | Loosen head | Off |
LED and Beam
Olight surprisingly does state what emitter is used in the Olight iThx keychain flashlight. They say it’s a “CSP LED.” We will see the tests below and know what we need to know.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
Olight went with this sort of unknown LED, and unfortunately, the CCT is quite cool, ranging from 6500K to well over 7000K. Another downside is that the CRI is not great, but still above what I typically just straight out call “low CRI.” This one clocks in around 75 CRI, which is probably “low to middle” CRI.
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. This shows both the red and green bodies, but they’re nearly indistinguishable.
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
- Nice gift from Olight for Tier Fans
- Very simple user interface
- Great beam profile
What I don’t like
- Low to medium CRI
- Battery is completely inaccessible
- micro-USB charging
Notes
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