Olight Obulb Pro S Lantern
The Olight Obulb Pro S lantern offers a Bluetooth user interface and is bigger than most other Obulbs and can sync with music! Read on!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a referral link to the Olight Obulb Pro S Lantern product page.
Versions
There’s just one Olight Obulb Pro S lantern, but there are options. Namely, body color – black, blue, OD green, grey, and orange (seen here).
Price
The MSRP of the Olight Obulb Pro S lantern is $49.99. It’s actually available with or without the MCC 1A charging base, too – that price is $39.99! Even better!
Quick Note
Along with the Olight Obulb Pro S lantern, Olight has a bunch of other new items released right now. Here is a sampling!
Olight Baton 3 Pro in white or Copper. I have the white version and I have to say… it’s very nice. The feel is not at all like I expected – it’s not matte and chalky. It’s much more of a powder coat feel. Here’s a referral link for the Baton 3 Pro.
There’s also a new Marauder Mini color option – OD Green. I love my orange Marauder Mini, and you’ll probably love the green Olight Marauder Mini, too!
Short Review
I have quite a few of these Obulbs. I love them. They’re so useful and versatile. The addition of Bluetooth is certainly neat and in some cases probably very useful. Also, note that the Pro S is actually notably bigger than the previous versions. It seems that the big update here is the new app, which is better, and the music feature, which is neat.
Long Review
What’s Included
- Olight Obulb Pro S Lantern
- Sticky magnetic mount base
- Googly eyes (2)
- Manual and papers
- Olight MCC 1A Charger
Package and Manual
This is the first instance I can recall of a QR code on an Olight product… I’m not sure I’m a fan – it seems unnecessary.
Build Quality and Disassembly
I’m not going to test the Olight Obulb Pro S lantern with runtime graphs and charge graphs… But the photos here can probably give you a great idea if you need one. I can easily recommend the Obulbs in general and if you need a big size, Bluetooth, or music response, then this is a great option!
Size and Comps
Body Diameter: 2.56 in (65 mm)
Height: 2.28 in (58 mm)
Weight: 3.7 oz (105 g) (Including Battery)
At right is the Olight Obulb Plus, with the Olight Obulb Pro S lantern clocking much smaller.
Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. Mine’s a custom “baked” edition Nichia 219b triple. A very nice 18650 light.
Also above on the left is a new feature light!! Laulima Metal Craft sent this titanium Todai for some size comparison photos like the ones above. Laulima has a bunch of incredible items. I’ve tested one (the Laulima Metal Craft Hoku) (the official site for Hoku is here) that was a Friend Fund Friday review. I was impressed enough by that Hoku that I bought a Laulima Metal Craft Diamond Slim (also in tumbled aluminum) (review is upcoming!) These lights by Laulima have impeccable build quality and not only that, they’re quite configurable. There are some (great, actually) default configurations, but Joshua Dawson (of Laulima Metal Craft) is open to ideas and emitter options and the like. I haven’t reviewed this Todai, but I have to say, it feels absolutely fantastic and I love it thus far. (Notably, I love how warm and eggy those emitters look through the TIR.)
The all-important size comparison. Olight Obulb Pro S lantern beside the Obulb MC and Obulb Plus.
Retention and Carry
The magnetic charging base is very useful for attaching the Olight Obulb Pro S lantern to many places.
In the past, I honestly thought this little metal coin was just that – an Olight challenge coin of sorts.
But no, this thing cleverly has a sticky back, and can be stuck somewhere… Couple that with the magnet base of the Olight Obulb Pro S lantern, and you have a “stick anywhere” (once) base for placing the lantern! I find that to be exceptionally clever.
Of course, the magnetic base of the Obulb Pro S itself can be stuck to more places than just this metal sticky thing. The magnet holds the Obulb Pro S very securely.
Power and Runtime
While I don’t have any runtime tests for the Olight Obulb Pro S Lantern, I can say that the internal (built-in, nonreplaceable) battery is much bigger than on others like the Obulb MC. The MC is 630mAh, while this Pro S version is 1650mAh.
Charging
The charging base for the built-in battery in the Olight Obulb Pro S Lantern is the standard Olight MCC 1A. This is the same as any other MCC charger, and any of those will work too.
There are also other charging bases available now in the MCC format. One is built into the side of a wall wart, such that the Obulb MC can be used very much like a nightlight. Unfortunately, in what testing I could do (without this type of charger), it does not seem to come on when the power goes off. This would be a great feature.
One more option for charging this Olight (or really “any” Olight with this type of connection) is a charging base that has room for four items at one time. I don’t have one of those either, so no testing on that, too.
User Interface and Operation
The switch is on the bottom of the device. It’s the “generally indented” area in the dead center. As I said above, with the Obulb Pro S on a flat surface, pressing hard on the top will turn the light on or off. On the charging base, pressing on the top will operate the light easily.
It’s an e-switch, and I think the user interface will be very familiar.
Here’s a user interface table!
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Click | On (Mode Memory) |
| Off | Hold | On (White, at the output level set by the Bluetooth app) |
| On | Click | Mode advance (White > Red > Green > Blue > “Fade between colors” > Cycle between colors > Flashing Red > Off) |
| On | Hold | Ramp up or down in current output |
| Off | Hold >2s | Lockout (Technically On in white output, then off. Lockout is indicated by a short flash upon click.) |
| Lockout | Hold >1s | Unlock to White |
Bluetooth
Setup and usage (aka “app control”) is very easy through the Bluetooth interface. I hesitate to say I’m not a huge fan of this app, but… it does work well. It requests access and requires things I really don’t want to do (like microphone access (but read on) and requires a unique login). But if you’re willing to let those two things go, then the app is very good, and fun to play with.
You’ll need a login. This is not the same login as olightstore. Maybe it shouldn’t be, but I do find it annoying that I now have another login to track. One more thing to note is that this isn’t the same app that the Obulb Pro used. I haven’t tested if the Pro can be used with this “Hub” app, though. It’s one more thing not to like – that there are now multiple Olight apps floating around.
Here’s the login screen. The images below are for the Olight Obulb Plus, but I believe the user interface is the same, as well as the features are the same.
I got this for a while, but I just needed to close the app and reopen it. This was only the first time after the initial account creation.
The app should pick up your Plus pretty seamlessly.
I did not test any push notifications. I don’t know what information the Plus might need to push me.
Screenshot is mid-transition (oops). The Plus goes from “being added” to “added” quickly.
You can see below a bunch of settings. Control for white and any color emitter are separate options. Below, the battery percentage is 39%.
Brightness for color and white are available on their respective screens, too. In the screen below, you can see that the RGB mode selected is surrounded by a blue box.
The Color Wheel option allows selection of any specific color (which can also then be controlled for brightness.)
There’s a page 2 of RGB options too. AND you can create your own. These are actually quite fun…
White has three specific output levels – I’m sure you can guess that I love this. But I always prefer four so I’d love a 1%, 25%, 50%, and 100%, for example.
Of course white can also be controlled to any percentage other than those three above if you wish.
I initially didn’t know what microphone access was for – can this be used like an Alexa or something? No, it’s so the Olight Obulb Pro S lantern can respond to music!
The screen below seemed to happen off and on. I just clicked out and around to escape it, and the Obulb Pro S connected quickly.
LED and Beam
Nothing about the emitters is specified by Olight. There are some interesting results below, though.
Conclusion
What I like
- Easy access to White Low
- It floats!
- Easy user interface
- There are some fun modes with the colors
- Magnet base works very well
- Very floody output
- Bluetooth is a neat feature
- Music control is pretty neat
What I don’t like
- Pretty much nowhere to hold on to the thing, except to completely hold the thing.
Notes
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