Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC Flashlight Review
The Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight has a unique rocker side dual e-switch, has MANY options, and amazing build quality all for a reasonable price.
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight product page.
Versions
If you just glance at the product page, you’ll see a bunch of product listings. They really break down in two ways – by body material. Titanium and aluminum (seen here) are available. The listings break apart further because Nichia 519a (seen here) and Luminus SFT40 are two emitter options. Those two differences (body material and emitter) make up the biggest differences. Next are the finishes of the material. There are many of those – stonewash, raw, rough stonewash, Works edition bronze, and jet-black aluminum.
Once you’ve picked your product and are on the page, you can add or pick a number of items. Those include removing the dome from your Nichia, reflector or TIR, charger, extra cell, short/long clip, etc.
Price
The Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight ranges in price from around $135 to at least $257.
What’s Included
- Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight
- Exceed Designs 920mAh 14500
- Spare o-rings (3, each different)
- Spare pocket clip screws (2)
- Charging cable (may be optional – ships outside of box)
- Certificate of Authenticity
- Sticker (4) (may be optional or bonus)
Package and Manual
Below you can see the box insides – there’s a slot where a manual might go, but my package does not include a manual per se.
There is this sort of quick-start guide, but the actual Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight manual is a YouTube video.
Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC Flashlight Build Quality and Disassembly
It’s unusual to review something that isn’t at least somewhat iterative. The Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight appears to be a whole new design. Often wholly new designs start out a bit… not knowing what they’re doing. But Exceed Designs really nailed it with the body here – it’s very well made.
You’ve probably seen this light (it dropped hard recently!) and noted that it seems “long for a 14500 light.” That’s true. It’s a long light. You can see more on why that is in a bit, but I’ll say up here that the Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight size is not a bother to me. The light handles very nicely.
Despite the Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight having a tactical mode, the head has only a button for contact. The tactical mode isn’t first, but it’s there – I would not consider this a tactical light.
The tail end does have a spring though.
Size and Comps
Dimensions: unstated.
I measure as follows:
Head diameter: 20.08mm
Body (thinnest) diameter: 18.27mm
Tail diameter: 20.62mm
Tail diameter with clip: 24.12mm
Length 110.7mm
Weight 3.5oz
If the flashlight will headstand, I’ll show it here. If the flashlight will tailstand, I’ll also show that here too!
Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. The version below is a custom laser-engraved Convoy S2+ host by GadgetConnections.com. I did a full post on an engraved orange host right here! Or go straight to GadgetConnections.com to buy your Convoy S2+ now!
In the photo above, you may note that the SRM (standard reference material) flashlight for comparison has changed! I used a TorchLAB BOSS 35 for ages. Now what you can see as the 18350 SRM is the Hanko Machine Works Trident. While I have not reviewed or tested the Gunner Grip version seen here, I have tested a Hanko Machine Works Trident Total Tesseract in brass. I love the Trident, and it’s a striking contrast next to the inexpensive Convoy S2+, which also makes a great standard reference material.
Retention and Carry
There’s a two-screw pocket clip included with the Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight. This particular Works Edition Bronze Ti has a titanium pocket clip with a bronze finish – in fact, all the non-black parts on this edition are bronzed titanium.
The clip doesn’t touch the body – this is purposeful. For swapping cells, you’ll remove the head anyway, but it’s nice that this has been considered. In their video, they say once you get the clip where you want it, you can snug it down. (This will be “considerable effort” since you’ll need to remove the clip to bend it.)
There are two clip lengths, too. This is the shorter option.
I didn’t get one, but you can also (separately) order a “USA-made Horween sheath.”
Power and Runtime
The Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight runs a single cell. Included with the purchase is a 920mAh 14500. It’s a button top.
The cell goes into the Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight in the usual way – positive end toward the head.
Below you can see runtime tests on the highest four stepped output levels. Exceed Designs makes a claim about the highest level, but I can’t find any runtime claims or runtime duration claims. Further, I’m fairly certain the output claim of 1300 lumens for the domed (default) version of the Nichia 519a. We naturally expect the dedomed version (which mine is) to have lower output. And it does but wow, it’s so much lower than the 1300-lumen claim.
In any case, it is what it is. I would probably not buy this light mainly for output. But if I did, I would already know to not expect 1300 lumens. It’s impractical for a light this small, and probably for a 14500-based light.
Each mode with the 14500 cell shuts off with low voltage protection.
The Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight will also run 1.5V cells – AA primary and NiMH. Below are runtime tests, again for the highest four levels. These are much different, both in profile (much more sustained at any certain output level) and also in output itself (much lower than with lithium-ion). I’m surprised output is this low with the AA cell, but even Step 5 is “quite usable” for how I use flashlights. That will be a personal thing, of course. Either way, it’s fantastic that the Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight supports 1.5V cells, anyway!
When using NiMH, the light does shut off at around 0.9V-1V. This is sufficiently safe for NiMH cells.
Charging
The Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight itself doesn’t have built-in charging. That probably makes things easier from a consumer standpoint – you don’t have to worry about a user trying to charge a NiMH (or even primary!) 1.5V cell inside the light.
But Exceed Designs does include a 14500 with the light, and the cell has built-in charging. There’s a USB-C charging port on the positive end.
Some packages (maybe not all, but this is unclear) include a USB-A to USB-C charging cable.
You almost certainly have a USB-C cable somewhere around your house, so I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape over this cable. Both A to C and C to C work just fine and the charge cycle looks about the same for both. Charging is reasonable at 0.55A. That’s well under 1C (more like 0.5C) so it’s quite slow.
Modes and Currents
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens | Tailcap Amps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14500 – Step 6 (Highest) | 1300 | – | 562 (0s) 502 (30s) |
5.49 |
| 14500 – Step 5 | – | – | 374 (0s) 348 (30s) |
2.82 |
| 14500 – Step 4 | – | – | 232 | 1.47 |
| 14500 – Step 3 | – | – | 124 | 0.57 |
| 14500 – Step 2 | – | – | 27 | 0.08 |
| 14500 – Step 1 (Lowest) | – | – | 0.47 | [low] |
| AA (1.5V) – Step 6 (Highest) | – | – | 67 (0s) 67 (30s) |
1.21 |
| AA (1.5V) – Step 5 | – | – | 52 (0s) 52 (30s) |
0.71 |
| AA (1.5V) – Step 4 | – | – | 26 | 0.39 |
| AA (1.5V) – Step 3 | – | – | 13 | 0.19 |
| AA (1.5V) – Step 2 | – | – | 3.03 | 0.03 |
| AA (1.5V) – Step 1 (Lowest) | – | – | 0.02 | [low] |
The table above feels a bit naked without so many manufacturer claims.
Pulse Width Modulation
What we have here is not PWM, to the best of my knowledge. I think this is called “SMS ripple,” and I can’t see it visually when using the light. There are a whole bunch of other levels, but as the runtimes and table above, and photos below, these are just the stepped modes.
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 Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight has two switches. First is this mechanical tail switch – a forward clicky.
That mechanical clicky is covered with a theme-matching bronzed titanium (metal) switch cover. The cover is smooth and does not protrude above the edges of the light. It’s a very nice switch.
The action is fairly deep and on a light as comparatively thin as this 14500-based light is, you have to press down into the light (just a bit) to actuate the switch.
Next up is the switch used to actually change the output levels – this switch on the head. I’ll call it an e-switch but it’s really two e-switches. They allow the rocker to work two ways, for going up or down in output (among other user interface things.)
In its resting state, the e-switch cover does not add to the diameter of the head. That’s great! But because the switch cover has a nice flat spot in the little, it’s easy to find just by feel. It’s a very nice switch!
When either side is pressed, the other side rises up. Below you can see about as high as it goes. There’s a gasket under the switch cover and over the e-switches, so you aren’t sacrificing any waterproofness with this setup.
All these e-switch features in the head make the light longer than many other 14500-cell lights. I can deal with that for such an interesting user interface. Again, the light is bigger but not that much bigger (or “not annoyingly bigger”).
Here’s a user interface table! Note that the “Down” side of the rocker switch is toward the tail and the “Up” side is toward the front of the Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight.
There are two mode groups – EDC Mode (default) and Tactical Mode. There isn’t a manual for the light, and there’s no user interface diagram, either. There’s a video, which you can view here:
I believe that video is designed as the user interface manual (among other things), so all my information below is a combination of playing with the light in hand and watching the video. The table is probably not perfect.
| State (Either mode) | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| On | Double-click Down on the rocker switch | Moonlight |
| On | Double-click Up on the rocker switch | Boost |
| On | Click Up on the rocker switch | Stepped modes up to Boost (6 levels) |
| On | Click Down on the rocker switch | Stepped modes down to Moonlight (6 levels) |
| On | Click tail switch | Off |
| Moonlight | Click Down on the rocker switch | Level 2 (ie, output goes up by one level, where Level 1 is Moonlight) |
| Moonlight | Click tail switch | Off, but Exceed Designs describes this as “Moonlight Lock”^ |
| Off | Tap 10x, then click | Iterate between EDC and Tactical mode. The light blinks numerous times to indicate the change, but there’s no indication of which group was implemented. |
| State (EDC Mode) | Action | Result |
| Off | Click tail switch | On (mode memory) |
| On | Hold Up on the rocker switch | Ramps up |
| On | Hold Down on the rocker switch | Ramps down |
| Level 2 | Click Down on the rocker switch 2x | Moonlight (this is expected behavior – stating it here for comparison to Tactical mode) |
| State (Tactical Mode) | Action | Result |
| Off (for more than 10s) | Tap tail switch | Boost (Momentary)^^ |
| Off (for more than 10s) | Click tail switch | Boost^^ |
| Off (for not more than 10s) | Tap tail switch | Conserve mode (momentary)^^ |
| Off (for not more than 10s) | Click tail switch | Conserve mode^^ |
| Moonlight | Click Down on the rocker switch 5x | Moonlight Lock^^^ |
| On with Moonlight Lock activated | Click rocker forward then back | Unlock moonlight |
| On (Except in Moonlight Lock‡‡) | Click rocker Up† 3x | Strobe††,‡‡‡ |
| Strobe | Hold rocker Up††† 3s | Beacon‡ |
| Beacon | Hold rocker Up††† 3s | SOS |
| SOS | Hold rocker Up††† 3s | Previous steady mode |
| Any strobe mode | Click rocker Up† 3x | |
| On | Double-click Up on the rocker switch | Boost |
| Moonlight (but not Moonlight Lock) | Hold Up on the rocker switch | Ramps up (note the intricacy of getting ramping on Tactical group: you must be in Moonlight but not Moonlight Lock. |
| Moonlight (but not Moonlight Lock) | Hold Down on the rocker switch | Ramps down (note the intricacy of getting ramping on Tactical group: you must be in Moonlight but not Moonlight Lock. |
| Level 2 | Click Down on the rocker switch 2x | A much higher level – probably “Conserve” (which is around Level 3). You would expect this to result in Moonlight. (Big oops.) |
^ Exceed Designs describes this as step 1 of the “Moonlight lock” but really that’s just a fancy name for “putting the light in the moonlight mode and then turning it off.” It’s a clever way to describe mode memory, but it is not a special way to access moonlight outside of normal operation.
^^ Tactical is supposed to always start on Boost mode. I do not find that to be the case. It seems that the light remembers either the last mode and gives you the next mode (between Boost and Conserve) or it simply has mode memory (between Boost and Conserve) in the Tactical group, too.
^^^ This is more of a real “moonlight lock” than the other mode-memory style “lock.” It does not work in EDC Mode, though. (sad panda)
† It doesn’t actually have to be Up. Clicking Down on the rocker will enter strobe, too. But the manual (video) says “Up.”
†† Only Tactical Mode has Strobe modes.
††† To do this step, it does need to be the Up rocker.
‡ This is not a standard beacon – this flashes brightly 3x approximately every 2 seconds.
‡‡ Strobes seem disabled if Moonlight Lock is enabled. But Strobes are not disabled if you’re just in Moonlight.
‡‡‡ Accessing strobes while Moonlight Lock is enabled (but not on, see footnote ‡‡) disabled Moonlight Lock.
LED and Beam
The emitter in my Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight is a Nichia 519a. There are two options for the lens t00 – a TIR (seen below) or a reflector.
I typically prefer TIR optics, but I don’t have a super fantastic reason for that. On the Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight, I might be inclined to suggest the reflector version (but again, I don’t have a super fantastic reason for that, either.)
I do really like the beam profile that the TIR gives, though.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
This Nichia 519a started as a 5000K edition, but (by option in a drop-down menu) was dedomed. Dedoming naturally lowers the CCT a bit, so this goes from around 5000K to around 4000K. The CRI is still High – 96 or above across all modes. This is very good.
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.
In the photos below, you can get the best idea of the difference in 14500 output (top row) and NiMH (1.5V) output (bottom row.)
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. These photos are taken around 18 inches from the door.
I compare everything to the KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!
Summary and Conclusion
I’m impressed with the Rampant R4 EDC flashlight as the first flashlight offering from Exceed Designs. It is very good. The execution of the plan is fantastic – the light feels great in hand and for use. I don’t love how long the light is, but the design is solid. The idea of the rocker switch used here is great. The implementation of it is very good, but there are a whole bunch of footnote-type things in the user interface that should probably be cleaned up. I appreciate that a cell is included, and I’m boggled by how many options there are for the light. If you never plan to use the light out of (let’s say) the 80% standard uses, you’ll love it. If you use strobe or moonlight a bunch, I’d read through the user interface table a good bit. Even with those asterisks, for the price, the Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight is an excellent value and a wonderful flashlight!
The Big Table
| Exceed Designs Rampant R4 EDC flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Nichia 519a (Dedomed of 5000K, CRI 93+) |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $165.00 |
| Cell: | 1×14500 or 1xAA (1.5V) |
| Runtime Graphs (14500) | |
| Runtime Graphs (NiMH AA) | |
| LVP? | Yes |
| Switch Type: | Both (Mechanical and “rocker” (two e-switches)) |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | – |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | USB-C (on cell) |
| 14500 Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | – |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 14500: 800 (according to the video) |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 14500: 502 (62.8% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 14.91 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | – |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 14500: 228lux @ 5.589m = 7122cd AA: 44lux @ 4.686m = 966cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 14500: 168.8 AA:62.2 |
| Claimed CCT | 3900 |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 14500: 3700-4100 Kelvin AA: ~3800 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | Exceed Designs |
| All my Exceed Designs 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 I like
- Great build quality
- Reasonable price (Very reasonable price for all the uniqueness)
- The rocker switch is quite great
- Many options on nearly everything (body material, emitter, optic or TIR, anodizing, etc.)
- TIR/Reflector option
- High CRI
- Amazing attention to detail (note how the pocket clip and rocker switch line up perfectly!)
What I don’t like
- Mode memory
- Does not come anywhere close to the claimed output
- The user interface is good if you don’t use any non-standard modes (including moonlight)
- It’s quite long
Notes
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Interesting on the output numbers… I’ve compared my SFT40 version to a known 500 lumen light (Olight M1T Raider) and known 700 lumen light (Reylight Pineapple) and it’s noticeably brighter than both, so I half wonder if it’s the pee-filter Nichia that is the issue.