Olight ArkPro Matte Black Flashlight Review
New from Olight is the Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight, a flat light with multiple emitter options. It has flood, throw, laser, and UV! Read on!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a referral link to the Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight product page.
Versions
Of the Olight ArkPro specifically, it looks like there are six body colors. Most of them offer only cool white emitter options, but at least one (matte black) is available in neutral white and cool white, too. Unfortunately, the Matte Black I have here is not the neutral white version.
There are also two other ArkPro variants: ArkPro Lite and ArkPro Ultra. One of those two is more Lite, the other is more Ultra!
Price
MSRP for the Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight is $109.99, but the introductory price (for another couple of weeks) is $87.99.
What’s Included
- Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight
- Charging base
- Manual
Package and Manual
Note that this manual is for all three versions of the ArkPro, and I do not like that. I found the manual quite hard to follow! But I’m sure a ton of work was put into it (that’s the only way it could be so confusing).
Here’s one little point about the confusion. The image below implies to me that a light might have all three options. But that’s not the case. Only some of the ArkPro versions have some of these three options.
All of the ArkPros I have gotten for review have these three stickers or covers that have to be removed before the first use. In fact, you also need to ping the light on a charging base (such as the one included) to activate the light. I am not sure you can get the light to reenter this “activation needed” state, but it’d be neat!
Build Quality and Disassembly
I didn’t disassemble the Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight at all. The build quality is very solid.
You’ll probably note that this review is a lot like the ArkPro Orange and ArkPro Silver. Olight has now sent three ArkPros, one ArkPro Ultra, and zero ArkPro Lites. I imagine one of the regular ArkPros was supposed to be a Lite. This Matte Black version is available in neutral white, but this third ArkPro is also cool white. For this reason, I have not included any new data in this post! This is just a “check out the light” post!
Of course, there’s no cylindrical cell in there to rattle around or be removed, or whatever. The cell is 100% built-in. That’s good and bad, of course. Building the cell in means Olight can get reliable performance, but it also means you can’t change the cell when it wears out in a number of years.
Whatever the case about the battery, the build here is great. I love the anti-roll shape. Not only that, but the Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight fits into the pocket where I normally carry an 18650 light in a much more comfortable way.
I have already disassembled an Arkfeld, and I did not do so for the Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight version. You’re invited to check out the photos from that review, though. Here’s a link. (Note: I didn’t get too far with disassembly.)
Size and Comps
The Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight is 124mm x 27mm x 16mm and 115g.
Here’s the light in hand:
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!
Also in the photo above, my Standard Reference Material (SRM) flashlight is the Hanko Machine Works Trident, an 18350 light. 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 to the inexpensive Convoy S2+, another great SRM.
Below you can see a couple of ArkPros and one ArkPro Ultra along with a couple of the older Arkfeld versions.
Retention and Carry
The Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight has a two-way pocket clip, which is so much better than some earlier edition Arkfeld-type lights. This clip allows great deep carry and has a two-way option. I don’t care at all about the two-way, but I love the deeper carry.
Interestingly, the Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight does not have a lanyard hole in the pocket clip like some previous Arkfelds.
There’s a magnet in the tail because that’s the way the charger connects. It’s also strong enough to hold the ArkPro.
Power and Runtime
Olight states this as a 2000mAh battery, and that’s perfectly logical. (A Reddit user has confirmed it, too.) I was unable to gain any access to the LiPO, but I did run a couple of output tests. There is a battery indicator surrounding the switch, and it does indicate when the voltage is low. The light finally shuts off, too.
The temperature lines in these charts are included as general context, not precise measurements. The values represent the range (min to max) during testing, but should not be taken as exact readings. A temperature sensor is not always attached to the bezel (or even the hottest spot, assuming that could be defined). Even with ideal placement, too many variables affect temperature to definitively state a specific max value.
Charging
The Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight offers USB-C charging! The charge port is covered by the same type of cover we have seen recently on some of the Oclip lights (for example, the Oclip Pro).
The cover feels metal, and I would guess that the charge port is waterproof, as the hinged door doesn’t have any gaskets.
A second option is available for charging, too! Olight includes this proprietary MCC charger.
That works just fine too, but with USB-C as an option now, I don’t anticipate using this charging base!
I only tested charging with USB-C. USB-C charging works great with A to C and C to C both. Charging completes in about 1.5 hours.
Modes
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo – Flood | 1500-520 | 4m+140m | 1270 (0s) 1221 (30s) |
| High – Flood | 520-100 | 155m+10m | 434 |
| Med – Flood | 100 | 13h | 92 |
| Low – Flood | 15 | 72h | 14.1 |
| Moonlight – Flood | 1 | 14d | 1.09 |
| Turbo – Spot | 800-400 | 4m+130m | 690 (0s) 581 (30s) |
| High – Spot | 400-100 | 125m+10m | 335 |
| Med – Spot | 100 | 10h | 90 |
| Low – Spot | 15 | 66h | 13.3 |
| Moonlight – Spot | 1 | 14d | 1.3 |
Pulse Width Modulation
Nothing really to mention here. None of the modes seems to be using PWM.
Click here to 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 ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight has two switches! That may be a first for the Ark series. Surrounding that e-switch is a selector knob of sorts, which points to either white LED output, ultraviolet, or laser output. Functionally, this is exactly the same as the Arkfeld Pro and Arkfeld Ultra.
And I finally got a photo of the little lock icon – I love these icons around the light, including this lock icon, mode level icon, battery status icon – they are all great!
One big and fantastic update is the indicators, seen above. They’re in a ring between the rotary and the e-switch. The left side indicates the output level, while the green right side indicates the charge status. Not pictured, but there’s a little illuminated lock icon when the light is put in lockout mode, too!
They say the LED e-switch is great for thumb use, and I am inclined to agree. There’s a nicely sized pad area for my thumb to rest. The concave around the rotary helps with this, too.
The second e-switch is this one on the side. It operates (only) the laser.
This only applies when the selector is in either LED position. The user interface is the same for flood and spot LEDs. The user interface is really the same for UV and laser, too; it’s just with a separate button.
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Click | On (mode memory)^ |
| On | Hold (release at desired mode) | Mode cycle (L, M, H) (no Moon or Turbo) |
| Off | Hold | Moonlight |
| Any | Double click | Turbo |
| Any | Triple click | Strobe |
| Strobe | Click | Off |
| Strobe | Hold | Previous Mode (or Moonlight, if strobe from off) |
| Off | Long hold (past Moonlight) | Lockout (indicated by a lock icon near the battery indicator)^ |
| Lockout | Hold | Unlock to Moonlight |
| On | Click then Click and Hold (quickly)^^ | Timer (Single blink: 3 minutes, Double blink: 9 minutes) |
| Timer | Click then Click and Hold (quickly)^^ | Switch between 3- and 9-minute timers. |
| Any | Click the laser button | Laser on (doesn’t change LED state) |
| Laser on | Click the laser button | Laser off |
| Laser on | Turn LED(s) off | LEDs and laser off |
| UV selected – Off | Click | UV on low |
| UV on | Hold | Iterate between UV high and low |
| UV on | Click | Off |
| Laser off | Hold | Momentary laser (memory) |
| Laser on | Hold laser button | Iterate between laser high and low |
^ Moon, Low, Medium, and High are memorized. Turbo is memorized as High.
^^ The manual doesn’t mention the timers as far as I can see.
LED and Beam
I was certain I’d seen somewhere that Olight designed these emitters themselves, but I can’t find that information now. I’m not totally sure it matters, since we can see the CRI and CCT in the next section. These emitters have the best type of optic for their purpose. The flood emitter has a shallow TIR, and the spot emitter (right, below) has a deep, smooth reflector.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
The CCT for either emitter is cool white. Note that some body colors (black, at least) do offer neutral white as an option. The CRI is also low for both LEDs.
CCT (Correlated Color Temperature) refers to the measurement of the color appearance of light, expressed in Kelvins (K), which indicates whether the light is warm (yellowish) or cool (bluish). A lower CCT (below 3000K) is considered warm light, while a higher CCT (above 5000K) gives cooler, bluish light.
CRI (Color Rendering Index) is a measure of how accurately a light source renders colors in comparison to natural sunlight. Scored on a scale from 0 to 100, higher CRI values indicate that colors appear more true to life and vibrant, similar to how they would look under the sun.
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. The last row is UV.
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 didn’t know I needed another in the Ark series, but the Olight ArkPro Matte Black cool white flashlight is a great light. Olight continues to build on Ark’s success and even improves the lights that were already great! The bigger battery is a welcome addition, as is a throw emitter. Having laser and UV still built in is a bonus! I love that the matte black version is available in neutral white (though I think the neutral aspect is only the flood channel).
The Big Table
| Olight ArkPro Silver Flashlight (again, all data is from the Silver version) |
|
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Unstated white LED (Flood) |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $109.99 |
| Cell: | Internal |
| Runtime Graphs | |
| LVP? | Almost certainly |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch (2) |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | USB-C and proprietary magnetic |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | All modes except turbo of either LED |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | Flood: 1500 Spot: 800 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | Flood: 1221 (81.4% of claim)^ Spot: 581 (72.6% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | Flood: 1.7 Spot: 17.7 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | Flood: – Spot: 205 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | Flood: 102lux @ 4.428m = 2000cd Spot: 375lux @ 4.821m = 8716cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | Flood: 89.4 Spot: 186.7 (91.1% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | Flood: – Spot: – |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | Flood: 6900-7500 Kelvin Spot: 5800-6800 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 I like
- The laser operation was moved out of the main switch
- USB-C charging
- Good throw channel
- Bigger battery
- Little LED icons around the switch
- Great beam shape on the spot emitter
- Neutral white available
What I don’t like
- Built-in battery
- High CCT
- Low CRI
Notes
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