Olight S15R Baton Review (280 lm,XM-L2,14500/AA)

[viperxp]

Greetings All.
This review will be dedicated to a renewed model from Olight, the S15R. This is not a brand new model, but much improved old model.

What's new?


The flashlight now can charge batteries (only lithium. it operates with ni-mh but charges only lithium). The control button is much improved now - accidental switching should be eliminated by the new design, and it got a little bit stiffer. Also it includes now a low battery indication.

Shall we?

The flashlight comes in a clear box, that allows to see the flashlight and it's technical specs.

The package inludes a black box that contains a charger (usb adapter is not included).

Here it is. No anodizing faults, nothing to complain about. The flashlight won't roll of the table because of the big clip. Pay attention to the button - it is almost invisible but it is there.

The reflector is shallow and smooth without any traces of fingerprints or dust. The moonlight mode is very dim - maybe even less than the advertised 0.5 lumen. The pattern upon the led surface can be seen in moonlight mode.

The button is a pleasure to use. The ring pattern can be felt - it is not only a picture.

The tailcap can be disassembled. The threads are square cut, and lubricated from the factory.

The bundled battery. I measured the capacity of the cell - it's 712 mAh at 300 ma discharge current. The low battery indicator lights up at 3.27v (voltage without load).

The rings also exist on the tailcap.

The flashlight alone and with the new S10R.

Almost no stepdown and flat stabilization. Very nice!

Some numbers (lux@1m)

Flashlight/mode	min	low	med	turbo
S10	3	55	500	2100
S10R	1	22	540	2700
S15 Eneloop	2	68	550	1230
S15 Lithium	2	69	550	1720
S15R Eneloop	0	40	580	860
S15 Lithium	0	40	580	2050

The brightness in moonlight mode is so low that my luxmetr can't measure. Also we can see that the new model is brighter than the old while using lithium cells. No pwm or noises were detected.

Conclusion

I liked the flashlight a lot, and could not find actual flaws.

* I did not cover the UI of the flashlight - it is the same as of the other baton series - please read other reviews that cover the subject
** The flashlight has very much in common with the S10R and S20R - I recommend to read other reviews.

The flashlight was provided by Olight for review.

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Thanks for reading, hope I assisted you in some way.

 

[reppans]

Thank you for your review.

Still searching for a 1AA "bright" moonlight mode in the 0.3-0.5 lms range (I'm a sub-lumen snob) and this is yet another light off spec by many multiples. I've only found one 1AA light with a well regulated moonlight that can hold 0.3 lms, despite many that claim so. Why is this so hard?

 

[viperxp]

You might also check out the S15 Ti. It has the moonlight mode that you are looking for.

 

[reppans]

Thanks, already have one. My sample's 0.3 lms is off by a factor of 3x (0.10 lms) and my 7 lm low off by ~2x (~3 lms). The rest of the modes are accurate enough though. Did do a runtime test on low, however, and got nearly twice the runtime spec so about the same lumen-hrs.

 

[viperxp]

Thanks, already have one. My sample's 0.3 lms is off by a factor of 3x (0.10 lms) and my 7 lm low off by ~2x (~3 lms). The rest of the modes are accurate enough though. Did do a runtime test on low, however, and got nearly twice the runtime spec so about the same lumen-hrs.

So I was right about the moonlight mode. It is far lower than almost any other light.

 

[reppans]

So I was right about the moonlight mode. It is far lower than almost any other light.

I'm a bit confused... are you referring to the S15R or the S15 Ti which we sidetracked on? Your description of the S15R sounds really low, but I have quite a few sub-lumen lights that are dimmer than my S15 Ti, and are off spec in the 4-10x range.

 

[viperxp]

I'm a bit confused... are you referring to the S15R or the S15 Ti which we sidetracked on? Your description of the S15R sounds really low, but I have quite a few sub-lumen lights that are dimmer than my S15 Ti, and are off spec in the 4-10x range.

S15R's moonlight is much dimmer than the S15Ti's, and also dimmer than Thrunite TN12 2014 0.3 lumen mode.
Of course it is brighter than ZL's lowest moonlight modes.

 

[NorthernStar]

Great review, Viperxp! :thumbsup:

Have you doing tests with an extended tube on your S15R? I´ve just tried my S15R with an extended tube running it with two fresh fully loaded Eneloop 2450mAh batteries and at all modes(including moonlight mode) the low voltage indicator shines red.
Have you or anyone else experienced that on your S15R, and why does it behaves like that? :thinking:

I also noticed something that is not included in the manual at my light. After running it at highest mode with the Olight 14500 Li-ion battery, it steps down in effect after 15-16 minutes. One can restart the light at highest mode after though. Does your S15R steps down like that also?

 

[viperxp]

Great review, Viperxp! :thumbsup:

Have you doing tests with an extended tube on your S15R? I´ve just tried my S15R with an extended tube running it with two fresh fully loaded Eneloop 2450mAh batteries and at all modes(including moonlight mode) the low voltage indicator shines red.
Have you or anyone else experienced that on your S15R, and why does it behaves like that? :thinking:

I also noticed something that is not included in the manual at my light. After running it at highest mode with the Olight 14500 Li-ion battery, it steps down in effect after 15-16 minutes. One can restart the light at highest mode after though. Does your S15R steps down like that also?

I am very glad you liked my review. No, I haven't tried it with the extender. I tried running it with one white eneloop - and the voltage indicator did not light up. If you with I can try and report the results.
About stepdown - I haven't noticed it.

 

[reppans]

... all modes(including moonlight mode) the low voltage indicator shines red.
Have you or anyone else experienced that on your S15R, and why does it behaves like that? :thinking:

Pretty common on AA/14500 lights that have battery meters/indicators. The meters are designed for 3.7-4.2v li-ion ranges so running 2AAs, or a single 3V CRAA primary, will appear to be a dead/dying li-ion. The ZL SC52 won't run any H modes on a 3V CRAAs and the TN Neutron 2A V2 won't run properly on Turbo on 1xCRAA or 2xAlks/L91s (~3-3.4V), although it does seem designed for 2xNiMh (<2.8V), which runs well on turbo.