New Olight I3 versus ITP A3 EOS (PICS!)

got my new olight i3 yesterday... just a quick visual comparison of the two for those interested...


itp a3 eos on left, new olight i3 on the right

first thing you notice is that the i3 is a few mm longer in the back... this is to accommodate the new clip and so that it can tail stand. no big deal, picture makes it look bigger than it actually is...
I do feel however that they could have implemented the keyring a little better.... if you look at the picture above, notice the angle that the keyring sticks out at... well there is very little movement from this position.. just a few mm of play in either direction... you cant make it stick straight out the back like the a3 eos on the left is almost doing..... this makes it sit on a keychain kinda wierd... they should have just made the two extra little cuts like they did for the illuminati and it would still tailstand and be damn near perfect:


as far as physical robustness... for some reason this little i3 feels better built than its itp a3 brother... my a3 had a little play in the head and would allow you to do the thing where if the head is almost turned on, you could push the whole head assembly towards the body and it would temporarily turn the light on... they must have done some tighter tolerances with the threads on the i3 because now you have to have the head really really close to being on in order for this to happen... the twisty operation feels a LOT smoother than my a3 as well... no stiffness or grittyness at all...



the light has a new clip system built in that uses two tiny allen head screws (comes with the proper wrench) to hold it on.. this clip is TIGHT on there.. almost couldnt get it over a normal jeans pocket... thats a good thing right? i havent taken the clip off yet so i cant give any reviews on ease of removal or anything..



the reflectors are virtually identical and have the same XP-G R5 inside...

with two new energizer ultimate lithiums from two feet away on high:

pretty much identical here as well. tint appeared almost exactly the same.

im not going to do runtime tests, ill leave that to someone else... i was almost to busy to do this post in the first place.

Great pics and great comparison, thanks! My Olight i1 has the same issue with the split ring, very little play in either direction. It started really bugging me. With so little play it seems to make the light feel unnecessarily bigger. I just removed it and use the clip only.

Other than that it seems like a nice upgrade to the iTP series.

Thanks for the photo and your thoughts! I was wondering how these lights were different and this has made it very clear.
I appreciate you taking the time to do this!

This is very helpful, thanks.

thanks for the comparison.

looks like olight made some very nice improvements to an already good light. :thumbsup:

not bad! now just pop in 10550's to bump the lumens to 200+!

What order do the 3 light levels come in with the i3? I ordered an a3 because I read it starts on Medium. I don't want a flashlight that starts on Low.

Not being able to reverse the clip for headlamp use is not good. Seems like I use my Maratacs as headlamps more then handhelds. It is nice that the new model does not require heat shrink to keep the clip in place.

Finally! Thanks so much for doing this. I've been waiting to see a review comparing the great A3. I had the same issue, looking at pics, about the split ring attachment. Thanks again.

NO KEYCHAIN ON THE i3 ! :huh: That's a real shame. The keychain (especially the newer version) was a nice feature.

Does ANYONE here actually care about the ability to tailstand a keychain light????

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light comes on L>M>H

I dont really care about tailstanding on a daily basis, but it is VERY handy when its needed...
I live in a studio apartment and when the power goes out, a single aaa light like this one on high, when pointed at the white spackle ceiling, lights the place up perfectly... bouncing the light off of painted side walls doesnt get this effect. i know you could brace the old ITP A3 up with something but i just dont want to take the time to do that if the reason i need light is for something that is more important than paying flashlight-geek for a few minutes...

Chevy-SS said:

NO KEYCHAIN ON THE i3 ! :huh: That's a real shame. The keychain (especially the newer version) was a nice feature.

Does ANYONE here actually care about the ability to tailstand a keychain light????

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Click to expand...

I think tailstanding is a handy feature. I've been in meetings when the power went out and tailstood (sort of) a keychain light so we could finish our discussion. It isn't the ideal solution, but it works.

Apologies for my lack of knowlegde here, but are these two basicaly the same except for cosmetic differences? Are they made by the same company?
I quite fancy getting myself the AA version - iTP A2 / Olight i2 - but according to Ledfire Torches (UK website) the iTP A2 puts out 1.5, 18 and 80 lumens, the Olight i2 puts out 2.5, 20 and 75 lumens. And the Olight is nearly 20% cheaper than the iTP. Can anyone enlighten me (sorry!)?

i think it has something to do with olight starting to use actual ANSI "out the front" ratings instead of the previously measured "approximate" ratings when they were ITP..
someone please correct me here...

also, it would be nice to know what batteries they were tested with to get the ratings... the runtimes on the ITP A3 EOS are low/50 hours, medium/4 hours and high/.9 hours. the Olight I3 rates at Low/20 hours, Medium/1.5 hours and High/0.7 hours.... this might make more sense if they tested the A3 with energizer lithiums and the new I3 with standard alkalines or something, considering the light comes with one alkaline....

If you live in Cuba and have rolling blackouts....the tailstand is a nice feature. All kidding aside, it's a nice light. The pocket clip is kinda useless as you have to practically tear your pants pockets to get it on. It's a nice light as far as its technicality, but I don't think anyone at Olight actually tests these lights (as they would be used - keychain, pocket, etc.) or they would see the impracticality of the design.

I know this is an old topic but it seemed the appropriate one for a question.

My old ITP EOS A3, titanium with 3 modes, first mode is medium brightness, whichever generation that is.

The head died. I disassembled it and it appears that the battery contact board was not well enough fixed in place and over many uses, it pushed against the driver PCB and cracked the inductor into two pieces. Either that or the inductor just suffered long term thermal fatigue and cracked apart. It's too small for me to reasonably try to solder a new one on.

Anyway, I'd like to reuse the Ti body tube, especially because it has the clip reversed for ball cap headlamp use, and has heatshrink tubing to secure that and make it nice to hold in my mouth if needed, and the keychain numb is ground off so it can tailstand.

Will the old TI body tube threading be compatible with their current generation i3E heads? For example a black aluminum head as linked below? If not, what's the lowest cost way to get a compatible head for it? It need not be titanium necessarily.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017R560WC


Edit: i3E won't interchange, has square cut threads on the head while my Ti ITP A3 has the usual fine tapered threads. Oh well, maybe I can salvage the pocket clip off, or see if the LED still works (which I cannot non-destructively get out of the head as far as I can tell) and convert it to direct drive from a 10440 cell with a diode in series to drop 0.7V

What about the pill, can the driver board and LED be pulled from an i3E non-destructively so I could put that in the Ti head?

Please let me know if there is a better topic to ask this question in. Thanks.