AardvarkSagus
Flashlight Enthusiast
Olight i6 Paladin
Olight "i" series, meet your big brother. The Olight i6 Paladin brings this budget friendly family a larger, more powerful sibling. Does it live up to the name?
Olight i6 Paladin
Meat and Potatoes
Pal·a·din (noun) Any determined advocate or defender of a noble cause.
As a name for the i6, this sounds about right. The i6 Paladin is a purpose built duty light that skips options and instead delivers a solid, basic feature set designed to work, and work well without the frills. There isn't a lot of hype to this light. Just basic form follows function, and it seems to work.
With a business end packing the current industry leading Cree XM-L LED, the i6 is tuned to crank out an impressive 420 lumens out of the venerable 18650/2xCR123A combo that powers many lights in this class. If more runtime is needed (or less light, which surprisingly is occasionally the case) Olight also offers a very reasonable 80 lumen low mode that runs for a not insignificant 5+ hours.
Cree XM-L
These lumens stream forth from the Paladin courtesy of a nicely textured reflector that collimates them into a relatively well focused beam with few, if any, distractions. Is is mostly arranged for throw, but the larger die XM-L tends to spread things out a bit making for a great general use beam with loads of transitional corona and a fairly bright spillbeam. Its really just a generically good projection of light.
Textured Reflector
Fit and finish of the i6 Paladin are relatively reminiscent of the remainder of the "i" line, though without the direct correlation found in the rest of the series. Instead there is more hints of the same designer, rather than directly using the same patterns. The lines are all quite simple and vertically oriented, but still providing adequate grip without resorting to traditional diamond knurling, or the square knurling common to most Olights. The anodizing is simple black, but definitely on par with the quality usually found on their products.
Constructive Criticism
The Olight i6 Paladin does suffer from one affliction fairly common to many duty lights these days. Olight has chosen to include a tactical cigar grip with this light, as they have with a number of other offerings. It again has been constructed out of the same rigid aluminum as the body of the light. While this brings a unity of design into play, it doesn't make any allowances for comfort. I would far prefer to see these start to incorporate a more flexible rubber material and more rounded design to make them less intrusive when using the ice-pick style hold. This ring is removable, but since I haven't been provided with any of the accessories for this light I cannot speak to whether any smooth thread protector rings are included as an alternative. Olight has done this in the past, so it wouldn't surprise me this time either.
Grip Ring
Conclusions
Olights i6 Paladin provides ample lumens and a reliable UI in a apparently durable basic package. There aren't a lot of extras, but that's not what the light is designed to be. It is simply good quality lighting, without the frills, and as such it lives up to its design well.
Olight i6 Paladin
Provided for review by the kind folks at 4Sevens.
Olight "i" series, meet your big brother. The Olight i6 Paladin brings this budget friendly family a larger, more powerful sibling. Does it live up to the name?
Olight i6 Paladin
Meat and Potatoes
Pal·a·din (noun) Any determined advocate or defender of a noble cause.
As a name for the i6, this sounds about right. The i6 Paladin is a purpose built duty light that skips options and instead delivers a solid, basic feature set designed to work, and work well without the frills. There isn't a lot of hype to this light. Just basic form follows function, and it seems to work.
With a business end packing the current industry leading Cree XM-L LED, the i6 is tuned to crank out an impressive 420 lumens out of the venerable 18650/2xCR123A combo that powers many lights in this class. If more runtime is needed (or less light, which surprisingly is occasionally the case) Olight also offers a very reasonable 80 lumen low mode that runs for a not insignificant 5+ hours.
Cree XM-L
These lumens stream forth from the Paladin courtesy of a nicely textured reflector that collimates them into a relatively well focused beam with few, if any, distractions. Is is mostly arranged for throw, but the larger die XM-L tends to spread things out a bit making for a great general use beam with loads of transitional corona and a fairly bright spillbeam. Its really just a generically good projection of light.
Textured Reflector
Fit and finish of the i6 Paladin are relatively reminiscent of the remainder of the "i" line, though without the direct correlation found in the rest of the series. Instead there is more hints of the same designer, rather than directly using the same patterns. The lines are all quite simple and vertically oriented, but still providing adequate grip without resorting to traditional diamond knurling, or the square knurling common to most Olights. The anodizing is simple black, but definitely on par with the quality usually found on their products.
Constructive Criticism
The Olight i6 Paladin does suffer from one affliction fairly common to many duty lights these days. Olight has chosen to include a tactical cigar grip with this light, as they have with a number of other offerings. It again has been constructed out of the same rigid aluminum as the body of the light. While this brings a unity of design into play, it doesn't make any allowances for comfort. I would far prefer to see these start to incorporate a more flexible rubber material and more rounded design to make them less intrusive when using the ice-pick style hold. This ring is removable, but since I haven't been provided with any of the accessories for this light I cannot speak to whether any smooth thread protector rings are included as an alternative. Olight has done this in the past, so it wouldn't surprise me this time either.
Grip Ring
Conclusions
Olights i6 Paladin provides ample lumens and a reliable UI in a apparently durable basic package. There aren't a lot of extras, but that's not what the light is designed to be. It is simply good quality lighting, without the frills, and as such it lives up to its design well.
Olight i6 Paladin
Provided for review by the kind folks at 4Sevens.
