Olight SR96 Intimidator review (4800 Lm,3xMK-R,Lithium)

Hello,
This review is dedicated to a new search flashlight from Olight, the Olight SR96 Intimidator. It's newest Olight model, and it is equipped with 3 Cree MK-R LED's. Each MK-R is actually 4 XP-G2 under one lens, so you practically get 3x4xXP-G2, that is 12 XP-G2 LED's.
The flashlight is not made to break any beam distance records, it's rather floody flashlight and not a thrower. The massive 4800 lumens output has floody character, and if you have any floody flashlight (Zebra's,Olight Baton series,Convoy S3) it has same beam character, just multiplied many times. In spite the flashlight not being a thrower, the beam distance is 325 meters, that is more than Olight M22 has.


Tech.Specs









One not nice feature that the flashlight has - step-down. The step-down is time based and not related to ambient temperature.


Bundled Extras, Case




The flashlight arrives in a very impressive case, with compartments for the flashlight and accessories. The package is just superb, it will surely help to maintain the flashlight, and impress whoever sees it.
The flashlight comes with two spare O-rings, carrying belt (the flashlight weighs 1.2 kilo's so it will be useful), power supply that is used for charging the flashlight, user manual and warranty card. Two commercials describing current line-up of Olight products also come with the flashlight. I personally would like to see a 12v car adapter bundled with the flashlight - but it can be purchased as an optional accessory. It could be very useful, I will tell more about it later on.


Contents of the case




Power supply. It is very light. When charging/flashlight connected and turned on indicator lights red, when the battery is charged or when the flashlight is not connected the color changes to green.



Two O-rings have different diameter (the battery pack is designed so the head and tail part have different diameter) , and the belt. The belt has a good feel, and it attaches to the flashlight very securely.


And ... Here it is , the INTIMIDATOR






The flashlight has really good feel to it, I could not find any manufacturing faults. No anodizing fails, no fingerprints or dust under the glass, just flawless. It is a first flashlight where at first glance I could not see the lenses, because of anti-reflective coating.

Disassemble,Design and thoughts




What do we see here? The 3 LED's are being housed in a completely separated reflectors, each one has it's own lens. Maybe the flashlight head area could be used more effectively and put more LED's there, but the flashlight as it is now performs really well, and drains the battery pretty quickly at maximum mode. The O-rings has GITD feature.






The heat disposal is arranged very well. The head has many ventilation slots, practically thru all the head part. The flashlight gets just warm at max mode, and the battery tube gets a little warm but not really hot.
The flashlight has pretty easy controls - I attached a screenshot from the user manual. The only interesting feature is the electronic lock-out activation - it is not trivial at all, I think it is very difficult to activate it without reading the manual.




Power adapter is being attached to the mega-tailcap thing, that has integrated charger and battery level indicator. When a button is press - led's are indicating the battery level.
Interesting things that I discovered:


1. The flashlight can be operated without the tailcap. So .. if the owner has more then one battery pack, he can use one and charge another at the same time.
2. Even with fresh battery, when the flashlight is on maximum output level and you use the battery check feature - it does not show 100% because the voltage drops under load. It is not good or bad, just wanted to let you know.
3. When the flashlight is turned on it is possible to charge the battery. It means that when the adapter connected you can prolong the run time significantly. I understand the the flashlight consumes much more than the 3A that the adapter can supply, but it is a very nice feature.





The threads are rectangular, and came well lubed. I liked that the battery pack and all the flashlight has a very user serviceable/upgradeable built. The head gets disassembled really easily, and so is the battery charger and the battery pack.
The knurling is rough, I don't think the flashlight will slip even if used with tough gloves. I don't really understand why the belt holders are gold coated, but I guess Olight knows best and they look really nice.





The head is pretty heavy (the weight is in grams on all pictures). The flashlight feels well-balanced in hand and because the button is located near the head it is comfortable to hold. The button is big and pressed with just the right pressure, not too stiff and not too soft. If you grab the flashlight around the place where the button is located you will turn it on, so it will not be difficult to look for the button in the dark. The flashlight weighs a little more than 1.2 kilo's.


Measurements




What ?? Why so low? 4800 lumens you say!!!

Nothing weird here, no mistakes all works as intended. The high numbers here will be achieved for flashlights that has ability to focus really well, known as throwers. SR96 is not a thrower, it has different purpose, it can light a large area. When you will see beamshots you will understand better.
To better understand this flashlight I did a test that I did not do before, I guess it's called a ceiling bounce test. I turned on the flashlight, put it on the floor and light it up towards the ceiling. On the floor I measured what the luxmeter showed.



Olight SR96 - 215
Olight M22 - 36
Olight S20 - 21

So I guess you get the point. The hotspot of SR96 is much larger than M22, with approximately same brightness.


Beamshots



M22,SR96,S20 Baton




M22,SR96



SR96@450lm , S20 Baton@550lm (max)



15 centimeters from the wall

On the field



control shot




On the photos where you see 2 beams of light - on the left is Olight M22 and on the right SR96. Please excuse me for the quality - my camera is really not suited for night shooting and does not have PASM modes.
It could be truly said that the flashlight generates a tunnel of light, as shown on pictures.


Summary

The Good

• Build quality
• Powerful light for life, not records
• Practical and impressive package
• Easy to use, no real fails in design or function
• Not documented ability to work with the adapter connected
• User serviceable (could be easily disassembled)

The bad

• Evil step down
• No 12v adapted is bundled

Conclusion

If you need a flashlight that has the SR96 abilities it can be a flashlight just for you. If you are not sure and wow effect or maximum distance have more importance for you it may not be the ideal flashlight for you. Personally I liked the flashlight a lot.


I would like to thank Olight for providing the SR96 Intimidator for review.


Some of the pictures are taken from Chinese flashlight related forum.



Thanks for reading. Questions? Suggestions? I will be happy to assist.

Wow, great review! Awesome pictures! Thanks!

Ryp said:

Wow, great review! Awesome pictures! Thanks!

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Thank you

Great review. I was interested in this and the 5000 until seeing this review and its time vs lumens graph. It seems dishonest to me for Olight to claim 4800 lumens for .83 hours when it almost immediately steps down from 4800 and rapidly decreases on down to 2500 and stays there the remainder of the time before stepping down to 1500. I had assumed from their specs an actual 4800 lumens for the full .83 hours and then stepping down to 1500. It may still be a great flashlight but they lost me on the 'trust' issue.

ArcticHighlander said:

Great review. I was interested in this and the 5000 until seeing this review and its time vs lumens graph. It seems dishonest to me for Olight to claim 4800 lumens for .83 hours when it almost immediately steps down from 4800 and rapidly decreases on down to 2500 and stays there the remainder of the time before stepping down to 1500. I had assumed from their specs an actual 4800 lumens for the full .83 hours and then stepping down to 1500. It may still be a great flashlight but they lost me on the 'trust' issue.

Click to expand...

It seems that's normal for every single maker with a step down...they add the turbo/boosted mode's time on to what's LEFT of the high's run time after using turbo, and call THAT total the run time on the max output.

Its VERY misleading.

They ALL do it though, so, the one who DOESN'T will simply look bad compared to the competition...and ironically, potentially go out of business. (CPF and other savvy buyers who might appreciate the honesty are too small a market segment to survive with alone)

If ANSI, or whomever, would standardize the way the lights runtimes are rated too, it would force a level playing field.

For example, the THROW is also based upon that brief burst's spec as well...and the throw for the rest of the time is also proportionally reduced, and so forth.

ArcticHighlander said:

Great review. I was interested in this and the 5000 until seeing this review and its time vs lumens graph. It seems dishonest to me for Olight to claim 4800 lumens for .83 hours when it almost immediately steps down from 4800 and rapidly decreases on down to 2500 and stays there the remainder of the time before stepping down to 1500. I had assumed from their specs an actual 4800 lumens for the full .83 hours and then stepping down to 1500. It may still be a great flashlight but they lost me on the 'trust' issue.

Click to expand...

I don't completely agree with you. The figures are open to public, you can find the step-down data before the actual purchase, so no reason not to trust Olight only for that. And yes, the vast majority of the flashlights from different manufacturers have step down.

I finally got to see one of these up close last week, im happier with my older SR90 for a better throw than this SR96.

DenBarrettSAR said:

I finally got to see one of these up close last week, im happier with my older SR90 for a better throw than this SR96.

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The SR96 wasn't built for throw.

its why i like my SR90 better for the throw. I have a ton of lights including cistome builtmodded ones that can flood a wall of light already.