twentysixtwo
Enlightened
Review of the Olight Open 2
Summary: Tactical-looking pen / built-in flashlight with 120 floody lumens, typical Olight quality, and some room for improvement
I managed to get my hands on the Olight OPen 2, a flashlight built into a pen. I have lights on my keychains, and in most every cubby or bag in the house, but I had not yet had anything resembling a decent flashlight built into a pen, so this was definitely a first. I'll review the OPen 2 as a pen, a flashlight, and as a combo.
As a pen I give it perhaps 7 or 8 out of 10. it's definitely got some heft (1.4 oz or 38 grams) and is about the diameter of a Sharpie. If you're doing a lot of writing, that's going to be uncomfortable after a while, though the "Capless" gel rollerball is super smooth and has a really great feel to it. It's supposed to be able to be left without a cap for a year and not dry out but this started skipping within a few days – very annoying. Fortunately, Olight provided an extra refill as the one which was installed was skipping. As far as I can tell, the primary company that makes this type of pen is a German company called Schmidt that makes refills for Mont Blanc and other high-end pens. Sure enough, it appears that this is their CL 8126 "Mini" refill. Olight has them also of course, and their price is quite reasonable. The bolt action is pretty cool, though not nearly as fast as a traditional clicky.
As a flashlight I give it an 8 or a 9. the UI is very simple – from off, press to get momentary 5 lumens or click to turn on with 5 lumens, or click twice to turn on with 120 lumens. From on, press and hold to cycle through 20, 60 and 120 lumens only. The beam is very floody and covers a good 100-110 degrees. The really cool thing is how small it is but still has the pushbutton interface and USB-C charging port built-in. Yes, the 10180 cell keychain lights are a touch smaller than this, but the twisty interface isn't nearly as nice, and this will be easier to keep with my clipboard. Since the OPen switch is on the end, there is no tail stand, but you can unscrew it from the pen to stand it on the other end. In addition, you can use the pocket clip to hold it to another object. However, bring along some strong finger since that pocket clip is REALLY stiff, making it hard to park on a stack of papers. Another issue is that there is no lockout. The switch is stiff enough that accidental activation shouldn't be an issue in a bag, but I'm always paranoid. Once nice touch is that the pocket clip has a deep slot just ready to take a 1.5mm tritium capsule. The slot is about 7mm long so the 6 mm capsules should work, I have a rather aged 5 mm capsule which I am using for now.
As a combo it looks more technical than tactical, with the pale blue stripe in the middle– there all other flashlight-pens out there, but they all seem to use a twisty on the end and have that mall ninja vibe. Like other Olight products, the machining is impeccable. Anodizing is good but not perfect. There's a tiny mark near the bolt for the pen, it could have been me fidgeting with the bolt, but the anodizing shouldn't have chipped, IMO. I also think the font they used for "O'Pen 2" is a bit informal – like Comic Sans. I would have preferred a font more like their OLIGHT logo.
If you made it all the way down here, thanks for reading!
Summary: Tactical-looking pen / built-in flashlight with 120 floody lumens, typical Olight quality, and some room for improvement
I managed to get my hands on the Olight OPen 2, a flashlight built into a pen. I have lights on my keychains, and in most every cubby or bag in the house, but I had not yet had anything resembling a decent flashlight built into a pen, so this was definitely a first. I'll review the OPen 2 as a pen, a flashlight, and as a combo.
As a pen I give it perhaps 7 or 8 out of 10. it's definitely got some heft (1.4 oz or 38 grams) and is about the diameter of a Sharpie. If you're doing a lot of writing, that's going to be uncomfortable after a while, though the "Capless" gel rollerball is super smooth and has a really great feel to it. It's supposed to be able to be left without a cap for a year and not dry out but this started skipping within a few days – very annoying. Fortunately, Olight provided an extra refill as the one which was installed was skipping. As far as I can tell, the primary company that makes this type of pen is a German company called Schmidt that makes refills for Mont Blanc and other high-end pens. Sure enough, it appears that this is their CL 8126 "Mini" refill. Olight has them also of course, and their price is quite reasonable. The bolt action is pretty cool, though not nearly as fast as a traditional clicky.
As a flashlight I give it an 8 or a 9. the UI is very simple – from off, press to get momentary 5 lumens or click to turn on with 5 lumens, or click twice to turn on with 120 lumens. From on, press and hold to cycle through 20, 60 and 120 lumens only. The beam is very floody and covers a good 100-110 degrees. The really cool thing is how small it is but still has the pushbutton interface and USB-C charging port built-in. Yes, the 10180 cell keychain lights are a touch smaller than this, but the twisty interface isn't nearly as nice, and this will be easier to keep with my clipboard. Since the OPen switch is on the end, there is no tail stand, but you can unscrew it from the pen to stand it on the other end. In addition, you can use the pocket clip to hold it to another object. However, bring along some strong finger since that pocket clip is REALLY stiff, making it hard to park on a stack of papers. Another issue is that there is no lockout. The switch is stiff enough that accidental activation shouldn't be an issue in a bag, but I'm always paranoid. Once nice touch is that the pocket clip has a deep slot just ready to take a 1.5mm tritium capsule. The slot is about 7mm long so the 6 mm capsules should work, I have a rather aged 5 mm capsule which I am using for now.
As a combo it looks more technical than tactical, with the pale blue stripe in the middle– there all other flashlight-pens out there, but they all seem to use a twisty on the end and have that mall ninja vibe. Like other Olight products, the machining is impeccable. Anodizing is good but not perfect. There's a tiny mark near the bolt for the pen, it could have been me fidgeting with the bolt, but the anodizing shouldn't have chipped, IMO. I also think the font they used for "O'Pen 2" is a bit informal – like Comic Sans. I would have preferred a font more like their OLIGHT logo.
If you made it all the way down here, thanks for reading!
