[Review] Olight Perun 2 - 21700 Cool White 2500 Lumens Proximity Sensor Headlamp

Received a review unit of Perun 2 from Olight 2.5 weeks ago, been testing it since and has found a few interesting facts/features about this Perun 2. For one, it is very similar to last year's Perun with a few "enhancements".

A quick look at the Perun 2 specifications:

Lots of similarities between Perun and Perun 2 isn't it, from LED used to the Low Battery Vibration alert, manufacturer is recycling features from 2019 Perun into this 2020 Perun 2. :nana:


upon unboxing, remember to remove this protective film from the lens and a battery protective film in the body before use. Just unscrewing the body tube of Perun 2 and you will see the battery protective film.

The rechargeable headlamp/angle light family from Olight:

from left, H1R Nova, Perun Mini, H2R Nova, Perun, Perun 2.

Olight also released a non-rechargeable version of the single CR123A-size headlamp: H1 Nova, approximately 2 months before the release of H1R Nova, it turned out that the only difference between H1 Nova and H1R Nova is in the tailcap, which the manufacturer later released a recharging kit (MCC recharging cable, ORB-163C06 battery and a Magnetic Recharger Tailcap) to "upgrade" the H1 Nova into a H1R Nova.
The H1 Nova is not in the picture because my unit exploded (literally) during use...long story...haha...

Full contents of Perun 2 package:

Yours truly is glad that Olight has listened to the market with the inclusion of a headband. During the initial release of 2019 Perun, Olight was trying to market the Perun as a tool light, as an angle light, as a model breaking away from the 2017 H2R Nova and they decided not to include a headband in the package, after receiving feedback from their distributors, resellers and users, they quickly re-release the H2R headband as optional accessory. A number of resellers also decided to bundle the headband together with the Perun package (mostly at cost). However, do note that this headband is different from the H2R headband as this has 2 ring loop to insert the Perun 2 and you need to remove the pocket clip before you could do that, whereas the H2R headband has a magnetic backing and a fastener so removing the pocketclip is optional (you can just rotate the clip away).

Btw, no, Perun 2 will not fit into the H2R headband because body diameter of Perun 2 is ~6mm wider than that of Perun. So the strap/fastener is a tad short to secure Perun 2 onto the magnetic headband.

To sit the Perun 2 onto the included headband, first, remove the pocketclip:


there are 2 glove on the Perun 2 that perfectly align with the headband loops:


insert the Perun 2 like so (tail first):

and you have a fully functional Perun 2 headlamp.

Let's look at 3 generations of Olight headlamps:

from left, H2R Nova, Perun, Perun 2.


notice the body knurling patterns evolves from simple lines to texture to lines with helix cut... yours truly much prefers the 2019 Perun texture pattern among the three as it provides more grip.
the lens evolved from bead lens to wide-angle TIR lens. To be honest, both are great for headlamp and they exhibit similar beam profile.
the proximity sensor has also been... err... "enhance?" between Perun and Perun 2, more on that later.


the battery system has also evolved from 3000mAh(10.8Wh) to 3500mAh(12.6Wh) to 4000mAh(14.4Wh), from 18650 to 21700. The original 3000mAh battery of the H2R is however, and honestly, a bit of a disappointment due to the over-zealous over aggressive protection circuit limiting the true potential of the underlying high-drain battery (likely a Samsung 30Q). After just ~8 months of usage, the original ORB-186C30 can no longer sustain Turbo mode in H2R Nova. With the introduction of 21700-size battery in Perun 2, yours truly do expect the battery to last a bit longer not only in runtime, but in term of longevity.

there is one thing about the battery included in the Perun 2... Olight has been releasing models after models that uses the 5000mAh (18.0Wh) capacity battery (ORB-217C50), it puzzle yours truly why would Olight release Perun 2 with a lower capacity of 4000mAh?

The measured weight difference between 4000mAh and 5000mAh is less than 1g, 71.4g (ORB-217C40A) vs 72.2g (ORB-217C50). Price different are less than USD3.00 (some cost the same between 4000mAh and 5000mAh but different in discharge current). For the record, this is not the first time Olight uses 4000mAh 21700-size battery, the initial release of Seeker 2 (the non-Pro, Seeker 2 was released after Seeker 2 Pro) was using a 4000mAh ORB-217C40A (most early reviewer received this), but somehow, Olight decided to "upgrade" it to 5000mAh ORB-217C50 upon production release. Fun Fact: the older ORB-217C40A is different in diameter to the newer ORB-217C40A, although both carry the same SKU. The older ORB-217C40A is wider and won't fit the Seeker 2 Pro battery tube, however, it does fit inside the Perun 2. On the other hand, the newer ORB-217C40A does slides into the Seeker 2 Pro battery tube without issue, albeit slowly. It's actually pretty "zen" watching how the Perun 2's 21700 ORB-217C40A battery slowly sinking into Seeker 2 Pro tube. Yes, I know, I'm weird.

Continue with a few closed-up shot of Perun 2...

head contact spring.


body tube dual polarity contacts, it's a trimmed spring contacts.


body tube threading and Oring. from this picture, you can see the deeply cut helix pattern.


ORB-217C40A 4000mAh battery dual polarity contacts.


ORB-217C40A 4000mAh battery in its full glory.


the ORB-217C40A to be inserted negative side (the flat side) facing the Perun 2 head.


really large button switch of Perun 2.
The UI of Perun 2 is the same as other e-switch UI from Olight, that is:

• To turn ON/OFF: Single click the head-switch
• To switch mode: Press-and-Hold the head-switch, when Perun 2 is ON, to cycle through Low-Medium-High mode
• To get Moon mode: make sure Perun 2 is OFF, Press-and-Hold the head-switch for 1 second and release the head-switch when Perun 2 is turned-ON in Moon mode. Actually, no Moon mode in Perun 2 as the output of this mode is 5 lumens.
• To get Turbo mode: In either ON/OFF state, Double-click the head-switch. If you double-click the head-switch again while in Turbo mode, Perun 2 will return to the previous mode that you were in (Moon, Low or Medium) before switching to Turbo mode except for High mode. If you were in High mode and double-click to go Turbo, double-clicking again will return you to Medium mode and not High mode.
• To get S.O.S. mode: In either ON/OFF state, Triple-click the head-switch... and no, unlike Turbo mode, triple-clicking again will not return you to previous mode but will continue to get you S.O.S. mode. When you are in Strobe mode, single click will turn the Perun 2 Off, double-click will switch to Turbo mode, and Press-and-Hold will go to Low mode.
• To engage Electronic Lockout: With Perun 2 in OFF state, Press-and-Hold the head-switch for ~2 seconds (the Moon mode - 5 Lumens will come ON and go OFF), release the head-switch. When Electronic Lockout is engaged, pressing the head-switch will turn Perun 2 Moon mode On momentarily and if you continue to hold down for more than 2 seconds, it will disengage the Electronic lockout.
• To disengage Electronic Lockout: Press-and-Hold the head-switch for ~2 seconds (the Moon mode will come ON), you can now release the head-switch and Perun 2 will be back to normal operations. Another way to disengage the electronic lockout is to loosen (separate) the Perun 2 battery/body tube and then tighten the battery/body tube back, this will effectively cut off the power supply to the driver and reset Perun 2 to default settings.

the body tail side magnetic charging contacts. The MCC3 will magnetically slap itself onto this contact points.

about charging, MCC3 will charge Perun 2 at ~2A if the battery is close to empty (Perun 2 has vibration alert every 30 seconds when battery has less than 10% juice left):


and the temperature at the MCC3 charger during this ~2A charging:


in case you are new to this MCC3 charger, when the charging indicator light turns from Red to Green, it doesn't mean your battery is full and charging stops:

MCC3 indicator turns green when battery is approximately 95% full, it will continue for another 35-45 minutes at lower charging rate to complete the charge. No, it doesn't trickle charge. Trickle charging LiIon battery is bad, really bad.




now, the charging completed. 0.00A draws.

however, you need to know that although MCC3 doesn't draw any current to charge the battery, your battery is not full as in 4.20V full. It's only 4.14-4.16V. This is done in the name of prolonging the battery life... but if you are like me, where I like to have as full a battery as possible to use with my lights, I don't like this "pseudo-full" battery, so the method I use to get a 4.20V fully charge battery is to switch from MCC3 to the MCC1A charger and continue the charge:

99.9% of the time, I get a 4.20V fully charge battery using this method. But again, I'm weird like that, don't be like me...

and a couple of more glory shots of Perun 2...






and the XHP50.2 LED:

also notice the small hole on top of the lens? that's the sensor...
speaking of this Perun 2 sensor, I believe testers and reviewers who has both the Perun and Perun 2 will agree that the sensor on Perun 2 is more "aggressive". Meaning, the sensor range is further than that of the 2019 Perun. See below video:

that's one great difference between Perun 2 and the 2019 Perun.
however, disappointingly, Perun 2 has the same 60-second turn-off setting if the sensor continue detecting blocking object in its proximity range.

moving on, I would really like to praise Olight for the following change...

a deeper pocket carry pocketclip!

Let's compare:

now the new clip allows for deeper pocket carry. Thank you Olight!
also, look at that Perun 2 head sink fins...

and hiding behind the pocketclip, a DataMatrix barcode, this is not a QRCode, it's a DataMatrix barcode! and this DataMatrix barcode encodes the serial number of the Perun 2.


for completeness, I present to you the 3 generations of Olight's advertised output:


and then my measured output:

The usual disclaimer: I do not claim the above measured lumens as authoritative nor an indication of over/under-stating the number given by manufacturer. It's calibrated against some known light output (e.g. SureFire, Elzetta, etc.) so take it with a grain of salt and just as a relative reading.

the Perun 2 Turbo Mode runtime... twice... why twice? because the world could use more Turbo Mode love!


and the runtime plot for Turbo Mode vs High Mode:


below are beam-shots comparing the output of H2R Nova, Perun 2, Perun and Perun Mini:




In summary, the difference between Perun 2 and the 2019 Perun are:

• Battery: 21700 4000mAh vs 18650 3500mAh
• Output: 2500 lumens vs 2000 lumens
• Sensor: longer range sensing (this isn't necessarily a good thing)
• Pocketclip: Perun 2 allows for deeper pocket carry
• Body knurling: just look at the pictures above
• Headband: The inclusion of headband in Perun 2 package

In conclusion, would I recommend this Perun 2? Well, I wasn't going to, but am now (but, it's still a no if your sole purpose is to use it as a headlamp due to the hefty built) because I discover that I can reliably disable the sensor. See picture below:

Yes, that's Tact-It from Faber-Castell, a reusable putty-like adhesive. There are other similar products, e.g. the popular Bostik's Blu-Tack. I found that the black putty works best, and black works reliably to disable the sensor, other colors not so. The reason I was able to perform the runtime test with my home-made lightbox is due to this trick. I've also been able to disable the sensor of the 2019 Perun using this, albeit with a bit more care. So there you have it, now you know what I know.

Thank you for reading.

UPDATE 2020.12.11: New Runtime Plotted for different battery capacity - 4000mAh (ORB-217C40A) vs 5000mAh (ORB-217C50)

Forgot to mention that Perun 2 (and 2019 Perun) does support the use of normal high drain button top battery as long as the length of the 21700 or 18650 makes contact. Of course, you won't be able to recharge using the MCC3 charger.

Great review!!! Thank you for the great info on the line-up.

ca pow said:

Great review!!! Thank you for the great info on the line-up.

Click to expand...

thank you very much for the kind words. appreciate it.

Sliding Perun 2 battery into Seeker 2 Pro...

UPDATE 2020.12.11: New Runtime Plotted for different battery capacity - 4000mAh (ORB-217C40A) vs 5000mAh (ORB-217C50)

Great Review! Detail photos and comparisons are great. Ever since the 21700 has become more popular, I have been looking for a single cell headlamp that trades the 18650 form factor/weight for higher outputs/capacity in a 21700.

I couldn't bring myself to get the Nitecore HC 35 with it's USB plug. Just looked too vulnerable to water. Acebeam's H30 is the same, and looked way clunky.

This light definitely improves on their design, but it makes me sad that Olight chose a simple timed stepdown on the turbo. I would much rather seen temperature regulated output over a proximity sensor.

Don't plan on using the light under the sink, or outside when its snowing, raining, or working arround close promity of objects arround your head while your working on something within arms reach. As any of those circumstance produce annoying proxy switch undesirable lamp flicking back in forth every second between high and mid or turbo and mid. This is a good light if your in a boat or walking a trail in perfect weather, that is it. The proxy switch earns this product a 2 star at best.

I'm thinking about buying my fourth Olight H2R. I need to decide soon as I can't wait to return this Purun 2 headlamp as I find it quite annoying to use for underground mechanic work for 3 reasons when comparing it to the H2R.

What I find extremely annoying about his lamp. Your trying to see what your working on on high mode, and the proxy keeps cycling the mode between high and medium, turning it into a slow strobe light. This is awful guys, I find it distracting.

It also does this if your outside in a blizzard on high or turbo mode.

I don't like that the beam is spottier than the h2r which is quite floody. my neck is strained more as I have to move my head more to see what I'm looking at (tunnel vision). I'm a mechanic

the lamp is significantly heavier than the H2R, my neck is quite fatigued (on a hard had with a beacon & 2 big earmuffs) with the excess weight and tunnel vision of the the tighter spotty beam.

this light would be a great light in a perfect world, where there is no weather or filth that can affect the proxy. maybe its only good for walking. For me its only worth using till the H2R comes in.

Is the proxy switch sensitivity even more annoying on the first gen Perun?

I wore out two h2r's to the point of flickering, and the 3rd was was stolen. Now i'm stuck with an old h2r which flickers and a brand new perun 2 which flickers by design...
Any other manufactures that have a floody lamp that is almost as bright at the h2r?

Sorry for the highjack, people need to know.