Olight currently have their Halloween sale. Many of their torches have up to 40% off, and they’ve released a few new colours and designs. If you use OGIDON10 you can get an extra 7% off sale prices – and it also helps support my website and YouTube channel – thank you!
The Olight Prowess I reviewed a while back is now available in orange, the Olight i3E which did very well in my keychain torch roundup is free in Nocturnal Sentinal with any order during the sale, and Olight now have the Arkflex I’m covering in this review with a Skeleton and Pumpkin design.
Overview
The Olight Arkflex has a flat design with a a 90° swivel head. It boasts 1000 lumens in Turbo mode and can run for almost 7 hours in its medium 100 lumen mode, off its integrated 1050mAh battery.
The swivel mode makes it a very versatile torch. With its included pocket clip you can mount it on a rucksacks’ chest strap for hiking upside down – swivelling the head up to 90° to see the trail. It’s even compatible with the Perun 2 head strap so you could use it as a head torch as well if you prefer. Additionally with its magnetic base it’s also useful as worklight.
Its slim 17mm design and weight at only 101g makes it perfect for EDC (Everyday Carry) as well. With the excellent full length two-way pocket clip, upside down it’ll almost disappear in your pocket. And there are two screws to remove this clip if you want.
The build quality is up to the usual Olight standard made almost entirely of aluminium and comes with a 1m drop and IPX7 waterproof rating. The hingle for the swivel feels very robust and stays put. Olight claims its design has been tested with 10,000 swivels.
In the box you just get the torch, its magnetic charging cable and the user manual. Its available in black or orange, with a limited Skeleton and Pumpkin version for Halloween.
There’s only magnetic charging – I’d really like to see USB-C charging as well. But the magnetic charging is super convenient – and if you have a few Olight torches you tend to have spare charging cables. A full charge takes around 1 hour 40 minute.
The torch has a pretty simple interface. The power button turns it cycles through the various brightness modes if you hold it down – the last mode used is memorised. There’s a 15 lumens, 38 hour low mode, a 100 lumen 6 hour 50 minute medium mode and a 400 lumens 90 minute high mode. Double press the power button with the torch on or off for the 4 minute 1000 lumens turbo mode. I’ll measure the Turbo mode’s true output and runtime shortly. A triple press with the torch on or off will activate the strobe mode. Finally you can access the 1.5 lumen 10 day moonlight mode with a long press of the power button with the torch off. If you keep hold of the power button when moonlight mode comes on the light will turn off and it will enter lock mode. One of the battery LEDs will light red. Press and hold the button again to unlock and enter moonlight mode. In normal use the 4 battery LEDs indicate the remaining battery life.
Performance
The two LEDs behind a TIR lens are specified as a cool white 6500K. I measured the colour temperature with a colour spectrometer in Turbo mode.
They came in at 6662K with a very neutral Duv of -0.0008. The colour accuracy was a little better than the spec’d 70 coming in at 75. Olight’s don’t tend to have the best quality of light – but the Arkflex is a little better than others I’ve tested. Although I would like to see a warmer LED option also available.
Next I measured runtime in Turbo mode with a fully charged battery in my calibrated DIY lumen chamber. I measured 1035 lumens at turn on which only dropped to 1030 lumens at 30 seconds and then started dropping to 420 lumens after around 2 minutes. So it meets its spec’d 1000 lumens based on the ANSI FL1 standard – the output measured 30 seconds after turning the torch on. But it couldn’t hold this for the full 4 minutes Olight claim in their user manual. And it only managed less than an hour at 420 lumens – not the 90 minutes Olight claim. It still has a beautifully a regulated output in all its lower modes and it barely gets warm even after running Turbo for two minutes. I measured the head of the torch at just 36°C with my thermal imaging camera.
The Arkflex has a floody beam with just 85m range or 1900cd. It makes it a good EDC torch but if you need more of a focused beam for more range you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Conclusions
The Arkflex makes a great EDC torch. It fits comfortably in a jeans pocket with its flat design, light weight and excellent pocket clip. The swivel head makes it very versatile. With its magnetic base you can use it as a worklight, but it’s works just as well attached to the strap of your rucksack or even your belt. Being able to adjust the swivel precisely makes it very useful for hiking and a nice alternative to a head torch. And in foggy conditions, that we get a lot of around here, keeping the torch lower avoids blinding yourself with the reflections off the fog.
I would have liked USB-C charging and the non-replaceable integrated battery means it’s not for everyone. The capacity of the battery is a little on the low side too – you’ll need to charge it regularly if you want to use the higher output modes.
Overall if you’re after a versatile EDC torch this should definitely be on your shortlist.
Don’t forget to take a look at my YouTube video at the top of the page, and again please subscribe to my YouTube channel where I’m releasing videos every week on the latest technology and how to get the most out of it. If you tap the bell icon when you subscribe you’ll get a notification as soon as I release a video, and there’ll be a link to my site here for the written article. YouTube is also the best place to leave a comment. I read all of them and respond to as many as I can!
Purchase directly from Olight with up to 40% off in their Halloween sale and a free Olight i3E in Nocturnal Sentinel. Use OGIDON10 for an additional 7% off and help support this website and my YouTube channel – thank you!
Olight Arkflex UK: https://www.olightstore.uk/s/Z6XTKO (currently 30% off – with extra 7% using my code above)
Olight Arkflex US: https://www.olightstore.com/s/R9V3N7
Amazon (affiliate) links:
Olight Arkflex: https://amzn.to/3YywUMP
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