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The Baton 3 came out joint top with the Fenix E18R V2 in my best pocket torch for every day carry (EDC) roundup. The Baton 4 torch is a relatively minor upgrade but the new optional charging case has some great new features which makes this one of my favourite all round pocket torches.
Overview
You can get the torch in a few colours with or without the charging case. I’m testing the Premium version with the charging case all in OD green, with rather flashy gold accents and a gold pocket clip. You can also get it in blue or black and additionally without the case in so-called Candy Cane.
In the box you get the torch itself with its two-way deep carry pocket clip already installed, the charging case with a lanyard and even a pin to install it, a USB-A to USB-C charging cable, a lens cleaning cloth and an instruction manual. The version without a case comes with a soft pouch and Olight’s proprietary magnetic charging cable.
The torch comes with a 650mAh 16340 lithium-ion battery, an upgrade on the Baton 3’s 550mAh battery. This proprietary battery can only really be recharged in the torch itself with its recessed positive terminal. Although a little magnet attached to this terminal will get around this at a pinch.
Although the premium version doesn’t come with a magnetic charging cable, it’ll still charge with one if you have a spare. And its magnetic base makes it a useful work light.
But the charging case is the real selling point here. It charges with the included USB-A to USB-C cable but importantly also with a USB-C to USB-C cable.
The case has a built in 5000mAh 21700 lithium-ion battery and will charge in around 2.5 hours. The case will charge the Baton 4 five times in just one hour. And it’s great to see this case now has two-way USB-C charging, so you can charge your gadgets too. It doesn’t have USB PD output which would have been nice for fast charging the latest tech, but it does support up to 12W output, or 2.4A at 5V. Enough to charge even the latest smartphones or a tablet in reasonable times. It has enough capacity and output to just about charge my iPhone 15 Pro Max from empty.
The case has a few more new features too. There’s now a button on the case which can operate the torch with the lid open, and has a digital display of the remaining battery level when charging and discharging. You can also check the current battery level with a single press. It’s a very useful feature being able to see the precise battery level.
When you open the lid, you’ll also see a charging LED for the battery level of the torch itself which changes from red to green when the torch is fully charged.
The new curved design of the charging case lets you just about access the torches power button, but more usefully the case button can operate the torch. What’s more it lets you smoothly ramp up and down the brightness level. You can stop at the exact brightness you want. If you remove the torch from the case it will remain at this level, but the torch itself doesn’t let you smoothly ramp brightness which I’ll come back to. The torch will memorise its last brightness level in or out of the case. There’s no proximity sensor on the Baton 4 but closing the charging case lid will turn off the torch automatically.
You can use the torch in its case like this for super long run times – 190 days in moonlight mode! But the lid does get in the way and I find the case very slippery to hold in my hand. That’s possibly where the included lanyard may be useful. For me it’s more useful in candle mode, pointing straight up to the sky or ceiling.
If you turn the torch on with a long press for the 0.5 lumen moonlight mode, you can press and hold the button again to ramp all the way up to the 1300 lumen turbo mode. Press and hold it again to ramp all the way down again to low mode. Unfortunately you can’t change ramp direction part way through a ramp. So if I’m ramping up and then want to lower the brightness level, I need to ramp all the way to the blinding turbo mode, and then ramp down again. The only way around this is to turn the torch off and turn it back on in moonlight mode with a long press. And then again ramp up to your desired level.
There’s also no direct access to turbo mode with a double press of the charging case button but as I mentioned you can access the torches power button if you want.
The charging case can conveniently charge and store almost the entire line-up of Olight’s tiny torches, including the Baton 3, Perun 2 Mini, Perun Mini and the S1R II. The Baton 3 can be operated by the charging case power button and ramping also works, but you don’t get access to the moonlight mode. I’m not sure about all the other supported torches but the Perun 2 Mini won’t operate with the charging case button and more importantly doesn’t turn off with the lid closing like the Baton 4 and Baton 3 – so don’t leave it in turbo mode and close the lid or you might melt something. You do also need to line up the pocket clip correctly on the Perun 2 Mini for the lid to close.
It’s worth noting that the Baton 3 charging case doesn’t charge the Baton 4, or the Perun 2 Mini for that matter.
Overall the new charging case is great but it is a fair bit bigger (65x32x88mm / 2.56×1.26×3.46in) and heavier than the Baton 3 case. The case alone weighs 143g (5.04oz) without the torch, compared to 112g (3.95oz) for the Baton 3.
The Baton 4 itself is almost identical in size to the Baton 3 and weighs the same too at 53g (1.87oz) with the pocket clip. Without the pocket clip it’s only 48g (1.69oz). It’s 63mm (2.48in) long and a fraction over 21mm (0.83in) wide. You barely notice it in your pocket but it’s maybe a little big for a keyring although that’ll come down to personal preference.
Like pretty much every Olight torch I’ve tested it’s very well made, constructed mostly of aluminium and comes with an IPX8 rating, so it’s waterproof but has no dust proof rating. As a comparison the very comparable Fenix E18 V2 has an IP68 rating. I’d really like Olight to get a certification for dust proofing for a carry everywhere torch like this. The charging case has no IP rating – I confirmed this with Olight. Which is disappointing since the Baton 3 charging case has an IPX2 rating.
But it does have springs contacts on both terminals of the battery which should protect it from drops to a certain extent – it comes with a 1.5m drop test rating.
It looks very similar to the Baton 3 but has slightly more aggressive knurling and now comes with a metal switch with a brightness level and battery level indicator on either side. This is another useful feature for a torch like this – at a glance I know how much power the torch has remaining.
The torch has the typical Olight user interface which I really like. A single press turns it on and off and it’ll remember the last mode apart from turbo – it’ll come back on in high.
A long press with the torch off enters the 30 day 0.5 lumen moonlight mode. Hold the button to cycle between the 35 hour 12 lumen low mode, 8 hour 60 lumen medium mode and 7 minute 600 lumen high mode that then drops to 300 lumens for 72 minutes.
A double press of the power button with the torch on or off takes you straight to the 1300 lumen turbo mode. I’ll test runtimes in this mode shortly.
A triple press of the power button again with the torch on or off takes you to the 1300 lumen 13Hz strobe mode.
There’s also their usual timer function that shuts the torch off after 3 or 9 minutes. Choose your desired brightness level and then double press holding the second press. The torch with flash once for the 3 minute timer and twice for the 9 minute timer. This is a useful feature for camping.
The 3 brightness level LEDs correspond to the low, medium and high modes although moonlight mode also lights one LED. The LEDs flash in turbo mode.
Performance
There’s a single LED behind the TIR (Total Internal Reflection) lens. Olight doesn’t specify the exact LED used but it’s only available in cool white unfortunately with a colour temperature ranging from 5700 to 7000K. In turbo mode I measured 5734K but with a lower than spec’d CRI of 65.
And there’s a slightly green tint with a Duv of 0.0077. This tint is worse at lower outputs with a Duv of 0.0171 in low mode and an even more noticeable green tint.
I tested the runtime in turbo mode with a fully charged battery in my calibrated DIY lumen chamber. I got an impressive 1458 lumens at turn on which only dropped to 1431 lumens at the ANSI FL1 standard 30 second mark and didn’t drop below Olight’s spec’d 1300 lumens for over a minute. It slowly dropped to its high mode at around 1 minute 45 seconds which I measured at 613 lumens and it held this for around 5 minutes before dropping to around 300 lumens where it remained for just under 40 minutes. The output is beautifully regulated but I didn’t quite get the runtimes Olight list. They state it should be able to hold the 300 lumens for 73 minutes.
It’s worth noting that runtimes in real use, typically with a cooling breeze will be better. It’s likely the torch is dropping its brightness at a certain temperature. I measured the temperature of the torch with a thermal imaging camera and the head didn’t get above 45°C as you can see above so runs fairly cool.
The Baton 4 has an excellent beam for EDC – it has enough spill for close up work, but outside its range in turbo mode is quite impressive. Olight specifies 170m or 7225 candela which is a fair bit more than the comparably sized Olight Warrior Nano which has the tail switch and even exceeds the much larger albeit floody 2500 lumen Baton 3 Pro Max. You can see how it compares to various similiar sized Olight torches above and other manufacturers’ torches below.
Conclusions
The Baton 4 on its own is a great little torch. It’s small enough for almost any pocket, has impressive output and it has a simple easy to use user interface.
But it’s the charging case that really sets this torch apart and makes it attractive to a wider audience. It’s not a lot bigger than a lot of portable power banks, so even if you only have an occasional need for a torch, you could carry it around with you or stash it in the car – for emergency power and light. The power bank feature could be improved with an extra port and USB Power Delivery support, but it’s still useful as it is.
For the Olight enthusiast it supports most similarly sized Olight torches which makes it very convenient and it has the digital battery level and ramping feature.
I only really have a few minor criticisms. I didn’t get the runtimes Olight advertises – in turbo mode at least. And the green tint, especially at lower outputs was noticeable. I’d personally like higher CRI for better quality of light too. I don’t think most people buying this torch will care about the tint or the CRI, but it’s still something I hope Olight can improve upon. I’d at least like to see a warmer LED as an option, like they have for the Baton 3 Pro and some of their other torches.
There’s nothing quite like the Baton 4 with the charging case, but there are a few other similar torches you might consider. From Olight, the Warrior Nano is a great little torch with a tail switch. It’s a little larger but has longer runtimes with its bigger battery. Similarly the underrated Thrunite T1S also runs off the bigger 18350 and has a similar user interface to the Baton 4. The Fenix E18 V2 is another great option which takes standard CR123 batteries too, but I do miss having direct access to the turbo mode. You can see my roundup of my favourite pocket and keychain torches if you’re after more help choosing the perfect EDC torch.
Buy direct from Olight – it helps support this site and my YouTube channel and if you use the discount code TTM10 you’ll get 10% off non-sale items!
Christmas sale up to 40% off! Use my code DEC12 to get an additional £5 off everything (except Oclip) – on top of sale prices!
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