A flashlight that is small enough for your pocket but casts a bright beam of light is an important part of everyone’s EDC. But the downside most flashlights is that their batteries always seem to be dead just when you need to use one. The Olight S2R gets around that problem because you can recharge the battery right in the flashlight. Let’s check it out.
What is it?
The Olight S2R Baton is a small pocket sized LED flashlight that has six light modes and a rechargeable battery.
What’s in the box?
Olight S2R Baton flashlight
18650 battery
Lanyard
Drawstring bag
USB charging cable
User manual
Design and features
The Olight S2R Baton flashlight is 4.125 inches long, with a black steel case that weighs 3.6 oz (101.5g) and has knurling around the grip.
The flashlight has an IPX8 rating and uses a Cree XM-L2 LED which has a max of 1020 lumens when in turbo mode and a very dim .5 lumens in moon mode.
It comes with a detachable steel pocket clip and a lanyard that attaches to the eyelet in the tail cap.
The S2R Baton flashlight has a side switch with a rubber cover for easy activation and really good tactile feedback. The side button also has an LED under it which glows red when the battery is low.
The tail cap is flat and magnetic. Which means that you can attach the flashlight to a flat steel surface for hands-free use.
The tail cap unscrews to reveal the battery compartment. The Olight S2R comes with a3200mAh 18650 rechargeable lithium battery.
Charging is done using the included USB cable.
The flashlight connects to the charging cable via the magnetic tail cap. An LED around the cable glows red during the charging process.
The LED turns green when the battery has finished charging.
Using the Flashlight
The flashlight has six light modes that have different power requirements.
Turbo: 1020 lumens, 2+190 minutes
High: 500 lumens, 200 minutes
Medium: 120 lumens, 13 hours
Low: 12 lumens, 120 hours
Moon: 0.5 lumens, 60 days
Strobe: Unknown
Here’s my basement living room with the lights turned off. I used my Nexus 6P to take these images without using the flash.
Pressing and holding the side switch when the flashlight is off will switch it on in moon mode. This mode is so dim that if you’re in a well-lit room when you try it, you might think the light is still off until you look at the bulb.
If barely changes the brightness of the room. This mode is most likely used for people don’t want to ruin their night vision with a bright light, like when doing night / astronomy photography, etc.
If you hold the side switch when the light is on, it will cycle through the brightness modes. The image above is with the flashlight in Low brightness mode.
This is Medium brightness.
High brightness.
And the brightest level, Turbo mode. This mode is accessed by double pressing the side switch when the light is on.
Triple pressing the side switch puts the flashlight in strobe mode.
The Olight S2R also has a timer and lockout mode. The timer mode is used to set an automatic power off after 3 or 9 minutes and the lockout mode does what you’d expect it to do. It locks the flashlight so that button presses do not change the light mode.
Final thoughts
The S2R is comfortable to use. I really like the side switch a lot better than tail cap switches because they are easier to press in my opinion.
The flashlight does get warm if you leave it in turbo mode for several minutes. It doesn’t get warm enough to burn your hand, but it doubles as a nice hand warmer!
I really like the Olight S2R Baton flashlight. It’s the perfect size for a pocket or bag, puts out a LOT of light and can recharge using a cool magnetic USB charging cable. I’ll definitely be adding this one to my Julie’s Favorite Gear page very soon.
Update 01/16/19
This little flashlight sits on my desk and although I need to use it very often, when I do, it’s always ready to shine because it holds a charge for months. When it finally gets low, I can just pull out the nifty magnetic charger and walk away for a few hours while it does its thing and then it’s good for another couple months of standby. I like the size and the easy to press button on the barrel. For something I don’t use very often, it’s one of my all-time favorite flashlights.
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Olight World. Please visit their site for more info.
Product Information
| Price: | $72.95 |
| Manufacturer: | Olight |
| Retailer: | Olight World |
| Pros: |
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| Cons: |
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I have a similar flashlight made by Led Lenser. I bought a second battery so I would have back up power when needed. The only thing I don’t like about this type of light is that they don’t have a separate charger.
Do you mean a charger that requires you to remove the battery from the flashlight?
I have the S2R and thoroughly lke it. I bought additional chargers, so I have one at home, one in my car and the third at my office making sure I can replenish juice wherever I go – need to, since a good flashlight is an essential tool in my trade (pest control). The only issue is a missing focus – the S2R has a fixed beam and can not shift from wide to spot beam. But the 500 lm 3hr output more than compensates.
Yes to a separate charger, that way when the first dies you put in your spare and charge the other.
About Led Lenser, my favorite light is their P5. Runs one one AA battery, zooms for far away objects, and on wide has an incredibly smooth beam ( no hot spot ). Mine has now been upgraded to the P5.2
Proprietary charger connector? Sheesh. And it looks like you have to supply your own charger?
18650 rechargeable batteries are notoriously low quality – did the manufacturer indicate who’s making their batteries?
Can this work on stacked CR2 lithium batteries?
The charger comes with the flashlight. I don’t know the answers to your other two questions, but I’ll find out.
The battery is made by Panasonic and yes, you can use two CR2 batteries.
Thanks. Both of those answers are good. Panasonic makes good batteries and it’s nice you can throw in some lithium CR2s into your kit if you need extended battery time
Oh. Because your “What’s in the box” list doesn’t include a charger.
Oops! I’ll go fix that. Sorry!
Actually I did include it: “USB charging cable” with a picture 🙂
Hi, Thank you for the review. I don’t believe I saw how to initiate the timer. Besides this excellent review. Jim Benthin
Just purchased this light after much research on edc mini flashlights. I shop on a budget and have to make every dollar count. Your review was by far the most helpful of those I found. Thank you very much for this excellent review.
Julie,
Cool to read that you have the Olights in the USA as well. Personally I do own the Olight M2R Pro Warrior, which has a more bundled beam. It is so well build, that I don’t think I’ll switch to another brand shortly.