NEWS – Last year, I reviewed the Olight Arkfeld flashlight that had a unique flat design and then earlier this year, Kenneth reviewed the newer Arkfeld UV flashlight. I really liked the flat shape of the Arkfeld and at the time, I wondered if other flashlight makers would try creating lights with a similar form factor. It appears that the answer is yes because I just ran across the Wedge flashlights from Streamlight. Like the Olight Arkfeld lights, the Wedge lights have a flat shape with a pocket clip on one side. Unlike Olight, Streamlight Wedge lights have the power button on the tail of the light and they can be charged with USB-C, both are nice differences in my opinion. Price-wise, the larger Streamlight Wedge can be had on Amazon for less than $85. And the more compact/newer Wedge XT should show up there soon.
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I think these are a thing for sure. Especially for people that want to put them in EDC kits/pouches/bags since they sit better when flat in those pockets and elastic straps. Even for people that want to clip them to a pocket/belt as well. I was recently shopping for a small flashlight to carry and ended up buying a RovyVon Angel Eyes E3 because it was flat so that I could fit it in a specific pocket of something.
$85 to replace a round flashlight that you can get for $15? It’s marketing insanity.
The price will come down but the build on these things like with OLED and the like is amazing.
Many people say the same thing about knives. I’m in the buy once/cry once category.
Absolutely, I’d rather spend the money at once on something that is the most effective and user-friendly that I actually enjoy owning than spreading it out over cheap products that just “do the job”.
You can get some decent keychain and tiny pocket lights for $15 but a main flashlight for 15 is going to be some generic sweatshop junk unless you get really lucky. It’s not going to be reliable or well designed particularly in terms of UI. Of course that’s up to you, I’m an enthusiast so I’ll buy some stuff you’ll definitely call unnecessary anyway but I’ll say a $15 light is very different from a $40 light. Although, I do think that a lot of them are overpriced these days the price from these flat designs come from them needing more expensive manufacturing procedures, they’ll hopefully get cheaper once they are more common.
How do you like the new Nitecore’s? With the strobe and variable settings, I use it as a nightstand flashlight as well as for the outdoors.
Do you mean the EDC27 that I reviewed?
https://the-gadgeteer.com/2023/03/27/nitecore-edc27-flashlight-review/
I like it for the crazy 3000 lumens that it puts out, but it gets HOT!
I won’t be getting one yet despite loving the style for one main reason: I’m yet to see one with a replaceable battery. These already look to be quite overpriced so I’m not going to pay that for something that’s only going to serve me for a few years (until it stops holding a charge). I don’t mind if I have to buy specialist cells like on drones and AEGs, just let us replace them! I’m also fussy about tint, CRI and DUV so there’s that problem too with most of the current offerings, Nichia 519a exists so why is this a problem we still have?
Agree! After a 2-4yrs of charge cycles the battery will likely be less efficient or completely dead. These need some sort of replaceable battery solution. I like the shape… But non-replaceable kills it for me. Even if it a special gum-stick battery that Mini-disc players used back in the day.