The power goes out at nine on a winter evening and you go straight to the drawer. The torch is in there. You press the button and nothing happens, because the last person to use it left it on, or because it has been sitting on three-year-old batteries. Now you are looking for batteries in the dark, on your phone's screen light, watching your phone battery fall while you do it.
This is a full-size rechargeable torch built around a different idea: you should be able to see how much charge is left before you need it.
Here's how it works.
There is a small digital display on the body, just above the power button. It shows the remaining charge as a number. Not a green light that means "probably fine" and not three bars that have meant three bars for a year. A number. You walk past the drawer, you glance at it, you know. And when it does need charging, it takes the same USB-C cable that charges everything else in the house.
The head slides. Push it forward and the beam widens out to cover the whole garden, the whole garage, the whole room. Pull it back and the beam narrows and reaches, down the driveway, along the fence line, into the treeline where the dog is barking at something. Two beams from one body, changed with one hand, without stopping.
There is also a second port under the same rubber flap. It is a USB-A output, and it charges a phone. During an outage that turns one object into two pieces of preparation: the light stays on and the phone stays alive.
At 27.5 cm (10.83 in) it is a full-size light with a real grip, not a keyring toy that disappears in a gloved hand. It ships with a shoulder sling, which sounds like a throwaway accessory until the first time you clip it to an open tailgate or a raised bonnet and get both hands back while it lights the work in front of you.
The gear it replaces:
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The drawer torch on disposable batteries - you never know its state, and the batteries corrode in place between the two times a year you reach for it.
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Your phone's screen light - it lights about three feet of ground and drains the one device you actually need during an outage.
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A separate power bank - one more thing to keep charged, in one more drawer, usually flat when it matters.
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A second wide-beam work light - the sliding head covers both jobs, so there is one light to keep charged instead of two.
What's in it:
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Digital charge display - the remaining percentage shown as a number on the body, readable without switching the light on
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Sliding zoom head - wide flood for an area, narrow spot for distance, changed one-handed
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Four output modes - high, medium, low and flash, cycled from the single button, so you can run low and make the charge last the evening
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USB-C charging in - the cable already in your kitchen, your truck and your laptop bag
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USB-A power out - charges a phone from the torch's own cell
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Detachable shoulder sling - carry it across the body on a walk, or hang it and work with both hands
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Machined grip ribbing - holds in a cold or wet hand
Specifications:
- Product type: Handheld rechargeable LED torch
- Length: 27.5 cm (10.83 in)
- Head diameter: 7 cm (2.76 in)
- Beam: Sliding zoom head, wide flood to narrow spot
- Output modes: High / Medium / Low / Flash
- Controls: Single button, cycles modes
- Charge indicator: Digital percentage display on the body
- Battery: Built-in rechargeable lithium, 2400 mAh
- Charging in: USB-C, from wall, laptop or vehicle
- Power out: USB-A, charges a phone
- Included: Torch, USB cable, detachable shoulder sling
- Intended use: Power outages, property checks after dark, camping, roadside and vehicle work
- Intended user: Households and outdoor users who want one dependable light
A note on brightness. You will see torches this size advertised with five-figure lumen numbers. We are not going to quote one, because we have not measured it and neither, in most cases, has anyone else quoting them. What we will tell you is exactly what this light does and exactly what comes in the box, and let the rest be a pleasant surprise rather than a disappointment.
No guessing. No flat batteries. No hunting for AAs at eleven at night.
