Review: Skilhunt H02 Headlamp with Full HD Video Review and Pictures.

Ok, so this one took me a while. Well 2 weeks, but it’s done and it marks my second Skilhunt review, with the H02 Headlamp graciously sent to me by Skilhunt for review. In the video review you’ll see night footage, testing, and some nice waterfall scenery plus full runtime animations. The video is where I spent most of my time, so consider that the main review.

Anyway, I won’t skimp on a picture review either, so here goes. The H02 is Skilhunt’s entry into the 18650 sized headlamp category.

Here are the specs for the lamp as provided by Skilhunt.

Battery (1x) 18650, (2x) CR123 , (2x) 16340, (2x) RCR123
Operating Voltage 3v-9v
LED XML-2
Color Black
Accessories Manual, Warranty Card, o-rings, magnet replace o-ring, lanyard, clip, headband
Length 110mm/4.33in
Body Diameter 22.8mm/.9in
Head Diameter 31mm/1.22in
Weight 63g/2.2oz
Impact Resistance 1.5m
Water Resist Rating IPX-8
Body Construction Type III Anodized Aluminum
Lens Bead Surface

Here are the output ratings given by Skilhunt.

FL1 Standard Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4
Output Lumens 820 550 280 5
Runtime 1 hr 1 hrs 45 mins 4 hrs 120 hrs

So first up, let’s go over the basics- the exterior. How does it look? Well it measures up with just about any other premium light. The anodization is perfect, as should be expected.

It has a beaded glass optic, that is held into place by a stainless steel bezel. One thing to not is that the beads are on the outside of the light, so it’s rough to the touch. This is runs opposite to the Armytek wizard, which is smooth to the touch. Maybe the Wizard Pro has it facing inward?

It comes with a nice clip that allows you to carry the light on your backpack or wherever.

Inside you’ll find a spring at either end that will help with shock reduction if you were to drop it.

You can see the magnet in this photo. You can replace it with the thick black o-ring seen in the video if you want. You just need a tiny Philips screwdriver.

The H02 has an electronic switch. It isn’t sensitive enough to active in your pocket, save for a heavy jarring, but it’s also easy enough to intentionally activate with your thumb. If we consider the Armytek one of the more harder electronic switches to depress, and the Sunwayman D40A an easy switch to depress, figure that it falls in the middle to the slight Armytek side of the scale.

It fits nicely in your hand too.

So this is the second light now that I have with a magnet in the tail cap. It works well and held firmly to a variety of metal surfaces. You can even see it picking up some rocks from the stream bed in the first photo.

Alright how about the modes and user interface? The user interface is the same as the Skilhunt DS line, and it’s fully demonstrated in the video. It’s basically four modes with mode memory, and a hidden strobe. A quick press to turn it on and scroll through the modes, and a long press to turn it off. Here is what the mode spacing looks like. I am putting them in the order they are laid out in the user interface.

How about let’s compare it to a few other popular lights. All these lights are set to their maximum output levels.

And now a few closeups of the beam profile and a comparison to the Wizard Pro.

How about runtimes?

Level 1… This is the brightest runtime, but it only stays bright for a few minutes before stepping down to high mode. Then it stays fairly constant for two and a half hours before getting pretty dim. I shut it off about 4 hours in because it was pretty dim. Again this is shown fully in the video review.

Level 2… Almost exactly the same as Level 1, with pretty similar runtimes except it stays a little brighter a bit longer.

Level 3… Prrobably the best mode. It ran for well over 5 hours without losing much brightness. By 6 hours and 20 minutes it was probably only putting out 2 or 3 lumens.

Level 4… Last about 170 hours (A week and 2 hours) with an ending voltage of 2.56.

So there’s a section in the video where I compare it to the Armytek, you’ll have to watch the video for more on that… but here’s a few pictures I took of the lights together.

Anyway that’s about it. The light is really nice. It has zero detectable PWM- I don’t think it employs even it at high frequency, because I wasn’t able to detect it with the running water or fan blade method. The mode spacing is a little wonky, but it has a nice level 3 mode which gives a ton of nice bright runtime on a 18650 battery. All tests in this review were performed with a Shoshine 18650 3400 mah battery. Thanks for looking!

Thanks for the great review !

great review!

(i have to watch the vid when i have WLAN ;))

nice light, but that Wizard warm light though :heart_eyes:

enjoyed the video, and the review, thanks!

how is the switch? Hard to press, or not?

There are two things I don’t love about the Wizard though. The clip that comes with it is an absolute pain to remove. I feel like takinging it on and off a few times will scratch the light terribly. Also the PWM on the low mode is annoying, apparently it’s not visible on the Tiaras. Fun fact, I used the H02 to light a lot of the video I shot for the DS10 review.

Musicmagic answered it.

I don’t quite think Skilhunt have understood the importance of mode spacing. A low of 5 lumen is far too high, and the jump to the next mode of 280 lm is just crazy. I’d liked to have seen a sub lumen low, then a reasonable low - not such a massive jump.

Nice review, but the mode spacing kills it for me. I’m not sure I like the glossy black anodising either - the Armytech (and the Zebralight and Spark headlamps) look much better imho.

I like the outdoor shots :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

I don’t mind the anodizing, it seems like the same type that Nitecore and Sunwayman uses. But I understand when you compare it to the Armytek it falls a little short. Now that I own the Armytek I’d be curious to see what the long term durability is versus the Skilhunt.

Thank you! awesome review! has convinced me this new model skilhunt. It seems to have some really good finishes and very well built. Think more worthwhile to pay the extra money worth Armytek Skilhunt Wizard Pro or Skilhunt H02 would be a more correct buy considering the price? (39$ currently in BG group buy)

If you can’t find a good price on the Armytek, this is a good buy. That $39 price is pretty tempting.

Ok, so I am finally finishing up the final piece to this review. I was not able to take a photo montage of the Level 4 output, but it lasted a little over an entire week on the lowest output level. I turned it on Tuesday of last week at 5pm and it quit just about hour ago. That’s 170 hours on the lowest mode. Ending voltage was 2.56v on a Soshine 3400 mah battery.

I have a neutral Wizard Pro already but I may keep my eye on this one. It looks like a good performer and definitely would come in handy as a loaner. It seems like a good headlamp/cliplight for the money, in spite of the questionable mode spacing. I’d prefer the relative agility afforded by the H02’s 4 levels and UI shortcuts compared to the clumsier “more-is-more” UI of the Armytek.

Nice video review, by the way. Well done :smiley:

There’s definitely something to be said about the amount of modes and complexity built into the Armytek. I’ve actually had two, my first one had a sort of meltdown in the first week of ownership. But customer service from a vendor quickly got me a new one, and so far it’s been rock solid. The skilhunt has been a good performer though, and it is a good loaner light. It’ll be my backup hiking light, in case my Armytek freaks out.

Thanks for another nice review and entertaining video.

So not really any low voltage protection then? In reality the drop to the low (only available) level would be a pretty obvious sign of battery depletion. I would be curious to know at what voltage the lowest level kicks in if that's a simple test. I would be happy to run my Pannys to 2.5V but not some of my other cells.

No low voltage. But the light blinks before it steps down. But yeah it just keeps running and running. If you’d like I could throw one in and see how long goes or if it ever dies? For time constraints I cut the tests short, but the 2.6ish volts is quite low anyway so I figured most people probably wouldn’t run it that low. I find that most of the time when I’m using a light on a higher mode and it starts to significantly dim I throw in another battery anyway.

Thanks for the kind words on the video. I spend a lot of time on them, and try to throw in jokes and a few visual gags to keep them interesting. I’m probably the only person who writes an entire script for a flashlight review

I reckon there a quite a few of us that appreciate the videos mate. Always well done!

No need to run the light down more than 2.6V but I would like to know at what voltage it blinks and steps down to the lowest level. In other words, approximately when is the cell too far gone to support anything but the lowest level?

(Slightly OT, did you ever work out what was the issue with the Spark SG reverse polarity malfunction. My nephew is looking for a AA headlamp and I was a bit concerned after reading your review some time back.)

No, I wound up donating it to a member here. It was screwed up for sure- I wouldn’t trust a Spark for reversed polarity protection and they never got back to me about it either. I also began having problems with the SG5. The run times all significantly dropped (nearly in half) for both NIMH and 14500 batteries. Also the light flickers quite often and I have to smack it to get it to stop- until it starts again. Looks like some people had some flickering problems from that recent group buy too. Mind you I never abused the SG5 like I did the SG3, other than testing runtimes and letting it run about a dozen or more times until the light turned off. I’ve got a Fenix HL50 light coming and an Armytek Tiara I’ll do some reviews on.

I’ll get back to you on the H02, hopefully in a day or two.

Just read the SG thread again today. Seems your SG5 had some runtime quirks from the outset. I've been very happy with my SD73 and SX5, though I get a peculiar shorting problem with some AAAs in the SD73 from time to time. Still can't work out what's happening. Anyway - that's OT

No rush on the voltage issue with the H02 - whenever you get time will be fine.

I have the first version Armytek Wizard Pro (with the software bugs still in-situ) so doubt I'll be buying the Skillhunt but it seems like a pretty nice light for those who don't want to spend the extra cash on the Wizard. I was interested in the Tiara Pro so look forward to your comments on that and the HL50 in due course. Let's hope Armytek have got the Tiara right first time.