I’ll just include my observations here as a mini review, as people looking for reviews will find MHanlen’s.
First, I want to contradict the OP’s assertion in post 45 that it’s a “very floody” headlamp; it is not. His assertion is clarified and better-reflected in post 47, where he contrasts the H02 against headlamps which are in fact very floody. Perhaps he meant in post 45 that the projection is even—as in: the projection is one big, fairly even (if not extremely wide) hotspot. But evenness of beam does not equate to “very floody”, or wide width.
So, projection angle (which isn’t published, and on which, I’ll say politely, there is scant information) is much narrower than I anticipated. I was hoping the optic would be more of a “diffuser” (like frosted tape). But no, it’s actually a TIR (Total Internal Reflection) optic. This is good for many, but bad for me: I like bare-LED style “full flood” in my headlamps. The hostpot is surprisngly almost identical in size to an SK68 in flood mode (in other words, not extremely wide), but with a more diffuse edge. And of course, much brighter, with a much better tint (I got Neutral White). The throw cast from an SK68 in “bare LED” mode (lens removed) is almost precisely double the width of the H02 beam. Most people have an SK68 clone, so that can give you an idea.
This is a matter of preference, but I like to wear headlamps as clip-ons and necklaces, because in warmer months, insects like to fly at your face if you’re wearing a light on your head. Mule-like floods work well for those applications, as the light won’t be precisely aimed when clipped or hanging. When I tried to clip the H02 to me, the aim was always too left, right, high or low… just too narrow. So I tried it on the head mount.
One thing that wasn’t clear to me before the purchase, is this mount is made purely of rubber. The rubber itself is very soft and supple, which is very nice for mounting the rings. It’s just that there’s no plastic frame to help the rubber keep its shape. So, it can distort out of shape if you don’t have the flashlight evenly mounted. (I tried to push the neck, which is wider than the tube, through one of the mount holes, to more-center the emitter.)
On my head, the H02 did much better for me, due to much more precise aiming that head-mounting allows. I still like to have more even lighting for peripheral vision; again, preference. The H02 does not light up the whole room in front of you, but a circle in front of you. I feel this was not adequately revealed in feedback I read previously. I believe the angle to be similar to many reflectored flashlights, and probably also the reflectored H02R version, except with a smooth, even distribution of light within that hotspot. This was my biggest disappointment with the H02. But to others, that may be a plus.
I may try to remove the optic, but having been told the optic holds down the emitter star, I don’t have time to mess around with that now. But I’d like to in the future.
In every headlamp mount I’ve used, the light ironically felt lighter when I didn’t use the top head strap. This was no exception, and was probably the best example so far. Felt much lighter with the top strap disconnected. But it will take some doing to completely remove the top strap. Some of the strap connectors seemed to be threaded backwards; I’m not sure if this was intentional.
Tint was good. It was however more warm than cool. Pretty much a yellowish. Not as warm as incandescent and a “warm tint” LED lamp bulb I have. The SK68 beam looked very blue-ish next to it. I’d prefer a step towards cool (not sure what tint rating that would be), but the tint is good, and probably my favorite thing about the light. I would not want warmer than this. I understand the tint rating is 3C.
I personally like the interface. Let’s face it: with a soft switch, you’re going to have to hold down the button to do some kind of function. That will either be to turn it on, turn it off, or switch modes. You single-press to change modes. You single-press to turn it on (memory), double-click to turn on in Low mode, or hold to turn on in High mode. Makes a lot of sense. You hold to turn it off. Some people complain about that, BUT, think of it this way. Which do you do more: change modes, or turn the light off? For every time I turn the light on, I usually change modes at least once, often several times. So, I’d RATHER have single-press to change modes (instead of long-press to change modes, like ZEBRALIGHT). To me, this resembles the half-press of Reverse Click switches, and I think it’s intended to. (I prefer a hard switch anyway.) So to me, this is the best fundamental interface, better than Zebralight (not in mode numbers, just fundamental UI navigation), because I don’t like holding down to change modes. No one likes delays, but I’d rather hold down to turn off. For safety though, I think the safest is to hold down to turn ON, but this is not going to happen.
I would not carry the H02 in a pack (or pocket) without being in Lockout mode, and I don’t like to have to rely on that. This is one reason I just don’t like soft switches. Most of us have probably had a light accidentally turn on in a pack or pocket. Those occurrences usually (not always) involve soft switches (happened to a friend of mine with a twisty/momentary).
The switch is not hard to press. I could handle (and would probably prefer) a little firmer, for safety. It’s in a good position, and ‘clicks’. It’s actually perfect IMO if you’re not going to pack it anywhere (shelf queen).
The magnet is really nice to have. It holds the light, but not with the strap mount attached, as others have noted.
I expected to scratch the finish a bit with the clip, and did, even using silicone grease. But to be fair, I scratched my Zebralight’s finish a bit doing the same (though not as badly). So far, I think the clip is okay, and I don’t think it’s flimsy, unlike a comment I read. I think the shape of the clip is unusual and perhaps unnecessarily complex, though.
The next-closest light I have I can compare this to is a Zebralight H502 (AA/14500, full flood). I used to EDC the Zebralight until I apparently lost it (I can’t find it). I will never again spend that much money on an EDC light. Runtimes were short, and the GITD ‘reflector’ created an odd green cast to the light, but it was very light, easy to wear and carry (even more of a need for tailcap lockout, though); and the customizable modes were my favorite feature, effectively giving you double the modes.
Even though this light doesn’t use PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), it still produces a lot of RF (radio frequency/electromagnetic) radiation. Probably not as much as the Zebralight, but still a lot. The way you can test it, is to hold it to an AM radio, and change modes. Zebralight claimed their lights were shielded, but to me, that clearly wasn’t the case. If you don’t mind holding a cellphone to your ear when you talk, you won’t care about this. But personally, I would not use one of these on my forehead for many hours or over years. The worst LED RF offenders in my home are my LED lamp bulbs (I don’t use them at my bedside), which in turn are about as bad as CFL. LED’s themselves don’t emit EMR; it’s the driver circuitry. I have a single-mode XR-E flashlight that emits no detectable RF.
I’m grateful to Skilhunt for not gluing these flashlights. I like that the head can unscrew, just like the tailcap. I like that this seems to be the most mod-able decent headlamp out there.
Brightness: I won’t dispute the 800 Lumens claim, but I expected it to seem subjectively brighter. I am familiar with flood versus reflectors, tins and all that, so I don’t think it’s the effect of the TIR; I just feel like I was expecting more at max, especially with its “narrowness”. I need to keep it at Level 3 (out of 4) to have it satisfyingly bright (‘380 lumens’). I am therefore among the apparent few who would’ve preferred the original mode spacing, for the brighter medium modes. Level 1 (which I think is same as original, 5 lumens) with the TIR is pretty good for reading something you’re holding at about book-reading distance, or a little closer.
In conclusion, this was actually my most-anticipated flashlight purchase ever, even more than my Zebralight. In the end, I’m a little disappointed, because I actually prefer the beam from a Franken-headlamp I cobbled together out of two Ebay cheapies, using my favorite parts of each. What I do like, is I didn’t pay a ridiculous amount to find out, so I don’t feel bad about the purchase, but unless I make a breakthrough in removing the TIR optic, I don’t think I’ll buy a second or the Reflector version. I guess this is the somewhat unpleasant reality behind why some of us keep buying lights (even though the hobby is enjoyable): we never really find what we like. (Unless we make it or mod it.)