World's brightest flashlight lists

FLOOD

King: IMALENT MS32 - 200,000 Lumens
Queen: IMALENT SR32 - 120,000 Lumens
3rd: IMALENT MS18 - 100,000 Lumens
4th: ACEBEAM X75 - 80,000 Lumens
5th: IMALENT MS12 MINI - 65,000 Lumens

THROW

King: MAXTOCH OWLEYES W PRO - 4,000m
2nd: ACEBEAM W50 - 3,985m
3rd: Weltool W4 Pro - 3,394
4th: MAXTOCH L2KD - 3,200m
5th: ASTROLUX MF05 - 3,162m

SEARCH (Most powerful 2000m+ lights)

King: IMALENT SR32 - 120,000 lumens & 2000m
2nd: WUBEN A1 - 20,000 Lumens & 2,500m
3rd: LUMINTOP GT94X - 24,000 Lumens & 2,950m

EDC (pocket light)

22350 King: LUMINTOP GT3 MINI - 6500 Lumens
22650 King: LUMINTOP GT3 MINI - 10,000 Lumens
21700 King: CYANSKY P50R - 12,000 Lumens
18650 King: EMISAR D4V2 XP-L Mule - 5,990 Lumens
AA King: Zebralight SC5W MK II - 550 Lumens
Headlamp King: FIREFLYLITE PL47G2 - 5,000 Lumens
Keychain King: NITECORE T4K - 4,000 Lumens
EDC Throw King: NEXTORCH L10 MAX - 1200m

POP CAN LIGHTS

King: ACEBEAM X75 - 80,000 Lumens
2nd: IMALENT MS12 mini - 65,000 Lumens
3rd: IMALENT SR16 - 55,000 Lumens
4th: IMALENT MR90 - 50,000 Lumens
5th: ACEBEAM X50 2.0 - 45,000 Lumens

HIGH CRI

King: HAIKELITE HK29 - 27,000 Lumens
2nd: ACEBEAM X50 - 21,000 Lumens
3rd: HAIKELITE H9 - 10,000 Lumens
4th EMISAR D18 - 10,000 Lumens

The Lumens Race

2024 IMALENT MS32 200,000 Lumens \ *185K
2023 IMALENT SR32 120,000 Lumens \ *105K
2019 IMALENT MS18 100,000 Lumens *95K
2018 ACEBEAM X70 60,000 Lumens *59k
2018 IMALENT MS12 53,000 Lumens *40k
2018 ACEBEAM X80-GT 32,500 Lumens *31k
2017 IMALENT DX80 32,000 Lumens *30k
2017 ACEBEAM X80 25,000 Lumens *23k
2017 ACEBEAM X45 16,500 Lumens *15k
2017 IMALENT DT70 16,000 Lumens *14k
2016 ACEBEAM X65 12,500 Lumens *11k
2016 HaikeLite MT03 8,760 Lumens *10k
2014 ACEBEAM X60M 10,000 Lumens *8k
2014 Thrunite TN36 6,500 Lumens *6k
2012 OLIGHT X6 5,000 Lumens *5.1k
2011 NITECORE TM11 2,000 Lumens *2k
2011 OLIGHT SR92 1,700 Lumens *1.8k
2010 OLIGHTSR90 2,200 Lumens *1.4k
2009 EagleTac M2C4 (P7) 900 Lumens *0.9k
2008 LED Lenser X7 1068 Lumens *0.8k

*Some lights are under or over rated in their output and this is reflected in the rankings/some are turn on values,
the lists don’t include HID or Large professional use lights

1 Thank

These EDCs are all floods, what about EDC throw?

IMALENT MS18 69,879 lumens @30 seconds. Like teenager with premature xxxxxxx.
After one minute drop to 25%. Garbage.
Mike

Good idea, Lumintop Thor or Nextorch L10 MAX?

Most of all these lights and others do the exact same thing — Excitement Lumens and Throw — Someone needs to make a list of real situation stats — you know like 30 minutes

The 95CRI EDC I’m currently reviewing has no step down, 70C after 10 mins!

A purists dream!

Can you include a list for soda can lights?

Yeah, why not. I’m a huge pop can light fan!

You can see all this over at 1Lumen. We test light runtime specs at 30 minutes. All the most popular lights are there. The consensus is most all are around 10% (some less) of start by 30 minutes in.

Thanks :+1:

@sirstinky, on that regard, I’m actually surprised more manufacturers don’t go with more exotic routes for improving thermal performance.

I’ve even compiled a list:

1. Black anodization(higher emissivity).
2. Raw aluminium/copper heatsink with high end thermal paste/liquid metal.
3. Efficient buck or boost driver.
4. Finned head.
5. Very low resistance contacts(copper alloy springs, spring bypasses, direct welded battery).
6. Efficient optics: AR coated lens and aluminium/silver/specular film reflector or semi-custom TIR lens.
7. Efficient LED: triple/quad LED setups are a good way to increase efficiency, although they do decrease throw vs a single large multi-die emitter, so practical efficiency is actually higher with a single large LED.
8. Low resistance cell: this matters mostly at higher currents, but lower internal resistance means less heat produced from the cell.

More exotic stuff:

  1. Finned battery tube.
    1.1. Horizontally finned head, vertically finned battery tube.
  2. Copper head, aluminium body.
  3. Phase change material in the head.
  4. Heatpipes/copper foil to move the heat through the entire body.
  5. Higher voltage is better than higher current.

Well, some do that to a point, but you pay a premium for it and then you get into the realm of un-budget lights. Acebeam, Fenix, Olight, higher end Speras, Klatus, Cyansky. Some of those features are above and beyond than most Chinese brands will or can do and still sell for a reasonable price. This is like custom mod stuff. You can get 4.3 volt batteries with Fenix lights, Imalent uses rewrapped 40Ts, copper heat pipes with phase transition cooling on its bigger lights, and you get buck/boost drivers on pretty much all the higher end lights nowadays. I love xhp70.2 lights for that reason. They are the most efficient of any LED, and you can get pretty affordable Thrunites with it.

I’m definitely lacking in lights in your “search” category.

Here’s some others:

  • Haikelite HK90
  • Lumintop GT94 / GT94X
  • Wuben A1
  • Lumintop GT8 (unreleased)

I have a list with some more in my signature.

What I’d like to see is a 10,000 lm+ soda can light with over 1.5km throw. The Imalent RS50 is probably the closest.

2 NEW ENTRIES

NIGHTWATCH Incredible 14500 lumens 21700 flashlight
IMALENT MR90 - 50,000 LUMENS

The Wuben A1 does over 2000 m…its a far superior light to the GT94 and GT94x. It’s expensive, but one of the best high output, long throw lights out there.

New entry - ACEBEAM X75, 80,000 lumens pop can light

New entry - IMALENT SR16, 5th brightest flashlight and the new world’s brightest search light 55,000 lumens/1715m - it pushes those figures too!

New flood king! - IMALENT SR32, 120,000 lumens

Just over 100 000 lumens for the SR32 and 43000 lumens at 30seconds. What a Pitty…

It is, but with current technology and at a “somewhat” affordable price. It is interesting. I won’t be buying one for the $620 price. Could they do better today? Probably, but at what cost?