Mini review: Olight S20 Baton (XM-L | 1 x 18650 or 2 x CR123A)

Olight S20 Baton (XM-L | 1 x 18650 or 2 x CR123A)

Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★

Summary:

Battery: 1 x 18650 or 2 x CR123A
Switch: Side switch, electronic
Modes: 4+2: Moon, Low, Med, High + two Hidden Strobes
LED Type: XM-L (bin not specified)
Lens: Glass, AR coated
Tailstands: Yes, also tailhangs with magnet
Price Payed: $34.99 (sale price with coupon, normally $59.99)
From: Meritline
Date Ordered: April 2013

Pros:

  • Very compact for a 18650 light
  • Great UI
    • Side switch
    • Two Hidden strobes
    • Shortcuts to Moonlight & High modes
  • Low voltage warning (red indicator light in electronic switch)
  • Good efficiency => Long runtimes (over 500h with moonlight mode = 20++ days)
  • No PWM
  • Great design & build quality
  • Flat bezel, stainless steel
  • AR coated lens
  • Square threads
  • Anodized threads -> lockout possible
  • Tailstands perfectly
  • Magnet in tail -> also tailhangs
  • Good clip
  • Comes in a nice box, suitable for gifting!
  • Operating instructions included (in plain English)

Cons:

  • Greenish tint on lower modes
  • A bit pricey when not in sale
  • Glued bezel -> hard to mod

Mini review:

A full review by selfbuilt is available at CPF, so I'll keep this short and just add my 2c about this nice light.

UI is the best I have seen in lights with electronic switch:
- click on, click off (with mode memory)
- double click when off for High mode
- long click when off for Moonlight mode (Note that Moonlight mode can be accessed only like this, it's not part of normal mode cycle)
- long click when on for next mode (in order: Low, Med, High, Low, Med, High, ..)
- double click when on for Hidden Strobe
- long click when strobe for another type of strobe

=> If you don't remember what mode you used, you can always long-click to start in Moonlight mode (No surprises!) or double-click for High mode.

Tint is ok on higher modes, but quite green on lower modes.

Output is good for a light of this size: 0.5, 4, 100 & 480 lumens OTF (after 30s) And, as you can see from those measurements, low modes are low enough and even the Moonlight mode provides usable light. Good job Olight!

Runtime is very good. Tailcap readings were 0.006A, 0.016A, 0.22A & 1.30A => calculated runtimes would be 500h, 190h, 14h & 2.3h.

Build quality is high. Anodizing is flawless. Threads are square, anodized and properly lubed. XTAR 18700 fits.

Beam is smooth and practically without any artifacts. Shallow LOP reflector does it's job properly.

A couple of photos

Threads:

Tailcap has removable magnet:

LOP reflector and well centered emitter:

Summary: ★★★★

Very good, small flashlight with great UI, design, and runtimes.

Minus one star for bad tint on lower modes, price, and difficult modding due a glued bezel.

Verdict: Recommended! ("Highly recommended" for non tint snobs )

Thanks for reading & watching. Hope you enjoyed this mini review!

What coupon did you use to get $25 off?? :slight_smile:

Thanks for _the_ review!

One brief qualifier - I find that mine is rather tight in the diameter of the tube. It won’t accept my Efest 3400 protected cells, but takes most everything else. Length seems to be alright. I’ve been using green 3400 mAh Panasonic 18650Bs in it.
In all fairness, I think Efest adds a wrapper of their own. I’d try taking it off, but I’d probably have tape glue to contend with.

Thanks for this review. I have the G20’s little brother the G10, it’s a very nice light as well.

Check out this thread.

I’m pretty sure the coupon has expired.

Great review, looks nice!

Thanks for taking the time to do this review! we here appreciate these reviews so much, really helps a guy a decide…

I love both my S10 and S20. great little lights! awesome small form factor. it fits so tiny in the hand, makes my Nitecore EC2 feel like a tank! and its a very small light! the walls seems paper thin though, like if I squeeze hard enough that I could crush it, which would hardly be the case, but I wouldn’t want to run it over with my truck :).

Fast tech has the best deal on them at around $45, unless you find a great sale like the did. but I would gladly pay $45 again for this light, or $35 for its little brother the S10.

Yeah, coupon code is dead. Hopefully Meritline will do another 30% off sometime down the road. Finally realized the merit of being subscribed to the deal thread! :davie:

I guess current control and tint shift go hand in hand .

I love this light, the improvements Olight has made on the new 2013 version (black switch cover) are too hard to resist anymore. Looks like I’ll be upgrading to the newer version soon.

Better switch
Better UI
Higher output +80LM (XML2)
Greenish tint issue resolved (Supposedly, can anyone confirm?)

Latest version S10/S20 selfbuilt video overview/comparison

I’d rather save $15+ and go with the previous model. An 80 lumens increase is not much when you’re talking 320 lumens for the original. The switch isn’t “better”… it’s just different. Blue plastic instead of white rubber. The original had partial “glow in the dark” capability (I say partial, because it wasn’t very bright nor lasted very long), and the new one doesn’t. The UI is a slight improvement. Instead of the ramping going from low—>med—>high—>med—>low it now goes low—>med—>high—>low. Also, if you double-click from off, it goes directly to high. THAT is about the only real change that warms me up. The tint has been resolved. But you could also resolve it yourself with the old one by purchasing a replacement lens (about $3).

Where can I get this replacement lense?
Does it work with the new versions aswell?
Thanks!

Back on sale at Meritline for $29.99 with coupon code. See this post.