The Olight i3E EOS is the smallest light in the Chinese manufacturer’s lineup and one of the tiniest lights to use an AAA battery. The IPX8 waterproof flashlight is quite limited in functionality since it only features a single 90 lumen mode. In the package there’s an already attached keychain ring and a battery.
AAA Alkaline battery, Olight i3E EOS, DQG Tiny AAA 7, Fenix E05, Rayus C01, Astrolux A01
The emitter is a Philips Luxeon TX that is not very common in keychain lights. The i3E only comes in a cool white variant, but there are several color choices available: black, silver, blue, green, red, purple. The silver one is special, because it has a lumen output of 120 instead of 90. Otherwise it is no different.
The light is made out of aluminum and weight 8 grams without a battery. Dimensions are 61x14 mm. The specs are comparable to the 60 lumen DQG Tiny AAA 7 i tested ealier (DQG Tiny AAA 7 (Cool white) measurements).
The i3E EOS also works with a 10440 lithium ion battery, but it gets very hot very fast. After 7 minutes without a fan my LIR 10440 cell had its wrapper shrink and expose the top negative part due to the heat. I didn’t measure the temperature at this point and my final runtime test was done with a fan. No damage was done to the light.
With a 10440 cell the light output is staggeringly high, 343 lumens at 30 seconds compared to 85 lumens with an Eneloop or an alkaline battery. The output decreases rapidly on a 10440 but is superbly regulated on a NiMH.
With a fan on temperature on a 10440 peaks at 50°C at 3 minutes. After this the light reaches equilibrium and starts to cool down as the battery voltage goes down. I measured 45°C at 10 minutes.
Beam
The beam has a 21° hotspot, a lower output beam of about 50° and a gradual dim spill to 133°
PWM
There is no PWM.
Measurements
Please note: lumen measurements are only rough estimates
My diy integrating styrofoam box cooler has been calibrated using a Fenix E05 on high with manufacturer’s claim of 85 lumens. Verified with an Olight S10 that has been measured with a Labsphere FS2 integrating sphere by valostore.fi. Results may be more inaccurate with especially throwy or floody lights.
For spectral information and CRI calculations I have an X-rite i1Pro spectrophotometer with HCFR for the plot and ArgyllCMS spotread.exe for the data. For runtime tests I use spotread.exe with a custom script and a i1Display Pro because it doesn’t require calibration every 30 minutes like the i1Pro.
Explanation of abbreviations
CCT = correlated color temperature, higher temperature means cooler (bluish)
CRI (Ra) = color rendering index consisting of 8 different colors (R1-R8), max value 100
CRI (R9) = color rendering index with deep red, usually difficult for led based light sources, max value 100
TLCI = television lighting consistency index, max value 100
x,y = coordinates on a CIE 1931 chart
Measurement table
Spectral distribution
Runtime
Eneloop/Alkaline
Lumens at 0 sec: 86
Lumens at 30 sec: 85
10440
Lumens at 0 sec: 390
Lumens at 30 sec: 343
Olight i3E EOS is clearly more efficient than the DQG Tiny AAA 7 when using an Eneloop. With the same battery the Olight offers about 50 % more lumen output (85 vs. 56) and provides nearly as long a runtime to 50 % (1 h 21 min vs. 1 h 28 min). DQG loves 10440s which provide up to 40 % more output until 40 minutes.
To add insult to injurty, the Philips Luxeon TX emitter on the Olight gives a slightly higher CRI than the Cree XP-G2 of the DQG. Tint is very similar, but the spill is a bit more neutral on the Olight. DQG’s spill is cooler. I only paid 1 euro for the Olight at a sale, but both of them are widely available for about 10-15 euros/$.
Tint
