Olight Obulb Review (Warm white, Mini Lantern, Magnetic)

Olight has a new Mini lantern out called the Obulb and comes in 3 colors. It’s magnetic, floats in water, and has warm white modes along with red modes. Thanks to Skyben for sending this to me to check out and do a short review.

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Pickup the Olight Obulb at Amazon from Skyben
Red: Amazon.com (Affiliate Link)
Green: Amazon.com (Affiliate Link)
Grey: Amazon.com (Affiliate Link)

Packaging and Accessories
Packaging here is standard Olight white box high quality. On the front and top are photos of the light on their respective side, on the back is your information panel with runtimes and outputs. Accessories include the Obulb itself, a USB MCC 1A charging cable, and a Olight self adhesive magnetic backer that acts like a coin too.





Constructions
The obulb is available in 3 colors, a green, similar to the Olantern, a gray, and red that you see here. Red to me makes it look a lot like a pokeball I think. The dome is made from translucent polycarbonate and is reasonably thick. The bottom half is a rubberized plastic that provides some grip and it has the signature blue metallic strip in the middle.

On the bottom there are 3 brass contacts for charging, and the internal magnet is strong enough to easily hold it’s weight up and be reasonably vibration resistant.

Thanks to Oweban for sacrificing his Obulb so we can see inside, he provided me with these pictures to share what the circuit board, and battery configuration looks like. It’s a stacked design with the LED and Driver board being on top, a total of 8 LED, 4 for each color, Under that sits a 630mAh lithium polymer battery pouch, an aluminum tray, and then the board with the recharging pads and 2 buttons. It is IPX7 water rated meaning it can be submerged upto a meter for 30 minutes but it floats too. It’s drop rated for a meter too.







Size & Weight
This is pretty small, somewhere between a golf ball and baseball size. It measures 54.2mm in diameter and 48.4mm tall. Weight is 56.4g and it is IPX7 water rated and floats in water.





LED & Beam Shots
The Obulb has 2 LED colors, a warm white and a red. The warm white is a pretty warm, I would guess it’s about 2500k, the LED being used here is unknown, from looking at the circuit board it’s not square like most flashlight LED, it produces a good tone. Low is good for 3.5 lumens and high is 55 lumens. Low is enough light ot read a map, navigate a bathroom or low light tasks like that. High is enough light to prepare or eat a meal, navigate a small room with etc. It’s a nice even light. Red mode is rated at 7 lumens and fairly bright for a colored mode.



Runtime
I did measure runtimes in the White and Red modes for this light. In High mode for the whtie emitter the light held it’s rated output very consistently through out the range, total runtime was 3:40:00, this is 40 minutes longer then what Olight rates it for. Low mode is rated for 56 hours of runtime and I didn’t test this due to the length of the test. Red mode is a similar story but a little more sag in the output, holding at about 90% relative output for the duration of 8:40:00, this is an hour and 40 minutes better then what Olight rates it for officially. Heat isn’t a concern here at all, with the light remaining room temp to the test during use.

UI
The light has 4 simple modes that are linear with no short cuts and does have memory. The button is on the underside of the light but that doens’t matter since you can press the top as well when it’s on a hard surface. It takes a reasonably hard press to make it come on though. Once on long press to change modes. The mode progression is Low White, High White, Red, Red Flashing.

Recharging
Charing the internal 630mAh lithium polymer pouch battery is done on the bottom of the light with Olights MCC 1A charging system. Charging took 90 minutes with maximum charge rate of 0.6A so pretty much exactly 1C.

Pro’s

  • Warm White from Olight
  • It Floats and is waterproof
  • Strong magnet allows it to be mounted on any magnetic surface.
  • Better then expected battery life

Con’s

  • Not something you will EDC probably or use daily
  • Battery is sealed an non user replaceable.

Conclusion
I like the Olight Obulb. It’s not something I will use everyday but it can come in handy in a lot of different places. This is a nice simple light to give to young kids that is easy to operate but doesn’t have small pieces like many cylinder lights do. If you had a pool I could see tossing a few of these in to give ambient lighting at night, or using it in a shower to give you more light if needed. I may end up putting it in my car for winter to use that red blinking mode as a locator beacon should I happen to go off the road in a blizzard but I could also see it being nice on a bedside table, in a tent while camping etc.

I can’t help to think what the Olight Olantern would have been like with these white LED’s to create a nice warm tint. It’s a nice choice in LED and a surprise from Olights standard cool white. The price is also reasonable and the choice of colors is a nice touch. I am a fan of the Obulb even though I won’t use it all the time.

It’s cute and all but… a lantern with 3 hour runtime?

I have el.cheapo Decathlon lantern that costs some 6$, has 40 lumens and on fully charged AA’s lasts…. I don’t even know how long. I use it every day when reading bedtime stories to offspring and charge them maybe once a month.

2500K? That’s surprising, some of the pictures of it that I’ve seen of it online gave me the impression it was closer to 3500K.

Nice thorough review!

I went for one just because I had a gift certificate that covered the cost. I also went for the red. It’s a cute little thing and more of a toy but I like toys. :wink: I don’t care for it’s dedicated charger but I’m sure they did that to retain it’s water resistance. Of course I also don’t care care for the rubber flaps that cover the charging ports on so many lights nowadays as they’re so prone to breakage.

I like it’s simple U.I. and it’s bright enough to navigate in the dark. I like the fairly powerful magnetic bottom and useful for say attaching under the hood of a vehicle for checking the oil or emergency work when dark. I think as you, with the blinking red mode it would also make a useful emergency roadside warning light.

All in all I like it and as you, I won’t utilize it much but it’s a fun little thing.

It’s a guess based on other lights I have, I don’t have the gear to measure exactly.

It should work with any other olight charger, it fits their standard pattern.

Is there a promo code for the obulb?

Try LQ10 if ordering from the Olightstore.

Nice review.
Is there any PWM on any of the brightness levels?
All the Best,
Jeff

I am not exactly sure how, but even shaking it at 120fps in front of my camera revealed no PWM artifacts.
Since there is no visible inductor, it either uses capacitor tickling to step down or an internal inductor…. or even, a very high PWM frequency (have no current access to an oscilloscope).

I got one of of these about 3-4 weeks ago with the warrior mini deal they had, I have only charged it once on arrival and I’m pretty stupified at the excellent battery life. I have it in my bedroom and tap it on when I dont want to bother with the main room light, so I have been using it 1-3 times a day for a few minutes each time but I keep wondering when it will need a recharge….so far so good, very happy with the battery life and functionality.

I think when they offer a flash sale and pair this up with another light for a discount its a great deal, regular retail at $30 is so so for a night light

Yeah I got them as Warrior mini compensation for the recall… (2 pcs)

Right now , Olight UK is doing flashsale for the obulb bundles:
Over 50% OFF for Warrior mini bundle @Olight
Olight warrior mini
Obulb blue free
A pair of silicone cover is free

Something inbetween. Got one.

I’m impressed by the runtime data, I must say.