[Review] Olight M2R Pro Warrior - First Olight that I can operate without tailcap!

rookiedaddy · 2019-11-06T11:33:40.000Z

[Review] Olight M2R Pro Warrior - First Olight that I can operate without tailcap! Olight recently release M2R Pro Warrior, an updated version of the M2R Warrior that was released back in 2017 with a more aggressive tactical bezel ring, higher lumens and faster charging (somewhat). But let's substantiate the claim of my thread title first...

we can operate the M2R Pro Warrior with the side switch even without the tailcap put on. The magic of dual-polarity battery.

Have a look at Olight M2R Pro specification table below:

since I did not review the original M2R Warrior, I will not attempt to provide a comparison between the two in this review.

What's included in Olight M2R Pro Warrior package is just the essentials:

M2R Pro Warrior with dual-polarity battery installed, USB Magnetic Charging Cable (MCC3), Holster, Lanyard and User Manual

Due to the aggressiveness of the M2R Pro Warrior crenalated bezel, I would recommend holster carry.

Maybe Olight will consider offering a low profile/smooth bezel as an extra accessory for those of use who likes a more pocket-friendly carry.

I don't usually do this, but for Olight M2R Pro Warrior, I do recommend that you give the included user manual a read...

Especially the section where it talks about how to switch between 2 modes of operation with the Tail Switch:

and the section where it highlighted that the new MCC3 will turned Green when battery reaches >95% full.

what this means is when MCC3 turns Green from Red, the battery is not fully charged yet, it's only ~96% full. The MCC3 charger will continue to charge your light after it turns Green if you leave it connected until it "somewhat" fully charges the battery and stops. I'll detail more about the charging process and the fast charge later.

When you get your new M2R Pro Warrior (there is Camo-patterned version available besides black, also rumour has it that other colours coming soon...), remember to remove the battery insulation film, but remove it slowly together with the battery, because the film insulate both ends of the battery terminals...

and there is a change in the way the battery is being inserted into M2R Pro Warrior, it's different from Olight's recently released Magnetic Charging flashlight models in which M2R Pro Warrior requires the positive terminal (the button side, the dual polarity side) to face towards the head when install. The electronics in M2R Pro Warrior does not support the use of standard battery, meaning, you need to use dual-polarity battery where the positive and negative terminals are exposed at the button side for contacts.

There were also rumours that M2R Pro Warrior could charge standard battery eventhough it can't use one (pointless feature if true), which is not true. M2R Pro Warrior cannot use nor charge standard battery... well... perhaps in future revision if there are enough demands (complaints) from users.

a couple of random pictures of Olight M2R Pro Warrior...

and the bi-direction pocket clip, which can be installed at 2 different places...

this is the default setup from manufacturer...

and this setup enables deep pocket carry

a couple of close-up shots...

very aggressive strike bezel.

contact points at the head

contact points at the tailcap

the TIR lens

Tail switch with 3-point leg... I'm not entirely sure why the 3 pointy leg, if it's for tail standing, it's ain't stable, Olight should either widen the leg or make it into 5 points...They stated the raised tail switch is an upgrade, but take a looks at the following...

with the switch travel to level with the flat surface, it still doesn't turn ON. In my opinion, this switch travel is a little too far for tactical usage especially with the 3-point leg blocking when use with gloves. I would suggest to shorten the travel like the Tail Switch at Olight M2T Warrior.

thread the included lanyard through this milled lanyard hole.

comparing the Tail Switch between Olight M2R Pro Warrior and Olight Warrior X

comparing the newly designed body texture of M2R Pro Warrior to Olight M2T Warrior, it does provide a better grip.

and comparing to Olight Warrior X

comparing the beam profile and tint (perhaps), left is M2R Pro Warrior, right is M2T Warrior

comparing the beam profile, left is M2R Pro Warrior, right is Warrior X

and height comparisons with other similar-sized lights within my reach

My measured output...

The usual disclaimer: I do not claim the above measured lumens as authoritative nor an indication of over/under-stating the number given by manufacturer. It's calibrated against some known light output (e.g. SureFire, Elzetta, etc.) so take it with a grain of salt and just as a relative reading.

Runtime chart for Turbo mode...

I'm not a fan of over-quoting the Turbo runtime, where Olight claims to have 4.5 minutes of Turbo runtime:

but Olight did explain this in the user manual:

and while we are at Turbo mode, do heed the warning in the user manual:

because it does get real hot when we repeatedly activates Turbo mode. The heat travels through the whole flashlight body thus making it uncomfortable to hold.

while using, the LED indicator at the side switch will tell the state of the remaining battery charge...

Green indicate >75%

Orange/Yellow indicate 30-75%

Red indicate <30%

and blinking Red indicate <10% charge left in the battery

Over the last couple of years, Olight has continue to experiment with different revision of the their Magnetic Charging Cable:

with their latest attempts to give us a faster charging rate of 2A (first appear with the release of Javelot Pro but bigger and only for Javelot Pro) and adaptable to charge smaller lights like S1R Baton II.

Left is the new MCC3 cable, and on the right is the MCC cable that comes with S1R Baton II.

Olight uses a Red base colour to differentiate the new MCC3 cable from the older generations.

The new MCC3 charger does charges faster at 2A, in my testing, it takes between 2 - 2.5 hours to charge Olight M2R Pro Warrior to ~96% before the charging indicator turns Green, and if we leave the charging cable attached, MCC3 will continue to charge M2R Pro Warrior at a low rate of ~0.4A for another 3 - 3.5 hours to get a "somewhat" fully charged battery. I said somewhat because it charges to 4.11 - 4.15V (depending on Multimeter Calibration) before terminating the charge, like those MCC that comes with Baton Pro and Seeker 2. The new MCC3 is indeed adaptable, I have successfully use it to charge previously release MCC-compatible lights like the Seeker 2 Pro, Seeker 2, S1R Baton II, Baton Pro. In terms of fast charge, it charges the Baton Pro at ~1.6 times the rate of using the older MCC cable. The fast charge however does not work on Seeker 2 Pro nor Seeker 2 where the 5000mAh battery installed in these lights are most needed. To address the non-fully charged battery issue, I finish the charge (after MCC3 indicator turns Green) by switching to the MCC that comes with S1R Baton II, where this MCC charges the light to 4.19 - 4.20V.

Some observations when using MCC3:

There is a "handshaking" time at very low charge rate of ~0.07A before the main charging begins.
The "handshaking" time depends on the SoC (State of Charge) of the battery.
When the battery is <4.05V (+/-0.03V), the handshaking take ~6 seconds before main charge begins. This is when MCC3 charge indicator is Red.
When the battery is >4.08V (+/-0.03V), the handshaking will take between 20 seconds to longest I ever timed at ~2 minutes 8 seconds before the main charging event begins. This is when MCC3 charge indicator is Green.
When the battery is >4.16V (+/-0.02V), no handshaking takes place.

These are observations when charging and testing the M2R Pro Warrior, YMMV.

In conclusion, I think M2R Pro Warrior still has room to improve with the Tactical Tail Switch, Fast Charging and support for standard battery. I would also like to see Olight offer a low profile/smooth bezel ring as an accessory for M2R Pro Warrior. Overall, I'm happy to see Olight continues to improve and experiment with different and/or new options for their flashlight models.

kanton · 2019-11-09T01:19:18.000Z

Thanks for the extensive review!

Did you encounter any problems with the tail switch? Some people in the Olight group reported that it felt more unstable than the M2Rs (some even said theirs was glitchy).
Also, how do you like the beam pattern of the TIR? Does it have enough spill in your opinion? Or will the surroundings stay pretty much dark?

For the “legs” on the tail end: They need them as contact points for the charger (and also tail stand) so that it’s still compatible with their other chargers (my assumption).

I agree with the points you brought up:

The bezel is too agressive for my taste and a second one would be a welcome addition (it might save you some discussions in countries where weapons are prohibited on wether or not this qualifies as a weapon and it also won’t shred your pants).
The proprietary battery and how they implemented it really is a shame and a big step backwards from the original M2R design.

I also want to add (as I think it’s more relevant here than in Olight M2R Pro 30% off today only), that apparently some people (8-10 in the Olight FB group as of the time of writing) have the light either DOA or failing after a short while of use. Olight seems to handle those cases perfectly so far, but waiting for them to iterate their design might be a good idea (if you have the time and willpower to do so ).

rookiedaddy · 2019-11-09T03:23:36.000Z

kanton:

Thanks for the extensive review!

Thank you for the kind words. Appreciate it.

Although I did not encounter any serious issue with the tail switch, I do think they need improvement on how far the switch needs to travel to actuate, IMHO, they got it right with the M2T. I think this is why some users don’t feel comfortable with the tail switch or some users might actually have a glitchy switch. For the legs, they can make the tail of M2R Pro Warrior compatible with MCC charger with an indent in the center of the switch, it’s a design decision. The 3 legs as it is now unable to support the weight of M2R Pro Warrior in a stable manner.

In terms of beam pattern, due to TIR lens, most of the lumens/output are being “collected” to give us a bigger brighter hotspot, so comparatively (to a reflector-based light, e.g. M2T Warrior), the spills is less bright and practically non-existent when our eyes are overwhelmed with the big bright hotspot, which in this case, it achieve its intended application: Tactical, but in situation where need a balance of both spills and spot, this is not the light, the Warrior-X and M2T Warrior will be more suitable.

Olight is taking in the inputs and suggestions about the bezel, and may have something planned in the pipeline. We shall wait and see.

They initially planned to support the use of standard battery as some members in our forum had pointed out, my “guess” is along the prototyping and engineering process, some design elements did not make it to the final production light. The changes of how M2R Pro Warrior carry the electric signal/current has over the older M2R Warrior could be the cause of this compromise.

Olight’s been made aware of the reported DOA issues posted at their facebook group couple of days ago when the poll was created. They are looking into the QC process and their customer service is handling all the reported cases. I don’t think Olight will come out and explain about their design but let’s see how it plays out over the next couple of weeks.

Thanks for reading.

SKV89 · 2019-11-09T06:39:21.000Z

Great review. Thank you. I’m looking to owning one of these in the future. Just waiting for a sale since I missed the intro 30% deal.

SKV89 · 2019-12-28T00:39:37.000Z

I bought the Olight M2R Pro Warrior during their BF sale and I am extremely impressed. Olight is like the Apple of flashlights. Incredible built quality and feels like a high end product but does not push the limits as hard as some of the budget brands. This is the most well built, most refined flashlight I have seen to date. You just have to hold it in your hands to appreciate it. The Olight optic is also amazing in this light. It focuses the light into one large hotspot with very dim but wide spill. Although the hotspot is twice as large as similar sized lights with reflectors such as the Fenix PD36R (also an excellent light), it appears to be more intense and throws slightly farther from my visual observation, which is simply amazing. Olight’s driver efficiency is also the best out there and I’m impressed with the run time graphs I see for this light. My lumen tube also proves who stable Olight driver regulates output.

Here are some measurements I took at 2s:
Turbo, 1948 lumens, 4908K, DUV 0.0099, CRI 66.6, R9 –46, R12 36.9, Rf 66, Rg 94
2nd highest, 735 lumens, 4796K, DUV 0.0127, CRI 66.4, R9 –49.4, R12 35.3
3rd highest, 237 lumens, 4713K, DUV 0.014, CRI 66.6,

The light is rated at 1800 lumens and it’s been my experience with every Olight that they measure higher lumens than their rated spec eventhough my lumen tube calibration normally measures lower than other folks on BLF.

The only thing I don’t like about this light is the tint being too far above the BBL (positive DUV = green). Olight decided to dedome the XHP35 HD instead of using an XHP35 HI probably for the reason to obtain higher lumens from a higher bin HD emitter but dedoming results in warmer CCT and higher DUV (green). Because I’m a tint snob, I will not be EDCing this one but for those who don’t notice or are not bothered by greenish tint, this is likely the best EDC out there.

rookiedaddy · 2022-03-09T22:09:10.000Z

M2R Pro and Warrior Mini are now officially being recalled…

CPSC page:

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Olight Ecommerce Technology Recalls Flashlights Due to Burn Hazard

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled flashlights and contact Olight for a full refund in the form of a store credit or for a free replacement flashlight. The firm is reaching out to all known purchasers directly.

Facebook announcement:

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zoulas · 2022-03-09T22:39:51.000Z

I am glad you like it but I will never buy a light that takes a proprietary battery. Flashlights from the 1970s took standard off the shelf batteries. Why would anyone accept anything less today.

Why on earth would you want to tie your battery purchases to your specific flashlight purchase. Makes no sense.