Olight Warrior Mini 3 Review – Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
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Proprietary battery makes this a pass. We live in a world where standards are followed. Flashlights have been taking standard batteries for decades. Olight is taking our hobby back to the dark ages with flashlights like this.
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It used to be annoying that some of their cells were physically difficult to charge externally. I didn’t care so much until they made them mandatory with more recent models that require the secondary negative contact on the top of the cell to function. This isn’t really an issue for a lot of their target market, who may never even remove the original cell from the light, and they are still easy to recommend to casual users, with built-in charging and a nice simple UI.
I do not like their practice of using exposed plastic optics. This is very much personal preference, because while a glass lens prevents scratches, it’s also much more breakable. It takes a lot of scratching on the optic to significantly impact output or make a light unusable, but it also means they are far more susceptible to it in regular pocket carry with other items. And of course there is no longer an easy way to install a colour correction filter.
At least scratching the optic in your pocket shouldn’t be too much of a concern when using the pocket clip, as they’ve done away with the ability to swap the clip to the tail, like on the WM2. That’s the strangest choice I see on this light.
Yup, it is a deal killer for me as well !!
As @tactical_grizzly says in the review:
"Replacements are fairly expensive and you have to rely on Olight continuing to make these proprietary cells in the future. "
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Manufacturers seem to always have a “good” reason to use proprietary cells, but it’s usually just a shameless cash grab.
I avoid proprietary cells unless it’s a keychain flashlight or the flashlight is dirt cheap.
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What’s interesting about this batteries is that they seem fairly unsafe - “+” and “-” are very close together, easy to short. This is one of the reasons why regular unprotected cells are covered by heatshrink, which makes me wonder - would regular cell with heatshrink removed make contact/work in such lights? May be with a spacer to solve length issue…
Agree with Raccoon
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Maybe, but why bother? Unless there is something so compelling that you just have to have it . This light doesn’t have that.
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Purely out of curiosity. May be as a solution for someone who have unknowingly fallen into the trap and can not buy replacement battery.
Definitely not an excuse to buy specific light though.
Their battery…i got used to it but that bezel up clip just kills the deal.
They should have kept it like on W2
Otherwise it should be a good model to pair with freeman 5050to3535 adapter and stuck 519 in it
But that clip…
Otherwise it should be a good model to pair with freeman 5050to3535 adapter and stuck 519 in it
But that clip…
That’s exactly what I’m planning to do in my WM2 that I purchased because it has a bezel-down clip.
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| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Half press and hold | momentary Medium |
Thanks for confirming! It wasn’t obvious that momentary mode still exists after reading the WM3 user manual online.
I carry my WM2 Copper without a clip so that it gets an even patina and because I like the feel of the knurling.
I like how the WM3 clip has two small strips. My index finger rests in a big gap while holding a WM2.
My WM2 definitely wobbles when tailstanding on a table. I usually put it tail down on a metal surface (monitor stand) so that it stays put.
Hopefully there’s a WM3 Copper edition 
Most of Olight’s 5050 optics don’t play well with 3535 LEDs to begin with, and the pad adapters made it even worse with several models I tested. Depends on your personal tolerance for ugly beam profiles though. Even the 3737 optic in the Perun Mini 2 is pretty bad with 519A.
2 Thanks