Ok, so this one took me a while. Well 2 weeks, but it’s done and it marks my second Skilhunt review, with the H02 Headlamp graciously sent to me by Skilhunt for review. In the video review you’ll see night footage, testing, and some nice waterfall scenery plus full runtime animations. The video is where I spent most of my time, so consider that the main review.
Anyway, I won’t skimp on a picture review either, so here goes. The H02 is Skilhunt’s entry into the 18650 sized headlamp category.
Here are the specs for the lamp as provided by Skilhunt.
Battery | (1x) 18650, (2x) CR123 , (2x) 16340, (2x) RCR123 |
Operating Voltage | 3v-9v |
LED | XML-2 |
Color | Black |
Accessories | Manual, Warranty Card, o-rings, magnet replace o-ring, lanyard, clip, headband |
Length | 110mm/4.33in |
Body Diameter | 22.8mm/.9in |
Head Diameter | 31mm/1.22in |
Weight | 63g/2.2oz |
Impact Resistance | 1.5m |
Water Resist Rating | IPX-8 |
Body Construction | Type III Anodized Aluminum |
Lens | Bead Surface |
Here are the output ratings given by Skilhunt.
FL1 Standard | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 |
Output Lumens | 820 | 550 | 280 | 5 |
Runtime | 1 hr | 1 hrs 45 mins | 4 hrs | 120 hrs |
So first up, let’s go over the basics- the exterior. How does it look? Well it measures up with just about any other premium light. The anodization is perfect, as should be expected.
It has a beaded glass optic, that is held into place by a stainless steel bezel. One thing to not is that the beads are on the outside of the light, so it’s rough to the touch. This is runs opposite to the Armytek wizard, which is smooth to the touch. Maybe the Wizard Pro has it facing inward?
It comes with a nice clip that allows you to carry the light on your backpack or wherever.
Inside you’ll find a spring at either end that will help with shock reduction if you were to drop it.
You can see the magnet in this photo. You can replace it with the thick black o-ring seen in the video if you want. You just need a tiny Philips screwdriver.
The H02 has an electronic switch. It isn’t sensitive enough to active in your pocket, save for a heavy jarring, but it’s also easy enough to intentionally activate with your thumb. If we consider the Armytek one of the more harder electronic switches to depress, and the Sunwayman D40A an easy switch to depress, figure that it falls in the middle to the slight Armytek side of the scale.
It fits nicely in your hand too.
So this is the second light now that I have with a magnet in the tail cap. It works well and held firmly to a variety of metal surfaces. You can even see it picking up some rocks from the stream bed in the first photo.
Alright how about the modes and user interface? The user interface is the same as the Skilhunt DS line, and it’s fully demonstrated in the video. It’s basically four modes with mode memory, and a hidden strobe. A quick press to turn it on and scroll through the modes, and a long press to turn it off. Here is what the mode spacing looks like. I am putting them in the order they are laid out in the user interface.
How about let’s compare it to a few other popular lights. All these lights are set to their maximum output levels.
And now a few closeups of the beam profile and a comparison to the Wizard Pro.
How about runtimes?
Level 1… This is the brightest runtime, but it only stays bright for a few minutes before stepping down to high mode. Then it stays fairly constant for two and a half hours before getting pretty dim. I shut it off about 4 hours in because it was pretty dim. Again this is shown fully in the video review.
Level 2… Almost exactly the same as Level 1, with pretty similar runtimes except it stays a little brighter a bit longer.
Level 3… Prrobably the best mode. It ran for well over 5 hours without losing much brightness. By 6 hours and 20 minutes it was probably only putting out 2 or 3 lumens.
Level 4… Last about 170 hours (A week and 2 hours) with an ending voltage of 2.56.
So there’s a section in the video where I compare it to the Armytek, you’ll have to watch the video for more on that… but here’s a few pictures I took of the lights together.
Anyway that’s about it. The light is really nice. It has zero detectable PWM- I don’t think it employs even it at high frequency, because I wasn’t able to detect it with the running water or fan blade method. The mode spacing is a little wonky, but it has a nice level 3 mode which gives a ton of nice bright runtime on a 18650 battery. All tests in this review were performed with a Shoshine 18650 3400 mah battery. Thanks for looking!