I suppose everyone weighs things differently, but I find proprietary batteries really unacceptable. The Warrior UI is definitely nice, and I’d like to see an equivalent from another company using standard batteries.
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Anyone remember the olight of 10 years ago? IIRC the Baton series was a big hit with enthusiasts. I think their initial release had AA, 2xAA, 16340, and 18650 models. XML leds, great UI, no proprietary batteries. Were they one of the first companies to start using the eswitch UI with hold for moon, click for LMH memory, double click for turbo? I think they did a lot of good for the hobby back then.
Say what you will about their current state of things. I agree with much of the criticism. I just think some people may not realize what things were like back then and may find it interesting. Heck, just search this forum for old posts about olight.
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To put it simply it is a few reasons.
They are all over the place via influencers, Advertisements and on you tube.
To people that are not in our world as flash light enthusiasts they still have some issues, Lets are not as blueish as they used to be. As someone that has never had an emisar D4V2 ,Q8, Lumintop Tool 2.0, ect, people are impressed buy 3-5 levels, and a turbo mode. the power of a 18650 put in to a light is amazing compared to and AA, C or D cell lights you find at the hardware store.
Kinda like when dad gave you the keys to the car, it was just a base line lancer, but you thought it drove and handled like a Evo8.
Now I will agree they need to work on the Color temp that they have in production lights. Could use a bit of a price drop, and better customer service.
With all of that said, I hate to admit that I have one in my EDC rotation. The one thing I feel is the most gimmick is having a laser pointer built in. What do I use almost every day? that dammed laser pointer. 
Dam you Olight.
James I think you are confusing Olight with 4/7’s. Also a decent starter light. They had some issues as well, but I have one sitting on my shelf as well. Quark 123^2.
Olight is not popular. They spent millions of dollars to make it seem like they are. This way you feel inclined to buy one of their lights so you can feel part of a group of people that dont exist.
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No, I’m thinking olight, but I do remember the quark series. I have a twisty aa somewhere that needs a new emitter. BTW, there was some olight-4sevens connection in the early days, wasn’t there? I could just Google this but sometimes it’s fun trying to piece it together by memory.
Here’s the olight S1A I was thinking of:
That was 2016, so my dates were off by a few years. Others have mentioned the S1 baton, the 16340 version. A few months ago I put a 519a in it and it’s a whole new light.
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Not sure if they are still related. 4 Sevens made the AA twisty light that I carried for many years. I think, the Quark Mini. Still one of my favorites for that form factor.
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- Very smart marketing.
- Good quality and warranty.
- Very efficient drivers.
Shame about the @#$ proximity sensors being unable to be indefinitely disabled, and lack of high CRI options.
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For what its worth, I have only ever had a handful of flashlights that just full on quit working (without me dropping it or some other abuse) and they have all been Olights
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Thanks for the link. Maybe that’s the AA twisty if theirs that I have. So that was my first high cri light. At the time I couldn’t figure out what the fuss was about because the high cri didn’t look all that great. Years later I get back into the hobby and realize that emitter was a bit green. I finally tried a 219b then a bunch of 519a and I’m an anti-green snob ever since. Other than the emitter I did like that light. I need to try an emitter swap on it.
I’ve been told by the engineering whiteshirts that proprietary batteries/charging are a safety feature to protect the user and flashlight from things like inserting the battery the wrong way, using the incorrect charger, using incorrect size/voltage batteries and/or batteries that may cause damage (e.g. explode/leak). They want to make sure as many CYA boxes are checked as possible. Proprietary batteries are one such way to do this (and guarantees repeat customers).
It is annoying an I think it needs to go away, but to be fair, Olights cells are good quality and unlikely to fail bfore the warranty. Also, they could have sealed the battery in and made it non replaceable (like some are doing).
Olight gets a lot of hate here…
I agree that they could use better tint LEDs and even some with better CRI (though I’m color blind, so that doesn’t matter as much to me). But as we all know, lumens sell. So for the majority of people who don’t frequent flashlight forums, and even for some of us who do, the better business practice is to continue with the same strategy (just like Fenix).
Their customer service is great (perhaps it has improved in the last few years). They have a repair center in Virginia, so your light doesn’t have to go back to China, and they pay for shipping when a repair is needed.
Proprietary batteries are really only annoying to me because of the price Olight charges for replacements. Sometimes their batteries are on sale, but they’re still usually more expensive than buying good cells from reputable sites. What I wonder though is how many people who complain about proprietary batteries in their flashlights use an iPhone? Apple is the king of proprietary, yet people love paying more for their stuff.
Olight got sued (PDF) when some Nuon brand CR123A batteries exploded inside an Olight flashlight and killed the user. I imagine the use of proprietary batteries is a response to that.
I sympathize with Olight to a degree here. As far as I can tell, there was nothing wrong with their flashlight and the fault was entirely with the Nuon batteries. The case against Olight does not appear legitimate, and I hope Olight is able to win the case and recover their legal costs.
I don’t like their solution though, and I wish the market had rejected Olight’s proprietary battery products the way it has when other brands like Fenix and Acebeam have tried the same thing.
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The batteries for the R50 vanished from the store along with this light. For one more year, I could get a replacement by asking Olight directly, but after that it was gone. Not an experience that makes you wanna buy an Olight again.
Some Armyteks, otoh, can also be charged at the tail cap, but AT uses standard batteries. All it takes is a twist of the cap.
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The situation with phones is a bit different. I would certainly prefer it if phones had replaceable batteries, but built-in batteries is the norm. I don’t like it, but I must deal with it. (Though I do miss the old flip phones with a back cover that allows easy battery access.) Nowadays phones are seen as somewhat of a disposable product, and replaced every few years. I think this is a horrible waste. My iPhone battery died after just 3 years, and I’ve stopped buying Apple products altogether.
With flashlights, proprietary batteries are not the norm, so having the option of replaceable batteries, for me, makes a light much more favorable.
Thankfully, right-to-repair and probably e-waste is pushing for laws mandating replaceable batteries for phones.
My phones all use replaceable batteries, but all are cheap enough that it’s probably more expedient to just buy a new phone. They were like 30-40bux each, and the Tracfone was the 15buk special that was listed on the Amazon deals thread last year.
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I place a lot of value on sharing spare batteries between lights. I’m traveling right now and I have a Zebralight EDC light, Emisar headlamp, and Acebeam semi-thrower all happily running on Sony VTC6s.
Android phones here, and I’m certainly not happy that phone batteries aren’t field-replaceable, much less standardized. Fortunately, the flashlight market has many options offering both.
Some Android phones have batteries that are field-replaceable.
My Android phone, for instance, has a battery that I easily replaced. 
I’m not sure, but it seems that occasionally, usually when they’re having a big sale, Reddit gets swarmed with people so eager to show off their new olight that you’d almost think they were being paid to say it… 
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Fear of missing out (FOMO) may be one reason why Olight are popular. Every month or two there is a sale where they sell a once off batch of a flashlight in a particular colour or metal (Ti, Copper etc).
Olight has big marketing/support teams, a big R&D team, a big factory and they continue to grow in size.
Are there many flashlight manufacturers that come close to the scale of Olight? Fenix? Streamlight?
Energizer, Duracell and Ledlenser brands of flashlights seem popular in big supermarket and home hardware chains.
Word-of-mouth may help with Olight’s popularity.
AFAIK the OP is buying most of his lights and is not an Olight affiliate. 