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. 
Yeah, not implying OP was shilling it, I actually like his reviewing style, but it’s just interesting to watch all the people who go on reddit to post about it - apparently this sale they actually had a “top 3 spenders during the sale win a special prize” which I guess just feels kind of wrong to me when it reaches the point people are literally buying one of every model/colour they sell and clearly at least some duplicates…
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“Big in Japan” 
My dad used to say “two wrongs don’t make a right”. Just because apple do it doesn’t mean it’s good. I’ve never liked apple for taking the proprietary route and the high cost of their accessories - they have never had my money. For sure though, there are people who don’t give these things much thought or that amount of money doesn’t bother them. If the battery is dead they move on. Really though, apple people tend to update whenever something new comes along (I used to work in IT). Just look at those stupid queues of apple sheep camping out to buy the new model of something at launch. Another thing with phones is that the technology moves on. I’ve never replaced a phone battery (I’m one of those who charges to 80%), but I’ve had to replace phones as the networks change. Right now I’m still on a 4g phone but that is becoming an issue when we stay in cities where 5g is becoming widespread. As the new networks grow, the older networks diminish.
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My dad used to say for some things (and people), “Just because they’re popular, doesn’t mean they’re right”.
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Just to be clear, I wasn’t saying that Apple use proprietary batteries in their phones. I meant that all of their accessories (charging port, headphones, etc.) are proprietary. Their app store is more expensive too.
Not being able to buy a battery because they are out of stock is terrible. If you swap around batteries between lights, then proprietary doesn’t work for you. But as mentioned, just like people have to have the latest iPhone, many of us do tend to update our lights when new ones come out. At least new Olights always come with a battery, so while your new shiny holds your attention, the old battery’s life span isn’t important anymore. That’s a positive… right?
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I fail to see why this is in any way special when you can buy a new battery along a new light from virtually any manufacturer, right? It’s not that the Olight battery would be for free. It’s calculated for sure. Guess you were just joking.
The other way round, having to retire a perfectly working light because there’s no battery anymore is a shame.
It’s not that I dislike Olight flashlights, actually I own the S1R Baton 1 and 2 and find them in each generation the best 16340 light one can get. Marketing, price policy and this battery thing otoh stinks.And yes, I loved this Seeker which is now a paper weight. BTW, there was never an update. If you think there is, compare the range of the R50 with that of its so called successors. They don’t even come close to the usefulness of the R50.
The thing is though, in 15 years, sure, I might be carrying my microfusion core powered 20,000lm/1Mcd flood/throw D4Kv5, but my original lights will still be sitting there on the shelf, and sometimes I’ll want to put a battery in them, power them up and play with them. If a proprietary battery is dead, hasn’t been sold for 6 years, and new old stock is $45,000 on ebay (thanks for the inflation, jpow…) then that’s going to be a problem, especially if a light isn’t mod-friendly to do some kind of conversion.
Even if nobody uses li-ion any more, it’s basically certain someone will put a future battery tech with a charge controller and buck converter inside a correctly sized cylindrical housing, and instant li-ion replacement, just like those lithium-based rechargeable 1.5V alkaleak replacements that exist today. If battery tech advances at the rate it historically has and with the current vast sums of money being poured into it (IMO we’re 10 years or less from the first solid state battery car that people can actually buy, and battery tech trickles down - see Simon selling 35A CDR used 26800s out of scrapped EVs) then it’ll probably have a higher energy density too. Remember how bad even li-ion were in 2013 or 2008?
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I don’t really know how popular Olight’s products are - do any of us, really? I imagine their sales figures are confidential. I can’t second-guess the buying decisions of people who like the products of any consumer brand, including Olight. Obviously, some people buy them because they don’t realize they can get lights from other brands with similar or better output and runtime performance, and with batteries that can be replaced by generic batteries that cost less than Olight proprietary batteries, for less cost. On the other hand, some people know those other light brands are available and still prefer Olight products - and that’s perfectly sensible, depending on their needs and tastes. I can’t fault the quality of the Olight products I have - an older CR123/RCR123 light, and the 1xAAA lights that I have bought during their sales at the cost of shipping.
From my perspective, the comparison of flashlight brand choices with the choice between Android and Apple phone products isn’t quite valid. The reason I don’t buy Olight flashlights anymore is that the drawbacks for me of the proprietary batteries in Olight products, and their cost, are not outweighed by any advantages of buying Olight products compared to buying the products of other brands. I prefer to pay less for lights with widely-available batteries, as I get the same basic performance or more, without the features that are not desirable to me (the proprietary batteries and cost).
With phones, the choices from my perspective are different. I have used both Android and Apple phones. I have lately bought Apple phones, because: 1) the price of my Apple phones has NOT been higher than comparable Android phones, given the excellent sale prices my carrier offers occasionally on Apple phones; 2) even if the cost of the Apple products were slightly higher than for Android phones of similar features and performance, I would still prefer the Apple products, because I place a high value on the fact that all of the apps and operating systems of the Apple phones work well together and give me functionality and performance when I need them; and 3) there are no other MAJOR downsides to owning the Apple products compared to Android products, for my needs and tastes .
Of course, I am irritated that Apple’s operating system updates for its phones cause the older phones to stop working in an obvious ploy to force us to buy a new Apple phone, and that Apple phones don’t have the variety of apps available that are available for Android phones, but neither of these issues is a deal-breaker for me. Fortunately, lawsuits have somewhat lessened the forced-obsolescence issue, and more apps are now being created for the IOS system at the same time they are created for the Android system, or soon after.
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