Best Flashlight for 2024 – CNET

A relative blessing in the broad sea of available flashlights is that they are generally accurately priced based on what you can expect from them in terms of performance. While all flashlights saw some decline over the course of the testing, output, consistency and longevity all increased proportional to the pricing of the units.

The Gearlight LED Flashlight and Rayovac Value Bright 75 Lumen Floating Lantern, for example, may not have performed well at all in our testing, scoring low marks for light output and consistency, but they remain Amazon bestsellers due to their very low price point.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Olight Warrior X Pro was the only flashlight to challenge the Fenix’s impressive performance, even surpassing it in some categories. However, despite its first-rate numbers, this flashlight grew unreasonably hot within minutes of activation and quickly reached a point where it would be unrealistic to operate it without a thick pair of gloves.

Another interesting option is the Maglite ML300LX LED 3 Cell. At a foot long and weighing nearly a full pound, this flashlight is reminiscent of the type you’d see a police officer pull out of his trunk in an old movie. With strong light output and very impressive consistency over the full hour of testing, this is an excellent flashlight if you prefer a bulkier option. Similarly, the Infinity X1 2500 and 1500 flashlights fell into a comparable testing pattern. They offer both rechargeable or replaceable battery packs, which is certainly a perk, but the price tags associated with their outputs simply don’t measure up. 

Of the smaller, baton-style lights I tested, the Streamlight ProTac 2L-X was just OK, with a decent initial output but a drop to effectively zero after just 20 minutes. The larger Alifa Rechargeable LEDhad better output and consistency and an adjustable beam but weighs more than any other non-lantern light we tested, at 1.3 pounds. It also includes promotional material claiming an output of 200,000 lumens — an exceedingly unlikely number. Just 4,000 would be enough to claim the crown for highest output we tested.