Fenix RC40 review: This flashlight is so powerful, it’ll even charge your phone - lebelthenly

The smartphone may have replaced the flashlight for most consumers, but when you really need to light it up, nothing beats the real thing.

And when it comes to a really good torch, it's heavy to nonplus the Fenix RC40. Upgraded this year with the latest Cree XM-L2 U2 LEDs, the RC40 (available for $380 on Amazon), will position out a scorching 6,000 lumens from its half-dozen-LED cluster. That's enough yield to reach almost half a land mile away.

Mind you, a typical 4D alkaline Maglite power collide with 122 lumens. Victimisation the RC40 at an abandoned military al-Qa'ida, I could easily light astir the sides of ginormous aircraft hangers.

The battery and the build

With great output signal, comes great power though. The RC40 eschews alkalines, which could ne'er support its live draw, in favor of what appears to represent a custom gigantic Li-ion cell.

You arse't get 6,000 lumens down of an alkaline D-cell, so Fenix uses a massive 7,800mA lithium-ion cell (second object from the left).

The battery is the approximate size of two-and-a-half D-cells well-stacked end-to-cease. The battery is charged via a standard cask charger plugged into the closing of the flashlight. Fenix includes an AC power brick as well as a cigarette-lighter adapter.

The power state of the stamp battery can be checked by pushing a clit on the end of the torch. There's also a USB port that can charge your phone.

Perhaps even cooler, if you need USB power, there's a single USB Type A port along the end of the torch, so you can use the ability bank to charge your speech sound or other twist. I measured turnout of the USB port to my Galaxy S5 phone at just under 1 amp.

All of the ports have gaskets and Fenix rates the flashlight at IPX-8, expression it can be fully submerged up to 2 meters underwater.

Also being submersible, the RC40 is also tough. During a video shoot, I dropped the light—bezel-side down—from about triplet feet onto solid objective. The antireflective coated glass crystalline lens didn't shatter and the only damage was a slight deformation of the bezel. Functionality wasn't impacted at all.

Two buttons Lashkar-e-Taiba you cycle through power settings and set a safety mode so the light stays off. The fins on the head help keep the LEDs cool during use.

The RC40 in action

The RC40 features two buttons for mathematical operation. The proper button cycles through the force levels: Eco, Low, Moderate, High, and Turbo. Eco is 45 lumens for capable 125 hours, low is 500 lumens for up to 18 hours, medium is 2,000 lumens for a miniscule over 4 hours, elated hits 4,000 lumens for just low-level 2 hours, and the turbo mode will hit 6,000 lumens for 1 hour— but don't expect to run the torch at 6,000 lumens continously.

To prevent the LEDs from overheating, the light output will drop when the temperature hits 149 degrees Fahrenheit. This is typical in high-performance Light-emitting diode lights, which gun output to protect the LEDs from damage. For what it's worth, I ran the light on turbo mood on a caller night and didn't poster any reducing in production after five minutes. Your mileage will vary dependent on the conditions, of course.

The left button lets you trigger the strobe, operating room SOS mode. Pressing both buttons locks the flashlight. If you try to turn on the light while locked, it will blink threefold to let you live it's locked.

The RC40's negatives are its Leontyne Price, weight, and mass.

Flashlight aficionados leave take a hop beams on a ceiling to measure congener output, and the RC40 testament totally sort out a limited room. Like I said, I took the RC40 to an abandoned military base to creep around and could easily light up whole buildings 1,000 feet away.

The RC40 is what torch fans call a "thrower," meaning its beam visibility is improve for lighting up objects ALIR off. It's happy sufficient to be competitive with less-efficient HID (high-intensity-discharge) flashlights while giving you better barrage life.

Walking between the rickety airplane hangers, I ma like I had a vehicle-mounted searchlight rather than a flashlight. The RC40 was bright enough to draw the attention of the sprawling base's sole security guard and get me kicked out.

You can thank Moore's Law for that, as the efficiency of LEDs has advanced as quickly As calculator processors. Last class's RC40 could just push its quatern Cree XM-L U2 LEDs to 3,500 lumens. Without changing the power source, Fenix is now able to push half dozen Cree XM-L2 (note the 2) U2 LEDs to 6,000 lumens.

The RC40 next to a typical D-prison cell incandescent torch.

The downsides

Thus what are the negatives? The all but obvious one is the power source. I have a king-sized solicitation of flashlights and most of the high-performance ones run on lithium-ion, too. But they use commodity 18650 cells. The large Arbitrager-L3-15600 in the RC40 is far from rough-cut. Replacements are close to $65 on the internet and unless other flashlight makers operating theatre device makers support the form factor, you better trust Fenix keeps sourcing them for you. Should Fenix stop merchandising them, that'll live it for the torch at one time the battery wears out.

The other negative is the bulk. Patc a 10.7-in flashlight with a 4.6-edge in diameter head would glucinium no big wheel in 1994, we've appear way in flashlight technology. Masses are spoiled past the output and size of nowadays's torches. You can get a pocket light that's brighter than the heaviest flashlights from the 1990s.

All but people, frankly, just don't need this good-hearted of output signal unless they'Re a bull, on a search-and-rescue team, a dark squealer hunter, or, well, a flashlight buff.

That's a pretty pocket-size market, which explains its steep price. That doesn't take aside from the performance of the RC40, though. If you're looking for the ultimate flashlight, the RC40 should definitely throw the short number.