The Best Flashlights of 2018
It is hard to say which are the best flashlights of 2018. We've had a lot of improvements in flashlights, both with Fenix and even other brands as well, so it's going to be very exciting to find what lights are coming out this year that are going to really push the envelope and make the whole world of lighting better.
Fenix TK72R
To start off, we of course have the brand-new Fenix TK72R. This light just came out during this month, in February of 2018, and it's already shaping up to be, really, one of the best lights you can get this year. The Fenix TK72R boasts a 9,000-lumen maximum output as well as a full LCD screen display. It will show the runtime that you have left, the lumen output that you're on, and the percentage level of the battery.
The most exciting thing about this light is the way that it has changed up the method of mode selection. In the past, lights have been, of course, limited to anywhere from one to around five modes where they were preset mode settings, and you clicked the switch or clicked the button to move from one mode setting to the next. Now, those mode settings could have been anywhere, any sort of distance apart from each other. You could have one mode setting at 4 lumens and the next mode setting at 20 to 30, and then it could jump all the way up to 400 lumens, and you wouldn't really have much of a choice. You would just kind of have to deal with whatever the maker designed and programmed into that light.
The Fenix TK72R really changes that for LED flashlights. This is an LED light that is able to hit every single level of brightness all the way from 100 lumens all the way up to 9,000 lumens. You get to choose exactly the amount of lumens that you want to put out in increments of 100, so you don't have to worry about medium being 100 lumens and high being 1,000 lumens. You know that if you want 400 lumens, you get 400 lumens. If you want 800 lumens, you get 800. If you want 600, you get 600. You can even get 620 if you want it. This incremental increase and decrease in brightness really changes how things are, and it's the best user interface and user options available out of any flashlight that Fenix carries or has carried in the past.
In addition to this great output selection as well and the impressive 9,000-lumen output, it also is USB-rechargeable and comes with a battery. It has its own built-in proprietary battery. It is a 7,000-milliamp battery pack that's going to last you for a very long time. Even that highest lumen setting of 9,000 will last you almost an hour and will throw almost 1,000 feet. All around, it's just a very, very impressive flashlight, a really great option for anyone to have, especially search and rescue or police work, that kind of thing. It's very, very exciting.
Fenix UC52
Another really exciting option that has already been released but is already shaping up to be one of the best lights to get in 2018 is the Fenix UC52 super bright intelligent LED flashlight. This light also features a LCD screen, though it is not quite as robust as the Fenix TK72R. The UC52 features a 3,100-lumen maximum output, and it also has a built-in 3,500-milliamp proprietary battery.
The really big exciting feature about this flashlight is the die cast design. This is the first die cast flashlight that Fenix has offered and, as such, it's incredibly durable, and it's very smooth, and it feels very nice to hold. The die cast design means that there are no separate pieces. There's no separate head or separate tail piece. It is all one fully-constructed and fully-sealed unit. The Fenix UC52 (discontinued) also does charge through a micro-USB cable, and it has five output settings plus a strobe and an SOS mode. Maximum, again, is 3,100 lumens, and that'll last you 42 minutes. On high, which is 1,000 lumens, that'll last you up to 2 hours and 45 minutes.
Fenix TK35 & TK35UE
We also have two new additions to the TK family, the TK35 2018 edition and the TK35UE, that's Ultimate Edition and the 2018 edition. The regular TK35 will give you an output level of 1,300 lumens for 3 hours and 10 minutes and an impressive throw distance of 480 meters, and then the TK35 Ultimate Edition will give you 3,200-lumen output and a throw distance of 300 meters. The TK35 Ultimate Edition does also feature a tactical mode, which locks the flashlight into the brightest setting. That will keep it so that you will always turn the light on into the highest setting, and you can only access strobe, so you can't switch down to the lower settings because, in a tactical situation, it simply is not really necessary, so you're locked into the highest setting possible, and you get strobe as well. That's for an instant access to turbo at all times.
Both the TK35 and the Fenix TK35UE feature a USB-rechargeable battery carrier, so you can take the battery carrier out of the flashlight and immediately recharge the batteries without having to purchase a separate charger or remove, even, the batteries from the carrier. You just simply take the carrier out of the light, and then you're good to charge.
Fenix LD15R
Also coming ahead is another USB-rechargeable light, the LD15R. This is a 500-lumen-output light that is a right angle, a right angle flashlight, so rather than having a straight handle and beam, this is like the classic right-angle flashlights that they used to have, so we're bringing it back here with this. It'll give you a 500-lumen output for an hour and 20 minutes. We're using a 16340 battery, which does come with it, and again, it is USB-rechargeable, so this is going to be a very great compact flashlight, and it'll be the right angle feature, which a lot of people really like that. Rather than holding the flashlight down at their side, you can clip it to a backpack or something like that instead.
Fenix CL30R
They also have couple new camping lanterns coming out that are going to be really great to look out for this year in 2018. We've got the CP30R lantern. This is a rechargeable, multifunction lantern. This has a 400-lumen output setting, and it also features a modular design. You can connect multiple CP30s together through magnetic connection, and it also features a Bluetooth speaker, so this is kind of a two-in-one because you can get your lighting needs met for your campsite, but you can also have a great speaker to have a camp party or whatever you'd like to do with that.
Has a built-in 10,000-milliamp battery, lithium polymer battery. That's the highest milliamp level that we have seen in Fenix lights, so it should last you a very long time, the turbo mode of 400 lumens at 5 hours. This one also features a sleeping mode, which is kind of like a nightlight type of mode, 40 lumens, and that'll last you an hour, and then also has the low setting of 16 lumens that'll last you 130 hours, so multiple options for dim and full camp lighting plus the Bluetooth speaker, and all of this is USB-rechargeable.