Olight S2R Baton II Review (SST-40)

Preface

The Olight S2R Baton II (or Olight S2R II Baton) is the second generation of the rather popular Olight S2R Baton model.

Let’s check out the merits and demerits of this new generation Olight S2R II model.

Packaging & First Impressions

This is what the light will come with as shown below.

  • The threads and o-rings were lightly lubricated.  Threads were smooth and clean (no gritty feeling).
  • The side electronic switch requires a firm and deliberate press to activate and helps in preventing any unwanted activation of the light.
  • Both clips (black and blue) are not reversible. However, the dual-direction clips enable fairly deep pocket carry for bezel up carry.
  • The blue clip comes pre-installed from factory.
  • Magnetic tail cap is able to bear the light’s weight when attached horizontally and vertically (upside down) to a flat ferrous metallic surface.
  • Anodizing of the light is uniform without any missing specs, as expected from Olight.
  • The provided lanyard provided comes with a very useful thin metal to help thread into the lanyard hole.
  • The lanyard is able to support the full weight of the light and should hold up to the test of time.
  • No holster is provided but a nice pouch to hold the light and Magnetic Charging Cable (MCC II) is included.
  • Battery compartment is able to take a KeepPower 18650 3400mAh battery with barely much room to take a slightly thicker battery width. Fatter protected 18650 3500mAh batteries should be able to fit without issue as well.
  • The provided 18650 battery (Olight ORB-186C32) will work in other flashlights but Olight advises that it should only be recharged inside this flashlight (do not use other external chargers to recharge).
  • Scanning the QR code with your phone/tablet on the box’s side would bring up the Olight S2R Baton II’s product page.

Note:

  • Before using the flashlight for the first time, remove the Insulation Film from the battery tube.
  • Battery is inserted into the battery tube with the Positive end (+) in first.

Front:

Back:

Sides:

Top:

Bottom:

Box Contents:

Removing Insulating Film:

Quick Overview (Manufacturer Specifications)

  • Body Material: Black Aluminium
  • Clip Material: Stainless Steel
  • LED: Luminus SST-40
  • LED Specification: 70CRI 7500K
  • Battery Format:   1 x 18650 or 2 x CR123A ONLY
  • Output & Runtime (with included Olight 18650 3.6V/3200mAh battery):
    • Moonlight (0.5 lumens / 60days)
    • Low (12 lumens / 4days 4h)
    • Mid (60 lumens / 3h 40min)
    • High (400 lumens / 4h)
    • Turbo (1150 lumens / 2min) -> (400 lumens / 3h 50min)
  • Max Beam Distance: 135m
  • Beam intensity: 4,600cd
  • Waterproofness: IPX-8 Standard
  • Impact Resistance: 1.5m
  • Dimension: 100mm (length) x 23mm (diameter)
  • Weight: 98.5g (including batteries)
  • Battery reverse polarity protection
  • Accessories Included:
    • 1*Olight 18650 3.6V/3200mAh battery (Olight ORB-186C32)
    • 1*Magnetic Charging Cable (MCC II)
    • 2*Pocket Clips (Black and Blue – Blue Pocket Clip is pre-installed from factory)
    • 1*Lanyard
    • 1*Pouch
  • MSRP: ~$70

UI (User Interface)

UI for this light is good for Every Day Carry (EDC) as it is rather straightforward to use.

Switching ON and OFF is done by the side electronic switch on the light, so no momentary activation is possible.

Normal Operation

From OFF:

  • 1 Click  – Last brightness level (all modes except TURBO are memorized only) is activated.
  • 2 Click – Direct access to TURBO; 1 Click to switch OFF or HOLD down to switch modes.
  • 3 (or more) Click – Direct access to STROBE; 1 Click to switch OFF or HOLD down to switch modes.
  • HOLD (~1 sec) – Direct access to MOONLIGHT.

From ON:

  • 1 Click – Light will switch OFF.
  • 2 Click – Direct access to TURBO; 1 Click to switch OFF or HOLD down to switch modes.
  • 3 (or more) Click – Direct access to STROBE; 1 Click to switch OFF or hold down to switch modes.
  • HOLD – Mode change (light cycles through LOW, MID & HIGH only; MOONLIGHT & TURBO is not part of the sequence).

There is 1 blinky mode for this light (STROBE only) and no SOS modes.

Timer Configuration

There are 2 types of Timers – Short (3 min) and Long (9 min). Light will switch OFF once the timer ends.

From ON:

  • 2 Click & HOLD – 1 Blink indicates Short (3 min) timer is activated. Repeat 2 Click & HOLD to activate Long (9 min) timer – 2 Blinks.

Power Indicator

There is only 1 type of Power Indicator for this flashlight.

From ON (in all Modes except MOONLIGHT), the Side Switch LED will glow one of the following colors:

  • GREEN – Power is >70%.
  • YELLOW – Power is between 15% – 70%.
  • RED – Power is <15%, do recharge or replace the batteries.

Electronic Lockout

From OFF:

  • HOLD (till MOONLIGHT is activated & deactivated) – LOCKOUT mode is enabled; HOLD (till MOONLIGHT is activated) – LOCKOUT is disabled.

When Electronic LOCKOUT mode is activated, any button presses will cause the RED LED on the switch button to activate for about 3 sec.

Form Factor

For flashlights that are intended to use on a daily basis (EDC) and for possibly a long period of time, form factor is extremely important.

This light feels well balanced and is relatively compact in a medium sized hand (not head/tail-heavy). Switching between overhand and underhand holding method is easy with its small form factor and (lack thereof) weight.

The re-designed raised knurling makes the light extremely “grippy” (same as on the Olight S1R Baton II), even with wet hands/gloves but not overly aggressive (i.e. still fabric and pockets-friendly).

Even with the lanyard attached, it is able to tail-stand perfectly without the slightest wobble.

Without Clip:

With Blue Clip Installed:

With Black Clip Installed:

Other pictures of the Olight S2R Baton II:

Charging Process

With the provided Magnetic Charging Cable (MCC II), the battery was charging at ~0.83A.

The new MCC II is the second generation of the previous MCC with slimmer wires and is still backwards-compatible to other Olight MCC-rechargeable products.

The light is capable of operating on all modes when charging (at the expense of a slower charging rate). However, it is recommended to use “MOONLIGHT” or “LOW” only, to ensure that the battery does get charged.

Solid RED indicator on the TAIL part of the MCC II Charger depicts charging in progress.
Solid GREEN indicator on the TAIL part of the MCC II Charger depicts charging has completed.

Note: Charging will not disable the Electronic Lockout mode.

Beam Style/Beamshots

For this light, the spill, corona and hotspot is somewhat predictable due to the TIR (Total Internal Reflection) optics used. The LED is fully covered under the Clear TIR optic. Hence, the beam has both “throw” and soft flood for recognizing items in the up-close to near range distance.

The above beam profile is a rough interpretation of what is seen when white wall hunting.

The beam has a wide circular hotspot with some slight corona and very little spill (almost all of the beam produced is focused into the hotspot). There are some beam artifacts in the beam when whitewall hunting but not visible in real world usage.

All of the beamshots taken below are done so with the following camera settings (MOONLIGHT: 2.5sec, F3.5, ISO100, 5000K WB, LOW: 1.3sec, F3.5, ISO100, 5000K WB, MID: 1/2sec, F3.5, ISO100, 5000K WB, HIGH: 1/4sec, F3.5, ISO100, 5000K WB and TURBO: 1/6sec, F3.5, ISO100, 5000K WB).
Some pictures have been adjusted slightly to depict as close as to what is seen in real life. The distance of the light from the door is 4.6m.

Control shot:

MOONLIGHT (0.5 lumens):

LOW (12 lumens):

MID (60 lumens):

HIGH (400 lumens):

TURBO (1150 lumens):

Mode (Output) Spacing

Mode spacing appears to be progressively brighter to the eye and the modes are well spaced enough to be able to know which mode one is currently in. With that in mind, TLR tend to view mode spacing as battery life indicators (amount of runtime left) rather than the specific output (lumens).

We are very happy to report that the MOONLIGHT mode is perfect for those bedtime night snack runs or with night-adjusted eyes, especially since there is a Direct Access option from OFF.

On a side note, the HIGH mode (400 lumens) could use a slightly lower output of say 300 lumens to ensure a longer runtime – as the difference in output is almost imperceptible to most human eyes.

Tint & CRI

The tint is said to be 7500K with 70CRI (Color Rendering Index) Rating for the LED used in the light. This is probably one of the highest color temperature ever used by Olight.

However, there are tint shifts throughout the beam profile. The hotspot is a yellowish tint whilst the corona possess a slight yellowish green tint; and the spill having a slight purple tint.
This is still slightly noticeable in real life usage.

Waterproofness

The light was subjected to warm water submersion, followed by cold water submersion and left under room temperature running water tap whilst running on TURBO.

No signs of water intrusion in the head, switch or body was seen.

Lockout Capability

Electronic lockout and mechanical lockout are possible when needed, like during transportation in a bag.

A quarter turn (anti-clockwise) of the tail portion of the light will enable mechanical lockout.

For Electronic lockout, see above “Electronic Lockout”, on how to activate and deactivate LOCKOUT.

Quick Comparison to Previous Generation

DescriptionOlight S2R Baton IIOlight S2R Baton
LED UsedLuminus SST-40Cree XM-L2
TURBO Mode Output1150 Lumens1020 Lumens
Beam Distance135 meters153 meters
Switch LED (Battery Indicator)YesNo
Magnetic Charging Cable (MCC)MCC II (1000mA Charging Rate)MCC (750mA Charging Rate)
Weight (including Battery)98.5 grams101.5 grams
Length of Flashlight100 mm105 mm
Clip2 Dual-Direction Clips (Black & Blue Colors)1 Single Direction Clip (Black Color)

Scale Comparison (Ruler)

Summary

To sum up, we believe that the most important part of any review is if given the chance to purchase the same light for our own EDC or to gift to our loved ones out from one’s pocket (wallet), would we still do it?
For this light, it is a definite YES, if the tint shift is not an issue for your usage.

The small form factor (for a 18650 flashlight), straightforward UI with Direct Access to MOONLIGHT, TURBO & STROBE from OFF, strong magnet in the tailcap, 2 different colored dual-directional pocket clip (Black and Blue) and Magnetic Charging Cable (MCC II) capability are all plus points for this flashlight.

Here is a bonus size comparison with some of the other recommended flashlights we reviewed previously.
From Left to Right: Olight I3T EOS, Olight M1T Raider, Olight S1R II Baton, Olight S2R II Baton, Olight M2T Warrior, Nitecore MT21C, Klarus XT2CR and Fenix UC35 V2.0.

As with all gears, two is one and one is none.

Stay safe,
The Lite Review


Disclaimer: Light was provided for by Olight (manufacturer) for this review. No other compensation was provided.


Where to Buy Links

Disclaimer: Purchasing using the affiliate link below will enable TLR to receive compensation from corresponding affiliate companies (Amazon/ShareASale/etc.) directly.
It will NOT cost you anything and is a way to help support the website to keep pumping out reviews like this.

Olight S2R II Baton

Amazon: Click Here to see best prices on Amazon.

Available Discount Coupon Codes

  • Click HERE to view our complete list of discount Coupon Codes.

Our Latest Reviews

  • Click HERE to view the latest Flashlight Reviews.
  • Click HERE to view the latest Reviews.

Leave a Reply