Maglite Solitaire Opinions

this is the conclusion I have come to:

Maglite Solitaire: Very Tough, inexpensive, low light output, little battery life

LED AAA flashlights: Tough, Fairly inexpensive, Very Bright, long battery life


I get exactly what you guys are talking about because I had a maglite AA (not the led) and I always had to change the bulbs, put in new batteries etc. So one day for Christmas I got an LED Lenser V2 6 Chip Dual Color Tactical Torch and could not be happier. The Flashlight is extremely bright, tough, and has great battery life. I think this is a battle between LED vs older bulbs. I don't see why maglite can't make a LED version of the Solitaire. If I were on a hostile, deserted planet and I could choose one flashlight I would choose a maglite (LED Version) because they are extremely reliable and they have never let me down.



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I bought a Maglite Solitaire not too long ago, then I bought a Fenix 01 a week or so after buying the Maglite Solitaire. The Fenix 01 is 100 times the light that the Maglite Solitaire is. Even with new batteries, the light from the Maglite Solitaire is dim & small.
 
My Solitaires had a habit of breaking right where the steel split ring attached to the body. :(

I actually went through about four or five of them before I decided to stop buying them.
 
+1 on the Fenix E01. For keychain carry I rotate between an ITP EOS A3 or 4Sevens Preon REvO but always have the E01 stashed away as a backup light. As others have said, while the tint isn't the best or the brightest on the E01, you definately get your bang for the buck. It feels a lot more solid than the A3 and REvO and will pull the last remaining juice out of otherwise dead AAA cells.

That said, one of the lights 4Sevens will be unveiling at SHOT Show is what they are calling the E01 killer. Imagine the indestructibility of the Fenix E01, with a better tint and possibly longer runtime at an affordable price.
 
I have all ways had a Maglite curse.
Every time I needed it no matter the model the batteries would be dead or less often the light itself would be dead.I know that most of that comes from D cell ( or any alkaline) batteries not holding up well for very long to heat and cold but still when you need a light you need it.
I have no trouble at all with my ARC AAA or Maratac AA using Energizer lithium batteries.Heat and cold does not seem to bother them.I gave up on Maglites way before the AAA and AA lithium batteries came out but I would think they might improve their performance some.
 
As for myself I carry a mag lite AA with LED upgrade on my belt when at work. I have a D cell maglite in my bag at work and my fenix e01 is always on my keyring. I think there a great light for the price point but you can get way better for just a little more. I also have a fenix tk-20 in my bag.
 
moshow9 said:
That said, one of the lights 4Sevens will be unveiling at SHOT Show is what they are calling the E01 killer. Imagine the indestructibility of the Fenix E01, with a better tint and possibly longer runtime at an affordable price.
Click to expand...

Looking forward to that one!

Jeff
 
I just compared an old one with my Fenix L0d(2 years old) and realised how much more advanced Flashlights are nowadays.They may be cheap,but that is not good enough for me-Google some comparisons or watch them on Youtube.Modern flashlights like Fenix,ITP,Maratac and Quark are vey impressive,while some Like Lummi are amazing.
 
The 2AA LED Mag-lite isn't bad , but the solitaire just isn't bright period. The small Gerbers are even brighter. I have given up on non-LED flashlights altogether. The one mandatory thing for me is that my flashlight has to use commonly available batteries.
 
I have a Mag Solitaire that I bought about 16 years ago in Paris along with a big Vic SAK.

I have no use for it.
The battery life is amazingly short, and the light produced is pretty much a candle. No where near enough. It was acceptable when we didn't have better options but now with modern LED's it's just not good enough.

Out of my LED flashlights that use only 1 AAA I have a Fenix E05 and a Fenix LD01.
There is no comparison. For the price of 2 Solitaires you can have one E01 which will serve you a million times better. Actually considering the amount you'll save on batteries and bulbs you might even save money on the Fenix E01.
 
What a useless product. A Cellphone gives out more light than that.

What is this about 'Good value' and 'Best bang'? It's simply a cheap product for the masses who have no idea what kind of technology is out there today.

Yes. I had one. It made a poor gift and it was used as a Plier tester on my Leatherman Wave. Yes the Wave did amazing and the Solitaire ended up being a billion pieces of metal. Maglite is not a good value when you can have better products for equal or lesser price.
 
I have to agree with the majority here. I've owned Solitaires, AA Mini Mags, 3 or 4 C Mags since the 80s, and they've all been outperformed by much smaller and newer LED lights. My Solitaires were never very reliable. The light was always too dim with ugly artifacts like most of my old incan lights. I'd get play in the head which would cause the like to always flicker on and off. They're decades old technology and for a few bucks more you can get much better, newer, more reliable light.
I personally wouldn't waste the money on one again. Even my Fenix PD20 Q5 way outperforms my 3 (or 4 C) Mag at a mere fraction of the size. About the only thing I see the large Mag useful for is as a small club for self defense purposes and the Solitaire without the battery is a good holder for emergency paper money.

This shot is about a year or two old (can't remember exactly) but it has one of my remaining Solitaires on the left for size reference. Since then I've got several other lights which I need to take an updated group shot of. I've been EDCing the Fenix 1xCR123 lights since they came out, (while waiting for Doug Stevens (?) to release his next batch of Fire-Fly lights back around '06) first the P1, then P1D, P1D CE, P2D, P2D Q5 and since it was released, the original PD20 Q5 in the middle of the pic. I used a NiteCore EZ CR2 as an on person backup but now use an iTP EOS A3. I also still keep one or two of the other P2Ds in my various EDC and in car GHBs (Get Home Bags).

For reference, the lights are from left to right:
Maglite Solitaire, NiteCore EZ AA, Civictor, Fenix P1, P1D CE with Leef clicky body, P2D, P2D Q5, PD20 Q5, Surefire E1 Executive, Streamlight Scorpion, Streamlight Twintask 1CR123, Wolf Eyes Raider 9DX(?).
flashlightcollection200.jpg
 
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I got one for free from a Marine recruiter. It was STILL over priced.

I'm going to jump the on the Fenix E01 bandwagon here, although I have a Photon2 on my keys and its PERFECT.
 
Stelth said:
I thought it was great when it came out (around 1988 if I recall correctly) but advances to flashlights have improved by leaps and bounds. I have a Maratac AAA light that works about 100x better and is the same size. I gave my Solitaire to one of my daughters.
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I agree. After comparing a Maratac or ITP to the maglite solitaire, the solitaire belongs in the garbage. It's that big of a difference.
 
I have several Photons (including the yellow Ritter version) and Fauxtons with higher output emitters that I got from a contact over at CPF years ago. Great lights but my main challenge with them was finding replacement batteries for them in an emergency. I bought some replacements which I keep on hand but the other issue is cost of replacement of those button cells compared to good old AA and AAA. Granted my main EDC lights are CR123 but I bought those in bulk on line too. The reason I bought the CR2 NiteCore was because a local camera chain had a program where for $49 you get 2 sets per year of replacement batteries for your registered camera for 5 years. I stopped using that camera years ago and I'd get 4 CR2s per year for the 5 years I was eligible. I ended up with 20 CR2s and no use for them so when the NiteCore EZ CR2 went on clearance I bought one so I could use up the batteries.

Seriously knivesngear, as great a light as you think the Solitaire is, it's decades old technology. Give one of the Fenix, 4Sevens or other comparable lights a try and you'll soon be wondering how you got by with just a Solitaire for so long.
4Sevens is a great guy. I haven't bought any of his lights yet but have been dealing with him (David) since the days when he first started carrying Fenix lights, years before he'd even launched his 4Sevens brand.
 
I have a Solitaire my wife gave me and every once in a while I take it out and try it and realize each time why I use my Fenix E01 instead.

The difference in price between a Solitaire and E01 eventually disappears after a few years of use because batteries last much longer in the E01, not to mention that the LED will far outlast the bulb in the Solitaire. Plus the E01 puts out more light in a more useable pattern.

But I still keep a 4-D Mag in my car. It's more than just a flashlight--it's a club.
 
The solitaire used to be a nice little light, but with all those new improvements in flashlights, it is now outmoded.

Mag Lite should really think about updating this light with LED's, it would be a great seller.

However I heard someone said the other day, "As long as people keep buying it as is, there is no reason why they'd change it"
 
From my own experience with 1 x AAA lights:

Maglite Solitaire sucks - battery life & brightness are poor.
Fenix E01 Sucks - horrible tint giving VERY poor colour rendition.
L0D Rocks - great light, very bright on max, very good battery life on min, excellent balance of light & runtime on med.
ITP A3 EOS Upgrade Rocks - Very similar to L0D but better price.
Liteflux L2XT Rocks - More expensive but with ability to ramp up/ramp down the brightness, an incredibly low minimum output and officially working with Li-ion 10440 cells - this is a top class light.

For a light not much bigger or heavier there is the Nitecore EZ-AA, way better run time from an AA battery than you can get from an AAA battery, simple 2 step output - nice little light!
 
I bought a bunch of these as spares as well as for their batteries from dealextreme a while back to feed my Nichia GS modded photon2. So far works great, just make sure to check the batts before you use them as some are DOA.


Edited to add:: I eventually ended up just using a single CR2032 (as opposed to a pair of CR2016) in there because the GS has a little lower vf requirement than older 5mm leds (cs/ds or off brand). But unless you swap the the GS I recommend still using the pair of 2016 batts in you photon/fauxton.


NaturalMystic said:
I have several Photons (including the yellow Ritter version) and Fauxtons with higher output emitters that I got from a contact over at CPF years ago. Great lights but my main challenge with them was finding replacement batteries for them in an emergency. I bought some replacements which I keep on hand but the other issue is cost of replacement of those button cells compared to good old AA and AAA. Granted my main EDC lights are CR123 but I bought those in bulk on line too. The reason I bought the CR2 NiteCore was because a local camera chain had a program where for $49 you get 2 sets per year of replacement batteries for your registered camera for 5 years. I stopped using that camera years ago and I'd get 4 CR2s per year for the 5 years I was eligible. I ended up with 20 CR2s and no use for them so when the NiteCore EZ CR2 went on clearance I bought one so I could use up the batteries.

Seriously knivesngear, as great a light as you think the Solitaire is, it's decades old technology. Give one of the Fenix, 4Sevens or other comparable lights a try and you'll soon be wondering how you got by with just a Solitaire for so long.
4Sevens is a great guy. I haven't bought any of his lights yet but have been dealing with him (David) since the days when he first started carrying Fenix lights, years before he'd even launched his 4Sevens brand.
Click to expand...
 
Buck268 said:
I bought a bunch of these as spares as well as for their batteries from dealextreme a while back to feed my Nichia GS modded photon2. So far works great, just make sure to check the batts before you use them as some are DOA.


Edited to add:: I eventually ended up just using a single CR2032 (as opposed to a pair of CR2016) in there because the GS has a little lower vf requirement than older 5mm leds (cs/ds or off brand). But unless you swap the the GS I recommend still using the pair of 2016 batts in you photon/fauxton.
Click to expand...


Cool, I may grab some of those sometime. I picked up a bunch of the CountyComm SO-LEDs a while back too. The LEDs I got for my Fauxtons back in '06 were 40K 5mm LEDs and are the brightest I've found so far. I'd like to get my hands on some more or even brighter if they exist.

BTW I just noticed that CountyComm has support for International shipping now through partners it looks like. Haven't been on that site for a while.
 
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