Olight X7 Marauder Flashlight...9,000 Lumens !

[Gary W. Graley]

Olight has such a range of lights coming out, this is one of the newest releases, I had asked them for one of the other lights that were larger than the first two they sent me, but they surprised me with this latest offering to review for them, thanks again Olight for this opportunity.

follow this link to see my review of the Olight S1A, S1R and S2R from Olight

follow this link to see my review of the Olight S10R iii

follow this link to see my review of H1R Nova head lamp

Olight X7 Marauder, simply amazing bundle of light this device puts out! while on highest setting it does get warm so they incorporated a sensing circuit to protect not just you, but also the LED's. I haven't ran it to where it shut down, but I've had it on for a spell and you can hold it pretty easily. My one complaint would be the lack of a lanyard, but I'm guessing their standard lanyard might not work. I have an idea for something and if I can get it to work I'll include a photo of that later on.

Olight does an excellent job of manufacture, I've owned and still own many different lights from other companies and they are pretty precise on fit and finish.

Some details regarding the light, similar to what you'll find on their site but to help keep it in one place for you;

Light output
Nightlight....3 lumen, in order to activate that, while off, hold the button down longer
Low........300 lumens, still quite handy for indoors checking around or on a trail even
Medium...1,000 lumens
High.......3,000/1,800 lumens
Turbo......5,500/1,800 lumens....in order to activate, be sure to have Freshly charged batteries, double click fast
Turbo S...9,000/1,800 lumens....in order to activate, once in Turbo mode as above, then again, double click fast to reach Turbo S mode

Triple click to move into Strobe mode...here's a tip, don't drive with that on

The LED's that are used in this small monster are 3 CREE XHP 70 witha total of 12 light emitting cores

I do not have a scale here to weigh it but it's marked at 472grams less the 4 batteries and the batteries used to fire this up are 4 18650 rechargeable lithium batteries. Note that you will need fresh batteries to reach those upper levels of brightness in the Turbo range, I got the light and put the batteries in and didn't see a major change, so I charged them up and WOW those Turbo settings are amazingly bright!

It is sold as just the light and a nylon type holster, which works pretty good too, or you can buy the 'kit' that includes the batteries and an Olight charger. I figure that died in the wool light guys/gals that will be drawn to this light will most likely be set already with batteries so you get that option.

First off, I've never had or held a 'soda can' type flashlight before and this is pretty impressive just holding it. The button activation works easily, you can cycle through without a problem.

Here's some photos taken of the light and first with a comparison of the two smaller ones for reference;

The box it comes in is quite nice in and of itself, the lid inside has a drawing that shows you NEED to remove the protective plastic cover of the front of the lens, otherwise it might melt on there!!

Activation button and low battery indicator

LED and reflector setup

Screw on back, there are two posts that position the posts over the correct batteries as you screw the back down.

As you will see in this video...I am NOT a videographer, but, you can see the wide expanse of this fairly small light acting like a major flood light! the video doesn't really capture just HOW wide and lit up the yard actual got, it is incredible.

Here's a daytime shot of where the video was taken tonight. I did not go into the Nightlight mode as that is only 3 lumen but it is a handy setting too for indoors!

[video=youtube;g0De_-CJOCg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0De_-CJOCg[/video]

Now I will not kid you, this rascal is solid and a bit heavy! So I'm liking the idea of rigging a lanyard up more and more so stay tuned

Thanks again to Olight for providing this amazing device!
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Ok folks, here's what I came up with as a makeshift lanyard, with the groove running around the light, I tied a whip knot tightly to the light so the paracord is anchored in that groove. And the celtic bead is decorative and also acts as a keeper, meaning you slip your hand into the lanyard, and slide the bead up to your wrist which makes it safer and less likely to fall off your wrist, works well too. And this will prevent the light from rolling around, of course with the wide base it easily stands up on it's own, but this helps.

I did leave out one fact with this light that the smaller ones have, the smaller ones each have a strong magnet at the base so you could attach it to any ferrous object to hold the light while you worked, this one does not have a magnet. But then, it would need to be one powerful magnet to hold this up!

also behind the light is the holster that comes with the light.

and a close up of the whipping knot, easiest way to do this is to start the whipping knot while it's off the light and get it close to where you have to force the loop over the light housing, then wrap it tighter and finish the knot.

And it's position, with the bulk of the weight behind the lanyard, the head is tilted up if you happen to drop the light and the lanyard wouldn't even attempt to slip off due to the wider bezel area.

Hope that helps you guys and gals out and maybe you can use this lanyard idea on some other lights as well.
G2

 

[bralexander]

As always, great review! I have had a few lights in the 800-1000 lumens range, but I cannot even imagine the output of this X7 Marauder! Very cool!
Bruce

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Thanks Bruce, it is pretty amazing, with a world of lights crashing on our shores there are so many to chose from, Olight is trying to get the word out and I am fortunate that they asked if I could help.

I took some shots in hand today to show a size comparison, my palm measures about 3 1/2" wide which I would say is about a medium glove size. Here is a shot to compare it's size to a Fenix TK22 which I am pretty sure most light folks will recognize. Now the TK22 is rated about 680 lumens and the Olight X7 is rated at 9,000, yes, a sizeable difference in output, but the main difference I see would be the throw, where the TK22 goes as far or farther but not NEARLY as full or wide a flood as the X7, so it comes down to what you need to do with the light. The TK22 you would be moving it about in order to see more things, where the X7 lights up a wider area so you SEE things at the same time, that is a plus for sure.

The lanyard idea seems to work fine, and it still fits into the holster with that attached, here you can see how I slid the celtic bead up to my wrist to act as a keeper, please keep in mind, this is NOT from Olight, just something my brain cooked up to solve the lack of a lanyard attachment spot

and if it drops out of my hand, it will hang like so, or if you needed to let it go to grab something, you can do so without having to find a spot or put it in the holster;

you can see that the weight is tail heavy so that will make the lanyard unable to slide off, even so, it is fairly tight around it so it wouldn't come free at this point anyways.

Thanks for giving this a look see.
G2

 

[Gary W. Graley]

Also check out HalJordon's review at this link for more outside shots of this light's power here

G2

 

[Grease]

As always, great review! I have had a few lights in the 800-1000 lumens range, but I cannot even imagine the output of this X7 Marauder! Very cool!
Bruce

If I remember correctly, double the lumens does not equal double the brightness. To get double the output of a 1000 lumen light, you need 4000 lumens. 8000 would be 50% brighter still, so this thing is only around 160% brighter than a standard 800-1000 lumen tactical light.

Still, given how bright those already are, this thing looks to be quite the searchlight. I'll bet it's got similar throw distance to a smaller light, but a MUCH wider beam at that same distance. Like a long distance flood light almost.

 

[Gary W. Graley]

That's a good point to bring up, did a quick search for some references and found this


Lumens..........Incandescent..........Fluorecent/LED
375 lm............25 W....................6.23 W
600 lm............40 W....................10 W
900 lm............60 W....................15 W
1125 lm..........75 W....................18.75 W
1500 lm..........100 W..................25 W
2250 lm..........150 W..................37.5 W
3000 lm..........200 W..................50 W

G2

 

[UffDa]

If I remember correctly, double the lumens does not equal double the brightness. To get double the output of a 1000 lumen light, you need 4000 lumens. 8000 would be 50% brighter still, so this thing is only around 160% brighter than a standard 800-1000 lumen tactical light.

Still, given how bright those already are, this thing looks to be quite the searchlight. I'll bet it's got similar throw distance to a smaller light, but a MUCH wider beam at that same distance. Like a long distance flood light almost.

From what I have read, the lumen rating of a flashlight depends on what the manufacturer wants you to believe. I have a Surefire GX2. The high output is rated a 320 lumens. It does an excellent job of illuminating my back yard. I can clearly see what's going on at my fence line 45 yards away. I also have a Chinese light that is advertised at 1000 lumens. It doesn't come close to the Surefire. Caveat emptor.