Flashlights

Though this site covers fewer flashlight brands and models than some, the editors do a terrific job. The individual reviews go into great depth and are well illustrated. Ratings on a scale of 100 are… provided for looks, build quality, runtime, output, features, usability and bang for the buck. Given the huge price range for flashlights, the latter rating is especially helpful. The ratings are used to create an overall rating, and everything is pulled together on a sortable main landing page that makes it easy to see where each flashlight stands in relation to its competition. You can also create a custom comparison chart to evaluate several flashlights on one page.

expand

collapse

This site is excellent to use once you've narrowed your choice to two or three flashlights, but the list of "best products" is huge, with no ranking or ratings shown. The site is a leading source of… information about LED devices, including flashlights, authored by a self-proclaimed "flashlight nut." The author subjects each product to rigorous testing, including "The Punishment Zone" to test durability. The reviews of LED flashlights are easy to understand, though they're a little "crusty" in spots. They are also reasonably well illustrated, including a photo of the beam's brightness at 12 inches, which makes it much easier to see what you'd be getting. This site includes a virtual museum showcasing examples of breakthrough LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology since the 1960's.

expand

collapse

This site's author is an independent reviewer of PC hardware and gadgets, who doesn't guarantee a positive review to the manufacturers who supply products for review. Although the site is continually being… updated, most of the flashlight reviews in the Lighting section are from 2001, with only a few more recent items. None of the flashlights are ranked or rated. However, even the older reviews explain LED flashlight technology much better than most sites, and many of the top picks are still excellent buys.

expand

collapse

REI publishes owner-written ratings and reviews of the flashlights sold here. The average rating is shown beside each flashlight in the list, along with the number of reviews on which it's based. This makes… REI.com one of the easier websites to browse. At the time of this report, quite a few flashlights have accumulated reviews, although only a handful have more than five or so. Some flashlights also get low average ratings, making this site especially useful.

expand

collapse

Sears lets visitors filter its listing of flashlights by user rating, making the site easy to browse. Unfortunately, at the time of this report, only a handful of flashlights have accumulated more than a… few reviews, but owners clearly like both Dorcy and Craftsman LED lights. On the other hand, the small Craftsman 41-5606 flashlight gets noticeably poor ratings from owners, who criticize its durability and say the bulbs burn out fast.

expand

collapse

Popular Mechanics publishes some excellent reviews based on testing comparable models, but this isn't one of them. We'd rank this review higher if more than three flashlights were tested, but at least this… crosses one off the list -- the battery-free "shake" type of flashlight, which performs poorly. The review does give some insight into the differences between a $130 LED flashlight and a $20 wind-up light. Testing methods are refreshingly nontechnical. For brightness at 20 feet, a viewer with excellent eyesight tries reading a standard vision chart. For durability, editors throw the flashlights down a flight of concrete stairs. Editors conclude that the Surefire E2L is worth its high price in an emergency; an earlier Popular Mechanics article covers tactical flashlights.

expand

collapse

The Wal-Mart website shows the average rating from owner-written reviews of flashlights, but you have to click on the model to see how many people have actually reviewed it. We'd rank this site higher if… more flashlights had accumulated enough reviews to add credibility to the ratings. It's still useful, however, since credible reviews here confirm that a shake flashlight isn't nearly as useful as a crank flashlight.

expand

collapse

The information provided here is from a consultancy and research laboratory that performed extensive testing on flashlights in 2003. It's the only source that seems to put the products through a rigorous… scientific process to determine the best ones. However, the information is more technical and harder to digest than that of less formal review sources. Editors do offer interesting "quick facts," conclusions and an overall rating of up to five stars on some standard brands including Arc, Surefire, Streamlight and Inova. This review's age keeps it from ranking more highly in our chart.

expand

collapse

Outdoors-Magazine.com is a free online magazine written by a stable of volunteer editors from around the world. More than 20 flashlights and headlamps get detailed single-product reviews here from four… different editors, but without ratings, rankings, or comparison charts. If the reviews were more current, we'd rank this site higher. At the time of this report, the most recent review is dated August 2006, not very recent in this rapidly developing arena. The only comparison review is even older, dated Feb. 2005. However, there's still good information here.

expand

collapse