7 Best & Brightest Tactical Flashlights for 2017

Tactical flashlights were originally designed for military and law enforcement use.

Due to the original life or death nature of their use, tactical flashlights were created to be the most extreme, reliable and high performing flashlights available on the market.

However, their appeal has quickly spread to members of the private sector, like hunters, mechanics and gun enthusiasts, who want a piece of the best technology that can withstand the harshest conditions.

In a hurry ?

Our top pick is Streamlight 88040 ProTAC HL High Lumen Professional Tactical Light

Top Deal:

Top 3 Best of the Best Tactical Flashlight

The real question is: If you find yourself in an unexpected situation, what kind of flashlight would you want by your side?

Honestly, you would probably be happy to have ANY light source with you.

But, since you are reading this, you probably know that the value of a tactical flashlight is impossible to beat with any other light source.

Tactical flashlights are designed to be much smaller, more powerful, more durable, and longer lasting that a typical flashlight.

This makes them ideal for a wide range of uses and, at today’s price points, far better than any other handheld light source.

However, just like most tactical defense products, no one light is ideal for all people or purposes.

With the huge array brands and styles available on the market, it can be very difficult to know what the best tactical flashlight is for you, and we’re here to help.

There are several key specifications and considerations you should analyze before making a decision.

Top 3 Best Seller Tactical Flashlight

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Top 7 Best Tactical Flashlight in 2017 Reviews

Read our detail review below will help you decide what the best tactical flashlight is for you.

1. SureFire G2X Pro – top rated tactical flashlight brand

2. Olight M21X-L2 Tactical Flashlight

3. EagleTac G25C2 Mark II Tactical Flashlight

4. Pelican 7060 – best military flashlight

5. Inova T4R Tactical Flashlight

6. Streamlight 88040 ProTAC Tactical Flashlight

7. Surefire P2X Fury Tactical LED

Conclusion

We learned a few things along the way. There are a lot of tactical flashlight brands on the market.

We found that many of the lights would be ideal for everyday carry and some of the flashlights were just a bit too over the top to be considered reasonable.

Ultimately after all the searching, reading and testing we were able to come up with 7 top of the line options that made most consumers happy. Of course, any of the three would be a great pick for a full range of reasons but we have to make one our favorite.

Our tactical flashlight reviews landed the Streamlight 88040 ProTAC Tactical Flashlight as our top pick; people absolutely love it!

It is a good choice for anyone that is concerned with the personal protection, surviving emergency situations or just needs to find those shoes in the back of the closet. It has some amped up features that we loved, and it is a rechargeable model which we liked. You cannot go wrong with this model, the price is right, the reviews are amazing and it is built to last.

What is a best tactical flashlight?

It is rather obvious that most people do need to have a flashlight of some sort at hand. But the needs and requirements are quite different for each class of users and therefore the desirable characteristics will vary accordingly.

You may want a tiny little lamp to keep on your bedside table that you would just use to go to the bathroom without awaking your partner.

You need a slightly bigger torch for use at home in case of a power outage.

These kinds of flashlights can be purchased from any nearby stores or supermarkets. They are easy to find and cheap, but how long they would last is certainly a concern to be addressed. You’ll notice that they are not subject to much strain therefore they don’t need to be very sturdy.

For heavier uses, you will need a more professional tool. Many user profiles can be identified such as (non-exhaustive list):

All of these users will need, to some extent, a flashlight that we call tactical. This paper is aimed at helping every potential user to choose the best tactical flashlight for one’s own purpose.

Body

Material

The first step is to define the material of which the case of the flashlight should be made. In this market, you will find bodies made of metal or plastic. Furthermore, there may be a coating adapted to the material intended to enhance the quality or bring additional benefits.

It is true that the chemical industry today is able to produce plastics with very good mechanical properties. However, for our purpose, it is clear that the best choice is aluminum. This material has more useful properties than the best plastic product. Aluminum is light weight, non-magnetic, corrosion resistant and a good electrical conductor. Therefore, we can summarize as follows:
Aluminum:

• The weight will not be a burden if you have to carry your light for hours either by hand or in a holster on your belt.
• It will not produce perturbations on a compass if you have to use one in the vicinity.
• It will survive in hostile environment or at the seaside for example.
• Passing current through the body of the flashlight simplifies its construction by providing a return path for the current.

Coating

Although offering a natural strong mechanical resistance, aluminum has a rather soft surface. In order to prevent scratches and bumps, it is advisable to harden the surface. This is achieved by a process called anodizing. The process consists in immersing the aluminum part into an acid electrolyte and running a current through it. This electrolytic process produces a thin coat of aluminum oxide. The anodic layer is non-conductive. The layer is somewhat porous, depending on its thickness. The corrosion-resistant property is improved by an additional process of sealing. Cooling the acid solution to the freezing point of water produces a much thicker coating that penetrates deeper into the aluminum.

Various types of anodizing processes are known which produce the following results:

• Type I uses a chromic acid solution. It produces a 0.5 μm to 18 μm thick layer.
• Type II uses a sulfuric acid solution. It produces a 1.8 μm to 25 μm thick layer.
• Type III also uses a sulfuric acid solution. It produces a 13 to 150 μm thick layer. This type is also called hard anodizing or hardcoat.

Benefits of hard anodizing (hard coating):

• It gives aluminum a stronger surface.
• It makes your flashlight more durable and resistant to harsh conditions.
• It appears that Type III Hard Anodized is standard coating for tactical flashlights. Other processes do not produce good enough results.

Power Supply

Choice of battery cells

Now you know what your best tactical flashlight should look like from the outside. Let’s then have a look at the inside. To begin with, we need a power source. There is a multi-fold choice to make on this matter.

First of all, we have to compare alkaline versus lithium batteries and, secondly, disposable versus rechargeable batteries. We will then look in more details into the selected types.

Comparison

Lithium batteries last a lot longer than alkaline ones before the energy load is depleted. The ratio is somewhere between four and seven times longer, depending on the particular application. They can also output a higher voltage for a longer period of time which is very useful for many devices. More voltage and more time means more energy stored in lithium cells.

On another hand, lithium battery units are more expensive than alkaline ones. However, the extra cost, if you can afford it, is overcome by the better efficiency so that, on the long run, lithium batteries are more effective than alkaline units.

Finally, it is noteworthy to say that lithium cells weigh about 1/3 less than their alkaline equivalent and they are not prone to leakage of chemical corrosive products that could damage your best tactical flashlight.

Advantages of lithium batteries:

• More efficient energy wise
• More expensive
• Lighter weight
• Cleaner

Lithium cells

With the above data, you have decided that you want lithium batteries. We will now discuss about the most renowned battery types, both disposable and rechargeable.

In the first instance, the two types of cells do not have the same chemical content. Disposable cells are Lithium whereas rechargeable cells are Lithium-Ion.

Disposable vs. Rechargeable

Primary (disposable) batteries	Rechargeable batteries
PROs Less expensive at purchase Ready to use out of the box	PROs Re-usable many times Lasts longer
CONs Single use, need repeated purchase Need spare parts storage Shorter lifespan	CONs More expensive Must be charged before use Risk of overcharging (if not protected or used with a “clever” charger)

Light emitter

Definitely LED

It’s time now to take a step into modernity. In recent times, LED (Light-Emitting Diode) technology has grown as a dependable, powerful and valuable light source. It now outperforms by far other technologies such as the vintage incandescent bulb but also more recent devices such as halogen or xenon devices. However, LED components are still rather expensive but prices are dropping sharply, thus making them more and more attractive and this trend is going to last.

One of the most noteworthy features is that LEDs lack a heated filament and a glass bulb. This means that they are much more impact and shock resistant than bulb type devices.

• LED is the best choice light source for tactical flashlight which may be frequently submitted to rough handling.
• If flashlight is going to be used on a firearm, its LED should be further reinforced to withstand recoil.

Another very interesting feature for your best tactical flashlight is its lifetime. Most LEDs today exhibit lifespan of 50,000 hours or more, some high end ones can even go as high as thousands of years.

• Extended lifetime means that you will never need to change your light source.
• As a side benefit, you’ll not need to deal with spare parts: so good for your warehouses but also for your tactical equipment, whether it is a rucksack or camping equipment: travel light and save!

LED devices are the most efficient as regards the ratio light output/energy consumption. With the constant increase in light power out of a single chip, this means highest light output and longest run times. This characteristic makes LED chips ideally suited for best tactical flashlight use:

• You get bright illumination while on long night shifts without concern to duration.

Additionally, we have to consider the so-called light color temperature. Color temperature defines the spectral distribution of the light source, in other words it is a measure of the relative mixture of red and blue light being emitted. It is measured in Kelvin. The higher the Kelvin value of a light source, the whiter and later the bluer the light emitted by this source. It is not a measure of brightness (see below). Here is one definition of the Kelvin scale (thresholds may vary according to sources):

• Warm White: from 2600 K to 3500 K: incandescent light bulbs.
• Natural White: from 4000 K to 4500 K: typical fluorescent lighting.
• Daylight White: from 5000 K to 5500 K: noon day sunlight.
• Commercial or Cool White: above 6000 K: industrial applications, hospitals.

On the warm side, the light color is yellowish whereas on the cool side the light color tends to be bluish. For flashlights, we would prefer to be between 5000 to 7000 K as it is the kind of light which best allows for natural color of objects recognition.

Output power

Another important characteristic is the amount of light an emitter can output and how efficiently this amount of light is used by the device it is mounted in. Luminous flux is measured in lumen, a measure of power. Luminous intensity is measured in candela, a measure of intensity. The relationship between lumen and candela depends on the beam angle. If the LED is focused into a tighter beam with a reduced beam angle, the luminous intensity (brightness) will increase without actually increasing the amount of light (flux or power). As an example, if you divide by two the beam angle (say from 30° to 15°) while keeping the light power constant (lumen figure), the light intensity (candela figure) will be multiplied by four.

In most cases, flashlight manufacturers specify the power of their products in lumen but rarely give the candela intensity. As explained above, the latter will depend on reflector design.

Most modern tactical flashlights have multiple brightness modes and special purpose modes such as strobe and SOS beacon.

• Experience shows that 250 lumen is bright enough to blind one’s opponent standing at handgun’s shooting distance.
• If opponent’s eyes are adjusted to night vision then 100 lumens is enough.
• A variable mode output might come in handy in a survival situation. Strobe is especially efficient for signaling at maximum power while at the same time extending battery life as much as possible.
• How high flashlight brightness can go is just as important as how low can it go. Very low brightness modes are usually employed when some illumination is needed while eyes must stay adapted to the dark. This can be achieved if light output is not greater than 6 lumens.

Light quality

Yet another feature of your best tactical flashlight is how this bright light is put to use. LEDs produce more or less uniformly smooth light while incandescent light bulbs produce various shapes and dark rings due to their construction and filaments. As explained earlier, reflector design will impact the way the light power is being used. A narrow angle will increase the center beam intensity, therefore extending the reach (also named throw) of the beam. Around the center beam is an area of less intense light named peripheral. A smartly designed reflector can help combine qualities to get a superior product. Reflector is the most important part for eye pleasing light quality.

• Most flashlights have smooth reflector (mirror like) but some high end ones have textured reflectors. Textured reflector smooth out the light and hide any light source imperfections.
• Reflector is also responsible for focusing the center beam. It is wise to choose a tactical flashlight with tightly focused center beam. It enables longer reach and is especially important when mounted on a weapon for accurate targeting.
• Peripheral light is also very important to consider. Being uniform and of good quality will greatly increase the user’s peripheral vision.

Controls and Available accessories

Best tactical flashlights, however powerful, must also be user friendly. Operation must be straightforward and reliable, adapted to the intended use of the light. It is also desirable that the manufacturer provides optional equipment so as to allow the user to tailor his best tactical flashlight to his own needs.

• Tactical flashlight must have a reliable on/off switch. It must withstand a high number of operations without failure. This is of paramount importance. How good is a flashlight if one can’t turn it on when it is the most needed in an emergency?
• The switch must provide instant on/off operation. Any delay must not be tolerated.
• A good tactical flashlight must have a separate control for brightness levels. It is important that mode switching can be performed without delay or hesitation.
• Is the flashlight of your choice provided with a holster? For small to medium size lights, it is handy to be able to hang it from your tactical belt, thus allowing for hands-free operation.
• If you plan to use your flashlight mounted on a gun, does it have a rail mount adapter? Several adapter keys must be provided. You’d better check that the key which fits your gun is included.
• Also is there a Remote Pressure Switch for the type of flashlight you’re buying? This may be handy if you need to operate the light mounted on a gun.
• Also consider if light diffusers and color filters are available. Especially important in tactical situations is red color filter used to dim the light.

LED

With LED flashlights ignition is instantaneous, while the most common flashlights take some time to work at full capacity.

And although there are rapid start fluorescent models can not match the immediacy of on, at full capacity, an LED bulb. They also support a high number of cycles on and off.

Run-time

Is the number of minutes or hours of continuous use of the tactical torch, measured by the fabricate, that lets you use the flashlight without failure. We must avoid confusing with the number of hours of use of the flashlight with batteries or battery charging.

For instance as a reference without a flashlight can have 80 hours of use, but able to support only 1 hour of continuous use, allowing time between uses.

These factors influence the time to buy as the use to which it expects to.

 

Lens and reflector type

The strength and type of LED as its lens and reflector (silver area) are important when choose to buy the best tactical flashlight 2017 because the quality may improve or worsen performance.

Lens Type, Some are smooth and rough, the smooth concentric rings often show clear and strong light, the rough are light blur function making it more smooth and even. Clearly this is also related to the type of light (pitcher or innundadora).

Water Protection

May need or not, a water-protected flashlight, which is not the same as submersible.

Impact resistance

Some manufacturers fall resistance in cm or meters. There are models with rubber outer body and especially resistant to falls.

Other Features to Consider

We can then find tactical torches with a varied number of “extras”, considering that many of them can impair the performance of the flashlight as such.

• Laser Pointer
• Ultraviolet light to check the money
• Lantern
• USB Chargers
• Compasses
• Radios
• Alarms
• Ultrasonic Repellents
• And other …

Conclusion: What makes the Best Tactical Flashlight?

Conclusion

• The body must be constructed out of aluminum.
• The case must be finished with type III Hard Anodized coating.
• Power source must be higher capacity and power density battery family (CR123A, RCR123A or 18650).
• The light source must be of the LED type.
• The light output power must be a minimum of 250 lumens.
• The center beam must be laser-like with an efficient peripheral lighting.
• The best tactical flashlight must be equipped with a sturdy and instant on/off switch.

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