LED Lenser P7R Professional Torch review
Perfect for nocturnal Pokemon hunting and more important things too
Pros
- Well built
- Great charging system
- Light weight
Cons
- None
Bottom Line
This small and useful torch ticks all the boxes. Everyone will find it useful.
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Price
$ 231.00 (AUD)
To many people, modern torch use resembles a smartphone screen being turned on and then tapped awkwardly to stop it turning off again lest you trip over the cat. More experienced (or less drunk) users might even be able to work out how to switch a phone camera's LED Flash into torch mode giving you a beam that can get you to the loo and back. However, venture out into the dark outdoors or a cellar and it quickly becomes borderline useless.
We saw just how extreme a professional torch could go recently, with the Fenix RC40. This was more like a mobile spotlight and cost a whopping $590. It’s overkill for most purposes.
But the LED Lenser P7R is far more practical. It’s a 1,000 lumen torch which can illuminate objects that are up to 210m away. It’s light at 210g and is rechargeable by a magnetic USB attachment which cleverly fixes onto the base – there’s no need to insert a cable or remove batteries. This is particularly good because you can use portable power packs (as seen with phones) to charge it as you go and improve battery life: it has a two-hour ‘burn time’ in high-power mode but this can be stretched to 40-hours in low-power mode. There are three power settings (low, medium and high) which you cycle through by turning the torch on and off, one, two or three times. It takes five-hours to fully charge. The predecessor used AAA batteries but the Li-Ion 18650 battery here is quite standard in the torch world so it’s easily replaceable once spent.
It’s IPX4 rated which means it’s splash proof but not something you can immerse for more than 5 minutes. It’s made from very high grade aluminium and feels very solid.
Pulling and rotating the lamp head easily adjusts the lens to smoothly switch between (targeted) spotlight and (broad beam) floodlight modes. You can then focus the beam by twisting the lamp head. Turning it all the way to the left locks the head in place (kind of – it’s not a very strong lock).
We took it out Pokemon hunting in bushland around Sydney’s suburbs. It was bright enough to illuminate large areas of forest on our way to obscure Pokemon gyms. But it’s not so bright that it knocks indigenous marsupials out of trees. It could illuminate objects at the other end of football fields.
It comes with a wall-mounting bracket and a robust, Batman-like belt holder.
The convenience of charging on the fly without removing batteries or inserting anything makes this a great torch for tradies, bush rangers domestic use and, well, anything.
At $231 it represents quite an investment but this is a great torch and you get what you pay for.
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