Brightest LED Flashlights for Outdoor Enthusiasts

It’s summer and you know what this season is about! Getting out into the great outdoors, adventuring, exploring, and enjoying the beauty of nature. With many outdoor activities it’s important to bring the right gear with you. Ever gone camping and forgotten your flashlight? I have! It’s not fun and I had to borrow one of my friend’s spare flashlights. Lucky for me my friend brought a spare. If I regularly forgot my flashlight I doubt I’d be so lucky every time. So this blog will be going into some amazing outdoor flashlights that are bright, powerful, compact, and will make your outdoor adventures safer all together.

Before I get into the different flashlights, I’ll tell you a bit about what I look for in an outdoor flashlight. First, I want to see multiple brightness levels, at least three. I don’t like using the turbo mode all the time because it can be too much light and drain the battery. I also don’t want to be stuck using the low mode because it’s often not enough light and I don’t want to be squinting, trying to navigate my way in the dark.

Second, I want decent runtimes. I don’t want a flashlight that needs to be charged several times or that I need to replace the batteries several times in a single camping trip.

Third, I’d like to see a diffused beam. This is completely personal preference as I know people who prefer a more focused beam with outdoor activities. I like seeing my entire surroundings though.

Brightest LED Flashlight Klarus XT11GT - 2000 Lumens

I think it’s fitting to start with a flashlight that everybody’s been talking about and that’s the Klarus XT11GT. So first things first, I’m sure you can’t help but notice the whopping 2000 lumens of power this flashlight delivers! That’s a whole lot of power. It’s certainly one of our brightest tactical flashlights. It features four brightness levels and two flashing modes including an SOS mode. The brightness levels range from 10 to 2000 lumens which is a wonderful wide range.

The XT11GT doesn’t have the greatest runtimes, but I can overlook that for several reasons. The first reason being that it has three different operation modes: the Tactical Mode, the Outdoor Mode, and the Advanced Tactical Setting. Before I talk about the different operation modes, it’s important to note that the XT11GT has three switches - a dual tail switch and a side switch. In the Tactical Mode (this is the default mode) - the main tail switch activates the turbo level and the secondary tail switch activates the Strobe mode when held down and cycles through the brightness levels. You can also operate the flashlight from the side switch.

In the Advanced Tactical mode, you can only use the tail switch as the side switch is locked out. The main tail switch accesses the turbo while the secondary switch only accesses the strobe mode. Both of these modes are awesome tactical modes, but for this blog I’m more interested in the Outdoor mode. In this mode the main tail switch accesses the turbo mode while the secondary switch accesses the low mode when held down. You can also operate the flashlight from the side switch. This is awesome for outdoor usage because you might find yourself using that low mode more than the turbo. This operation mode is even better combined with the built-in memory function. So you can turn the flashlight onto the last brightness level you used. You could operate the flashlight in only the medium modes if you wanted to and that’s why I love this XT11GT so much for outdoor purposes. And it’s also why I can overlook the shorter runtimes.

Outdoor LED Flashlight Klarus ST15 - 1100 Lumens

Another Klarus light, you ask? What can I say? Klarus makes some bomb LED flashlights including the ST15. If you’re not interested in the tactical features of the XT11GT then you might want to take a look at the ST15. It delivers 1100 lumens and has a more focused beam. I know I said I like looking for floodier beams, but I figured I should include a flashlight that has more of a focus to it for those who prefer focus to flood in their outdoor flashlights.

The ST15 has six total outputs just like the XT11GT. And just like the XT11GT they include four brightness levels and two flashing modes. The brightness levels range from 10 to 1100 lumens which is perfect. It also has a simple operation. Use the tail switch to turn on the ST15 and the side switch to cycle through the brightness levels and access the flashing modes. The ST15 also has a built-in memory function so you can pick which brightness level you’d like the flashlight to turn on in by turning the flashlight off in that same level. The memory function is one of my favorite features in any outdoor flashlight.

Another awesome feature of this outdoor flashlight is the battery capacity indicator! The side switch on the ST15 doubles as a battery power indicator. You can see this little LED on the side switch and that will glow green when the battery is 70% - 100% charged, glow orange or yellow when the battery is 30% - 70% charged, glow red when the battery is 10%-30% charged, and finally the LED will flash red when the battery is under 10% charged. With this indicator you won’t be guessing what charge your battery is at and you’ll get the most out of your battery without worrying about your flashlight just turning off on you when the battery dies.

By the way, the XT11GT features the same battery power indicator, in case you were wondering.

Outdoor Headlamp Zebralight H32 - 480 Lumens

This is the last outdoor flashlight I’ll be talking about! It’s actually a headlamp because I have a buddy who prefers using a headlamp for his outdoor activities so I wanted to include them in this blog. I know 480 lumens might not sound like a lot of power considering the other two flashlights we talked about, but in a headlamp you’d be surprised how much power 480 lumens can be. The H32 illuminates your entire field of vision including your peripheral which is amazing.

The brightness levels on this headlamp are actually quite interesting. There are three brightness levels and each brightness level can be programmed to one of its two sublevels for more variety. Including all the sublevels, the H32 brightness levels range from 0.01 lumens to 480 lumens. Along with the brightness levels, the H32 has a strobe mode for self-defense.

The H32 does have a really convenient battery power indicator that lets you know when the battery is running low so you know when it’s time to replace the batteries. Also, the H32 will step down in brightness as the battery begins to run lower. So when you’re in the high mode and the battery voltage can’t support that mode anymore, it’ll step down to the medium mode and so on. This way you know generally where the charge of your battery is at and your flashlight conserves the battery as much as possible.

Final Thoughts on Brightest LED Flashlights for the Outdoors

To tell you the truth it was so tough to pick only three outdoor flashlights. There are so many great ones and I wanted to include more than my own preferences in this list. I’ll probably make another blog post like this one with the other flashlights I didn’t write about. If you guys would like me to write about a specific flashlight or category of flashlight let me know!