What to Look for in a Survival Flashlight Part 2

If you tuned into last week’s blog then you read all about what to look for in a survival flashlight. I’ll provide a quick recap though or you can visit the blog here and read all about it yourself!

A survival flashlight is exactly what the name implies, a flashlight that helps you survive in one way or another. Some aspects to consider with survival flashlights are size, different brightness modes, and batteries. Of course, there are way more aspects than that but a two part blog would turn into a mini series about survival flashlights. So we decided to narrow these aspects down to 3 crucial ones.

Awesome Examples of Survival Flashlights

Now it’s time to talk about some of our favorite survival flashlights. Survival flashlights do depend heavily on the preference of the user so I included some variety in our examples. You’ll see some different sizes, different outputs, and more. I’ll go into detail and talk about each aspect (size, brightness modes, batteries) of the flashlights with you and you can decide which survival flashlight is right for you!

Klarus Mi7

So let’s start with a smaller flashlight, the Klarus Mi7. This EDC light is beloved among Klarus fans and it’s easy to see why. But what makes it a good survival flashlight?

Size - It’s small enough that it fits in a pocket really easily and it won’t take up any room in a bag. It also comes with a pocket clip so you can secure it on your pocket, shirt, or wherever to be sure you have easy access to it.

Brightness Modes - As I mentioned in Part 1, different brightness modes are essential to survival flashlights. The Mi7 has three brightness levels and two emergency flashing modes. Depending on which battery you use, the Mi7’s brightness levels range from 5 lumens to 700 lumens (14500 battery) or 5 lumens to 330 lumens. This broad range is excellent and allows you to conserve the battery when you need to. The Mi7 also has a strobe mode for self-defense and an SOS mode which is what you want in a survival flashlight.

Battery - The Klarus Mi7 can run on either a lithium ion 14500 battery or a AA alkaline battery. With the 14500 battery you do get more power out of the Mi7, but it’s excellent that you can choose between these two batteries.

MecArmy SGN7

This one is an interesting flashlight and may not be for everybody as a survival flashlight. Nevertheless, I want to include it because it has some terrific features.

Size - The SGN7 is incredibly small and is considered a keychain flashlight so you know it’ll be compact, lightweight, and take up next to no room.

Brightness modes - the SGN7 features four brightness levels ranging from 1.5 lumens to 550 lumens so it will work out well for a survival flashlight. It also features a unique emergency mode. You can immediately access the strobe mode with the press of a button and it also activates a shrieking alarm that can startle an attacker and draw attention to you if needed.

Batteries - The SGN7 comes with a 650mAh lithium polymer battery and is USB rechargeable. Being USB rechargeable is incredibly convenient, but many users may argue that a rechargeable flashlight may not be helpful in a survival flashlight. This depends on your preference.

Nitecore P12GT

Now it’s time to look at a medium-sized survival flashlights and we’re going with the Nitecore P12GT! This flashlight is powerful, compact, and makes an excellent illumination tool.

Size - The P12GT is a compact medium-sized flashlight that’s comfortable in your hands but can also be carried using the convenient pocket clip. Of course, this flashlight will take up some room in your bag, though not much. And if you don’t have big enough pockets, it might be uncomfortable carrying it around.

Brightness Modes - With this survival flashlight, you have four brightness levels and three flashing modes! Let’s talk about the brightness levels first. They range from 1 lumen to 1000 lumens so you have quite a variety to choose from. Some may wonder what good 1 lumen will do and the answer is it will do wonders in the right situation! For example, if you’re in a tent and want to read a map, 1 lumen is more than adequate! Along with the four brightness levels, the P12GT has three flashing modes: strobe, SOS, and beacon. The beacon mode alerts passers by to where your location is.

Batteries - The P12GT is compatible with a single 18650 lithium-ion battery or two CR123 lithium batteries. If you’re wanting something that uses alkaline batteries then the P12GT isn’t for you. However, CR123’s are fairly common to find in a store. And it’s great that the P12GT can use either an 18650 or CR123. Being able to have more than one option for the battery is always a perk.

Klarus RS20

I’m excited to talk about this flashlight because it has a lot of unique features that work really well for a survival flashlight!

Size - So the RS20 could be considered a medium sized flashlight or a large sized flashlight. It’s not exactly lightweight like a medium sized flashlight, but it’s not as long as a large sized flashlight. It does come with a holster and a lanyard which makes carrying it around a lot easier.

Brightness Modes - So this is where this survival flashlight gets advanced. It has a regular LED at the head of the flashlight and it also has a side LED with multiple colors! I’ll talk about the main LED first. This has four brightness levels ranging from 1 lumen to 1050 lumens and features a strobe mode and SOS mode. I mentioned a situation where you’d want to use the 1 lumen moonlight mode, but there’s more to it than that. The moonlight mode conserves the battery more than you’d expect! For example, the moonlight mode on the RS20 has a runtime of 982 hours!

The side light features a white, green, red, and blue light. The side light allows the light to be diffused to light up an area around you. The primary white LED has two brightness levels that are 65 lumens and 200 lumens. The red light is 90 lumens, the green light is 170 lumens, and the blue light is 27 lumens. The red light has an SOS mode and the green light has a flash mode as well to get attention.

Batteries - The RS20 runs on a single 18650 battery or two CR123 batteries. Though the RS20 is rechargeable so if you have access to power or have a power bank, you might prefer using the 18650 battery.

So there you have it! Those are some of our favorite survival flashlights! You can check out more awesome tactical flashlights here and find something that speaks to you.