sofirnLT1S LED Camping Lantern, Rechargeable Lantern with Dimmable 2700K - 6500K Light, red Light, 500 Hours Battery Life for Power Outages, Hiking, Camping, Emergency

I took four digital photos that go with this review.The first one is my LT1S near my Cardigan Welsh Corgi dog.He'll be fourteen years old this year.Queen Elizabeth II likes Pembroke Welsh Corgis, but I prefer Cardigan Welsh Corgis.Two of the images are of the LT1S next to an unbranded lantern, with both lanterns on their highest output.In one image, the LT1S is at 2700K and in the other one it's at 6500K.The unbranded lantern is at about 5000K in both pictures because the tint doesn't change on that one.I took the pics with my inexpensive cell phone camera, plus I'm a terrible photographer.It's hard to tell in the photos, but the LT1S is quite a bit brighter in person than the unbranded lantern.The last image is of the LT1S on top of a Coral Aloe, one of my favorite succulent plants.I received this lantern on June 28th, 2022.I ordered it two days earlier.Gotta love Amazon for their quick shipping!I don't even have Prime, and I chose the "slow" free shipping option.I'm used to ordering lights directly from China, and I usually don't mind waiting, but I do appreciate quick shipping when it happens.First of all, this review is as honest as possible.I will go over any deficiencies that I can find.Having said that, the Sofirn LT1S Lantern is just superb.My only other lantern I own is an unbranded lantern that Sofirn sells on their website.It's not made by them, but they sell it because it's a pretty good lantern for the money.But the LT1S blows away the unbranded lantern in just about every way possible.If you order the LT1S from sofirnlight.com, your order will come directly from China.So if you don't want to wait for maybe several weeks or longer, luckily there's Amazon for you.If you order from Amazon, in addition to the lantern, 2 extra o-ring, a charging cable, and printed manual, you'll receive a very nice 21700 cell.The 21700 cell says it's 5000mAh and it can handle up to 50 amps!That's a very high capacity and a crazy high amperage it can handle.It's my best 21700 cell that I own.It's probably a bit overkill because I doubt this lantern pulls anything even close to 50 amps, so I'll eventually use the battery in a flashlight that can benefit from a high drain cell.My biggest complaint about this lantern is the printed manual. The font used is very small and it's tough to read. I searched online for a digital pdf manual, but couldn't find one.I think the font should be at least 50% bigger.The manual is in 10 different languages, and the English version is well written. (I don't know about the other languages.)The font is just too small for me. I can read it, but just barely. It reminds me of the "small print" where the lawyers hide all of the important information that no one ever reads.The 21700 cell is removeable, so you can charge it in your own charger, or you could use the charging cable and charge the cell while it's in the lantern.The lantern has many features.It'll display approximately how much power the cell has, which is nice.It has five brightnesses to choose from, but it also has stepless ramping.It also offers a red light, and there's strobe and SOS but they're out of the way if you don't like red light or disco modes.You can change the color temperature to anywhere from 2700K to 6000K with stepless ramping.That means you can choose cool white, neutral white, warm white, or something in between.That's a really nice feature because different people prefer different tints.I like the stepless ramping for color temperature, but I prefer the stepped modes for brightness.It's super-convenient that you can choose from stepped modes or stepless ramping for brightness.The build quality of the LT1S is top notch.The lantern is very "solid" and it's bottom-heavy so you don't have to worry very much about accidentally knocking it over.The fit and finish are excellent, with no sharp edges anywhere.I like to use the little handle to carry the lantern, and of course you can hang the lantern on a hook (or something similar to a hook.)The lantern has mode memory--it immediately remembers what brightness and tint you had the lantern on last.There is no garbage "next-mode-memory" with this lantern.The button on the lantern is pretty good and has a nice feel to it.The button could be a tiny bit more robust, but I'm nitpicking here.Compared to the unbranded lantern, the LT1S is a bit bigger and quite a bit heavier.I think it's heavier because it offers so much more than the unbranded lantern and also because it uses a larger and heavier cell.The LT1S has a better build quality, an infinitely better UI, plus it's quite a bit brighter in person.The unbranded lantern doesn't have stepless ramping for brightness, and it comes in only one tint, about 5000K (neutral white.)Also, the unbranded lantern uses 18650 cells and the LT1S uses 21700 cells.I really like 21700 cells because many offer more capacity than 18650 cells, and many can handle more amps than 18650 cells.(There are some poor performing 21700 cells, but who intentionally chooses those?)If the unbranded lantern or the LT1S doesn't appeal to you, I have a couple of recommendation (though I don't own them.)There's the Sofirn LT1M. It's similar to the LT1S, but it's a different shape. It's taller and skinnier. I prefer the shape of the LT1S, but it's nice to have choices.Then there's the "original" Sofirn LT1. That lantern is much larger and runs on up to four 18650 cells.Sofirn basically owns the high quality LED lantern market.You'll have a lot of trouble finding an LED lantern that's better than the LT1S, LT1M, or LT1.The unbranded lantern is "nice for the money", but it isn't all that great compared to the Sofirn lanterns that are made by Sofirn.I really like the Sofirn LT1S.It's so much nicer than my unbranded lantern (from Sofirn), even though the unbranded lantern really isn't that bad.I got the unbranded lantern for my family members and the LT1S for myself because I like nice lights.The LT1S is the perfect size and shape for me, and the UI is amazing.I like being able to change the brightness in two different ways, and I love the stepless color temperature adjustment feature.The LT1S manual is very informative and well written, if you can read the tiny print.My biggest complaint is the tiny print of the manual, which means there isn't much to complain about, though I do enjoy complaining.I also enjoy using the LT1S.It's such an excellent lantern.

Pictures don’t do this little light justice. As soon as I opened the box, I thought, wow this is small! It fits in the palm of my hand and is very comfortable to carry. The solid aluminum construction and weight (336 grams with the rechargeable and removable ‘21700’ 5000 mAh battery installed) just feels sturdy. I also feel like it won’t immediately break if our toddlers drop it. They’ve been stealing this lantern and using it in their room at night :-)I have another cheap AA battery camping lantern that I’ve been using and it doesn’t even come close to the quality and feel of this LT1S lantern. The LT1S just blows it out of the water, (see my posted photos of the two side by side). Not to mention, this Sofirn lantern is IPX-8 waterproof (can be submerged in 2 meters of water for 30 minutes). It also comes with an extra set of o-rings if or when the originals need replacing. Sofirn also makes a larger, flashlight looking lantern (LT1), but this smaller version is perfect for hanging inside your tent with the removable metal hook or setting next to your mat. It’s not top heavy to fall over easy either.The user interface on this light is also really easy to learn and remember. Or at least easy enough to fumble around, if you forget the manual, until you get to the setting you were looking for. Some interfaces can be too cumbersome and get you lost and frustrated but this one won’t. Quick and dirty, from the ‘OFF’ state, press and hold the power button and “moon light” mode turns on. Press and hold again and the lantern steps through each brightness level, low-medium-high, all the way to its “turbo” mode at 500 lumens. And I tested it to actually be over 500 lumens! You can keep it on turbo for over two hours, too. But for just about anything you would need to do, I think “high” setting would be more than enough light running for about 6 hours between charges. You can charge the lantern via the USB-C cable it comes with and using the built in port on the lantern.Some cool features of this lantern are that it can switch from a normal lantern style light output (360° light) to a directional light output. You can turn off either side to help from blinding you, which I love. I usually don’t like lanterns unless I can block one of the sides so it’s not shining right into my eyes. This one can turn off one whole side. The lantern can also change its light color temperature, or Kelvin, from a very warm white light 2700K to a cool white light 6000K, switch to only red light, a beacon (just a steady blinking), and finally has an SOS setting.When testing the stated lumen output of the LT1S, I used an Extech LT40 LED light meter. I kept the lantern a distance of about 11 inches from the meter. At every brightness setting I got slightly more lumens than what the light was rated at, which is great. And for “Turbo” the light was coming in at about 550 lumens for the warm white and 670 lumens for the cool white. Although my eyes prefer the warmer tone over the harsher cool tone.As great as this lantern is, there are a few minor things Sofirn can improve or add for the next version. I think they missed an opportunity in not making the tail cap magnetic. This lantern is designed for flooding or throwing light everywhere and sometimes there isn’t a place to hang anything. So, being able to stick this to the side of a fridge, HVAC, or panel of a car in an emergency, to keep your hands free and get the light where it needs to go would be ideal. Another thing I would change, would be making the “moon light” setting just a bit dimmer. It was stated as 1 lumen, but it was still coming in at about 4 lumens on the meter. That difference doesn’t sound like much but being in a tent right next to someone else, I think that little bit could make a big difference. And lastly, it would be nice to have the power button show the green/red indicator colors as with their other models.All in all, the LT1S outperforms any expectations I had for this tiny lantern. 500 lumens is more than enough for a tent and casually walking around the campsite. And the moon light setting is just about perfect for quickly checking a map or finding a tent zipper without disturbing anyone else. I’m excited to be adding this to our flashlight and emergency kit. And don’t let it’s size fool you, this lantern is by no means a toy. But if our kids keep snagging this thing for their room, I’ll be buying one or two more of these lanterns very shortly. This thing is awesome!