Contents
- Pricing & Availability
- What comes in the box?
- Design & Construction
- Size & Measurements
- User Interface
- Emitter & Beam
- Mode Chart
- Runtime
- Driver & Regulation
- Switch
- Carry & Ergonomics
- Batteries & Charging
- Competition
- Conclusion
Pricing & Availability
Skilhunt sent me this light in exchange for an honest review. Here is the official product page where you can see current pricing. It’s also available from other retailers like Amazon and Killzone Flashlights, but possibly not in this Nichia 144A version.
What comes in the box?
The box is made of cardstock and is designed for retail. Unlike other Skilhunt boxes, this one doesn’t have a clear window to see the light inside. The light is held in a thin, vacuum-formed, plastic insert and all the accessories are in another, smaller box inside.
- The light itself
- Battery (inside the light, optional)
- User manual
- Magnetic charging cable
- Wrist lanyard
- Spare o-rings
Design & Construction
The design is very similar to Skilhunt EC300 which I reviewed previously. It’s basically a tube with some slight flare at the head and tail. There’s milling all around for grip, heat dissipation, and style.
I’m not a fan of the blue accents on the bezel and retaining rings. Between that and the magnetic charging, it seems like Skilhunt may be trying to copy Olight and that’s not a good look.
The build quality is solid. It’s noticeably better than Convoy, Thrunite, or Sofirn, but not quite on the same level as Acebeam or Olight. The only specific quality gripe I have is that it’s difficult to get the threads started and hard to tell if they’re getting cross-threaded. Mechanical lockout works great.
Size & Measurements
Skilhunt H300 | Olight Warrior 3S | Skilhunt M300 | Olight Seeker 4 Pro | Mini Maglite
| Measurement | Measured (mm) |
|---|---|
| Bezel Diameter | 29.6 |
| Maximum Head Diameter | 31.0 |
| Length | 120.2 |
| Switch Diameter | 9.6 |
| Switch Proudness | -0.6 |
| Lens Thickness | 2.0 |
| Lens Diameter | 26.0 |
| Reflector Hole Diameter | 7.0 |
| Reflector Diameter | 24.0 |
| Reflector Height | 13.2 |
| MCPCB Size | 16 |
| Body Tube Diameter (internal) | 22.2 |
| Body Tube Diameter (maximum) | 28.0 |
| Body Tube Diameter (mode) | 25.0 |
| Body Tube Length | u/m |
| Ride Height (sticking out of pocket) | 14.5 |
| Pocket Clip Space (for pants material) | 3.0 |
| Pocket Clip Space (at mouth) | >1 |
| Pocket Clip Width | 7.1 |
| Pocket Clip Thickness | 0.9 |
| Pocket Clip Slot Width | 5.4 |
| Pocket Clip Slot Diameter | 24.0 |
| Tailcap Diameter | 28.0 |
| Tailcap Length | 17.9 |
| Driver Diameter | u/m |
| Included Battery Length | 74.6 |
| Included Battery Diameter | 21.5 |
Weight without battery: 84g
Weight with included battery: 156g
User Interface
This is a good UI with all the functions you need and a couple extra modes you don’t.
The actions are # of presses followed by a hold (H) or a release (C). So, “1C” is one click and release. “2H” is two clicks but you hold down the last one.th
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | 1C | On (mode memory) |
| Off | 1H | Moonlight |
| Off | 4C | Lockout |
| Moonlight | 1H | toggle the Moonlight setting |
| Any | 2C | Turbo |
| Turbo | 1H | toggle the Turbo setting |
| On | 1C | Off |
| On | 1H | Cycle mode |
| Any | 3C | Blinkies (mode memory) |
| Blinkies | 2C | Cycle mode (strobe, SOS, beacon) |
| Lockout | 1H | Momentary Moonlight |
| Lockout | 2C | Toggle lockout switch beacon on/off |
| Lockout | 4C | Unlock to Moonlight |
What they got right:
- Clicking turns the light on/off and holding the button changes modes. That’s the way almost all e-switch flashlights should work. It’s intuitive and quick.
- The common shortcuts work. Moonlight, Turbo, and blinkies all have shortcuts that work the same way as most other lights. They work very well and there’s no learning curve for these when switching lights.
- Shortcuts don’t memorize modes. Moonlight, Turbo, and blinkies all have their own direct shortcut, so you can access them quickly without overriding your memorized mode.
- Moonlight and Turbo aren’t in the normal mode rotation. They don’t need to be because they have their own dedicated shortcuts.
- 2C from Turbo returns to the previous mode. That’s handy.
- Lockout is 4 clicks. That’s complex enough not to be done or undone by accident but is still easy and quick.
What they got wrong:
- The secondary Turbo (T1) and Moonlight (L2) are superfluous and prevent going from Moonlight to Low mode. When I want Turbo, I want the brightest mode. When I want Moonlight, I want the dimmest mode. Having a slightly dimmer Turbo and a slightly brighter Moonlight is not useful to me. Sometimes I want to go from Moonlight to Low mode, but here I can’t because 1H just goes to the slightly brighter moonlight mode. This isn’t a huge deal, but it’s annoying. Those extra modes should be removed entirely.
- Beacon blinks too fast. It’s a 50% on, 50% off duty cycle every 1 second. Most beacon modes blink the LED on for 1-200 milliseconds every 3-5 seconds and that makes them last much longer and be less bothersome to others.
- Battery disconnection re-enables the lockout indicator. If you disable the parasitic lockout indicator, disconnecting the battery briefly will re-enable it. If you rely on electronic lockout you must be diligent to make sure the lockout indicator is off or it may drain the battery.
Emitter & Beam
M300 uses an orange peel reflector and is available in a few different LED options. I chose the Nichia 144A 4500K for its nice color properties. If you want the most brightness and throw, I recommend the Cree XHP50.3-HI 6500K version.
The beam is OK but not as clean as I had hoped. It’s floody and neutral with this Nichia 144A, but there’s also some tint shift from the dome and and muddy corona from the OP reflector. It’s not bad, but if you are choosing the Nichia 144A version because you want a beautiful beam, it may not meet your expectations.
In the beamshots below, the basketball goal to the right of the hotspot is 39M away and the power pole in the center is 185M away.
Mode Chart
Disclaimer: All of my measurements are taken at turn-on. Lumen measurements were taken on a Texas Ace 3.5″ Lumen Tube. A candela measurement was taken at 10 meters with an Opple Light Master III on the highest brightness, and other candela figures were calculated relative to that. CRI, CCT, & DUV data were taken for each mode from a few feet away at the center of the hotspot with the Opple Light Master and Waveform DUV Calculator. Runtime tests were performed with the Ceilingbounce app on my smartphone. These tests were performed with a fully charged included battery unless otherwise specified. I cannot measure moonlight directly, so moonlight readings are calculated based on the brightness relative to the next-lowest mode. None of this is professional equipment, so take all of these measurements with a grain of salt.
Above are the official specs, followed by my own measurements below.
| Level | Lumens | Candela | Throw (Meters) | CRI (Ra) | Color Temp. (K) | DUV (Tint) |
| Turbo (T1) | 1660 | 7800 | 177 | 93 | 4530 | 0.0015 |
| T2 | 650 | 3052 | 111 | 93 | 4440 | 0.0039 |
| High (H1) | 350 | 1645 | 81 | 93 | 4510 | 0.0048 |
| Medium (M1) | 130 | 611 | 49 | 95 | 4380 | 0.0020 |
| Low (M2) | 33 | 155 | 25 | 96 | 4380 | 0.0015 |
| L1 | 4 | 19 | 9 | 95 | 4340 | 0.0013 |
| Moonlight (L2) | 0.7 | 3.29 | 3.63 | 95 | 4310 | 0.0019 |
Mode Spacing is weird. The modes that are here are spaced well, but modes L1 and T2 are unnecessary, get in the way, and make the remaining modes have weird spacing. L1 and T2 should be completely removed and the middle modes should be spread out more. High (H1) should be raised to ~600lm because that’s the highest sustainable output. Medium (M2) should be lowered a bit to ~150lm. Low (M1) should be lowered to ~30 lumens. That will also open up 1H from Moonlight to go straight to Low.
Runtime
Performance: is pretty good. Sustained output of ~700lm with a high CRI LED is respectable in a light this size. Total runtime is also great.
Thermal regulation: Timed step-down from Turbo only. No active thermal regulation. That means the light will perform very consistently but may also overheat in hot weather or leave some performance on the table in cold weather.
LVP (Low Voltage Protection): The driver has low voltage shutoff and does not rely on the battery’s protection circuitry. The light can be re-activated briefly in an emergency after LVP has shut it off.
Driver & Regulation
The LED options offered in M300 all require a boost driver when paired with a single Li-ion battery. That’s good news because boost drivers are generally the best drivers available with great efficiency and regulation. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to access the driver because the head and body tube are glued together (boo).
The regulation performance is good. Only the highest mode is significantly affected by battery voltage.
Note: All regulation measurements are taken at turn-on so they do not reflect any thermal or low voltage stepdowns that may occur. A value of 0 indicates low voltage shutoff immediately upon activation.
PWM: No PWM is visible to my eyes, nor audible to my ears. My phone camera can detect some flickering on the two Moonlight modes (L1 and L2) but not any of the other modes.
Parasitic Drain: 26 microamps. That will take 22 years to drain the included battery. NOTE: using the lockout indicator function will massively increase the parasitic drain and will drain the included battery in a matter of weeks. 2 clicks within lockout mode will enable/disable it and battery disconnection automatically re-enables it.
Switch
M300 is controlled by an electronic side switch. It sits slightly recessed inside a blue retaining ring and has a backlight in the center. It’s nicely audible and tactile, but it takes very little force to actuate. That low actuation force made me concerned that it might easily turn on by accident, but that didn’t happen for the few days I carried M300 for testing. I would have preferred a firmer switch that required more force to actuate.
The backlight glows to indicate battery status for a few seconds after the light is turned on. Constant blue means >80% power remaining. Blinking blue means 50-80%. Constant red means 20-50%. Blinking red means <20% remaining. This indicator system works if you’re familiar with it, but it’s not intuitive. It takes some practice and memorizing what the colors and blinks mean. I prefer indicators with four separate LED’s that each indicate 25% capacity because that’s intuitive and glanceable.
Carry & Ergonomics
M300 has fairly good ergonomics. It’s big enough to get a good grip on it but not so big to be unwieldy or require a holster to carry it. It works best in a forward grip, but a pencil grip can work too.
It carries OK in the pocket but not great. The clip is generic and used in a dozen other lights from various manufacturers. It doesn’t carry very deep with 14mm sticking out above the clip. It also has absolutely no ramp so you must lift the clip away from the light when clipping it to your pocket. The rounded front edge happens to land right behind a flare in the body tube so there’s nowhere to grab the edge of your pocket. It’s bidirectional so you can theoretically clip it to a hat, but the light is way too heavy for that. All that’s needed here is a better clip that carries deeper, isn’t bidirectional, and has some usable ramp at the front.
The tailcap is wide and the outer edge is flat so it tailstands well. It’s a shame it’s not magnetic like their smaller lights. I looked for ring magnets that could be glued to the tailcap but I couldn’t find any that would fit. ID≥10mm, OD≤20mm, thickness≤3.5mm.
Batteries & Charging
M300 is designed to accept one 21700 battery. A 5000mah protected button top cell is optionally included, and that’s what I used for all my testing. A protected 18650 or unprotected 21700 will work, but the light will turn off if jostled enough. An unprotected 18650 will not make contact.
Charging is facilitated by the included magnetic puck USB charging cable. The magnet end snaps onto the contacts on the head of the light for easy charging. The magnetic connection is pretty weak and finicky though. A slight jostle can cause it to lose connection. The light is fully functional while charging if the battery is connected. If the battery isn’t connected, it only works up to medium mode. Since the contacts are exposed, this may be a poor choice if you work around ferrous metal shavings regularly.
I’m delighted that Skilhunt used a standard battery here so you can still recharge your light with a normal charger if you need to, unlike another popular brand with magnetic charging (Olight).
Competition
Here are some lights in the same class and how they compare.
Convoy S21E: the cheapest alternative. dramatically less expensive, slow shipping from China, multiple LED and body color options (some in different listings), USB-C charging, mediocre clip, mediocre UI
Wurkkos TS22: the budget alternative. less expensive, only one LED option, brighter, magnetic tailcap, same clip but placed better, USB-C charging, decent UI
Olight Baton 3 Pro Max: more expensive, a bit smaller, proprietary battery, similar magnetic charging, similarly good UI, much better clip but bezel-up only, fewer emitter options (none high CRI), proximity sensor, many body color options, also available in magnesium instead of aluminum
Emisar D4K: the enthusiast option: a bit smaller, less expensive, vastly more emitter options, multiple driver options, RGB aux LEDs, magnetic tailcap, better clip, multiple body color and material options, feature-rich but over-complicated Anduril 2 UI, no battery nor charging solution included
This section is not comprehensive. If I didn’t include a particular light here, it doesn’t mean it’s bad or doesn’t deserve to be here. I simply cannot list every possible competitor.
Conclusion
This is a solid light. The build quality, UI, and performance are all good. It could use a little tweaking in the clip, UI, and beam to make it a home run though. If you like magnetic charging, despise proprietary batteries, and want a high-CRI light with a great driver and great runtime, this is a good option to consider.
Thanks to Skilhunt for sending me this light for review!
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