Olight ArkPro Review – Now with a Spotlight, USB-C, and a ZWB2 filter!

1. Pricing & Availability
2. What comes in the box?
3. Design & Construction
4. Size & Measurements
5. User Interface
6. Emitter & Beam
7. Mode Chart
8. Runtime
9. Driver & Regulation
10. Batteries & Charging
11. Switches
12. Carry & Ergonomics
13. Competition
14. Conclusion

Pricing & Availability

Olight sent me this light in exchange for an honest review. Here is the official product page where you can see current pricing. That’s a tracked link so they know I sent you, but I’ve chosen not to earn any affiliate commission. At the time of writing it’s $110 USD.

What comes in the box?

ArkPro comes in Olight’s simpler cardstock box with a vacuum-formed insert to secure the contents. Inside is:

• The light itself
• User manual
• MCC magnetic charging cable

Design & Construction

ArkPro’s design looks great, with a few aesthetic changes from the previous Arkfeld Pro, including side texturing similar to Arkfeld Ultra. They also moved the battery indicator inside the rotary selector ring.

Build quality is very good overall. It feels dense, solid, and well-made in a way you don’t get from cheaper lights. With that said, mine had a small finishing blemish from the factory and the edges beside the rotary selector are sharp and should be chamfered. No big deal, but something for the factory to note.

Size & Measurements

Mini Maglite | Skilhunt MiX-7 G2+ | Olight ArkPro | Thrunite Defender | Olight Warrior 3S

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Width	27.5
Length	124.1
Thickness (mode)	16.5
Weight with included battery (g)	117

User Interface

This is largely the same UI Olight has been using for years. It’s got some quirks, but is mostly industry-standard and well suited for daily use. I love the new separate-switch laser UI and the big rotary selector switch.

Basic E-switch UI Checklist (white light only): 9/12

• 1C on/off✅
• 1H to change brightness✅
• Stepped levels✅
• Main rotation is Low-Med-High✅
• Moonlight shortcut: 1H from off✅
• Low shortcut: 1H from Moonlight✅
• Turbo shortcut: 2C from anywhere✅
• Strobe shortcut: 3C from anywhere✅
• Mode memory for Low, Medium, and High❌
  • High mode doesn’t stay memorized. If you turn the light off in High mode, it will memorize High mode but only for a minute or two after you turn the light off. Then, mode memory will revert to Medium mode. That’s inconsistent, confusing, and inconvenient.
• No mode memory for Moonlight, Turbo, and Strobe❌
  • Moonlight is memorized, and Turbo is memorized as High mode. They shouldn’t be memorized because they each have their own dedicated shortcut for quick access. Ironically, the previous issue actually helps fix this Turbo memorizing issue, because mode memory reverts to Medium mode after 1 minute anyway.
• 4C or separate switch to lock/unlock❌
  • Lockout is a long hold. That’s too easy to do by accident, especially on a light with UV and laser and no mechanical lockout method.
• Does something when you click the switch in Lockout mode✅
  • It lights up a small lock symbol. Very cool!

The Laser UI: It’s perfect.

• Constant on/off: Click to turn the laser on. Click again to turn it off
• Momentary on: Press and hold from off for momentary on. It will turn off when you let go.
• Brightness levels: Press and hold from on to cycle between low and high brightness. It will memorize the brightness level you select.
• Use with other light source: The laser can be used when any of the other three light sources are on.

Notes:

• You can’t activate throw and flood at the same time. Not that you need to. If you could, it wouldn’t be that much brighter and it would heat up even faster.
• UV UI: Click on/off. Always starts on low. Hold from on to get to High mode. I wish it remembered the last brightness level used.
• Timers: A click-release-click-hold will activate a 3-minute timer. A click-release-click-release-click-hold will activate a 9-minute timer. After the timer expires, the light will turn off.

Emitter & Beam

Olight declined to tell me which LEDs they’re using. I believe the spot LED is a Luminus SFT12. Unfortunately the other LEDs are covered by optics or a filter so I can’t see them. I got cool white because that’s what was available, but a neutral white option will be available soon. What I’d really love is a cool white throw LED and a ~4000K high-CRI flood LED. Between the two white LEDs, there’s a green laser diode on the bottom and a UV diode on top. That UV diode has a ZWB2 filter over it, which is a first for Olight. That blocks visible light, so you get more contrast and fine detail from the UV beam.

The flood beam is nice and wide. There’s some starbursting at the edges but it’s not something you notice during use. The throw beam has a crisp, (relatively) narrow hotspot that I love. Its spill has two flat sides and a corner from the bezel so it’s not a perfect circle.

In the beamshots below, camera settings are fixed and the wall is 2.8M away.

In the beamshots below, camera settings are as similar as possible, 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 these measurements with a grain of salt.

The official specs are above, followed by my own measurements below.

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
Turbo	1300	1700	82	73	6710	-0.0011
High	430	560	47	72	6500	0.0017
Medium	88	120	21	72	6410	0.0033
Low	11	14	8	72	6360	0.0039
Moonlight	1.3	2	3	74	6250	0.0035

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
Turbo	700	11000	210	69	6300	0.0043
High	340	5300	150	66	5940	0.0085
Medium	89	1400	75	64	5650	0.0125
Low	10	160	25	64	5590	0.0136
Moonlight	1	16	08	64	5550	0.0144

Runtime

Performance is good and in line with most competitors. Sustained brightness is 400lm for 2hrs on the flood channel. Turbo lasts ~2 minutes before a slow stepdown. The spot channel is a similar story, just not as bright.

Thermal regulation: My Turbo and Turbo Cooled tests are virtually identical, so there’s no active thermal regulation here, just timed stepdowns. That means performance will be consistent, but not optimized for ambient temperature.

LVP (Low Voltage Protection): the light will shut off when the battery is effectively empty, and it will give you plenty of warning by dropping in brightness and turning the battery indicator red. Unfortunately, after it shuts itself off, you can’t reactivate it without plugging it in to charge.

Driver & Regulation

The driver is different for each light source. The white lights use a buck driver, the UV uses a buck-boost driver, the laser uses a boost driver. That should provide great efficiency and regulation… ostensibly.

Regulation performance is poor. You completely lose access to Turbo mode below 50% battery. It doesn’t just get a bit dimmer like most lights. The mode just goes away. Olight has been doing this on most their lights for years. I don’t understand why and I strongly dislike it. The other modes are consistent until the battery is virtually empty.

PWM: No PWM is visible to my eyes or camera, nor audible to my ears.

Parasitic Drain: I can’t measure because the battery is built in.

Batteries & Charging

The battery included is a built-in 2000mAh pouch cell. That’s a decent increase from the 1500mAh cell in Arkfeld Pro. It’s not user-serviceable, so when the battery eventually wears out, you can’t replace it. That sucks, and it comes with the territory. Virtually all of these flat-style EDC lights have built-in batteries.

Charging is facilitated by an MCC port and a USB-C port! That’s a first for the Ark(feld) line and a huge improvement. Now existing Olight customers can use their existing chargers, and new customers don’t have to carry around a proprietary cable! The port is covered by a spring-loaded metal flap, and the light works while charging except Turbo. Charging takes about an hour and a half through the USB-C port.

The battery indicator is on the right side of the switch. It’s four discrete LEDs, my favorite kind of indicator. There’s also a brightness level indicator on the left. It’s gimmicky but looks nice.

Switches

ArkPro’s switches are excellent. The main button is comfortable with a tactile actuation. The selector switch feels very nice, with smooth movement and crisp detents. Selector switches like this are my favorite way to handle multiple channels in a flashlight. Plus, now, the laser has its own dedicated switch! Fantastic.

Carry & Ergonomics

Ergonomics are great. It’s very comfortable in a forward grip.

The magnet in the tail is plenty strong. It holds the light up on a vertical surface no problem.

Competition

Here are some lights in the same class and how they compare.

Thrunite Defender: budget alternative

• less than half the price (at the time of writing)
• lower build quality (still good, but not as good)
• no throw beam (still has flood, UV, and laser)
• lockout on the rotary switch
• weaker magnet
• more visible light in the UV channel

Olight Arkfeld Pro: the outgoing model

• a bit less expensive
• no throw beam (still has flood, UV, and laser)
• no USB-C charging port
• smaller battery

Acebeam UC20: user-swappable-battery alternative

• about half the price
• no flood beam (the white beam is similar to ArkPro’s throw beam)
• red light instead of laser, and abysmal UV beam
• battery is user-accessible and swappable, but not a standard size
• instant Turbo tailswitch
• no rotary selector switch

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

It’s pricey but you get what you pay for. The build quality, switches, ergonomics, pocket clip, all four beams, and dual charging options are excellent. The UI great. Brightness and runtime are good, but regulation is inexplicably bad like most Olights. The built in battery is unfortunate but comes with the territory. Overall this is the nicest EDC flatlight on the market right now, if you’ve got the budget for it.

Thanks to Olight for sending me this light for review!