Olight Marauder Mini 2 Review – More Flood, More Throw

1. Pricing & Availability
2. Changes from the Original
3. What comes in the box?
4. Design & Construction
5. Size & Measurements
6. User Interface
7. Emitter & Beam
8. Mode Chart
9. Runtime
10. Driver & Regulation
11. Batteries & Charging
12. Switch
13. Carry & Ergonomics
14. Competition
15. 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 sales commissions. At the time of writing it’s on sale for $176 USD but the normal MSRP is $220.

Changes from the Original

I reviewed the first Marauder Mini a little over a year and a half ago. Here are the key differences:

• No haptics: They eliminated the haptic motor. I don’t miss it.
• Aux light changes: They eliminated the blue and green channels and added a side white light. I don’t consider this an upgrade or a downgrade, just different.
• Main light changes: More flood LEDs (10 instead of 6) in smaller optics, and the center throw LED optic is larger. That should mean a wider flood beam and a narrower spot beam.
• UI changes: Aux modes have a dedicated selector switch now. Simultaneous flood and throw is possible too.
• Charging: They added USB-C, and it still has MCC too.
• Moonlight: There’s a proper Moonlight mode now.
• Case: It comes in a nice protective case now.
• Price: It’s 10% more expensive.
• Finish: The finish is more matte instead of the satin finish on the original.

What comes in the box?

Marauder Mini 2 comes in a hard plastic protective carrying case with a foam insert to hold the light securely. It feels over-sized but will definitely protect the light. The case contains:

• The light itself
• Battery (inside the light)
• User manual
• USB C-to-C charging cable / wrist lanyard

Design & Construction

Marauder Mini 2 looks very similar to the first Marauder Mini. It’s relatively short with a wide, flared head and a rubberized textured grip on the body.

Build quality is excellent. Nothing about this light feels cheap. The finishing is particularly nice.

Size & Measurements

Mini Maglite | Olight Marauder Mini 2 | Wuben X1 Pro | Nitecore EDC37 | Olight Warrior 3S

Olight Marauder Mini 2 | Sofirn IF30

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Bezel Diameter	63.0
Maximum Head Diameter	67.0
Length	132.6
Switch Diameter	14.3
Body Tube Diameter	43.0
Tailcap Diameter	49.4
Tailcap Length	21.1
Included Battery Length	70.1
Weight with included battery (g)	464

User Interface

This UI is works but it’s really not my style.

How it works: (my thoughts in italics)

• Lockout: By default, the light automatically locks after 10 seconds without being used and you have to turn the knob >60 degrees to unlock it. It can’t be disabled, but you can change the unlock to a long hold if you prefer that. There’s no mechanical lockout. I don’t like auto lockout and would prefer the option to disable it and use mechanical lockout instead.
• On/off: Pressing the main button turns it on/off. Thats great.
• Shortcuts: The normal shortcuts work. Double click for Turbo. Half-press from off for Moonlight. Triple click for Strobe. That’s great.
• Brightness adjustment: Turn the knob clockwise to increase brightness. Turn counter clockwise to decrease brightness. It’s not smooth ramping, it’s 9 stepped levels for the main channels and 5 stepped levels for the aux channels. The knob is imprecise and inconsistent so it can be hard to land on the brightness you want. I’m not a fan. I’d rather just have a normal e-switch UI with 5 levels and hold to cycle the brightness. If Olight releases a version 3 with a knob, it needs to have detents and work even when turned slowly.
• Channel selection: Use the two channel selection switches. I’m so glad there are dedicated channel selection switches. Initially I thought it was a bit much, but having the aux lights on a separate selector from flood/throw keeps the aux modes out of the way if you don’t want to use them.

Emitter & Beam

I asked Olight what make a model the LEDs are but they declined to answer. There are ten white flood LEDs (up from 6 in the original), two red LEDs, one center spot LED with a round die, and a small white side LED. Here are some close-ups of each kind. I couldn’t remove the bezel by hand.

All those LEDs sit under an exposed optic, which I believe to be plastic. There’s no glass lens on top to prevent scratches. The center aspheric portion is convex and therefore the most vulnerable. I would have preferred to have the center optic set back a bit and a glass lens protecting the plastic optics.

The flood beam is great. It’s bright and wide with minimal tint shift or artifacts. No complaints.

The throw beam is fantastic, especially after testing the Wuben X1 Pro. This beam uses a round die LED and an aspheric lens to produce a bright, round hotspot that punches far. It has some faint spill that covers almost 180 degrees so you can still see around you a bit when using the throw beam. Plus, you can combine it with the flood beam for even more fill lighting.

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.

The red beam only has two LEDs but can still get quite bright. There are some artifacts in the beam if you’re looking for them but overall it’s pretty good. No complaints.

The side light is a bit odd. This is the last thing I expected Olight to add but it works fine. I thought it was odd that there’s only one LED instead of a ring surrounding the whole light, but it can be nice that it’s directional and pointable. I’m not sure if I like this or the blue and green front LEDs on the first Marauder Mini better.

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. The key takeaway is it gets impressively bright, but doesn’t meet the advertised brightness.

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
Turbo (L9)	7300	20000	280	69	6310	0.0028
High (L7)	2000	5400	150	67	5970	0.0063
Medium (L5)	480	1300	72	67	5810	0.0072
Low (L3)	130	360	38	66	5710	0.0078
Moonlight (L1)	1.6	4	4	66	5650	0.0085

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
Turbo (L9)	6500	20000	280	66	6260	0.0068
High	2900	8900	190	69	6550	0.0093
Medium	1020	3100	110	63	6090	0.0100
Low	240	740	54	64	6020	0.0111
Moonlight	2	6	5	65	5690	0.0123

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
Turbo	1400	190000	870	67	6320	0.0051
High	830	110000	670	62	6230	0.0097
Medium	440	59000	480	64	5990	0.0098
Low	110	15000	240	64	6130	0.0120
Moonlight	0.6	83	18	65	5900	0.0129

Runtime

Performance is good. Peak brightness is impressive, if not quite the advertised figure. Turbo time is respectable: 2 minutes before stepdown. Total runtime is good too, about what I’d expect from a 7500mAh battery. Notice how the light steps down in distinct increments as the battery drains to extend battery life. More about that in the regulation section.

Thermal regulation: Timed stepdowns only, no active thermal throttling. I ran a separate Flood Turbo test with a fan blowing directly on the light and it was virtually identical to the uncooled Flood Turbo test.

LVP (Low Voltage Protection) is present and works well. It doesn’t rely on the battery having a protection circuit. The light will shut off when the battery is practically empty. Sometimes I could temporarily reactivate it by removing and reinserting the battery, but that only worked sometimes.

Driver & Regulation

The driver: I asked Olight about the driver and they said “The Marauder Mini 2 uses a buck (step-down) and linear driver design for efficient and stable performance.” Above you can see the dual contacts, requiring you to use the exact proprietary 32650 battery that Olight includes.

Regulation performance is poor, but normal for Olight and I think it’s by design to extend runtime. I believe they program their lights to make Turbo mode inaccessible below ~65% charge and High mode inaccessible below ~40% charge. I don’t like that. I’m OK with automatic stepdowns to conserve battery (as shown in the runtime graphs) but I want the ability to use a brighter mode if I think I need it.

PWM: No PWM is visible to my eyes nor audible to my ears. My phone camera picked up a bit of flickering on lower modes. I checked with my Opple and found there is some flickering, but it’s pretty mild and not pwm.

Parasitic Drain: I can’t test parasitic drain because the primary contacts are inaccessible with the battery inserted.

Batteries & Charging

The battery included is a proprietary, Olight-branded, 7500mAh, 32650 cell. It’s a weird size and you cannot use any other battery. I tried both a standard 18650 and an Olight 21700; neither worked. I’m not very confident that you’ll be able to buy replacement batteries from Olight in a few years because it’s such a weird size. I asked Olight about this and they said “The flashlight body is covered by a lifetime warranty, while the battery, as a consumable component, comes with a 2-year warranty.”

Charging is facilitated by either Olight’s typical magnetic tailcap charging system or a USB-C port built into the tailcap. I don’t care for proprietary cables so I love the addition of a USB-C port. It has a cover that slides open/closed. The light is IP68 rated, but I’m not sure if the port has to be closed for that or if it’s independently waterproofed like some other Olight models. Charging with an 18W PD power brick took ~2:45 and it’s fully functional while charging. There is no powerbank function, a major con for a light this expensive with such a large battery.

The battery indicator is my favorite kind: four discrete LEDs. It’s glanceable and intuitive. The only thing I don’t care for is it’s a bit dim, especially at off angles. There’s also a matching brightness indicator on the other side of the main switch. That lets you adjust the brightness before turning the light on.

Switch

This light has a lot of switches.

• Button: There’s a large blue button that you press to turn the light on/off, and it can be used for shortcuts too. It’s fine.
• Knob: If you rotate that blue button it’s a knob used to unlock the light and control brightness. It’s smooth without any detents and it’s also really hard to be precise with it. Turning too slowly will do nothing, and if you turn fast enough for it to register it will easily overshoot the brightness level you want. I don’t like it. Adding detents and fixing the sensitivity issue would help tremendously. I’d also be happy if they eliminated the knob entirely and went back to a normal e-switch UI with stepped modes.
• Rotary: Below the knob is a rotary selector to choose among the side light, front white light, or front red lights.
• Toggle: Below all of that is a flood/throw toggle switch. It’s got 3 positions: flood, combined, and throw.

Initially I thought this was too many switches and I wanted just a 5-position rotary selector and a single button, like an Arkfeld. However, by buddy Cheule pointed out that the rotary selector keeps the side and red modes out of your way if you don’t want to use them. I still think it’s a bit much, but I see why Olight set the light up this way.

Carry & Ergonomics

Ergonomics are good. I can comfortably reach all the controls with my thumb in a forward grip. A neck grip works surprisingly well too.

Magnet: The magnetic tail is really just for the magnetic charging system. The magnet is barely strong enough to hold the light upside down, and even then I’d be worried about a slight jostle making it fall.

Lanyard: There’s a nice lanyard loop between the switches and tailcap. Olight includes a USB C-to-C cable in the box that doubles as a wrist lanyard. If you use the lanyard, you’ll always have a charging cable. Handy!

Competition

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

Wuben X1 Pro: flatter alternative with standard batteries

• lower price
• similar brightness
• much less impressive and less useful spot beam
• accepts two standard 21700 batteries
• active cooling fan built in
• flatter profile
• optional bike mount
• better UI
• no aux modes
• powerbank function

Sofirn IF30: budget alternative

• less than half the price
• a bit more lumens, a bit less throw
• throw beam is a typical reflector beam, not an aspheric lens
• non-proprietary 32650 battery (the included cell isn’t very high quality but you can use any 26650 or high-drain unprotected 21700 or 18560 instead)
• powerbank function
• UI still has auto-lockout
• similar knob for brightness adjustment and unlocking
• no dedicated channel selector switch

Nitecore EDC37: compact alternative

• a personal favorite of mine. This is the light I grab when I want something that can be BRIGHT or I want flood+throw in the same light.
• less expensive
• a bit less brightness and less throw
• significantly smaller and is pocketable
• uses two built-in 18650 batteries (not user replaceable)
• dual tail switches
• uses multi-die LEDs for flood/throw function instead of separate reflectors
• doesn’t have a dedicated flood mode without the spot diodes
• fantastic physical lockout switch
• OLED status display
• gets hot fast and steps down more dramatically
• removable glass breakers

Noctigon DM1.12: Enthusiast alternative

• wide variety of LED options
• center optic is a TIR rather than an aspheric lens
• single switch
• feature-rich but complex Anduril 2 UI
• no integrated charging nor battery included
• accepts 21700 or 26800 batteries
• RGB aux LEDs
• Significantly less expensive

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

I love the build quality, USB-C charging, brightness, throw performance, flood/throw selector switch, beams (especially the spot beam), runtimes, and ergonomics. The carrying case, USB-C lanyard, side light, and red light are all fine but not things I’ll use. I dislike like the UI, rotary knob, exposed optic, poor regulation, the unusual and proprietary battery, missing powerbank function, inflated brightness specifications, and high price tag. It delivers impressive flood and throw beams with respectable runtime and does so in a somewhat overcomplicated and/or suboptimal way.

Thanks to Olight for sending me this light for review!