It can be difficult to find a good EDC tactical flashlight. Most of the time, since the light is smaller, it won’t deliver high output or won’t have tactical features. So when I find a light that could be considered an everyday carry light and a tactical flashlight, it gets me quite excited. And it just so happens that I found such a light which I will be reviewing today – the JETBeam KO-02 tactical flashlight. I’ll be talking about the different features and give you my overall opinion about this little pocket flashlight. Let’s get started
Summary of Contents
1800 Lumen EDC Flashlight
As I said before, when searching for an everyday carry tactical flashlight, it can be tough to find especially one that delivers a high output. So you can imagine my surprise when I found out that the JETBeam KO-02 LED flashlight delivers 1800 lumens and is about 5 inches in length. What an amazing amount of light for such a compact flashlight. With a maximum beam distance of 270 meters, this is an impressive little everyday carry flashlight.
My first impressions of this light are that it’s definitely small and quite lightweight. It’s a little bit thicker than other 18650 EDC flashlights, but we’ll get into that in a little while. Nevertheless, given the power behind it, it’s definitely one of the smallest lights I’ve seen with such a powerful output. I do appreciate that it does come with a removable pocket clip and the textured body is pretty standard. It’s not really anything to write home about. You also have the stainless steel bezel which is quite small, but could still be used in a self-defense situation.
Rechargeable 21700 Flashlight
Not only did the output of this pocket flashlight surprise me, the fact that it runs on a 21700 battery surprised me as well. I think this may be the smallest 21700 flashlight I have seen. On top of that, it has USB-C charging! This flashlight has so much going on for it and I just barely touched on the features.
It does come with a 21700 battery which is a really nice touch. These batteries are quite expensive so if you can purchase it with the LED flashlight itself, that’s always a bonus. It’s also compatible with an 18650 battery and a 20700 battery which quite surprised me. Most of the time you’ll see 21700 flashlights have a battery carrier if they are compatible with 18650 lithium-ion batteries. Not in this case. So when you first put the 18650 battery in the flashlight, it definitely looks too small and you think it would rattle. But once you tighten the tailcap down all the way, the 18650 battery is completely secure in there. That being said, I would be a little bit concerned about drops and how that might affect an 18650 battery. However, it’s so incredible that this 21700 flashlight is compatible with 3 different batteries.
This tactical flashlight also has a charging indicator and a power indicator and I want to talk about that power indicator. With most LED flashlights that feature a power indicator, the indicator will come on when you first turn on the flashlight and will stay on for a few seconds before going away. This means that in order to check on the battery status again, you’ll need to turn off and on your flashlight. This isn’t the case with the JETBeam KO-02. This little light stays on all the time and because the indicator isn’t too bright, it doesn’t really bother you. This way you can just casually check the indicator to get a good idea of where your battery is at. I have to say, I like that the power indicator stays on. It’s not going to take any energy to remain on so it’s a nice touch.
JETBeam KO-02 Simple UI
As with any good everyday carry flashlight, the JETBeam KO-02 features a simple user interface. It has a single side switch that you click on, click to cycle through the brightness levels, and press and hold to turn off. The brightness levels will cycle from high to low and you can double press the side switch for strobe. That’s it. Extremely simple and there’s not much to it. That being said, I feel like it might be a little too simple. This LED flashlight doesn’t have a memory mode and it doesn’t have a straight to low shortcut. I would expect it to have at least one of these as most everyday carry flashlights have. However, it’s definitely nice to have a simple user interface that you don’t really need to worry about spending a lot of time trying to figure out.
Another nice feature is that it does have a lockout for the side switch. Given that the side switch is slightly protruding from the body, I was concerned that it would turn on in the pocket. It’s especially nice that JETBeam did include a lockout feature for this light. It’s also really simple. All you need to do is turn the flashlight off and press and hold. The light will flash when you try to turn it on once it’s locked out. And to unlock it all you need to do is press and hold again. Very simple and very easy to remember.
JETBeam KO-02 Multiple Outputs
With the JETBeam KO-02 tactical flashlight you have six total outputs which includes five brightness levels and a strobe mode. The brightness levels are turbo at 1800 lumens, high at 1060 lumens, mid at 360 lumens, low at 80 lumens, and eco at 12 lumens. The spacing between each setting is pretty good. What I’m surprised by is that the eco mode is not lower. I would have expected a moonlight mode of about 1 lumen for this edc light.
I definitely like that this tactical light has so many brightness levels and that the turbo is a powerful 1800 lumens. So you get quite a few tactical features and edc features for the KO-02. The maximum run time on the eco mode is 140 hours which is definitely a great run time. Of course, all of these specifications work only with a 21700 battery. The runtime or outputs could change if you were to use a different battery such as an 18650.
Final Thoughts
Pros: I think you can guess what I’m going to say here. My absolute favorite things about this light are that it’s so compact and lightweight, it runs on a 21700 battery, is compatible with multiple battery sizes, and is USB-C charging. I am extremely excited about having a 21700 everyday carry flashlights that’s powerful and also tactical. This is definitely one of the best tactical flashlights that can fit in your pocket in my opinion.
Cons: Unfortunately there are a few things I didn’t care for with this flashlight. I don’t like that it doesn’t have a straight to low shortcut and I don’t like that it doesn’t have a memory function. I’d also like to see a moonlight mode on the flashlight. I like moonlight modes on everyday carry flashlights and outdoor flashlights. However, since the JETBeam KO-02 seems to have more tactical features, I can let it slide that it doesn’t have more everyday carry features.
Conclusion: All in all, what a fantastic flashlight. I haven’t looked into too many JETBeam flashlights but I will be looking at them after this one. As I said before, pocket tactical flashlights can be tough to find and I would say this is an amazing pocket tactical flashlight. Definitely check out the JETBeam KO-02 tactical flashlight.