I am now on the lookout for 21700 flashlights. I am loving these lithium ion batteries because they are a touch bigger than 18650, but deliver so much more power. With that in mind, I’m excited to talk about the Olight M2R Pro Warrior. This is a tactical flashlight that uses the 21700 battery and has some amazing features. In this review, I’m going to go over all the features of the light, give you my comments on it, and give you my final thoughts.
Summary of Contents
Design of the Olight Tactical Flashlight
I really like the design of the Olight M2R Pro Warrior. It has a baton-style body and looks very sleek. The body has multiple ridges so that the flashlight is firm in your grip. It’s compact enough, a little over 5 inches, so you could probably get away with everyday carry. The two-way removable pocket clip that it comes with also makes it everyday carry friendly. I’m a big fan of everyday carry tactical flashlights. And to that effect, the M2R Pro Warrior also has a pretty crazy strike bezel. This thing looks fierce which I’m really liking!
You’re going to be getting a maximum output of 1800 lumens with a maximum beam distance of 300 meters. This tactical flashlight also has a TIR lens so the beam pattern is going to definitely be a little different if you’re used to a smooth reflector or an orange peel texture to reflector.
With a TIR lens, you’re going to be seeing a pretty highly concentrated beam rather than a hot spot with a lot of spill. The beam is still great, but I do know that some would prefer to have a balance between that hotspot and spill rather than a highly concentrated beam. It’s also important to remember that with that highly concentrated beam, 300 meters is decent, but if you’re looking for a throw light, the M2R Pro Warrior isn’t really it.
21700 Tactical Flashlight
Did I already tell you that the M2R Pro Warrior is a 21700 flashlight? Well you’re going to hear it again! 21700 flashlights are coming out more and more and I’m extremely excited about this. The Olight M2R Pro Warrior does come with a 21700 proprietary battery with a capacity of 5000 mAh.
One downside of this flashlight is that you can only use this specific battery. So if you’re wanting backup batteries, you’ll have to buy the light’s specific proprietary battery.
If you’re interested in 21700 flashlights, check out my article about the best 21700 flashlights of 2019.
Rechargeable Tactical Flashlight
The good news is that the Olight M2R Pro Warrior is rechargeable so the proprietary battery may not be such a big deal for some users. I don’t typically prefer it, but it’s usually not a deal breaker for me.
This light actually features a magnetic USB charging function. So you connect the magnetic part of the included magnetic USB cable to the M2R Pro Warrior for easy charging. I really love magnetic charging capabilities.
One downside of having a magnetic rechargeable flashlight is that it does come with a proprietary cord which means if you lose that cord you’re going to have to buy a new one. Regardless, I’m still a big fan of magnetic rechargeable flashlights because it is a lot easier to deal with than micro USB.
Tactical Flashlight User Interface
This light has a rather interesting user interface that I’m excited to talk about. The first thing you should know is that it does have two switches, a tail switch and a side switch. I want to talk about that side switch first. With this switch you can turn the flashlight on and off as well as cycle through the brightness levels and access the strobe mode. It does have some shortcuts which is extremely nice. You can hold it down for about a second to access the moonlight mode, double press for a turbo mode, and triple press for a strobe mode. You can also lock out the side switch to prevent any accidental illumination, a nice bonus.
Let’s talk about the tail switch now. First of all, I want to say that the tail switch is slightly protruding from the tip of the flashlight tailcap. Even so, there are raised points around the tail switch to prevent accidental illumination which I thought was a really clever design.
Moving onto the function now, the tail switch actually has two different modes that you can choose from. In Configuration One, which is the default mode, a half press will get you into the medium mode while a full press will give you the turbo mode. In Configuration Two, a half press will give you the turbo mode and a full press will give you the strobe mode.
So these configurations really just pair the flashlight down to different situations. I think Configuration Two is really great because it’s extremely tactical and makes the Olight M2R Pro Warrior one of the best tactical flashlights. You just have access to the turbo mode and the strobe mode, and you don’t need to think at all about how to activate either. Even with these Configurations, the side switch remains the same making this flashlight extremely useful for many different situations.
Multiple Outputs
The M2R Pro Warrior features 7 total outputs and this includes 6 brightness levels and a strobe mode. With the brightness levels, they range from 1 lumen to 1800 lumens with a maximum runtime of 50 days using the moonlight mode. That’s really quite impressive!
If you look at the specs on the light, Olight clearly points out how long the 1800 lumens lasts and about when it will drop to the next brightness level down. I have to say that I really appreciate being able to see this on the specs of the light and I would like more brands to start doing this. More often than not, we see flashlights that boast extremely high lumen outputs and tell us that the turbo has a run time of over an hour, when in reality the temperature regulation system in the flashlight will kick in and drop that output within minutes.
Based on the specs, the Olight M2R Pro Warrior drops down from 1800 lumens to 750 lumens after a few minutes and then will drop again after quite some time. Having this information up front, you know what you’re getting into and have an idea of how you’d like to use the light.
The M2R Pro warrior has an incredible output of 1800 lumens, and Olight seems to have done a great job in balancing the power of the light with run times. I’m very happy with this balance and for an everyday carry tactical flashlight, 1800 lumens is great!
Final Thoughts
Pros: There’s a lot going for this flashlight and it’s hard to pick my favorite features but I think I’ve narrowed them down. I really like the user interface. It’s really interesting, makes the flashlight really versatile, and is just a cool idea. I also like the design of the light, the fact that it runs on a 21700 battery, the fact that it’s rechargeable, and that it’s compact enough to take with you.
Cons: A couple cons of this flashlight would be that it does require a proprietary battery and it does require a proprietary magnetic charging cable. Thankfully, the flashlight does come with both. However, if you want extras you will need to purchase those specific items.
Conclusion: Well this has been an amazing flashlight. It exceeded my expectations in many ways. The TIR reflector is extremely interesting, the interface is extremely interesting, and there are so many features packed in this awesome everyday carry tactical flashlight. If you’re wanting a new 21700 tactical flashlight, you definitely need to check out the Olight M2R Pro Warrior.