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If you’ve been here before, you know I think current flashlights are modern marvels and don’t get anywhere near as much recognition as they should. The current generation of LED’s are so far in advance of lights from just a few years ago in terms of brightness, features, battery life, and cost it amazes me.
I’ve spoken on this before: Streamlight Microstream; Surefire G2X Tactical 600. Today we have a different light: the Streamlight Wedge (Amazon link.)
Table of Contents
Streamlight 88811 Wedge.
- Length: 5.5″
- Width, across the wide side: 1″
- Width, across the narrow side: 1/2″
- Normal brightness: 300 lumens
- Max brightness: 1000 lumens
- Rechargeable, USB-C.
The pictures below show it on both sides.
Wait. Sides? Yes; it’s mostly flat, not round. I’ll come back to that later.
Like I said; it’s flat.
The picture below shows it on its side; that little wheel-looking thing is the activation switch. On the opposite side you can see the clip that it came with.
That clip is reversible. There are two Allen screws holding it in place. You can take them out with the included wrench and move it to the other side.
The way it’s set up now it holds it in my right-hand pocket and when I pull it, my thumb is on the switch. In other words, just how I want it. Lefty’s may want to move it.
This has rapidly become my favorite flashlight to carry around when I leave the house. I have a smaller one I use around the house, mostly, but as soon as I get dressed to go out the Wedge goes into a pocket.
Three reasons: it’s a good size, a great shape, and it’s rechargeable. I like the thumb activation wheel, but I’m not in love with it. For normal flashlight use, it’s great. For any sort of “tactical” use, I think the end-button configuration is better, like on my Surefire G2X tactical.
In my life, needing a light for everyday tasks is the bigger priority.
The size is great; as you can see in the pictures down below a bit, it fits my hand well. It has those two little grooves for your first two fingers. For brief use I don’t really care about them, but when I’m using it for more than a couple seconds they’re handy to keep hold of it.
I was kind of surprised at how much more comfortable the light is in my pocket than the round ones I’ve used before. But it really is. I normally carry my light in my back pocket, not my front. Even when sitting, the size and shape mean I don’t notice it.
The picture below shows the USB-C port for recharging.
Brightness.
This takes a bit of explanation. The switch is a three-position rocker switch. Back (away from the light end) is off.
I’ve had some multi-mode lights before that drove me nuts. I don’t need low, med, high, strobe, and SOS. That just means I have to keep cycling through to what I need. These two modes, though make sense to me.
In the picture below, it’s in the middle position, for 300 lumens. This is the standard brightness.
If you push the switch farther ahead, you get 1000 lumens. It will not hold that position. That’s just for you to use in short bursts for whatever you may need it for. Picture below shows the high brightness position.
What the brightness looks like.
The first two pictures are at the standard brightness, just different targets.
In the second picture, across the road, the plants are about 25 feet away.
And now we have the 1000 lumens. Plants are still 25 feet away.
It seems to be pretty easy on the battery. I’ve had it a few months, and I’ve only charged it the first time.
Downsides.
There’s no way to adjust the beam. It seems that most of my recent flashlights don’t have that capability, but some of the cheap ones I used to use when delivering at night did. That seems odd to me, but it’s not what I’d call a big deal.
Not sure this is a “downside” as much as a, “why bother?” There’s a lanyard included in the package. Maybe you can get some use for it; the only reason I’d want a lanyard is to loop it around my wrist. As you can see, I don’t think Olive Oyl could loop this around her wrist, and I sure as hell can’t.
Conclusion.
As I said, this has become my favorite flashlight. Its size, functionality, comfort, and ease of use won me over pretty quickly.
If you can use an excellent flashlight, and who can’t, you can get one at Amazon.
