Streamlight Stylus Lights: $20 Well Spent
25:08 November 28, 2009
Science & Technology
nutnfancy
It's difficult to spend your money on an item more useful than a Streamlight Stylus Pro flashlight. It remains one of my favorite and most used little torches. This light is re-visited in this update video along with its main siblings in the Streamlight Stylus lineup: the Stylus and PolyStylus. While you can't expect high levels of brightness with these non-Cree lights, they are compact, tough, and durable and will usually be around when you need them. For size-limited applications, the slender Stylus is the best choice. It weighs a mere 1.1 oz and puts out 10 lumens in the white LED version. The beam on the Stylus is clean and concentric and uses no reflector. A simple pen-like metal clip on the Stylus works adequately but rotates around the barrel. It also features a lens cap that narrows the beam throw and protects the LED from scratches (useful!). The Stylus has a screw-on switch function with momentary actuation possible. And unlike the other likes, the narrow little Stylus will fit easily into pen pockets and can be there when you need it most. The 1.4 oz PolyStylus is not as elegant in design as the other two lights: it has a bulbous polycarbonate head, a seemingly fragile plastic clip, and actually has a lower level of brightness compared to the original Stylus (9 lumens in white LED). Its fiberglass barrel seems tough however and its rear clicky switch functions well and O-ring construction. The PolyStylus throws a tight hot spot but is plagued with with many distracting artifacts in the beam pattern, produced by its polycarbonate lens mostly. Both the Stylus and PolyStylus use three somewhat hard-to-find AAAA size batteries and run for about 60 hours (mfr data). If your system has room for it, the best light in the series hands down is the 1.8 oz Stylus Pro. It uses just two AAA cells and puts out a useful 24 lumens with its ½ watt high flux LED in a proprietary "micro optical" system by Streamlight. Its beam is outstanding: clean, concentric, and with good spill characteristics. It throws usefully to about 20-30 feet in my experience. The StylusPro also features a tough forward clicky switch (enabling one hand operations), well-mounted barrel clip that doesn't easily rotate or come off (later versions have a solid clip vs the older ones that had ventilated clips [for lanyard attach]), compact design, excellent Type II anodizing, and a pretty scratch resistant polycarbonate lens. Its burn time is around 7.5 hours with new batteries. New in 2009 in the StylusPro lineup are attractive colorations including Blue (shown), Red, Sliver, and Mossy Oak Camouflage patterns...all cool. All lights have IPX4 water resistance (splash resistant all directions) and O-ring construction. Each is well made for its purpose and is durable. But due to its easy one-handed operation, higher brightness and throw, great clip, and impressive colorations, the StylusPro remains my favorite, cost-effective little flashlight. I use it constantly. In any application it would be a long-remembered and useful gift item for your friend or relativeall for around $20! /////////////////////////// Nutnfancy LIkability Scale StylusPro: 10 out of 10 (prices considered); regular 9 out of 10; PolyStylus: 6 out of 10 /////////////////// Music: http://www.archive.org/details/Torley_Wong_-_The_Final_Selection).
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