The everyday carry flashlights (EDC) market is pretty crowded. From a chunky flashlight that telescopes into a lantern to a flashlight embedded into a sleek multitool, manufacturers are always looking for ways to let us take a little more light along on our outdoor adventures.
To shine above the competition (see what we did there?) the flashlight experts at Imalent are betting on a smart portable charging case that wraps around their small but powerful LD35 EDC light. Not that Imalent needs to do much to garner recognition. The company already boasts the world's brightest flashlight, the MS32, which blasts out 200,000 lumens that can light up anything in its path to a distance of 1,618 m (5,308 ft).
While the new LD35 won't quite light up your entire neighborhood like that offering, it does crank up to a respectable 1,200 lumens, which are able to shine to a distance of about 328 m (1,076 ft). That's not bad for a flashlight that measures just 81 mm (3.2 in) long and weighs only 87 g (3 oz). The beam produced by the flashlight has four steps below that, so if you don't need the brightest beam, you can save the energy inside the onboard 3,800mAh rechargeable battery by ramping the intensity down. And speaking of that battery, you can also use the flashlight as a portable charger to juice up your other devices if need be.
The light is crafted from an aluminum alloy and carries an IP68 waterproof designation. It's also impact-resistant from drops up to 1.5 m (about 5 ft) and it features an OLED display that tells you which brightness level you're using and how much charge is left in the battery.
What really sets the LD35 apart, though, is that case. Looking like a tiny sunglasses case, it wraps neatly around the flashlight, not only protecting it from accidental button pushes, but also functioning as a portable charger. It only adds a little bit more size to the flashlight, measuring 96 x 32 x 51 mm (3.8 x 1.3 x 2 in).
While Imalent doesn't provide the size of the battery in the case, it does say that the flashlight itself can shine continuously on low power for two days, but that gets boosted to six days with the case. That makes us assume the case carries around 10,000 mAh in juice. Imalent also says that the case can fully charge a dead flashlight in 55 minutes.
The case itself also conveys how much power it has left through a series of colored LED lights on the base.
The flashlight and case are available in either black or a greyish/silver color the company calls Micro Arc. The combo costs $78.90 from the Imalent site, and you can see it in action in the following video.
Source: Imalent
