Olight iUltra Mini Deal—I Ditched My iPhone’s Garbage Flashlight for It
Olight iUltra Mini Deal—I Ditched My iPhone’s Garbage Flashlight for It
https://www.vice.com/en/via/olight-iultra-mini-flashlight-deal-may-2026/
Publish Date: 2026-05-06 14:27:00
Source Domain: www.vice.com
Olight is often said to be the Apple of flashlights. Flashlight enthusiasts—yes, there’s such a thing—go wild for Olight’s innovative designs, such as rectangular flashlight bodies that fit comfortably in a front pant pocket, which I can confirm is much less obtrusive than a round-barrel flashlight. Detractors complain that Olight charges a high price, which is also true.
You don’t have to spend triple digits on an Olight, though. They make a killer keychain flashlight, the diminutive, so-small-you-won’t-know-it’s-in-your-pocket Olight iUltra Mini, and it’s on sale for $27, down from $30.
I figured it may come in handy for finding the occasional dropped object in a dark movie theater or bar. After all, it’s about 2/3rds the size of my pinky finger. I could give it a test for a week, right? Well, I’ve been carrying it for months now, and I’d never go back to just using my phone’s built-in flashlight.
big punch, tiny flashlight
At 80 lumens the iUltra is ludicrously bright for its size. By comparison an iPhone 17’s flashlight is about 30-40 lumens. I used it to good effect last night at about 10 PM, searching the unlit and nearly pitch-black maintenance tunnels underneath my apartment building for a stolen package. My iPhone 15 Pro couldn’t hold a candle to how well the Olight lit up those dark passageways.
There are no buttons on the iUltra. You activate it by pulling it from its base, which stays attached to your keys. The barrel of the iUltra is held on magnetically, and it’s strong enough that I don’t worry about it coming loose. It’s small enough that I don’t even notice it in my pocket, either. Unless I’m on my way to a DIY project or moving a friend out of an apartment, I don’t want bulky tools in front pockets, next to my keys, wallet, and phone.
Olight blessed the iUltra with a USB-C plug, which is far more convenient than the older Olight iMini 2’s USB-A plug. Most laptops in recent…