Dear Natalie,
What are your thoughts on the Outxe 3-in-1 Rugged Lantern?
Signed,
You all, because you want to know about this!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
Dear friends,
I have to admit something: I am not dainty. I know that’s probably shocking, so I’ll give you a minute to recompose yourselves.
(Patiently waiting.)
Okay. Now that we’ve established that, I’ll continue. Moving about the world like an ox means that I need gear that doesn’t require kid gloves and raised pinky fingers. Enter Outxe’s Rugged 3-in-1 Lantern. The folks at Outxe sent me a lantern to honestly review for you all, and I’m happy to report that it has, thus far, withstood my Sasquatch-like rough handling in the outdoors.
But let’s back up. Let me tell you a little more about this product. It is a flashlight, lantern, USB power bank, magnet, and emergency beacon, all packed into a unit just a tad bigger than my water purifier.
The package came with the lantern (fully charged!), a USB charging cable, and a lanyard. I found it too difficult to attach the lanyard with only my one nimble hand (yes, I’m still in a cast), but I’m sure you’d find it easy-peasy.
Beyond the lamp’s conveniently small size, the first thing I noticed was the nifty magnet on the bottom. I tested it out on my refrigerator, and sure enough, it stuck on there like a champ.
Then I realized the magnet is actually a water-tight cap that covers two USB outlets: one for an incoming charge, to power up the lamp, and the other for outgoing current – like to charge your phone or another device when you’re nowhere near an electrical outlet.
Using the lantern is rather straight forward. Press the large green button and the unit powers on in the “low light lantern” mode. Pressing the button again will take you through several other modes: high light lantern, flashlight, short red flashes, and a long red SOS. To power off, hold in the green button for a few seconds. Operation is user-friendly enough that I just guessed – and then confirmed with the user manual!
Here is a short demo of me going through these modes easily:
There is a lot to appreciate about this little lantern, with just a couple “meh…” factors.
Drawbacks:
- I find it a bit too heavy and awkward for backpacking. Even on a day hike, if I needed illumination, I’d prefer my head lamp. That said, overall, it is not a heavy unit, and if you were boating, camping, canoeing, or fishing, it would be a useful and convenient item to bring along. I plan to put mine in my earthquake emergency kit, and I may get another to throw in with my car camping gear.
- Exactly how waterproof is it? I’m a bit confused. The package says it is water resistant up to 30 meters. The website says it is water resistant up to 2 meters underwater – which is quite the difference in depth. To confuse matters more, the owner’s manual advises against throwing it into water to avoid explosions. Needless to say, I didn’t test out the water resistance; I thought, ya know, explosions aren’t great to experience. Clarification on that would be helpful!
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Benefits:
- I’ve found it to be rather rugged. It has withstood bangs, bumps, and drops with no decrease in function. I purposely drove up a mountain today and threw it on the ground, and if you just looked at the lantern, you’d have no idea it survived that trauma. Perhaps I have a touch of inanimate object-directed schadenfreude, but I was a little disappointed it didn’t sustain even a little scratch (which led me to wonder why I’m so weird).
- I think it’s so cool that it can serve as a power bank for my phone and other devices. This will come in handy on my next camping trip!
- It is the perfect size and shape to hang from your tent.
- Despite the confusion on exact water resistance specs, I can tell you a splash of water or rain won’t cause this lantern to fritz out.
- The magnet! That magnet is so convenient – who doesn’t appreciate hands-free lighting, especially outdoors?
Overall, I say the Outxe 3-in-1 Rugged Lantern gets a thumbs-up. If you’d like to check out this or other Outxe products, head on over to Outxe’s website.
See you again soon,
Natalie McCarthy
“Ask Natalie” host, Natalie McCarthy was born and raised in the urban American rust belts of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Cleveland, Ohio, in a not-particularly-outdoorsy family. She discovered the outdoors in her early 30s and now seeks out new ways to adventure.
Natalie earned her master’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Social Work. She works as a licensed supervisory clinical social worker specializing in the treatment of co-occurring substance use, general mental health, and trauma-related disorders. While her professional practice is where Natalie spends most of her time helping people with their problems, she was an online advice columnist in the past.
In the early 2000s, she was the go-to answer girl on a now-defunct website called New Girl Order. Her column there led her to research a diversity of topics, from May-December romances to why on Earth plucking our eyebrows makes us sneeze.
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