There’s something very cool about holding a torch. There’s no particular thing you can point to as to why it is cool – it just… is! For a kid, it’s a way to discover, and for adults (big kids) it’s quite satisfying seeing some cop in a film kick down a door, torch lighting up some dingy, dusty room.

However, we’re here to test them in the real world, at this moment in time.

We here at CarProductsTested feel that it’s a Must to keep a torch in your vehicle at all times – it’s an essential piece of kit!

There’s a huge amount of uses for them once the dark comes; breakdowns, changing a tyre, replacing a fuse, walking to that lone country road fuel station when your car runs out of petrol or diesel, for finding that £1 coin you need for the parking meter that’s just gone between your car seats (we know it’s happened to you as well), or even if you want to go for a spontaneous night-time walk.

Whatever your case, and whatever you want to use them for, we’ve got hold of some of the best hand-held torches in the business and tested them thoroughly for you. So, here’s what we think…

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Mini Maglite LED

CarProductsTested Rating: 80% *BEST BUY* 

With Maglite moving some of their torches over to LED’s from the traditional bulbs, it means longer battery life and a tougher source of light – all good then. In form, the Mini Maglite LED carries on their well-established and often-copied look. It’s functional, hard-wearing and well-designed. With the main grip section only being around 15mm across we found it a little hard to grip, especially if your hands are cold or you’re wearing wet gloves.

There is an adjustable beam on this torch, however we found that all that does is dilute-down the luminosity already present. The best setting is at standard – a superb and sharp spread of light with an intense centre. Battery time is good, thanks to the tiny amount of power that LED’s use – and the two AA’s give around 18 hours on full beam and 31 hours on economy mode. We love the fact that the torch has a 4-way pattern which is easy to use. Simply turn once for high beam, back off and on again (in quick succession) for economy, again for flashing mode, and again for the well thought-out S.O.S flash pattern. Excellent for an emergency situation. Oh, also, one that many don’t realise is actually part of the torch as a feature – Candle mode. Unscrew the lens section completely, and you have a massively wide spread which lights up a huge area – great for in a tent or for around a camp fire.

Our pack included a holster for the Mini Maglite, which attaches onto your belt or rucksack, and the torch itself also has a useful lanyard hole crafted into it.

At 17cm in length, surprisingly this is actually one of the longest torches in our group review, but the Mini Maglite LED will still neatly fit into your glove box, or a door-pocket. Price-wise, we felt that the rrp was slightly too much, and a £25 cost would have been better.

Need-To-Know Info:

- 69 Lumens | 101 metre beam | Burn time: 18hrs high, 31hrs low | Water resistant | Batteries: Included (2 x AA) | Website: Maglite

- RRP: £27.99

+ Well thought-out, excellent burn time, superb features and a good price

- Little hard to hold because of the narrow circumference

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Maglite XL50 LED

CarProductsTested Rating: 90%

A new and very cool design direction for Maglite, the XL50 LED certainly looks good. Simple and sleek, it definitely catches your attention when placed alongside the other torches. Only 13cm in length, it looks like it could be harder to hold than the Mini Maglite, but in actual fact is easier. At 25mm across, the XL50 stayed firmly in our grip, even with thick gloves on – the deep-ish grooves machined into the torch helping hugely with this.

We loved the power button, located on the end of the torch, for the fact it was simple to locate with gloved hands, and had a positive ‘click’ to it. It’s a straightforward one click for full power, another (directly after the first) for 25% light, and a third for the Strobe function. The Strobe is actually a nice added feature, and would go a long way to getting you noticed in an emergency situation. As with the Mini Maglite, there is an adjustable beam, but we found the standard setting to be the best. The Candle feature also worked nicely on the XL50, giving a spread of light about the size of the Moon, even from higher up.

At 104 Lumens, the XL50 is ultra-bright and lit up a good wide area, and even on the 25% power mode there’s still easily enough light present to see your way with when walking around, say, a forest in the dead of night. This was the most powerful hand-held torch in our test, and we loved the way it lit up large areas from a distance. Aiming the light at a huge tree from around 20 – 30 metres away, the XL50 gave a wide, strong beam with an exceptionally-intense centre. Surprisingly for such a 104 Lumen light, the battery life is decent with about 8hrs 45mins on full and a massive 36hrs on the low setting.

Our gripes with this torch were that it had no lanyard hole on it, rendering it ‘no good’ for placing wherever you please, and holding it with bare hands in cold conditions makes for an uncomfortable chill.

So, why did the XL50 score 90%, yet the Mini Maglite still grab our ‘Best Buy’ approval with only 80%? Well, we just don’t think the XL50 is worth the extra £17.00 over the Mini. Yes, the ’50 is way brighter, yes it looks cooler BUT, the Mini has more features, is built just as well, and does about as good a job but with a far better battery life – for our money, we’d definitely go for the Mini Maglite.

Need-To-Know Info:

- 104 Lumens | 145 metre beam | Burn time: 8 hrs 45 mins high, 36 hrs low | Water resistant | Batteries: Included (3 x AAA) | Website: Maglite

- RRP: £44.99

+ Highly bright and intense light, good battery life

- Too pricy (at least within the U.K.)

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Gerber Iris

CarProductsTested Rating: 75%

Gerber are a company specialising in many outdoor, tactical and military products, including knives, multi-tools and torches. Since some of the other manufacturers here specialise mainly in torches, how did Gerber’s Iris fare against them? From a design perspective, this is a purposeful-looking piece of kit and everything, from the colour, material it’s made of (glass-filled nylon) to the heavy ridges on the grip, give off a definite military slant.

Holding it was fine, even with bulky gloves on – the textured and ridged finish, alongside the grab-section being a thick 25mm across, giving copious amounts of grip. No problem there then. Our grumble with the Iris would be that the power button is uncomfortable to use as you have to push your finger or thumb around the edge of the casing and down onto the button, as it is recessed. Okay, as Gerber point out on their site, this does prevent accidentally turning on the torch, but it’s still very annoying. It starts to get even more difficult when wearing gloves, and we found more than a few times it was taking two or three attempts to turn it onto ‘Steady’ mode. If you were having to switch it on and off regularly over a few hours, it would start to get pretty uncomfortable.

At 60 Lumens, this isn’t the brightest torch here, and the 65 ft beam length is half of what some of the others go to in the group. The light it emits is also Yellowy when compared with the two Maglites and the Peli, which give off more of a pure-white beam. However, the centre spot is still good, bright and very usable. Features included are ‘momentary on’, steady beam, and you can also widen the light pattern too. We really liked this feature actually, as the spread is still strong even at its widest, and doesn’t lose much of the intensity either.

As mentioned, the Iris has tough look-and-feel, and backs this up with features such as when screwing the head to widen the beam, there’s no broadening gap as the Maglites have. This means that sand, mud or gritty dust can’t get in and damage the torch. Another thing we like is the chunky, solid lanyard hole (the Iris comes with a free cord too), which is molded onto the end cap.

Our overall thoughts are that this is a great torch for more close-up usage. With an 8 hour burn time, you could go on a short hike with it fine though, or work on your vehicle using the lanyard to hang it up under the bonnet, and the toughness of it means it’d be great for a weekend of off-roading – it’d certainly look the business on a 4×4′s dashboard. We feel that it’s priced correctly, and is very good value considering the build quality.

Need-To-Know Info:

- 60 Lumens | 20 metre (65.6ft) beam | Burn time: 8 hrs | Water resistant | Batteries: Included (2 x AA) | Website: GerberGear U.K.

- RRP: £29.99

+ Well priced, excellent build quality, tough and reliable

- Uncomfortable power button, yellowy beam looks dated

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Peli / Pelican 2360 LED

CarProductsTested Rating: 70%

Peli, or Pelican as the U.S. branch of the company is named, most definitely have what can only be described as a vast selection of torches available. In fact, we counted well over 50 on their website!

Out of that huge amount, we were sent the 2360 LED to have a play with. Within our group test, and as a generality, we all agreed that the 2360 was one of the best looking hand torches we’ve come across. If we were playing the ‘opposite word’ game, then we’d describe the Peli as ‘Flimsy’. So reverse that, remember, and a word could clearly be used is ‘Rugged’.

With the colour coming only in black, the entire casing being made from heavy-duty aluminium and the torch itself looking like something the Terminator would use, if you want one to impress your mates with, it’s this beast.

Keeping a grip of it, with or without gloves on, was no problem thanks to the machined diamond pattern in the centre section of the body. For its 15.5cm length, the 2360 is a fairly hefty piece of kit, and felt weighted. No overly so, but you wouldn’t exactly want your head bashing with it either.

When it comes to functions, there aren’t really any. Just a simple click on and off button on the tail end, which can also be half-pushed for momentary use. There’s no adjustable spread, and the light is much more of an harsh spot rather than than a large circle. However, that spot is 2.5 watts and 94 lumens bright, meaning a nigh-on 140 metre beam! Aiming it into the sky on a misty night was like holding the world’s biggest light-sabre.

Included on the Peli 2360 is a clip to attach it to a cap or on the outside of your pocket and like the rest of the torch, this is just as well-made and sturdy. You can also loop a thin piece of string through a small loop in the clip – great for suspending it from wherever you want.

We really liked this torch for a variety of reasons, from its look and build quality to the mega-intense beam – so how come it only got a 70% rating? Well, the big negative for this torch is the really low 2 hour 15 minutes burn time. Here was our dilemma, however. If we were reviewing this torch for the Police, or Fire service we’d give it the big thumbs-up for the above-mentioned qualities.

As a cop, you could happily use this for ages when it’s only going to be used momentarily for flashing in a perps face with the usual ‘license and registration please’, (insert your own example here), and getting more batteries for free from base is no problem. However, we aren’t reviewing it from this angle, so the 2.15 hours of light is simply not enough when compared with the rest of the gang here, and you’d eat through batteries if using it for walking or working on your car.

Price-wise, the £50 recommended retail price is a heck of a cost, even at this quality. However, looking around, no-one seems to sell it at that price new anyway, and most places were charging £30 – £35, which is much more like it.

Need-To-Know Info:

- 94 Lumens | 140 metre beam | Burn time: 2 hrs 15 minutes | Water resistant | Batteries: Not included (2 x AA) | Website: PeliProducts U.K.

- RRP: £50.00 (see above for more info.)

+ Powerful beam, superb build quality, looks mean

- Very low battery time

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Kingavon 9 LED Aluminium Flashlight

CarProductsTested Rating: 50%

Okay, we’ve thrown in a bit of a wildcard here with the Kingavon. Since part of our test was about being able to throw the torch into your glove box or door pocket to use in an emergency, a (really) cheap alternative back-up is not to be scoffed at should you find yourself with a flat tyre on the darkest country road in the world at 2 in the morning.

We paid the around the same price for this little LED torch as we would for a large cup of coffee – just £2.75. So, it must be awful for that amount, right? Well no actually, it’s not bad (come on, just how little do you want to pay?) .

For looks, it’s okay, Coming in a selection of cool anodised colours (blue, black, red and silver), it’s clearly pinched the hues from Maglite, who do very similar shades – however, it’s no crime and the Kingavon 9 LED looks fairly smart for it. It’s the most lightweight and shortest torch in our group, and holding it is with or without gloves it no problem.

A small attached lanyard helps if it need to be strung up anywhere, although the retaining clip is rather flimsy and will snap off easily.

The light from the 9 LED’s is physically dazzling to stare at, but doesn’t go too far. After 15 – 20 metres, it becomes too spread-out and weak to do anything. The beam is also very blue, rather than the crisp white of the other torches here. For walking or working with though, it’s fine as is enough to see decent detail with.

Things we liked about the torch was easily-accesable on/off button, located on the end of the unit, the fact it’s so mega-cheap and also, one final good trial we did – the Impact Test. It states on the packaging that it’s shock-proof, and we darn well tried this out. We threw the Kingavon about like crazy, even hurling it hard directly at a fallen tree on several occasions, and it just kept working! Another test we did was to run the the torch over with a 2 ton truck. It survived that too (albeit slightly dented)!

Our thoughts – just go and buy one. It’s cheap enough to chuck in your car, and not worry about ever damaging it – the perfect little reserve light!

Need-To-Know Info:

- Lumens – No info. available | 15 -20 metre beam | Burn time: 12 hours + | Water resistant | Batteries: Included (3 x AAA)

- RRP: Around £2.50

+ Tough little torch, ridiculously cheap

- Bluey light which is not very focussed

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