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Best Pocket Light Under $30? Fenix E12 V2 AA Flashlight Review
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May 22, 2024
This video is a gear review of the Fenix E12 V2.0 AA Flashlight. Simon has been carrying this light for over a year, and shares the features, benefits and shortcomings of this light with you. Is it the right flashlight for you? Watch and learn! Best price on the Fenix E12: https://amzn.to/3tKJOIj In this video: 0:00 - What features to look for in a light 1:52 - How much should you spend on a light? 2:30 - AA battery vs rechargeable 3:26 - Simple design vs lots of features 4:14 - Fenix E12 features 6:26 - Battery life vs lumens 7:05 - Downsides of the Fenix E12 8:15 - Design flaws 11:22 - Should you buy it? Brought to you by LakeHub. We are sharing the joy of lake life! Learn more at https://LakeHub.com
View Video Transcript
0:00
What's up everybody, it's Simon from LakeEbb. Today, I thought it'd be fun to do this one in front of my Calvin and Hobbes mural
0:05
Shout out to Bill Watterson, one of the true geniuses of our time. Anyway, let's get after it. What I'm going to be talking about today is
0:14
flashlights. You've got to carry a flashlight if you're heading to the lake. No matter what you're doing, if you are
0:22
camping, if you're boating, you're fishing, if you are hiking, biking, whatever it is you're doing on the lake
0:28
you've got to have a flashlight on you. I went into some really, really deep research about a year ago to find the perfect pocket
0:38
AA battery driven flashlight, and I think I found it. Now, when I say perfect, what I mean for me is
0:48
budget, you know, a reasonable price, longevity. I wanted it to have a really long range
0:57
lightweight, compact. Those are the things that are important to me. Lumens, I mean for me the difference between 160 lumens and 300 lumens
1:08
I don't do police work. I don't need that much blasting power. So I value a
1:18
longer lasting battery life than I do maximum power. So those are the things that are important to me, and what I landed on after
1:30
reading all the specifications of all these, you know, great flashlight brands is this one, Phoenix E12
1:37
So I've been using this for about a year. This is a
1:42
fantastic budget flashlight. When I say budget, I mean under 30 bucks
1:48
You know, just like I've talked about with pocket knives, if you don't have a flashlight
1:54
you're like, 30 bucks for a flashlight? But if you're a flashlight nerd, or you're like an everyday carry, you know, kind of nerd
2:03
you kind of turn your nose down at a $30 flashlight. Like, that's not gonna have everything I want
2:08
So, what I'm getting at is it's kind of middle, low, middle of the road
2:15
And that makes it attainable for most folks. Buy once, cry once, and
2:23
then you have a flashlight. Okay? This has been a great addition to my pocket
2:30
The one thing that was most important to me was a AA battery because
2:34
I've been in a situation where a rechargeable has gone out, and you're in the middle of using it, and you're hosed. There's nothing you can do
2:44
You need a backup. You need a backup light when that happens. AA, you can stash one of those everywhere. You can stash one in your vehicle
2:53
You can stash one in your, you know, fishing tackle box. Whatever. And you know that you have a backup. Now
3:00
of course, there's the waste. You know, you don't want to be wasteful, but you can use
3:05
rechargeable AA's. They've come a really, really, really long way. So, that saves the ongoing expense. That saves the ongoing waste. You can use rechargeable AA's
3:18
Then you have the best of both worlds, in my opinion. You have the rechargeable nature, and you have the AA
3:24
swap out when your battery dies. Another thing that was important to me is that it's simple. There's not a lot of features
3:32
You really don't need to ask a whole lot out of a flashlight. So, you know, I don't have, I don't need
3:40
custom settings. I don't need, I don't need like, you know, a dozen settings. That actually kind of annoys me
3:45
I have a light that I use for hunting that has a red light. It's a blue light for tracking blood. Yada, yada, yada
3:52
And it has, it has like eight configurations, and you have to click through all of them to turn it off
3:57
Don't like that. When I need it, it's a great flashlight. It's powerful. It does its job, etc
4:06
But if I had to carry that thing, if that was like my main go-to flashlight
4:11
I would be pretty annoyed. Now this one, what I like about it
4:16
on, high, medium, low, off. So you press the button one time
4:24
with the click. Yeah, I'll do the click next to the microphone. There you go. So you can hear the click. That turns it on. A little half push
4:36
cycles through high, medium, and low. It starts off low. It's always going to start off low, and
4:47
that's what you're going to be using most of the time. You just click on, click off, and that's fine
4:51
If you need more power, pop, pop, you have more power. So I do really like the simplicity of that
4:59
You know, it's made to stand up on either end. It has these
5:03
it's a little kind of castle rook kind of deals right here on top. You've got lanyard holes. It comes with the lanyard. I don't like lanyards
5:13
so I don't use them. But you can set it very easily and stably up and down. The pocket clip
5:21
means you can set it down. It doesn't roll on the table. And those are all very handy. It's easy to swap the battery out. Just unscrew the top
5:29
The power, I think I mentioned it was 160 lumens, and so
5:35
that is, that's one of those things where you can look at another brand like Streamlight or Olight
5:44
that also offer a compact AA flashlight. Both great brands, but they're maximizing power. So the technology is built to be
5:57
so the technology is better and it's tempting to go that way, but when you really start thinking about it
6:05
do you need double this much light? You really need double this much light
6:10
Because they're both, all three of those are using the same power source, a AA battery
6:17
The power doesn't change. And so if you're getting more juice and you're making that battery work harder
6:24
then that just means the life is going to be shortened of the battery
6:28
Battery life is a zero-sum game between these three different models that all use the same power source
6:36
So I went with the one that's kind of throttled on brightness. It's still very bright. I mean this is
6:43
160 lumens is enough to do most of the things that I've ever, I mean
6:50
anything that I've ever asked of it, it's been able to do. I'll put it that way. I really can't find the reason
6:57
to shorten my battery life to get more light out of this thing
7:04
I can't find that reason. Okay, let's talk about the shortcomings of this light
7:09
So obviously the, you know, if you're looking for maximum juice here
7:14
this is not the brightest, most powerful light on the market in its category, a AA compact
7:22
So if you want to call that a shortcoming, I personally don't. If you want to call that a shortcoming, sure
7:26
The other one is the pocket clip. Okay, so let me show you the pocket clip. Now at first glance you're like, okay
7:33
yeah, that's cool. That looks like a good clip, but you start looking at the details
7:38
One thing that's great about it is that it's a deep carry clip
7:42
which means the top comes almost all the way up to the top of the flashlight
7:47
So the only thing that sticks out of the top of my pocket are these little kind of wings that go on either side of the button
7:57
Otherwise, it sits deep in my pocket. It like disappears in my pocket
8:02
Really, really, really like a deep carry clip. Olight Streamlight don't have those. So that's a win for Phoenix in that aspect
8:12
Now where this clip starts right behind this kind of waist right here
8:23
it means that you can't shove it into your pocket. You have to pull it up
8:30
There's also this little lip right here and that makes it hard to get all the way to the top
8:38
I would categorize that as a design flaw. Both of those aspects right here and then right here on the end
8:44
Now, it's not hard the way it's designed to grab with two fingers and then just pull up on the clip and
8:51
get it all the way down to your pocket. So I've mastered that and now it's not a big deal to me
8:56
It's not a mental hurdle or anything like that. Just grab, drop in your pocket, and then once it's in there, it's locked in just because of those same aspects
9:07
It's locked into your pocket. It's not moving. But at first it was kind of annoying that you have to do this to get into your pocket
9:16
The other thing that I would categorize as a design flaw in the pocket clip is
9:22
you look at this this right here, this top part. Oh cool, I can put it on my hat
9:28
You know, it's made to, it's a reverse clip, right? So, I mean you could put it in your pocket upside down if you want to. I don't know why you would but
9:36
you know, that's the main feature is that you can stick this on a hat bill, right
9:41
or coal miner mode. So, it looks cool, looks useful, except for the fact that hat bills are about an eighth of an inch thicker than that space
9:57
which renders it pretty much useless. I can still, I still clip it on my hat and I still have
10:05
but what happens is the bill can't go all the way up to the front because it doesn't fit
10:11
And so it ends up being about halfway and the light, when it's on the bill of your hat
10:16
I've used it on the bill of my hat. I use it and so it does work, but if you bump it
10:22
it swivels back and forth because it's sitting, it kind of creates a fulcrum right in the middle
10:28
It doesn't go all the way to the front. If it, if the bill of the hat went all the way to the front of the clip
10:33
it would not do that. So there is not enough space in here for
10:40
most modern hat bills. I've tried this on several different hats, same thing. So if it's on top
10:48
you know, it just kind of does this. That's annoying. You know, I have a headlamp for purposes like that
10:54
but in a pinch you need two free hands sticking on your hat, do whatever you need to do
11:00
you know, tie your knots if you're fishing or whatever the case. So a little bit annoying, but that's the sort of lack of attention to detail that you get in these
11:11
you know, like I said, more affordable flashlights in the $30 range
11:16
A $60 flashlight is going to have more attention to detail on the pocket clip and so forth
11:23
Personally, I'd rather have two of these than one $60 flashlight. And you know what? I do. I got another one of these
11:31
So I do have two of these. I put my money where my mouth is. I've also
11:37
this makes a great gift. This makes a great gift for anybody, but especially people who like to spend their time outdoors
11:44
So I've given this as a gift to lots of people now just because I believe it's such a great addition to your pocket, to your everyday carry
11:56
you know, wallet, phone, keys, pocket knife, flashlight. So that's my official review of the Fenix E12 version 2.0
12:07
flashlight. Great flashlight. I really recommend that you try it out. I'm gonna put a link down below to the best price. It'll save you a couple bucks. It'll get you under $30
12:16
I'm Simon from Lakehaven. We'll see you out there
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