Today I have in my hands a new light by Fenix. It’s the E30R, and it’s essentially a 18650 version of the E18R, which I liked quite a bit. It’s also quite a bit like the LD30, which I said would be better if it was only an e-switch light, not a dual switch light. The E30R is basically the LD30 as an e-switch only light. (So I already expect to like it!)

Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the official product page.

Versions

There’s only one version of the E30R. There’s the smaller version I already mentioned, if you want smaller: E18R.

Price and Coupon

I recommend you buy this light at BestLight.io. That’s where I got it, and I can wholly recommend them. They’re nice, and a nice company.

Fenix E30R – 1600 lumens – LUMINUS SST40 LED – 18650 x1

Short Review

I like this light a lot. The only thing I really think it lacks is a very good low, and a better emitter choice. Fix those two things, and this light would be right at the top of my list!

Long Review

The Big Table

* Measurement disclaimer: I am an amateur flashlight reviewer. I don’t have $10,000 or even $1,000 worth of testing equipment. I test output and such in PVC tubes!! Please consider claims within 10% of what I measure to be perfectly reasonable (accurate, even).

What’s Included

Fenix E30R Flashlight

Lanyard

Spare o-ring

Charge cable (USB to proprietary magnetic)

Paperwork and manual

Fenix 18650

My package included a cell, and the package from BestLight.io also does; I’m not sure package from elsewhere will.

Package and Manual

Typical new-Fenix package, with a magnetic closed flip open front. The light is in a plastic tray.

The manual is good, too. Even includes runtime graph!

Build Quality and Disassembly

This is a well built, very flashlighty flashlight. It has a good feel in hand, and a very nice weight.

“Flashlighty” is hard to put a finger on – this one has it mostly. The head is bigger than the body. There’s more to it but….

Anyway, this is a solid light. The anodizing has chipped off in an area or two (one of those can be seen around the clip below). There’s no knurling; instead there are the lines on the body. They provide adequate grip.

The tail end of the E30R has a spring. The head has only contact points; no spring. That’s fine for this type light – it’s not a weapon light anyway. The nubs seen around the positive contact do not prevent the use of flat top cells.

Threads on the body are thick square cut, and coarse. They’re very nice threads. Also being anodized means that the light can very easily be mechanically locked out.

Size and Comps

Officially: Length: 99mm

Body: 21.5mm

Head: 25.4mm

Weight: 51g excluding batteries

This is a very nice sized 18650 light!

Much shorter than the Convoy S2+, (but really what isn’t.)

I still have the E18R (and LD30 for that matter) bouncing around somewhere but this is the closest relative I had near my hands at the time of these photos. I still love that little E16, but like the E30R, I very much wish the low was much lower. (Absolutely love the optic on the E16.)

Retention and Carry

The main way for me to carry the E30R is going to be the pocket clip. It’s a deep carry friction fit clip, which mounts only on the head end for bezel up carry. It gets in the way of unscrewing the head just a bit but not too badly. The shoulder is a bit broad and so sticks out more than I really want, but this does mean it fits over pockets very well. And it’s quite springy, with a big-enough mouth, so it’s easy to get on to pockets in the first place. The clip also has a couple of lanyard attachment points, too.

The other (and main) lanyard attachment point is on the tailcap. There are two sets of two holes.

There is no magnet in the tailcap, and no pouch or anything provided.

Power and Runtime

The E30R runs on a single 18650 cell. An appropriate cell is included.

The included cell is the Fenix ARB-L18-3500, a 3500mAh button top cell.

A couple of runtimes for you. First Turbo, which hits the numbers claimed, and steps down to a reasonable 950 lumens (aka “High”). I stopped the test sometime after the switch began warning of low voltage. Testing with a bench power, there was no evidence of low voltage protection.

The runtime on High was exceptionally stable until the stepdown. I stopped this test too, sometime after the switch began a red flash warning.

The E30R also has on-board charging, but does not require a proprietary cell to operate. It is however a proprietary magnetic connection, which is exactly opposite the switch on the head.

The charge cable is USB to magnetic proprietary.

The magnetic end has an indicator, which will light even if not connected to USB power. This brought up an interesting question during testing. It seems that while charging, the indicator is powered by the USB side of things (or not, this part doesn’t really matter). But after charging (and even while still connected to USB), the indicator is being powered by the cell. So this small amount of current required to power the indicator on the magnetic connector can actually drain the cell in the light, even while connected to USB, once charging is complete. The take-home is to remove the light from charging when charging is done, and to not store it on the charger.

Charging is good, at around 1A.

Modes and Currents

Mode Mode Claimed Output (lm) Claimed Runtime Measured Lumens Tailcap Amps Turbo 1600 1h27m 1643 3.80 High 800 1h55m 858 1.29 Mid 350 5h28m 364 0.46 Low 150 17h32m 152 0.20 Eco 30 70h30m 28 0.07

PWM

There is no PWM.

For reference, here’s a baseline shot, with all the room lights off and almost nothing hitting the sensor. And here’s the worst PWM light I have ever owned. Also one of the very first lights I ordered directly from China!

User Interface and Operation

There’s one switch on the E30R. It’s a side e-switch, with an indicator right in the middle. The switch cover is a nice hard plastic, positively clicky with no wobble, and probably less than 1mm of travel. It’s a very nice switch. Also being exactly opposite the very similarly sized charge port might be a concern. But I found just pinching these two made it a little irrelevant which I actually grabbed. I can see that this might be annoying for some users, but it was not for me.

The UI isn’t extremely complicated, but it has a fairly nice set of features.

Here’s a UI table! I think it’s a little updated from the E18R.

State Action Result Off Hold (0.5s) Eco On Click Mode advance (Eco>L>M>H>T) Unlocked Hold (1.2s) Strobe Strobe Click Eco Off Double Click Lock Lock Double Click Unlock to Eco Off Click Battery Check*

It’s the double click for lockout that will get most users (me included). But the update here is that there are multiple ways (most ways, in fact) to get to Eco. I appreciate this. Also it does not seem that there’s any mode memory here. That’s a bit of a surprise…

* Battery check, as follows:

Green constant on: saturated (100% – 85%)

Green flashes: sufficient (85% – 50%)

Red constant on: poor (50% – 25%)

Red flashes: critical (25% – 1%)

LED and Beam

In the LD30 is a Luminus SST-40. I can’t see the temperature mentioned on the Fenix website, but ultimately it’s a bit green. The optic again seems like one custom to Fenix. I love the one in the E18R and E16, and this one performs somewhat similarly.

These beamshots are always with the following settings: f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure.

Tint vs BLF-348 (Killzone 219b version)

I compare everything to the Killzone 219b BLF-348, because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!

Random Comparisons and Competitive Options….

Here’s a link to a relevantly filtered page on parametrek.com. I use that site a lot! This category does have some competition. The E30R is the shortest of the bunch though, and the new UI seems to make it a compelling consideration.

Conclusion

What I like

Updated UI helps users get to Eco mode easily

Still appreciate that Fenix doesn’t hide modes from the regular cycle

Good beam profile

Hits throw and output numbers

Very good size for 18650 light

What I don’t like

No LVP

Green SST-40

No direct access to Turbo

Notes

This light was provided by BestLight.io for review. I was not paid to write this review.

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