Fenix E20 LED Flashlight Review*

  by Bill Kincaid

• The Fenix E20 is smaller than I thought it would be using two AA batteries. It just fit in my back jeans pocket without sticking out of the pocket. It has a nice feel in the hand and much more knurling compared to the P2D and P3D Series lights. It is also much more slip resistant due to the extra knurling. Another notable feature I discovered was with Energizer Lithium AA batteries (L91) the weight of the E20 was very light. I could hardly tell I was holding anything in my hand. This light is also very attractive in my opinion. See Photo's.

• Fenix E20 uses a Cree Q2 emitter. My sample of this flashlight has a very nice solid spot that is pleasing to the eye. The Spill does have slightly noticeable rings, but they are not bad considering the E20 uses a smooth reflector for maximum throw. I only seen the rings when white walling, not in actual use outside.

• The tint on my sample is very white. I have read that many customers are very happy with the tint of their E20. This shows a good consistency of the tints in these flashlights.

• I placed the E20 in 4 inches of water for 15 minutes with no negative effects detected.

• There is a lanyard included with the E20 but no holster. I'm sure this is to help keep the cost lower on this flashlight.

• The Tail switch on the E20 is one of the finest I've felt. It just has a solid quality feel to it. The switch is a forward clickie. Click once to turn on and click again to turn off. There is also momentary on. You press the switch down until the light turns on but stopping before it clicks. Once you let go of the switch the light turns off.

• The switch boot extends past the end of the light and therefore the Fenix E20 will not tail stand.

• Uses Standard AA batteries - Rechargeable, Alkaline, or Lithium. Battery time will vary depending on battery used. Fenix claims 3.3 hours with Rechargeable batteries. I believe I got a little over an hour with Energizer Alkaline which is definitely a step forward from days gone by. I presently have Energizer Lithium (L91's) in the light and have read a little over 4 hours can be expected from these batteries. Although I have not tried them as of the writing of this review, I do plan on running Eneloop Ni-MH rechargeable batteries in this flashlight and would expect to see over two hours of run time from the 2000 mah capacity of these batteries.

• You CANNOT use Lithium-Ion rechargeable (3.6V) batteries in this light.

• Outside the E20 placed plenty of light on target at 50 yards. The specified throw out to 100 meters seems reasonable based on my tests.

• The heavy duty aluminum body and smooth even anodizing is top notch. Just as good or better on this light as lights costing 4 times as much. No machining marks or sharp edges either. All right angles have been nicely rounded. I should mention that during the course of this review I accidentally dropped the E20 twice on my tile floor with concrete underneath it from around 3 to 4 feet. There was no detrimental effect on the light or in the finish of the flashlight.

• The focusing feature of the flashlight was interesting and not what I expected. Twisting the head of the flashlight does un-focus some, but not enough that I could see many advantages over keeping it focused. Focused or un-focused the spill of the light remained the same size and brightness although the spot did get slightly larger and more diffused when un-focused giving a little more flood. The only advantage would be for close up work where un-focusing the spot could be useful for taking some of the brightness out of the bright spot.
  
  

*The preceding in-depth review was supplied by a customer of BrightGuy, Inc. (with the author's permission). The opinions expressed in this review are those of its author. BrightGuy assumes no responsibility for the information provided in this independent review.