It literally looks like a toy. Heck, if your kids see this, it’s colorful design and game-like buttons will definitely make them pick it up. The LE Camping Lantern, though, is a capable outdoor lighting tool that’s compact enough to fit in many pockets while being powerful enough to keep things illuminated in different situations. And yes, the darn thing is cute as a button.
Measuring a compact 2.8 x 2.5 inches (height x diameter), the camp light can be stuffed into any backpack pocket, allowing you to carry it while adding negligible load to your camping pack. This makes it a very convenient lighting gear to bring along, whether you’re actually camping, hiking, or just want to have a handy light on the ready while going for a drive.
The LE Camping Lantern has a brightness of 280 lumens, which should provide decent brightness to illuminate a small camp at night, allowing you to cook food, clean your tools, or find some item you lost around the tent. At full brightness, it can last for five hours, all while extending to 11 hours at the half-brightness setting of 140 lumens. Like many outdoor lighting solutions, there’s also a flash mode that allows it to run for 10 hours of turning on and off. Yes, that’s enough to induce a seizure on anyone you’re trying to torture, just in case you end up fighting alien invaders while in the backcountry.
We know, those four hours at max brightness may not sound much, but if you have a way to recharge (like a power bank or a car) nearby, it may be all the lighting you need at camp for the few hours you need light before retiring for the night. An integrated USB cable (yep, it’s always connected, so you never lose it) allows you to quickly plug this to a compatible outlet in your car (or any portable power source) to quickly charge the integrated 3,000 mAh battery back to a working state. Once charged, by the way, the battery can also be used as a power bank, so you can charge your phone using it during emergencies. A set of four indicator lights let you know how much power is left, making it easy to monitor whether you need to reduce the brightness at any time.
The LE Camping Lantern has magnets on the same side as those colorful buttons, allowing this to snap onto ferromagnetic surfaces, like the hood of a car, a tent pole, or some other metal fixture. It also has two metal D-rings that allow you to hang it from hooks, branches, and other raised objects, so you can hang it overhead to illuminate a larger portion of the camp whenever necessary. Having been designed for outdoor use, it’s built to be water-resistant to IPX4 standards, so there’s no worries about leaving it exposed to the elements, with the USB even coming with a cross-shaped plug to keep water and dust from getting inside.
The LE Camping Lantern is available now.