Armytek Crystal Pro flashlight: In Review

As we’ve said before, a flashlight is a solid addition to anyone’s toolkit, whether you’re talking about stuff you carry with you every day, or what you pull together into your backpack for heading out into the woods. If you find yourself choosing between a flashlight, a headlamp, and a night vision-friendly red LED, then the Armytek Crystal Pro just might be of interest to you.

Form factor

As you can see from the photos, the Armytek Crystal Pro is not what you would call a traditionally-shaped flashlight. Rather than the standard barrel, we’re dealing with a rectangular form factor. While this is out of the ordinary, it allows for a very flexible set of functionality. For starters, it means once the light is on, you can lay it flat on the table and light up a larger area – helpful in a tent or in an emergency. It also means that the clip on the reverse is more than just a way to hold it in your pocket. You can clip it onto your shirt, pack strap, or even hat, and now you’re shining light forward, hands-free.

Other functionality

The Armytek Crystal Pro offers up a lot of other options, and you can see some of it hiding in that photo just above. With the adapter and the larger strap, you can easily turn the light into a headlamp. Want to use it on your bike, either as a headlamp or a tail light? That’s what the smaller strap allows you do to. Or, if you want to have hands-free lighting and you don’t have a convenient spot to clip the light, that’s where the neck lanyard comes in handy. Basically, however you want to carry and use this light, you’ll be able to do it.

The User Interface

Sometimes, modern lights can end up with some very confusing user interfaces. Fortunately, that is not the case with the Armytek Crystal Pro. With a single button, this one is a cinch to get locked in your mind:

Long press when the light is off: this will lock (or unlock) the light so it doesn’t accidentally turn on in your pocket. You’ll get a flash of the white LED to let you know that it’s been locked or unlocked
Short press: turn the light on or off

Double-press: switch between the white LED and the red LED
Press and hold (once the light is on): this will cycle through the various lighting modes (these apply to both LEDs):
- You have four different lighting intensities with the solid LED (moonlight-low-medium-high)
- Then there are two additional flashing modes (low-high), helpful as a marker or warning light

Powering the light

Given the unique form-factor of the Armytek Crystal Pro, you know you’re dealing with a rechargeable cell. Here, you’ve got a 600 mAh Lithium Polymer battery powering things. We’ve not run this down to test how long things will last, but if you’re running mostly at moonlight levels, this should last a good long time (see the box photos up at the top for estimated hours). When it comes time to charge it, you just need to flip open the deep rubber cover (which helps maintain that IP67 rating) to expose the micro USB port. Sure, we would have preferred to see a USB-C connector at this point, but this will get the job done.

Using the light

Obviously, in the temperatures that we’ve got here in Chicago, I wasn’t using the Armytek Crystal Pro for a camping trip. So, how did I put it to work? For one, I had it on my desk all day, and if I needed to see where something dropped, I’d click it on quick, find the pen or whatever it was, and then be back at my day. As you can see from that slightly blurry photo up there, I also used it to light up my pellet grill when it was time to head out and see how the steaks were coming along. Finally, it’s also a great option to keep yourself a bit more visible to traffic when you head out for an early morning walk/jog, which I appreciate. So, sure, while I’ll probably use this a lot more in the warmer weather, this is a light that has plenty of uses all year around.

Wrapping things up

The one thing we really didn’t talk about is the super-90s approach to the casing, that lets you see the circuitry within, and even through the translucent back. While our review unit came with the yellow caseback, you can also opt for grey, blue, red, or green, depending on what your preferences are. The best thing about the Armytek Crystal Pro? Even with all of the functionality, and the extra accessories it comes with, it comes in at a surprisingly affordable price of $34.99. If you want to pick one up for your kit, just visit our pals over at flashlightgo.com.

Details

Convenient operation with one button, double click to change the light color.
Unique fully luminous body.

Built-in Li-Pol 600 mAh battery charges with any Micro USB cable.
Color indication of charging process.
IP67 standard: reliable protection from dust and submersion at 1 meter for 30 minutes. Withstands fallings from up to 10 meters.