Suaoki LED Review

Performance Comparison

The Suaoki LED has a unique set of features as a compact, dual lantern/flashlight, solar powered light with a USB charge out port. It's not nearly as bright as the Black Diamond Moji or as fun as the MPOWERD Luci Outdoor 2.0, but it comes at a reasonable price.

Brightness

The Suaoki LED is one of the least bright lanterns in this review. It maxes out at 65 lumens on high (25 on low). We only measured a light radius of a few feet, and it only shines for 10 hours at full charge.

The accordion plastic light cover that expands in lantern mode doesn't do the LED any favors either; it's a little too opaque and dulls an already dimmer light. We also aren't thrilled with the light quality — it's a harsh LED white.

Ease of Use

We do enjoy the intuitive and versatile configuration of this lantern. Click the power button once to turn it on low, a second time for high, a third time for flashing and a fourth time to turn it off again. That's it.

Pull the two halves apart to expand it to lantern mode, or collapse and click them together to use it as a flashlight.

Durability

This lantern leaves something to be desired regarding the durability of its components, as it looks and feels flimsy.

A prime example is the thin plastic handle, which easily detaches from the rest of the lantern. It's easy enough to snap back into place, but it's also liable to snap on you, as it did during our testing. We are also dubious of the accordion center plastic that expands to convert the LED Camping Lantern from flashlight to lantern. With expansion and contraction, within the bounds of what we would consider reasonable use, the plastic wrinkles and distorts, just making it look beat up.

Features

The LED Camping Lantern has a handful of features that we were pretty pleased with. There are three light modes, low, high, and flashing. Even though it's not very bright, we still found that it was enough to light up the tent at night.

It comes outfitted with a USB charge out port, but it never performed as we wanted or needed it to. In theory, it adds significant plus points for those looking for a power source deeper in the backcountry, where coincidentally, our testers didn't need a tremendous amount of light anyway. However, we found that when we plugged in a phone, it often didn't recognize the device. Even when it did, after a full day charging in the sun, we were only able to boost our phone batteries by about 20%, which is significantly less than the charge capacity offered by the LuminAID PackLite Max.

This lantern has tiny rubber nubs on the 'bottom' to keep it from sliding around on flat surfaces. The feet also provide basic protection to the solar panel, which would otherwise get scratched up immediately if the light was placed on a rough surface. It doesn't have any legs though, so if you're looking to place it on something more uneven than a countertop or picnic table, you should look elsewhere.

We enjoyed that the LED Camping Lantern also doubles as a flashlight when it's collapsed. We feel that the flashlight beam is too concentrated, and doesn't shine over a vast area, but we were still fine using it to read at night.

The handle is a little cheap. Clip in a carabiner and the lantern creates a good-enough overhead light source.

Weight/Size

This lantern is lightweight and compact. We weighed it coming in at 4.5 oz, and folding to around 1 ¾" high x 3 ⅓" in diameter, making it comparable to the Black Diamond Moji.

Best Applications

The Suaoki LED would be a decent option for an overnight backpacking trip. It could replace a flashlight on the trail if need be, and its USB charge out port is an emergency backup if you find yourself with a drained phone battery and no outlet nearby. It's not very bright, so it would be best used for reading or playing cards in your tent.

Value

At $25, you get what you pay for, maybe less. We like the idea of the LED Camping Lantern, but it's made from cheaper parts, so in the long run, we would prefer something like the Black Diamond Moji or LuminAid PackLite Max.

Conclusion

This lantern doesn't do any one thing particularly well, but its unique combination of features makes it helpful in certain situations. It's the only lantern in this review that is both solar powered and has a USB charge out port. It isn't going to be your light-up-the-night cookout lantern. For that, we'd recommend either the Biolite BaseLantern XL, or Coleman Northstar. We also know its long-term durability is suspect. If you want something equally compact, but sturdier, go with the Black Diamond Moji, or MPOWERD Luci Outdoor 2.0. But if you are looking for a lightweight, fuss-free, tech-friendly light to take on your next backpacking adventure, the Suaoki LED could be what you're looking for.