The Chronic Consumer

Most people don’t put much thought into the kind of flashlight they buy, contenting themselves with a $5 piece of plastic from the corner drugstore. I used to be like that as well, until I went through nearly two days with no power after some major storms many years ago. After that, I take emergency preparedness very seriously, especially since I have a child to care for now. That’s one of the reasons I recently replaced my old flashlight with this LED Lenser P7 model.

This flashlight was actually made for law enforcement purposes, so you know it’s going to be a good one. It is manufactured by Coast Cutlery (I’d never heard of them before, to be honest), and features 200 lumens of light output. That number itself means nothing to me, but trust me when I say this beam is POWERFUL! This compact light, which is only 5.5 inches long, shoots a focused beam for up to 689 feet, according to the manufacturer. I haven’t measured, but yeah, I believe that number.

The flashlight comes with high- and low-beam settings. High-beam is the default option, so when you click the thing on, that’s what you get. Push the button again for low-beam. Thus, to turn it off, you actually have to push the button twice, which is a minor annoyance for me — but something that I’ve grown used to already.

You can adjust the focus of the beam by sliding the flashlight head up or down. This is very quick and easy to do, and is a nice feature that allows you to cover a wider or narrower area as necessary.

The flashlight is housed in a very durable aluminum case, and comes with a handy wrist strap and a protective belt sheath (which I don’t use).

Now the part of the flashlight that people might balk at is the price tag. The LED Lenser P7 goes for $69.99 on Amazon, which is incredibly high for a product like this. I was able to purchase it when it was on sale for closer to 38 bucks. That would still be too high for most people, but I’m telling you, if you value safety and security, you need to have a good flashlight on hand for emergencies. I don’t regret this purchase at all, and truly feel this flashlight is worth every penny.