Biolite already makes some of the most popular headlamps in the market. However, their lineup currently has one glaring flaw: the inability to use AA or AAA cells when the built-in battery drains out, which is a big problem for one of the more important tech gadgets to have in the outdoors. While the Biolite Range 500 doesn’t exactly do that, either, it does offer a different way to quickly get the headlamp running again.
Billed as a “rapid-charging” headlamp, the device can be plugged in for just eight minutes via USB-C to get a full one hour runtime at full brightness, allowing you to get back on the trail with little more than a brief pause. Granted, this means you’ll have to carry a power bank in your pocket or backpack the entire time, which, we guess, most people won’t really mind, especially since there are plenty of smaller pocket-sized USB-C battery packs out there.
The Biolite Range 500 is equipped with a 500-lumen lamp with a maximum beam distance of 330 feet. Granted, that’s not breaking any records, considering there are much brighter headlamps out there (including some from Biolite themselves) with far longer throw distances. It only comes with two settings, high (500 lumens) and low (15 lumens), so you’re either going full blast or getting just enough illumination to light up your immediate vicinity. Do note, it does offer dimming, so you can dial down the brightness as needed. With that said, it does offer different types of lighting modes, including a white spot light and a white flood light, so you can prioritize throw distance or illuminating as wide an area as possible. Aside from those two, you can also use white strobe, red flood, and red strobe light settings.
The headlamp comes with a 1,634mAh battery module, which holds enough charge to keep it running for up to six hours on high and 200 hours on low. When recharging, it can give you an hour’s worth of power on high by plugging in for just eight minutes, while 30 minutes of charging gets you to 80 percent battery life.
The Biolite Range 500 comes with a tilting lamp head that can be locked into any of four angles, allowing you to direct the light towards the ground in front while keeping your eyes straight ahead. Since it’s designed for outdoor use, it’s waterproofed to IP67 standards, which means it’s submersible to depths of up to three feet for as long as 30 minutes. That means, you don’t have to take it off in the rain, allowing you to keep using it, regardless of weather conditions. It comes with just two buttons, as well, making the whole thing very easy to operate.
The lamp is mounted on a headband made with a moisture-wicking fabric, so it should be comfortable to keep on even during hot days. It has a low-profile construction, too, with all the components stored in the headlamp, so there’s no extra weight around the back or any other part of the headband. Aside from the Range 500, Biolite also offers the designed in 400 and 300 lumen variants.
The Biolite Range 500 is available now in slate blue, midnight gray, and spark red. Price is $69.95.
