Streamlight
Anybody who has ever talked to me about flashlights knows that I love them. It’s a thing that came with being the editor of this magazine and going to dozens of police equipment trade shows. I can talk lumens and candela and other nerd stuff with the best of them.
For the past three years, my flashlight of choice has been the Streamlight Wedge. I use it daily walking my dog in the predawn, and I love that it offers so much power in such a compact frame. I even now love the Wedge’s side switch, which admittedly at first took me a few weeks to get used to. Every serious flashlight I had carried previously had a tail cap switch.
What’s funny about my adaptation to the side switch is that late last year Streamlight released a new Wedge model called the Wedge XT. It has a tail cap switch, and in the testing of the light for this review, the thing I had the hardest time adjusting to is its tail cap switch. I now use both an XT and my original Wedge and neither switch position bothers me.
The tail cap activation gives the XT some new features not available on the original Wedge. It offers Ten-Tap programming to set whether the light comes on at high or at low. A Five-Tap feature lets the user lock out the switch to prevent accidental activation in pants or bags. The tail cap switch also makes it easier to use the XT in combination with a handgun or other tools.
I originally wrote that the Wedge was as tough as a tank. The same applies to the new XT. The anodized aluminum body and all switches and ports are rated IPX7 for water resistance, which means it has been tested to a depth of 1 meter for 30 minutes. The impact rating is one meter, and it can survive much more. I intentionally dropped the XT 10 times each onto concrete directly on the lens and onto the tail cap from about two meters. No damage, except to the paint.
At 500 lumens, the XT is brighter on its standard setting than the original Wedge, which turned on at 300 lumens. The max setting for the original Wedge, which had standard and THRO (Temporarily Heightened Regulated Output), was 1,000 lumens. So the original Wedge is brighter, but the XT offers a low setting of 50 lumens that is useful out to 28 meters. Beam distance on high for the XT is 87 meters. What that really means is that the low setting is good for illuminating really dark areas of someone’s yard, and the high setting is good for scanning a large portion of a residential street.
Runtime for the Wedge XT on high is two hours. On low you can get 11 hours. It’s been my experience that both settings are useful, so most users will probably experience a runtime between two and 11 hours. The XT is USB-C rechargeable with the charging port on the side of the light. A red LED lights up when its time to plug in, and a full charge takes six hours.
I’ve found the Wedge XT to be an excellent everyday carry light, and I believe it would be a solid choice for plainclothes or off-duty use. It’s smaller than the original Wedge at 4.25 inches versus 5.46 inches, and fits well in the palm of the user’s hand. The compact size also makes it very easy to carry.
The Wedge XT is available in black and coyote, and it comes with a USB charging cable. List price is $155. Covered by Streamlight’s limited lifetime warranty.
Streamlight
Wedge XT Flashlight
Length: 4.25 inches
Output: 500 lumens and 50 lumens
Case: Anodized aluminum alloy
Lens: Polycarbonate
Battery: 950 mAh lithium polymer cell, USB-C rechargeable
Features: Tail-cap switch with Ten-Tap and Five-Tap programming, pocket clip and lanyard, LED charging indicator, waterproof to one meter for 30 minutes, impact resistant to 1 meter, comes with charging cable, covered by Streamlight limited lifetime warranty.
Price: $155
