The best thing I bought this year: a Zippo-sized rechargeable flashlight

I was never a Boy Scout, but I have always embraced their “be prepared” motto. When I leave the house it’s never without my everyday carry kit that, among other things, includes wireless earbuds, a small battery, extra glasses — and a flashlight. In fact, I’ve long been on the hunt for what I consider to be the perfect flashlight, and as a result I now have more of them than any one person could ever need. But the $25 Wuben G5 could be my last, thanks to a compact design that pairs clever functionality with lots of illumination that’s easy to adjust.

I bought the G5 as a replacement for the Nitecore TINI 2 keychain flashlight I used to carry. Nitecore’s is surprisingly bright given how small it is, but the lock option that prevents the flashlight from turning on accidentally is far from foolproof. In reality, the TINI 2 would regularly turn on by itself while bouncing around inside my sling bag, draining its battery without me realizing it. You can’t effectively “be prepared” with a dead flashlight.

The G5 also includes a locking mechanism, but in the form of a sliding switch on one side that doubles as a cover for the flashlight’s USB-C charging port. After a couple of months of carrying it around, the G5 hasn’t turned on by itself, and at this point I don’t expect it to. It’s not quite as small as my old Nitecore, but it’s just slightly taller than a Zippo lighter, and still very pocketable.

What I like even more about the G5 is that it’s very good at just being a flashlight. Instead of stepping through brightness presets, the flashlight has a wheel for quickly dialing in exactly how much illumination you need, from just 2 lumens to up to 400. I find its lowest setting more than bright enough to locate something dropped in a dark car, or for searching for something that rolls under the sofa, and keeping it dim boosts the flashlight’s battery life to up to 65 hours.

The G5 is not limited to just white light. It has a second LED whose color can be adjusted by turning the brightness dial which cycles through the spectrum. Using a combination of double taps and long presses on the power button, the G5 can also flash individual colors or multicolor patterns which could, in some situations, be a useful way to signal you’re having an emergency.

Other functionality I’ve come to appreciate includes a clip whose position can be adjusted to the front, side, or back of the G5, and that its LEDs are located on a head that can rotate 180 degrees. The base of the flashlight even has a built-in magnet so you can mount the G5 and use it hands-free. In short, it feels like Wuben put a lot of thought into the G5’s design to maximize its functionality.

I’m not going to pretend that everyone would be thrilled to find a flashlight in their stocking on Christmas morning, but I’m betting there’s one or two people on your shopping list who would appreciate a very useful addition to their own everyday carry kits.