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UST Pico Lantern

rated 5.0 of 5 stars

The Pico Lantern has been discontinued. If you're looking for something new, check out the best battery-powered lanterns for 2024.

photo: UST Pico Lantern battery-powered lantern

Three light settings, handle on top hook on bottom, batteries last a long time. Durable and compact design with removable lens that floods the light.

Pros

  • Durable
  • 3 function light setting
  • Small
  • Handle and hook hanger

Cons

  • For the life of me I can't find anything I would change
  • Maybe if it had a hook on both ends

Being a lantern styled light I figured it would only be good inside the tent. But it shines pretty bright for a lantern light. It is not the old Coleman white gas lantern, but then you don't put them in your pack or tent either.

I am fairly impressed how far into the woods I can see with this on bright setting. The dim setting is plenty for what I use it for, the third setting is a distress flash. I use this at night and early morning hours to see around my tent, reading and writing in my journal.

For me there is more than enough light on dim setting with the flood cover on. The cover can be removed to give a little more of a direct light for reading, writing. I never use this just because I don't need the extra light.

The hook hanger on the bottom is handy for hanging it over where I'm cooking, or from the top of my tent. I have dropped it in the rocks, banged it around in my tent and I pack it in my main pouch of my pack crammed in with tent, stove, fuel, clock, and everything else. I am really not careful at all with this and after a year of use it still looks new.

The price I paid at Dick's on sale was $24 I feel this was a good purchase, glad I did it.

Source: bought it new
Price Paid: $24

Though smaller than a beer can and a low light setting of only 15 lumens, this light was a happy surprise to us on a car camping trip. Its small size and weight would encourage me to take it along on a backpacking trip as well.

Pros

  • Light output
  • Size
  • Weight

Cons

  • None yet

The 15 lumen low light setting had me thinking it would be a pretty useless setting, but we found it was enough to play cards with at the picnic table.  In fact, we had to put a pot holder on top to block the light from the bulb itself as it was too bright.  

Hold the light by the globe to shade your eyes and preserve night vision and it throws enough light ahead to find the outhouse.  We hung it by its fold away hook in our tent with the globe off and it filled the 8'x8' by 6' high tent with plenty of light. It might even have been possible to read by.  

Want more light? Use the 120 lumen setting and it is like someone turned on a 60 watt bulb. We also had with us a 12 LED light that was the size of a Coleman lantern and it was pathetic compared to this little gem. We have only used it on the one camping trip so far, but I am so impressed I had to let others know about it.

Source: bought it new
Price Paid: $29 Cdn

Pros

  • Great light source for the money
  • Paid about $25 at Campmor in N.J.

Cons

  • Probably a bit heavy for minimalist

Bought two of the Pico lanterns, to be used for power outages etc. Tested one with new batteries and still had useable light after about 15 hours. Case is made of a rubber base type material, with built-in hanger, very solid unit. Was suprised at amount of light the lantern puts out.

In closing, I would recommend this unit for camping and for emergency home and vehicle use.

Source: bought it new
Price Paid: $25 +/-

Light-enough, bright-enough >120 lumen, four AA battery-powered hanging mini-lantern. Get it only if it's cheap.

Pros

  • Light enough
  • Bright enough >120 lumens
  • 3 modes: bright, less bright, SOS-flashing
  • Rubberized top and butt and handle, feels solid
  • Great for a campsite or dusk trail hiking
  • I tested over 70 hours of up-time with four eneloop batteries, still going strong

Cons

  • Takes four AA, adds weight, obviously wasteful if you don't have rechargeable batteries
  • 123 lumens isn't terribly bright, but it does the job

It's a water-resistant, shock-resistant, sturdy, compact, cheap (I got it for $10 from GearTrade.com + shipping) three-mode, battery-powered hanging lantern. It's a good light for what it is. It's great for camping, I routinely use it walking around my house looking for our dogs off sniffing game where I live in the mountains and it's great at throwing out a nice even aura of light for only being 123 lumens on the brightest setting.

I've gotten about 70 hours of use without having to recharge my four eneloop AA batteries I have inside this UST Pico lantern. I've dropped it a couple of times onto linoleum floors in my old cabin and it's been fine so far.

Overall, it's a neat little light that I got for a good deal and for about $16 total (including shipping), I feel like it's worth it.

Source: bought it new
Price Paid: $16

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Price Historic Range: $15.99-$29.95
Reviewers Paid: $16.00-$25.00

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