The Ecolight is manufactured by Solarey, was designed to be environmentally friendly and self reliant without requiring any external electrical supply. Up the front is a rubber bezel which protected the head. It has a flat region on one side which helps keep the light in a flat position, with its solar cells facing up. This allows the Ecolight to be oriented either way when solar charging, depending on how high the sun is up in the sky. The lens used is made of plastic, as it the reflector behind it. The plastic reflector is smooth and well polished. It seems to have concentric deviations running down the cup. The LED sits well-aligned at the bottom of the cup.

The entire Ecolight is made as a single body chassis with no removable elements other than the rubber bezel. As you can see, the Ecolight is rather large, almost as big as a 2x D cell flashlight, but at a fraction of the weight. Positioned just behind the front end is a two-way switch. It has a rocking mechanism which is easily activated single handedly. Pushing to the left activates high, right activates low and center is off. The switching mechanism is smooth and doesn't require much effort, though it does provide a tactile feedback and positive clicking sound at any of the three positions. On the reverse side is a small power indicator LED which lights up green when the Ecolight is fully charged, and remains off in all other situations. Running down the body is the solar panel, with the reverse side having a comfortable, ergonomically shaped handle. There's also a hole for lanyard attachments towards the rear end. The rear face of the light has a flat rubber cover surrounding the charging terminal which is where the USB/AC cord plugs in. The body is water resistant and should stand well when left outside in the rain. The Ecolight is made of recycled plastic and rubber which have been treated with UV inhibitors to protect it from sunlight. Components are all non-toxic and RoHS compliant.

If you're unfamiliar with any of the terms used in this review, click here for explanations on common flashlight related vocabulary.

The Ecolight is powered by a 1 watt LED and has a simple high/low user interface. The beam profile is actually quite clean aside from some minor artifacts within the hotspot. There's a soft corona around the hotspot with a smooth spill beam. The review sample has a slightly warm tint, with a slight hint of green. A supercapacitor provides power for the Ecolight. Compared to traditional rechargeable batteries, supercapacitors charge up very quickly, requiring about 4 minutes with AC charger or 1.2 hours in the sun with its solar panel. In addition, supercapacitors are rated to be recharged up to 30, 000 cycles as compared to about 1, 000 cycles of typical NiMH batteries. There are some short comings though. Charge isn't retained as long when compared to NiMH, loosing about 50% over 30-40 days, and capacity-to-size ratio is lower as well. Thankfully, the Ecolight continuously trickle charges with sufficient ambient lighting. As you can see from the graph below, runtime and regulation is rather bad. Do understand that the Ecolight is meant to be an environmentally-friendly, self-reliant product and not a high performance flashlight. When you're in a remote location with no electrical power source, some light is better than no light at all.

The Good - Charges quickly. Environmentally-friendly and self-reliant by solar power. Comfortable ergonomics. Simple user interface.

The Bad - Low output and runtime performance. Large size, although this is due to the solar panel.

The Relative - Slightly warm beam tint. Uses a toggle switch. Is able to tail stand.

Head (front view).

Body, solar panel.

Body, reverse side.

Body (rear view).