A Review of the STREAMLIGHT JR® LED FLASHLIGHT

By the way, I don’t own the featured image. It is property of Streamlight Inc…

The Streamlight Junior has been in production since 1988 and I believe was Streamlight’s answer to the Mini Maglite.

I believe in the late 2000’s an LED version was put on the market.

And then in the mid to late 2010’s an improved LED version was again put on the market, with a better switch system, more robust pocket clip and brighter light engine.

There was a 130 Lumen version and a 225 Lumen version of this latest incarnation of the Streamlight Junior. I’m not sure which one I currently own. According to website specs, it runs on two AA Alkaline or Lithium batteries. It has a battery life of six hours and a physical length of 6.5 inches, long enough to be located easily but short enough to be carried even when travelling light.

I was in the market for a tactical LED flashlight in April of 2018 and I bought my first Streamlight Junior LED. I was immediately impressed by the performance. I later sold it in October of 2018 because I needed the money.

I had missed that flashlight a lot, so in January of 2019, I purchased another Streamlight Junior LED flashlight and I have been pretty much EDCing it ever since.

It is almost constantly in my right pants pocket or somewhere otherwise nearby.

I’m not sure if mine is the 130 or the 225 Lumen version, but in the words of my ninety something Paternal Grandmother, it’s a “powerful” flashlight. I visit her frequently, especially since her husband, my Paw Paw had passed away. I think I inherited my flashlight interest from him.

She is definitely right about that, it is indeed powerful.

And the battery runtime is pretty generous considering the brightness.

The other night, I was assisting a friend who was working on my car late into the evening and my trusty Streamlight Junior was our light source. It gave us useful light for hours on end. We worked well before and past sunset and until the hour of 11 PM, and I still had useful light being emitted from the LED engine. I had used it daily on the same set of batteries prior to that.

Another example of when this flashlight went above and beyond was back in April or May of 2018 when I was trying to locate the house number of some potential troublemakers at night to warn their location to someone I cared about in order to stay away from them. I was able to see the house number from my car at night and operating the tactically correct flashlight was easy as pie, even in a moving vehicle on a narrow winding road.

Speaking of protecting people I care about from trouble makers; if I purchase another firearm, it will be a Ruger Lightweight Compact Revolver, which would be a frequent companion to my Streamlight Junior when and where I am legally able to do so.

I don’t see any design flaws of this flashlight at all and I have owned one on and off for over a year.

Even though it has plenty of battle scars from everyday use, I trust it 100% to light up any situation.

I do have but one complaint and it is:
Why can’t this flashlight be made in the USA?

Of course the Chinese are getting closer and closer to American or even German quality at producing high performance flashlights.

Of course Streamlight is an American company that outsources foreign labor and can actually be traced back to the 1968 Kel Lite which was the original line of tactical flashlights.

It does, sadly outperform all LED versions of its main competitor, the American-made Mini Maglite, I’m ashamed to admit because that is my favorite flashlight.

Since I have no true complaints about this flashlight, I give it five out of five stars and it is right here in my right front pocket as I write this review.

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3 thoughts on “A Review of the STREAMLIGHT JR® LED FLASHLIGHT

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