Streamlight 88031 Protac Tactical Flashlight 2L with White LED Includes 2 CR123A Lithium Batteries and Holster, Black

by Streamlight

• C4 LED technology with 50,000-hour lifetime
• One-handed operation of three modes: momentary, variable intensity, or strobe
• IPX7 rated design; waterproof to one meter for 30 minutes
• Anti-roll facecap and removable pocket clip
• Powered by two CR123A lithium batteries (included)

Product Description

Amazon.com

Compact and powerful, Streamlight's Professional Tactical series flashlights offer high and low intensity modes, a strobe mode, and the latest in power LED technology. The combination of its small size and high output from the C4 LED technology result in one of the brightest tactical personal carry lights for its size.

The Protac Tactical 2L, powered by two CR123A lithium batteries.

 

Streamlight Protac Tactical 2L At a Glance: Ultra-bright output via C4 LED technology Powered by two CR123A lithium batteries Up to 2.5 hours of run time (high, 180 lumens) Waterproof to 1 meter for 30 minutes Impact-resistant tempered glass lens Limited lifetime warranty

This Streamlight Protac Tactical 2L (model 88031) is powered by two CR123A lithium batteries, which provides up to 2.5 hours of run time on the high setting (180 lumens). Solid state power regulation provides maximum light output throughout battery life. It offers three modes of operation: high, low, and strobe.

Its case is made of 6000 series machined aircraft aluminum with an anodized finish, and it has an O-ring sealed, impact-resistant tempered glass lens. Other features include a removable pocket clip, anti-roll head, and multi-function rubber push-button tactical tail switch. This flashlight's IPX7-rated design is waterproof to 1 meter for up to 30 minutes. The Protac Tactical 2L measures 4.68 inches long with a 0.77-inch barrel diameter, and it weighs 2.8 ounces with battery.

Streamlight's C4 LED Technology

Basic LEDs provide a number of significant advantages, including significantly longer run time, an almost infinite life, and amazing durability since there is no glass or filament. A downside to basic LED bulbs is that they're not especially bright, but Streamlight has tackled that problem with its C4 LED technology.

Producing a brighter, more powerful, blinding light than any LED that's come before, the Streamlight-engineered reflector with C4 Photonic Crystal technology almost triples the brightness and creates an intense beam that pierces the darkness. With C4 LED technology, your Streamlight flashlight will approximate the range and brightness of a xenon bulb. You'll also enjoy the long-run times and indestructibility of an LED with an increased level of brightness that leaves basic LEDs in the dark.

Warranty

This flashlight is warranted to be free of defect for a lifetime of use. Streamlight will repair, replace or refund the purchase price, at its option, of any Streamlight product that does not work or that you manage to break for as long as you own it. This limited lifetime warranty excludes abuse and batteries.

What's in the Box

Protac Tactical flashlight, two CR123A lithium batteries, nylon holster, operating instructions

Includes nylon holster and removable pocket clip

Product Description

The combination of small size and C4 LED output results in one of the brightest tactical personal carry lights for its size. The Streamlight ProTac 2L professional tactical flashlight features three settings: high (180 lumens for 2.5 hours), low (10 lumens for 50 hours) and strobe (6 hours). The impact-resistant tempered glass lens and unbreakable pocket clip translate to durable usage during any number of rugged excursions.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

162 of 164 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweet little light with a great switching system August 20, 2010

By David Berryhill

Amazon Verified Purchase

What kind of flashlight can you get at this price point? A really good one, that's what kind. This seemed to be promising too much for the dollar amount, but I gave it a try and I'm glad I did.

Firstly, though, about that 180 lumen rating -- she's bright, but 180 seems a little, um, optimistic.... My very informal and very unscientific assessment would be around 120 or so, which is still pretty darn bright. Throw is decent, and the beam is a good balance between spot and fill. Very useful.

The best part is the switching system. You switch between modes using just the pushbutton on/off click switch in the tailcap (as usual, a little pressure gives you momentary on, push in further to click it to constant on). Press once, and you've got high beam. Press twice within .4 seconds, you've got strobe. Press three times within .8 seconds and you cycle to low beam. I like the feel of the switch; there's quite a bit of travel before you hit the constant-on click. The strobe would certainly be disorienting to an attacker, and the bezel and tailcap have the mandatory crennelations (relief cuts) in case you want to, you know, strike somebody in the head or something. Hey, it is a TACTICAL light, right?

Check the dimensions: at 4.68 inches long, 0.90 inch at its largest diameter, and weighing less than 3 ounces with batteries (I'm going by Streamlight's data here, as I don't have a postal scale handy, but that feels about right), this is one small, lightweight flashlight. The head diameter is barely larger than the body, making it sleek and easy to draw from a pocket. The pocket clip seems pretty sturdy, and a nylon holster is included if you prefer that method of carry. Build quality is adequately rugged, and you've got a lifetime guarantee (excluding abuse and batteries)....

Quibbles? Well, the anti-roll flats on the side of the head are mighty subtle, and not very effective on even a slight incline; thankfully the pocket clip stops a roll. The batteries rattle a bit in the body, which I can't stand, but wrapping a piece of adhesive tape around each battery will help to quiet that (not too much, you need to be able to get the batteries back out). And if you like a lanyard, you'll have to improvise, as there's no loop for attaching one. Other than that, I can't find anything to gripe about. There's a lot to like here, especially the switching system. It's so light and slim that I'm not even aware of it clipped in my left rear pocket. Great value, my friends. I'm gonna order a couple more! Read more ›

91 of 95 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Down and Dirty November 14, 2010

By Karl Knapp

Amazon Verified Purchase

I have the Surfire Backup to compare this to, and for price buy the Streamlight 88031. If you have to have a heavier feel with a blinding white light get the Surefire Backup (I use it in my job).
Surfire is the Caddy
Streamlight is the dependable Chevy.
Cons with the 88031 as others have said, the strobe should be the third press to the tailcap not the second, but it sure does mess with someone coming at you. I am in the Marines and we tried this out as a warning or to distract someone coming at you. All those we tested the strobe on in the dark hated the disorienting flash. That being said I use the plain bright white light or the dim light much more than a strobe.
Bottom line I'm buying another to put in the car to use a a safety and back up light.
Buy it for work and play. Easy to carry and lots of light.

74 of 81 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive little light! October 6, 2010

By basicblur

With their recent price drops for LED lights and the addition of the C4 LED, I ordered a number of Streamlights to do my own comparison. This and the Streamlight Nightfighter are my favorites so far. For comparison, I ordered the below Streamlights-they're listed in order of decreasing PERCEIVED light:

Streamlight 88005 Night Fighter NF, C4 LED Tactical Flashlight, Black (2 CR123) 120 lumens
Designed (with removable doughnut) for use with sidearms/2-handed hold-very comfortable grip.
Seems to be brighter than the higher rated PT-2L, but probably because it has a larger reflector.
Simpler switch design (to eliminate mistakes under stress)-no strobe/various outputs-just push for momentary on-twist the end cap for constant on.
EDIT 6-19-11: I see Streamlight now has a Nightfighter X, which appears physically identical to the above Nightfighter, but now has a high/low/strobe setting. The spec sheet also shows the newer X model has a higher output (200 vs. 160 lumens), but you lose 1 hour of runtime!

PT-2L (2 CR123) 180/10 lumens
Darn close in output to the Nightfighter, but is slimmer since the head is the size of the body.
For those with larger hands or slight carpal tunnel, the Nightfighter may be more comfortable while holding with a fist grip?

PT-2AA (2 AA) 120/14 lumens
The AA version of the PT-2L if you prefer AA over CR123 batteries, but it's not quite as bright.

Streamlight JR (2 AA) 55 lumens
'Bout the size of a mini Maglite, but an inch? longer-not bad, but I might have preferred it be an inch shorter?

The below are a step below in output and do not have the newer C4 LED....
They're not bad for pocket lights, but they're not really for serious work.
Streamlight Stylus Pro (2 AAA) 24 lumens
Streamlight Microstream (1 AAA) 20 lumens
(EDIT: Check, since as of 12-29-11, Streamlight has now upgraded some of the lowr output pocket lightw with the newer C4 LED. I believe the Stylus Pro has increased from 24 to 48 lumens).

I have a 2 D-Cell Maglite that I installed the Maglite LED bulb in-the PT-2L puts it to shame!
The LED drop-in for the Maglite was a big improvement, but the beam is tightly focused-if you twist the focusing head, you get more light on the edges, but you have a big dark spot in the middle. The PT-2L puts out more center light than the Maglite with LED (but it's pretty close), but the PT-2L has much better light at the edges-it tends to light up a much bigger area.

I have a few Nightfighters for use with a 2-handed hold of firearms, but ordered some more of the PT-2L to use as glove box lights in all my vehicles. Tough call between it and the Nightfighter, but since I got the PT-2L for around 2/3 (or less) the price of the Nightfighter, and they're going to be in vehicle glove boxes, I opted for more PT-2L models.

This would make a great SERIOUS light for women (or a larger pocket light)-it takes up very little space, but is blindingly bright!

Prices vary-shop around!

EDIT: I've started wearing one of these on my belt at all times, using the included nylon pouch. As stated in my review, the Nightfighter may be slightly brighter, but the PT-2L is smaller/slimmer and in its pouch, it is about the same length as my cell phone belt case.
I found someone with a 3 D-cell LED Maglite for comparison-I wondered if the LED Maglites worked better than mine with the drop-in LED (by Maglite). It appears they made no changes to the reflector/focusing on the LED models vs. my upgraded one-the 3 D-cell LED Maglite seems identical to my 2 D-cell upgraded one for both light output and rendering the focusing head pretty much useless. Maglite really needs to work on their reflector with the LEDs! They throw a decent, but extremely tight beam-if you try to broaden the light with the focusing ring, you get a black hole in the middle with very little light at the edges-the PT-2L puts both of 'em to shame. Read more ›

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Streamlite vs. Surefire April 21, 2011

By S. Jarvis

Amazon Verified Purchase

I'm a flashlight geek.

I also recently bought the SureFire E2D LED Defender Flashlight Max-200 Lumens E2DL-BK, which sells for about 4x what the Streamlight costs.

Side by side, here's what I've observed:

The Surefire light is rated at 200 lumens, while the Streamlight claims 180. That seems about right, the Streamlight appears to be just a tiny bit dimmer than the Surefire.

Both flashlights are astonishingly bright, and either of them absolutely spank a big D-cell Maglight in terms of light output, even LED D-cell Maglights. No contest whatsoever.

While the light beam from the Surefire is perfectly homogenous, the beam from the Streamlight looks like an "old-fashioned" flashlight beam with a noticeable darker central region and a faintly visible concentric circles pattern when you see the light on a flat surface. This in no way diminishes the quality of illumination.

The Streamlight is considerably shorter and slightly thinner than the Surefire E2D. Both use 2 CR123A lithium batteries.

Like the Surefire, the Streamlight uses a click-on, click-off tailcap switch, and also like the Surefire, using the right sequence of clicks activates the low-power setting on the light which still produces a very useable amount of light but gives you very long battery life.

Unlike the Surefire E2D, the Streamlight also lets you select, via the right combination of clicks on the tailcap, a rapid strobe setting, several flashes per second, that I suppose would be momentarily disorienting to an attacker should you ever have to use the flashlight defensively. It sure knocked me for a loop when I tried it on myself....

The Surefire E2D, though very small, would make a nasty hand weapon for self-defense. The Streamlight - not so much. Then again, the Surefire's aggressive head and tail crenelations will very likely end up tearing holes in any pocket it spends a lot of time in, while the Streamlight won't.

Workmanship on the Streamlight seems to be pretty good, and the tailcap switch feels about as sturdy as the switch on the Surefire.

The Surefire E2D costs four times as much as the Streamlight 88031 Protac, but in my estimation it's not a 4x better flashlight. Maybe it's more like 2x better than the Streamlight.

Overall, I think the Streamlight is an excellent flashlight and for the price, it's hard to beat. I'm glad I bought it. Read more ›