Whether you’re camping, hiking, hunting or just hanging around in your backyard, lanterns are essential. There’s a wide variety of lighting options out there, from large lights that can illuminate your whole campground to string lights to give your site some aesthetic appeal.
I’m a big fan of small lanterns since they’re lightweight, ultra-portable and easy to hang in your tent or over a picnic table to provide just enough light. BioLite, one of our favorite brands when it comes to camp lighting, just released a new, ultralight lantern that can fit in your pocket and has tons of fun lighting modes. Naturally, I got one to test out and have been putting it through the wringer for months. Here’s what I think.
This little lantern is ultra-portable and can fit in any camp bin or backpacking loadout. Its output and battery life are surprisingly good, and its lighting modes are great for people looking to make camping more fun.?
What we liked about it
Tiny and portable
When you’re packing for a camping trip, space can be at a premium. Traditional lanterns can take up more space than they should since they’re so awkwardly shaped, but not so with the AlpenGlow Mini. BioLite’s latest lantern is so small it can literally fit in the palm of your hand. It’s easy to fit in even the most stuffed camping bins, backpacks or anywhere else you’ll need it. And at only 98 grams, it’s an ultralight solution for all you backpackers out there too.
When you finally get to your destination and it’s time to set up camp, the BioLite AlpenGlow has a super nifty bungee strap that can wrap around tent loops, backpack straps, tree branches and more. The bungee has a lock built into the lantern so it won’t go flying off if you accidentally bump into it, and I found the bungee a lot easier to use and secure than the normal hooks found on most lanterns.
Bright enough and long-lasting battery
With a lantern this small, there’s an obvious question: Is it bright enough? After testing the AlpenGlow Mini’s 150-lumen output over several nights of camping on a two-week road trip, I can say it is. In most cases.
The AlpenGlow’s output is surprisingly bright, but it is still only 150 lumens. So while it’s fantastic at illuminating the inside of a tent or a small, barebones camp, there just isn’t enough power to comfortably light up a larger campsite. If you go on trips with more than a couple of people and want to illuminate a larger area, you’ll want to spring for a lantern that packs a bigger punch (like the BioLite AlpenGlow 500).
On top of its brightness, I really enjoyed the different light modes that BioLite packed into this little gadget. Similar to what you can find in the larger AlpenGlow family, the Mini features multiple light modes, including warm white, single-color, single-color cycling and a multicolor mode that cycles through a rainbow of colors. Do you need these fun modes? No. But they are a fun way to set the mood if you’re having a couple of drinks at the campsite or if the kids want to have a party in their tent.
The AlpenGlow Mini also has a battery life that punches above its weight class. The brand says the Mini can last 5 hours on high, which I found to be true in my testing. After it blasted out its full 150 lumens for 5 hours, it flashed and auto-dimmed to low, where during my test it had an extra 2 hours of light to give it a grand total of 7 hours. If you’re more conservative with your light, BioLite says it can run for 40 hours on its lowest setting, which, at only 5 lumens, isn’t bright enough to do much but is better than nothing in a pinch.
On my road trip, I used the AlpenGlow Mini to light up the inside of my rooftop tent as we got ready for bed each night. Since we’d only use it for an hour at most, the Mini lasted for several days before needing a recharge. On a normal weekend trip, you might have to lower its brightness from the max a bit for it to comfortably last both nights, depending on how long you use it. The Mini is rechargeable by USB-C and in my testing took less than 2.5 hours to charge back to full from empty (the brand says it takes 3 hours). So if you have a portable power bank with you, it’s easy to get a few more days out of the Mini.
What we didn’t like about it
Confusing controls
Our biggest gripe with the other lanterns in the AlpenGlow family is their controls. Both the AlpenGlow 250 and 500 have so many settings you can adjust by pressing the button, holding the button and even shaking the entire lantern around, that it’s easy to forget how and when to push, hold or shake. Thankfully, the Mini doesn’t have a built-in accelerometer to figure out when you’re shaking it, so there’s one less variable to help you navigate through the settings a little bit easier.
To turn the lantern on and off, all you have to do is press the top button. And if you press the button again right after you turn the lantern on, you cycle through its different settings: warm white, single-color, single-color cycling and multicolor cycling. You can also adjust the light within each mode by holding down the main button. On warm white, you can dim; on single-color, you can change the color; and on single-color cycling as well as multicolor cycling, holding the button lets you change the speed at which the colors change. Once you get the hang of it, the Mini isn’t too hard to navigate, but it’s also easy to forget in between camping trips. I had to look up the instructions a couple of separate times during my testing to get a refresher.
How it compares
The BioLite AlpenGlow Mini is the brand’s lightest and most portable lantern yet, but it isn’t the first in this space. Black Diamond has long had the backpacking favorite Moji, which has a few different models. The base is just a simple light that doesn’t have any extra features except for dimming capabilities and a strobe mode, but for $25 it’s a fantastic bare-bones lantern. Black Diamond expanded the Moji line with the Moji+ ($30) and the Moji R+ ($45). The Moji+ has more light modes (including colors, a campfire mode and a party mode) and magnets so you can quickly mount it to your car. The Moji+ can only be powered by alkaline batteries or Black Diamond’s rechargeable lithium-ion battery ($20). The Moji R+ has all the features of the Moji+, but can be charged via a micro-USB port. The Moji line also has an output of 200 lumens, slightly more than the BioLite AlpenGlow Mini.
Other popular lightweight lanterns include Snow Peak’s Mini Hozuki ($50) which only gives off 60 lumens and the MPowerd Luci Inflatable Solar Lantern ($30) which is collapsible and has solar charging.
Bottom line
If you can get the hang of its controls, the BioLite AlpenGlow Mini is a fantastic lantern. Don’t be fooled by its tiny size; the Mini’s 150 lumens are enough for most small-scale camp activities and its battery life is no joke. Whether you want a small lantern to add to your lighting arsenal, you’re a backpacker in need of an ultralight option or you just don’t want another big, bulky thing to pack, the BioLite AlpenGlow Mini is a versatile lantern that can help brighten up and bring some fun to your campsite.
