Petzl Swift LT review

We have not tested this headlamp. We own none of the products on this site and have no laboratory. This review works from Petzl's own product page, read on September 27, 2026, and the arithmetic those figures allow.

Two things make the Swift LT worth a page of its own. It publishes 43 grams, the lightest figure anywhere on this site. And Petzl states output, beam distance and runtime for every level it offers, including the red ones — which almost nobody in this category does, and which means the weight saving can be checked against what you give up rather than taken on faith.

What Petzl publishes

That is a complete sheet by the standards of this category. For comparison, the Coast XPH34R and the Klein Tools 56048 each publish an output figure and a one-line description of the battery, and nothing else — no runtime, no beam distance, no weight, no ingress rating. Our headlamp brand ranking sets out the whole spread.

The beam, computed

3.2 candela per lumen puts this among the widest headlamp beams we compute, and it is the single most useful thing to know before buying this lamp. The Petzl Actik Core sits at 5.3, the Fenix HM65R-T at 4.5 and the Fenix HM75R at 7.8 — the Swift LT spreads its output more than all three. Only the two 3,000-lumen lamps go wider still, the Olight Perun 3 at 2.1 and the Nitecore HC75 UHE at 3.1.

That is the correct decision for what the lamp is for. A backpacker wants the ground in front of their boots lit evenly, not a hotspot forty meters down the trail. But it does mean 70 meters is among the shortest published reaches in our headlamp set — only Petzl's own Tikkina goes lower, at 65 m — and if you need to identify something across a valley this is emphatically not the lamp. Throw versus flood covers the trade.

Forty-three grams, and what fits inside them

3.27 watt-hours is the smallest energy store of any product on this site — about a ninth of the Fenix HM75R's 30.2. Stated that way it sounds disqualifying. Stated against what a backpacker actually does with a headlamp, it is usually enough: our backpacking page works through the arithmetic for a five-day resupply interval and the answer comes out under this lamp's capacity with margin.

The figure that decides it is not capacity but the 6-hour standard level at 100 lumens, which is a genuinely useful working brightness. Camp chores, a pre-dawn start and finding a tent at night all happen at around that level, and six hours of it covers several nights. The 60-hour, 7-lumen level is the reserve that gets you to morning.

Petzl publishes the specification almost nobody does

3 years or 300 charging cycles. On a lamp with a sealed battery that is the figure that decides how long the product lasts, and it is the one makers almost universally omit — our Fenix versus Black Diamond comparison notes that neither of those brands publishes it for any lamp we cover.

It is worth being clear about what the number means, because it cuts both ways. Three hundred full cycles is a real service life for occasional use — charge it after every second weekend and it outlasts the guarantee comfortably. Charge it nightly and you are inside three hundred cycles in under a year. The cell is not user-replaceable, so at that point the lamp is the cell.

What the weight costs you

• Two hours at full output. 380 lumens is a burst level here, not a working one. The lamp is designed around its 100-lumen standard setting and that is how it should be judged.
• IPX4. Splashing water from any direction, which is rain rather than immersion, and no dust digit at all. Petzl states IPX4 across almost its whole range, so this is a brand position rather than a corner cut — but the Fenix HM65R-T publishes IP68 at 140 g if weather is the deciding factor.
• A sealed cell. No swapping in a spare at 2 a.m., and no AAA fallback of the kind the Petzl Tikka and Actik Core offer. On a long trip that is the argument for a hybrid lamp instead.
• 70 meters. Second-shortest in our headlamp set, and a deliberate consequence of the wide beam.
• No peak candela figure, so the beam intensity above is derived from the distance rather than published — which is true of every Petzl lamp we cover.

Who should buy something else

Skip it if you night-hike seriously. Two hours at 380 lumens and 70 m of reach are not the specifications for moving fast in the dark. The Petzl Swift RL publishes 1,200 lumens, 168 m and 8.47 Wh at 92 g, and reactive lighting on top.

Skip it if it will be rained on hard or used at work. IPX4 is weather resistance. The Fenix HM65R-T publishes IP68 and takes a replaceable 18650 with a CR123A fallback.

Skip it if you want a cell you can replace in the field. The Petzl Actik Core runs on its rechargeable pack or three AAA cells in the same body, for 45 grams more.

Skip it if you charge nightly. The published 300-cycle guarantee is generous for weekend use and modest for daily use, and there is no replacing the battery when it goes.

The verdict, stated as what it commits to

Petzl commits to 43 grams, 380 lumens at 70 meters for 2 hours, 100 lumens at 30 meters for 6, 7 lumens for 60, a red mode at 2 lumens for 25, 3.27 watt-hours, a 3-hour charge, IPX4 and 300 charging cycles. There is no gap in that sheet worth naming except peak candela, which no Petzl lamp publishes.

For ultralight backpacking, where grams are argued over seriously and the lamp is used for an hour a night rather than all of it, this is the most completely documented answer available and the lightest. For anything that involves moving quickly in the dark, weather, or nightly charging, the specifications say plainly that it is the wrong tool — which is the most useful thing a spec sheet can do. See best headlamps for the wider field.