Best tactical flashlights under $100

35,000 candela and 374 m reconcile exactly: the square root of 35,000 divided by 0.25 is 374.2 m. Streamlight's numbers are internally consistent across all three modes, which is the strongest signal of a maker publishing real measurements rather than marketing figures.

1.5 hours at 1,300 lumens implies roughly 6 to 7 watt-hours of usable energy — consistent with a single 18650-class pack and with the CR123A alternative.

IP68 with 2 m impact resistance is the toughest rating in this roundup, and the reason this light shows up on so many duty belts.

Skip this ifyou want a pocket light. It is a duty-belt tool and the weight and length are built for a holster.

2.75 hours at 600 lumens from two CR123A cells is a very efficient result — that is roughly 6 watt-hours doing real work rather than being thrown away as heat.

3 m of impact resistance is the highest figure in this roundup. Polymer absorbs a drop that would dent an aluminum body.

119 g with cells installed makes this the lightest full-size duty light here.

Skip this ifyou use a light daily. CR123A primaries are the wrong economics for frequent use; buy a rechargeable instead.

SureFire publishes both 8,700 candela and a 187 m beam distance, and the two reconcile: the square root of 8,700 divided by 0.25 is 186.5 m. That makes this the only light on this site outside Streamlight and Maglite whose two beam figures can be checked against each other. It is still well short of the ProTac's 374 m on similar output, because SureFire deliberately builds a wider beam with more usable spill.

Two modes, low then high, with no strobe and no programming. On a light you might need in a hurry, that is a feature.

CR123A primaries hold their charge for a decade on a shelf. For a light that lives in a drawer against the worst night of your life, that matters more than rechargeability.

Skip this ifyou buy on specification. Almost everything here beats it on paper; you are paying for reliability and simplicity instead.

The PD35 is the size most people actually want in a tactical light: long enough for a cigar grip, short enough for a pocket.

18650 rather than 21700 keeps the diameter down at the cost of about a third of the energy a PD36R Pro carries.

Fenix's own site did not carry a page for this version when we looked, so the table is limited to what the brand's listing states.

Skip this ifyou want the full spec table before buying. The PD36R Pro is better documented and carries more energy.

221 m from 4,000 lumens works back to about 12,200 candela. That is a wide, bright beam rather than a thrower — the Streamlight ProTac HL-X puts nearly three times the intensity into its hotspot on a third of the output.

It is the clearest illustration on the site of why lumens do not decide reach. Four thousand lumens is a genuinely large number and this light still reaches barely half as far as a 1,300-lumen one.

4,000 lumens in a 21700 tube is a thermal burst. Without a published runtime table there is no way to know where it settles, which is what keeps it below the documented lights on our ranking.

Skip this ifyou need reach or a runtime you can plan around. On both counts a documented 1,300-lumen light beats it.