Gear review Streamlight wedge

I received a Streamlight Wedge (8810 Slim) as a gift the other day. I'd had my eye on them recently and was considering one for purchase. It looked handy and cool, so I let it grow on me. Friend of the blog Scooter McGee shared that he bought one and liked it. Lo and behold, my former partner gave me one.

Immediately upon opening it I was impressed with the size, shape, and feel. This is the size of a large folding knife body or maybe two Sharpie pens thick. It is designed to fit in a MOLLE loop. It is too wide to clip into a standard shirt pocket holder, but fits a pant pocket. It fits a sap pocket for sure. The light is handy because it's flat. Normally I've carry a Streamlight Polytac C4 or an old school Surefire 6P. Round flashlights don't work well in pockets when sitting for obvious reasons and on the former, I'm not too keen about relying on the clip on a belt loop.

So now the Wedge has immediately found a place in my EDC, which only got a flashlight included if I was going somewhere sketchy at night. The Wedge is the perfect shape and size to go into a pocket casually and inconspicuously, so I could even take it to a nice restaurant in decent clothes without a weird bulge. Honestly, last night I slipped in my pocket as my evening walk light. Went in and carried like an afterthought.  This is what I'll be carrying around town and at night now, absent a need for a "real" flashlight.

The Wedge is shaped somewhat ergonomically with a grip for the fingers on the "underside" and on the "top" a two-position knob/switch. There is a low-powered constant on position and a positive contact high power position. You can only hold the switch in the high power position for 35 seconds before it gets too hot and dims. It will allow you to simply release and re-initiate high power if needed. Scooter wished it had a momentary on button, but I found in either mode it was easy just to flip on and off so I think it's okay in that respect. 

Illumination for such a small light was great. The lens is smaller than a dime but illuminated the front door area of suburb-dark house adequately to take a photo with by iPhone (for OPSEC not positing it). I could identify any threats in the shadows and easily navigate or identify details. In my law enforcement days, I'd consider the light adequate in that situation.

In a suburb-dark park, I got decent illumination outside, better than I thought I'd get.  I do need to try it in a darker outdoors environment at a distance. However, indoors, at short range outdoors, and for adding illumination to a large open dark area, it was great to good enough. Again, I will use this as a primary EDC light and would feel comfortable with it as a LE backup light (I used my 6P during daytime and as a backup light to a Pelican 7060 LAPD flashlight or a Maglite). 

This is not a penlight. It's too bright and the lens too big for that. This is a real flashlight. I was happy about that. The shape and strength can also make it into an improvised bludgeon should you need to use it that way, although Streamlight wouldn't approve. 

It is USB-C rechargeable, so if you're like me and have hesitations about that, carry a second light and keep the Wedge charged. I don't anticipate using this light in critical situations where it isn't charged or I don't have a second light. If you're operating in the field where a charging brick or another electric source is, make sure you have a flashlight that has swappable batteries. Intellectually, I understand charging is not a big deal and I'm okay now having such a flashlight.

Just note that the USB-C port is a new type of connector and you may not have a bunch of extra adaptors lying around. USB-C is great because it's omni-directional and a better standard all around. The package does come with a cord, but no outlet brick to plug it into. 

It's available on Amazon for like $85. Check out the specs.