Silva Trail Runner II USB
Silva Trail Runner II USB headtorch
Price: £79.99
Country of manufacture: not stated
Weight: 128g
The Trail Runner II USB is Swedish brand Silva’s latest addition to its stable of lightweight headtorches aimed principally at runners but which are also of interest to cyclists, mountain bikers and walkers.
The USB update to its Trail Runner II, which runs off three AAA batteries, instead has a lithium-polymer battery – the same type as you’ll find in your smartphone – housed in a unit that sits at the back of the head when worn.
And, as the name suggests, the torch is recharged via a USB connection, which means it can be repowered either by plugging it into a computer or laptop, or via your household power supply using a plug and USB adaptor.
As with all Silva’s Trail Runner range, the II USB has the company’s Intelligent Light system. This uses two LEDs, one of which gives a narrowly focused long-distance beam and the other a wider spread of light, useful for peripheral vision.
This worked well on the hill, with a good central beam backed up with good illumination around, obviating the need to swivel your head around as you move.
The Silva Trail Runner series is aimed at fast-moving outdoor enthusiasts
The switching system is very simple and works via a push button on the left side of the lamp housing. Push once and you get maximum power; press again and you get minimum mode. You can’t have the two LEDs operate separately; they will always come on together.
Holding in the push button for a second turns the headtorch off, immediately after which it will display either a green light indicating the battery is OK, or a red one meaning it needs recharging.
Holding in the button for a second from the unit while it is turned off will activate a flashing mode.
There are no other modes such as red LEDs. Time for a full recharge via USB is four hours.
The headband is wide and adjustable via a sliding buckle and is comfortable in use.
The elasticated band also has a rubberised strip running round most of the inner surface which helps prevent the headtorch slipping when on the move. The Velcro-fastening housing which holds the battery also has honeycomb anti-slip pattern on its inner surface.
The curly lead from the battery has a connector which can be unplugged so if you like you can separate the battery container from the torch to make it a bit less cumbersome when charging.
The pay-off for using a USB-recharged li-pol battery is a truncated burn time for the torch. At full power, the Silva Trail Runner II USB has only a four-hour rating for its maximum power, compared to 30 hours for the non-USB version which uses non-rechargeable batteries.
At minimum power setting, the headtorch offers 10 hours of use, as does the Trail Runner II USB on flashing setting.
This was such a concern that, when testing the headtorch, we carried a backup torch as well in case the power ran out.
The Silva headtorch provides a powerful 140 lumens to light up the hillside
We needn’t really have worried. The fall-off from the 140 lumens beam on full power was negligible on our trip into the hills and eight hours later the torch was still providing a usable amount of light, though nowhere near its peak brightness.
The Silva headtorch finally faded completely just short of 12 hours after it was turned on.
Silva says on minimum power the Trail Runner II USB will provide 10 hours. In our testing, these figures appeared quite pessimistic and the torch provided enough illumination to carry on, though perhaps not at running speed.
The minimum setting we used mainly for close up work such as working equipment and reading maps and switched back to full power for walking and running.
The beam is very good, with its spot rated at 50m but actually picking out landforms 70m to 80m away on a clear night.
The Silva Trail Runner II USB is a good performer and its rechargeability is a real plus. It’s just a shame that there isn’t an interchangeable AAA pack that could be carried and used in case the li-pol battery ran down.
The fact it uses USB recharging is both an advantage and disadvantage. It’s fine and cheaper if you have ready access to a computer or mains, but if you’re on a longer trip away from civilisation, it would be difficult to recharge.
The unit is clearly aimed at fast-and-light users such as runners and bikers, but it has enough usable power for a night’s walking on the hills.
And it’s priced quite competitively.
The Silva Trail Runner II USB is available now in selected retailers and will be widely on sale in September.
Pros:
Weight
Strong beam
Rechargeable
Cons:
Shorter battery life
Lack of facility to use conventional batteries
Illumination 31/35
Battery performance 23/35
Comfort 8/10
Quality 8/10
Value for money 8/10
Total score: 78/100.
More information is available on the Silva website.
