Streamlight Siege Lantern: Definitive Review (2024)
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This is the Ultimate TopNotch Review of the Streamlight Siege Lantern 2024…
Electric lanterns are essential camping equipment.
No ifs.
No buts.
They’re essential at home too – don’t forget your long power outages.
Compared to a more traditional variety, these lanterns are light, compact, easy to carry.
But, there are big differences between the top lanterns on the market.
The 44931 Siege Lantern by Streamlight comes with tall claims.
At TopNotchwe put it through our rigorous tests to find out if the lantern is worth the hype.
In this comprehensive review we’ll cover:
- Is this the best lantern for your backcountry camping trips?
- Is the red mode really effective or just a marketing gimmick?
- Durability, features, weight, and
- Lots more…
Want to find out if this is the lantern you need for your camping and at-home lighting needs?
Get ready!
You’ll love this guide.
Let’s get started.
- Power type: C4 Power LEDs
- Weight: 15 Ounces
- Lumens: 200 Lumens
- Run Time: 30 Hours
- Manufacturer:Streamlight Limited
Bottom Line :A waterproof survival lantern with long light-life, durability and some great features.
Pros
- Durable thermoplastic construction
- 360-degrees lighting area
- Multiple light modes
Cons
- Not the lightest
- Uses D-cell batteries
Our Verdict: Streamlight Siege Lantern
At TopNotchwe test outdoor products under practical and rigorous conditions to find out how they actually perform during normal use.
We picked a range of the best electric lanterns on the market and tested them out.
We came up with a comprehensive list of the Top 10 Best Camping Lanterns: Definitive Buyers Guide 2024
What does this mean for you?
It means, if you’re planning to buy an electric lantern, you don’t have to depend on guesswork or luck.
We’ve done the hard work and all the details you need to know are right here.
Turns out, Streamlight Siege Lantern is a powerful contender. It bagged a place in our list of Top 10 lanterns on the market.
But, in more than one metric the performance was not exactly TopNotch.
It’s true – the lantern is durable, waterproof, and feature rich.
But, in important metrics like brightness and ease of use, we have to be honest – it’s simply not the best.
Overall, Streamlight Siege is a durable lantern with decent light-life and it comes at a reasonable price.
Let’s check out the detailed metric-wise review to know more about how this lantern performed in our tests compared to the other lanterns in TopNotchTop 10 list.
Related: 10 Best Camping Lanterns
Brightness
For camping lanterns, brightness is a key factor.
If a lantern isn’t bright enough, we simply won’t recommend it for camping.
The maximum brightness capacity of this lantern stands at 340 lumens.
Brightness Rating
It’s not really bright enough to light up your campsite at night.
But, for in-tent use, it worked fine.
In high mode, the light gave us around 30 hours … Not bad at all!
The 175 lumens medium mode and the 33 lumens low mode have longer running time.
But, these modes weren’t super effective.
In fact, even on high mode, the shine-radius wasn’t as good as other lanterns like our TopNotchEditor’s Choice AGPTEK Solar lantern or even our Top Pick Goal Zero Crush Light.
The light is a normal white LED. It doesn’t blind your eyes unless you look straight at it.
The frosted globe dome diffuses the bright light uniformly.
On the medium mode setting, the lantern will light things up for over 70 hours.
We kept it on for 12 days in a row on the low mode to test the 295 hours continuous-light claim.
To our surprise, it was giving light even at the end of day 12.
However, after day 5 the light had dimmed and it wasn’t practically useful after day 7.
But here’s the kicker:
We didn’t really expect to get a red LED mode, with two different settings to boot, from a budget lantern.
In the high red LED mode the Siege gives 10 lumens of steady, uniform light for 235 hours.
The flash SOS mode of 10 lumens runs for 430 hours straight.
So, for an emergency, this lantern is a good choice. It’ll work great as a beacon.
However, in normal use, the red mode might not be very useful because of the low light output.
Durability
The lanternscores better in this metric compared to the others… thanks to the polymer plastic made body and the rubberized shell.
It comes a close second on our scoreboard in this metric.
To test the impact-resistant claim, we dropped it from a height of 6 ft.
Durability Rating
It was unscathed.
Best of all…
…it comes with an IPX7 rating.
Which means it can resist water splashes from all directions, it’s also waterproof to 1 meter submersion.
Yes, we tested it by dipping it in a stream and the outcome was TopNotch.
It floats in the water. That’s really cool!
So, be it heavy rain or a dunk in the ditch – as far as waterproofing is concerned, this one is a good buy.
But wait,
The lantern still didn’t make it to the top in our durability scoreboard.
Want to know where it lagged?
The plastic casing on the light isn’t hard enough.
It was damaged a little in my backpack.
Features
This is the strongest suit of this Streamlight lantern.
It shares the top place with our Best Value Choice Black Diamond Apollo in this metric.
Let’s start with the lighting settings.
It has two basic light modes – the white LED and the red LED.
Features Rating
There were four C4 LEDs in the bright light. There was only one red LED placed at the center.
We had high, medium and low settings in the white light.
In the red, we have 235 hours high and 430 hours flash SOS modes.
But that’s not all.
The single power button on the front works as an excellent indicator.
It changes color from green, to yellow, to red to a flashing red as the battery goes down.
This is one of my favourite features.
Not knowing how much juice is left in your light, can be a real problem on trips.
It also remembers your last light setting and gets back on the same mode.
With our Siege lantern we had three separate hang points.
Apart from the foldable rubber handle it also has two D rings, one on top and one on the bottom.
We used the D rings to hang the light from a rope in both the positions – inverted and upright.
The outer dome comes off easily, making the light brighter by a few notches.
It came in useful in high mode. And also when we used the lantern on the 395 hours low setting.
Hold on..there’s more.
We found the recessed power button pretty effective to prevent us accidentally turning it on.
The keyed battery door is useful if you need to change the batteries – even in the dark.
The Siege makes for a good choice on fishing or boating trips… thanks to the waterproof design and high buoyancy.
No wonder, it shares the top place for features along with our Best Value Choice.
Ease of Use
Using this lantern is really simple.
There’s only one power button to control all the light modes and settings. Subsequent presses take it from one mode to another.
The foldable handle makes it easy to carry.
Ease of Use Rating
Hang it straight or upside down with or without the outer dome.
The rubberized casing makes it slip-proof for handling.
I found it easy to place on any surface thanks to the molded rubber base.
But that’s just one side of the story…
Using the same button repeatedly to reach the SOS strobe mode can be delaying and confusing during emergency situations of course.
For a lantern that’s marketed on emergency preparedness, a bit more thought on the design front would have been helpful.
The other downside…
You need three “D” cell alkaline batteries to run it.
There are no other charging options.
So, you always have to pack in fresh batteries.
The AGPTEK Solar Lantern is a much better choice in this metric. It’s easy to use, and has five different charging options including solar batteries and hand cranking.
So, even if you miss the batteries, you won’t run out of juice.
Our Top Pick Goal Zero Crush Light or Best Value Choice Black Diamond Apollo are both better performers compared to the Siege in this metric.
Weight
At 7.25-Inch height the design is compact.
But, not collapsible.
You can carry it in your hand or in your car easily.
I carried it in my cargo trouser pocket… thanks to the 3.80 inch base diameter.
Weight Rating
But, it’s certainly not the smallest on our list of the Top 10 Camping Lanterns.
Our Top Pick Goal Zero Crush Light is the champion in this segment.
It packs down to just 4.95 x 4.95 x 0.6 inches when folded – a super space saver.
The Siege weighs 1 pound 15 ounces with the batteries.
So, you see, it’s not lightweight.
For backpackers – weight is crucial.
And, this lantern isn’t the best to keep your luggage weight low.
Also, the packability isn’t great.
However, it’s good for home use during emergencies or for use in your car.
For camping or hiking, TopNotch Top Pick Goal Zero Crush Light is the best if you’re looking for a lightweight lantern.
Final Verdict: Streamlight Siege Lantern
Our Final Verdict Rating
Conclusion: Streamlight Siege Lantern
We’ve arrived at the end of our Streamlight Siege Lantern Review,
It’s time to sum things up.
The Streamlight Siege Lantern with its 30 hours high mode, 70 hours medium mode and 295 hours low mode is a powerful electric lantern.
The 10 lumens on red LED mode and one red SOS mode with 430 hours run time make it super useful in emergency situations.
It’s waterproof and has some useful features.
But, in brightness, ease of use and weight metrics the lantern isn’t quite on par with the other contenders on our list.
Overall, it’s a good product to fulfil your at home lighting needs.
However, it’s still a rank holder in our Top 10 don’t forget.
So, it’s one of the best choices available on the market…
Just not the best pick for camping.
Now you know all that we know about this lantern.
Time to make your own decision – which will you choose?
Over to you!
Other Versions: Streamlight Siege Lantern
Streamlight 44941 Siege 200 LumenUltra-Compact Work Lantern is a smaller variant of Siege 44931.
