PETZL Reactik Headlamp

Product Information

The light is plenty bright for most conditions, especially shorter trail runs, as the lamp has a 2.5 hour burn time at 300 lumens in the out-of-the-box setup. This ranks at the top of the performance spectrum for mid-level Petzl lighting. The indicator light on the side of the headlamp changes color to help give a general idea of how much battery life remains. Green is 66-100%, Yellow is 33-66%, and Red is 0-33%. This helps give you an idea of how much time you have before you need a charge. Additionally, when the light is paired to the app there is a display indicating the exact amount of battery life left. During all of these applications the light performed great. Headlamps should work in a way that allows you to forget you are wearing and using them. This light does just that. I always had the right amount of light for the task I was doing and never worried about battery life. Although it’s been on the market for a bit, we’re finally getting around to reviewing it; we took this on some nighttime trails in preparation for the OSS/CIA all-night 50-miler in June. We’re also testing the NAO+, the more powerful (and high-end) upgrade to the REACTIK+. That review will be out in the coming weeks.

Last thing—in case of an emergency situation, you can program the lamp to strobe a Morse code message in the red light setting. I suggest going with SOS, although BRING PIZZA may be an acceptable runner-up. As I mentioned previously, the headlamp held up well against the winter weather. It was used in cold temperatures as well as sleet, snow, and rain. At no point did any of the weather impact performance. The weather protection is provided through thoughtful design work. The mini-USB port is protected under a rubber gasket and the battery and lights are all sealed. The Reactik Plus is powered by a rechargeable lithium ion battery. The light comes with a USB power cord and can be connected to a computer, solar device, or wall adapter. The first thing you should know about the Petzl REACTIK+ is that it’s part of Petzl’s performance line, a set of headlamps that features REACTIVE LIGHTING technology that automatically adapts light intensity to user needs. These lamps (the REACTIK, REACTIK+, and NAO+), all have a sensor in the front that analyzes ambient light and adjusts brightness on the fly. If you hit your light on an object right in front of you, it dims; throw it further out and it brightens. This obviously conserves precious battery life, the most important of all commodities during a dark night on the trail.For most runs, I employed a variation of the REACTIVE lighting, depending on the trail difficulty, and really thought it transitioned pretty seamlessly. I’m trying out MAF training right now, so I was running relatively slow; I had no issues with the slight delay in the REACTIVE lighting. I tested the Petzl Reactik Plus from November 2016 to February 2017 throughout the White Mountains region of New Hampshire. The temperatures ranged from the mid-50s to -10 degrees Fahrenheit with clear, mist, rain, and snow conditions all experienced. The above summary is based on the out of the box settings that are pre-programmed on the light. Users can adjust the light within these ranges.

The diffuse and spot setting provides a soft light so that you can see around your general area while also providing a spot light to see far in the distance. The spot only setting provides a beam that allows you to see far into the distance but is not the setting for soft light around your general area. The challenge is that there are only two buttons on the lamp but there are eight different lighting selections. When I first started using the light I found that I would forget which button did what and it made it difficult to get to the setting I wanted. However, with practice and use this issue resolved itself and I have no trouble getting to the desired setting. If you’re used to using a constant-beam headlamp, the Reactive technology can take a bit to get used to. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just different.This is a neat feature if you find yourself in trouble, but you would need to have enough battery in your cell phone to sync the phone and the headlamp. I found the different selection options to be a little confusing to work at first but once I figured out the button combinations I was able to cycle through the modes to find the desired option.