HOKOLITE LEXALL H8: 500 Lumens, and You Get Two
A keychain light that lit a whole backyard from a standing start, and shipped with a second one in the box. Here is what the 500 lumens actually buys you, and the two things it doesn't do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nZv0TpeC1Q
THE VERDICT
The easiest keychain light to recommend right now, largely because of what's in the box. The 500 lumens is real and it floods rather than spotlights, the body is thin enough that it disappears in a pocket, and it ships as a 2-pack. Two honest catches: there is no long throw, so it lights what's near you rather than reaching down a trail, and there is no SOS or strobe mode. Neither one stops it being the light that's actually on my keys.
This HOKOLITE LEXALL H8 review starts where every small-flashlight review should: with suspicion. 500 lumens out of something the size of a car key fob is the kind of number that usually falls apart the moment you take it outside.
So it went into a backyard at night with every light in the house off. No porch light, no phone screen, nothing.
It lit the whole yard.
Is 500 lumens on a keychain a real number?
Yes, and not marginally. On high, the fence line and the far corner came up along with the grass in front of me. This is a flood rather than a spotlight, which is the more useful shape for a light you carry — it fills the space you're standing in instead of putting a bright circle twenty feet away.
It's almost like it's daytime back here.
One caveat that applies to every night-test video on the internet, this one included: phone and mirrorless cameras aggressively brighten a dark scene, which flattens exactly the difference you are trying to see. Judge a beam by what it does to a real space, not by what it looks like through a sensor fighting to expose it.
Where 500 lumens actually earns its place is unglamorous. Taking the trash out. Walking the dog when the street light on your block is out. Finding what you dropped between the car seat and the console. Loading the car at 5am without waking the house. A keychain light doesn't need to win a distance contest — it needs to be on you, and bright enough that those stop being annoying.
How long it actually runs
Three modes, and the runtime moves the way you'd expect it to.
High (500 lm) about 1 hour 10 minutes
Medium (300 lm) about 1 hour 40 minutes
Low (150 lm) up to 2 hours
Charge time about 45 minutes via USB-C
Call it up to two hours of usable light depending on how hard you lean on it. This is not the light you take on a four-hour night hike as your only source — nothing this size is. It is the light that handles the ten minutes you actually need light, over and over, for weeks between charges.
Charging is USB-C and quick, and there's an indicator behind the port cover so you're not guessing: red while it charges, green when it's full, and a flashing red when the battery is getting low.
The three-second press is a feature, not a fault
Hold the button and roughly three seconds pass before anything happens. The first time, it feels broken.
It's a pocket lock. Something riding next to a set of keys is going to get pressed constantly, and a 500-lumen emitter switching itself on against your leg is unpleasant and quietly eats the battery you were saving. Three seconds of deliberate pressure is longer than anything accidental manages.
After that the controls are refreshingly plain: hold for high, click down through medium and low, click again for off. No mode memory to fight and no hidden double-click functions to remember at five in the morning.
The clip is the reason it stays on you
Whether a light like this lives on you or in a drawer comes down to the clip, and this one is sturdy and detachable. That opens up more places than expected:
✦ On a hat brim. It clips to the front of a baseball cap and becomes a hands-free light. This turned out to be the way it got used most.
✦ On your keys. The included carabiner D-ring means it organises a keyring rather than adding one more thing rattling around on it.
✦ In a pocket. Thin enough that you forget it's there, which is the entire argument for carrying one.
✦ On a bag or belt loop. Clips to a backpack strap or a belt loop and stays put.
The power button also glows in the dark. That reads like a throwaway line on a spec sheet and it isn't: in a power cut, the light you need is the light you can find, and a faintly glowing dot on a dark shelf is how you find it. Same logic if you drop it on a trail — a glowing button in the grass beats hunting for a matte black rectangle.
HOKOLITE LEXALL H8 specs
Max output 500 lumens
Modes High 500 / Medium 300 / Low 150
Charging USB-C, about 45 minutes to full
Charge indicator red charging, green full, flashing red on low
Activation approx. 3-second press and hold
Carry detachable cap clip, carabiner D-ring, pocket clip
Power button glow in the dark
In the box 2 flashlights, 2 USB-C cables, quick-start manual
That last row is the one worth pausing on. You buy one flashlight and two come out of the box, along with two charging cables. One for your keys and one for the glovebox — or one for you and one for whoever keeps borrowing yours.
What I liked
✦ The 500 lumens is real, and it floods. In a pitch-black yard it lit the whole space rather than a narrow cone.
✦ No bulk. A very thin profile that genuinely disappears in a pocket.
✦ The clip goes everywhere. Hat brim, keys, bag, belt loop. The cap-light use was the unexpected one.
✦ USB-C, and quick. About 45 minutes to full, on the same cable as everything else you own.
✦ The glow-in-the-dark power button. A small thing that is exactly right the one time you need it.
✦ The three-second press. It won't fire up in your pocket, and it won't drain itself doing so.
✦ Two in the box. Not a spec, but it changes the decision.
What I didn't
✦ No long throw. This lights what is around you and does not reach far down a field or a trail. That is beam geometry, and no amount of lumens fixes it.
✦ No SOS or strobe. Some people want a signalling mode in the light that is always on them. This doesn't have one.
Should you buy the HOKOLITE LEXALL H8?
Buy it if you want a bright light you'll actually have on you
This is not a tactical light and it doesn't pretend to be. It's for small, constant problems — the dark driveway, the dropped key, the trash run, the early start — and it's bright enough that those stop being a nuisance and small enough that it's on your keys when they happen. With two in the box, it's an easy recommendation.
Skip it if you need reach, or a signalling mode
If you want a beam that throws a long way down a trail, this is the wrong shape of light and you should be looking at something with a deeper reflector. And if a strobe or SOS mode is non-negotiable for the light you carry, this one will leave you wanting.