Gear Review: Coleman’s Micro-Quad LED Lantern–Bright, Portable, And So Cute

By Steve Casimiro, editor of Adventure Journal

It’s so cute!

A year or so ago, Coleman brought out the very clever Quad Lantern, a beefy car-camping light that featured four snap-off panels so you could break it into more portable, usable illumination. Now comes the Micro-Quad ($34.99), which repackages the same innovation in a Lilliputian size. It’s smaller, far less weighty, and easier to pack, without yielding much useful light.

At 77 lumens, the Micro’s four LED pump out enough brightness for making dinner, lighting up a family-size tent, or reorganizing the back of your rig while you search for the toothpaste. Usable light is 19 feet, after which the shadows deepen and spookiness reclaims its territory.

As with the big daddy, the light panels pop off (they’re held on by magnets) for convenience. Not surprisingly, they cast a much smaller glow, useful for smaller tasks but not, say, major navigation. The coolest thing about these micro-micro lights is the rubber strap that encircles each of them — unhook it from its groove and you can use it to hang the light or, most usefully, grip it in your teeth. The only improvement could be to flatten their bases so they could stand up on their own.