New from Olight: PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie

Introduction

For years, Streamlight and SureFire have been the only major manufacturers to build lights for micro-compact pistols. Other options like the Nightstick TCM-365 and TCM-5B offer good performance and build quality, but their lack of popularity means holsters are rare and usually expensive.

At the NRAAM 2024, Olight has unveiled their long-awaited solution for micro-compacts: The Olight PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie, compatible with the P365/P365 X-Macro, Glock 48/43x MOS, Hellcat/Hellcat Pro, and even full-size Glocks and Sig P320s.

How does it stack up against the more established competition?

First Impressions

The Olight PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie is visually similar to the SureFire XSC. Both use a proprietary quick-detach battery which drops out the bottom, and both have press-down switches. The Olight is slightly larger than the SureFire.

Here are some side-by-side comparison shots of the three lights on a CR920, which has the same rail as the Glock 43x MOS:

And here are some showing the difference in width:

The Olight’s battery system seems fairly robust. It uses a large switch to lock the battery in place, and once installed, the battery has no play or visible gaps.

The Olight’s switches are okay: on-par with the SureFire XSC, but nowhere near as ergonomic as the Streamlight.

The Olight’s switches.

This light has a strobe function enabled by default, but thankfully it can be disabled. For how to disable strobe and more, check out the full user manual:

https://www.lowlightdefense.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/pl-mini-3-valkyrie-user-manual.pdf

I received my sample of the Olight PL-Mini 3 Valkryrie with four different rail attachments. One for the P365 rail, one for the Glock 43x MOS rail, and two for the standard 1913 (picatinny) rail. One of the picatinny rail mounts has a screw, and one has the classic Olight throw lever. On top of that, there are a few different keys which can be attached to the 1913 rails. One is labeled “HC” (for Hellcat), one is labeled “GL” (for Glock), and one is labeled “1913.” At the time I’m writing this, I’m not sure which rail attachment or rail keys Olight will ship with your light, or if they’ll ship all four.

The four rail options for the PL-Mini 3.

My biggest uncertainty with the Olight is how it will perform under live-fire. Even the first iterations of the TLR-7 Sub had trouble staying attached to the P365.

One benefit of going with the 7-Sub or XSC is that they’ve been on the market for a while and they’re known to be reliable.

Let’s take a look at how this light compares to its competition.

Manufacturer Claims and Specs

Here’s what the manufacturers claim for these lights:

Spec	Olight PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie	Streamlight TLR-7 Sub	SureFire XSC
Lumens	600	500	350
Candela	2,500	5,000	2,000
Runtime	11 Min + 65 Min (~1.25 Hours)	1.5 Hours	30 Minutes
Battery	Olight Proprietary	CR123A	SureFire Proprietary
Battery Capacity	260 mAh	~1500 mAh (depends on battery used)	200 mAh
Waterproofing	IPX6	IPX7	IPX4
Price	$99.99*	~$136.86 (Street price, Amazon)	~$247.99 (Street price, Amazon)

*This is the price I’ve seen on some preliminary listings for the PL-Mini 3. Subject to change.

As I expected, Olight is coming in with an aggressively low price for the PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie, and they will probably have it on sale for even cheaper.

Given its unique battery, I’m impressed to see the Olight has a fairly high waterproofing rating, especially given that the SureFire’s rating is so low.

The Olight looks like it’s going to give its competitors a run for their money.

It’s interesting to see how much capacity is lost when using a proprietary cell like in the XSC or PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie, as compared to the CR123A in the Streamlight. It makes me wonder why this is the direction that the market is heading.

Let’s get some real-world measurements.

Into the Lab: Lumens, Candela, Runtime and CRI

The PL-Mini 3 mounted to a Shadow Systems CR920 and a Sig Sauer P365.

Lumens

Olight claims 600 lumens for the Olight PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie.

Not bad. Let’s get a closer look at those first ten minutes:

I’m surprised the budget-friendly Olight outperforms the XSC, but competition is good for the market, so I’m happy to see it.

At thirty seconds, the Olight produces 584 lumens, which is 97% of its claimed 600.

At thirty seconds, the Streamlight produces 613 lumens, which is 122% of its claimed 500. Funny that the Streamlight claims less than the Olight, but produces more.

At thirty seconds, the SureFire produces 397 lumens, which is 113% of its claimed 350.

As far as lumens, the TLR-7 Sub is king, but the PL-Mini 3 is a close second.

Runtime

Run-time is calculated as the amount of time a light takes to reach 10% of its maximum output between thirty seconds and two minutes. For example, between thirty seconds and two minutes, the Olight’s maximum output is 584 lumens. This means that I record the end of its runtime when it starts producing less than 58.4 lumens.

For the Olight, this comes out to 1:10:45.

For the Streamlight, this comes out to 1:50:49.

For the SureFire, this comes out to 32:28.

The TLR-7 Sub’s runtime dominates the other two lights.

Candela

Olight claims 2,500 candela for the Olight PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie.

	Candela (0s)	Candela (30s)
Olight PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie	2354	2359
Streamlight TLR-7 Sub	3794	3717
SureFire XSC	2280	2304

The Olight produces 2,359 candela, which is 94% of its claim. This is pretty low, but lights of this size often have trouble generating high candela.

The Streamlight only produces 3,717 candela, which is 74% of its claim. It still beats the Olight by a healthy margin.

The SureFire produces 2,304 candela, which is 115% of its claim. The Olight just barely beats out the SureFire in this metric.

Compared to the TLR-7 Sub, the Olight has less candela, but the difference is not significant in person. Neither of these lights are great for blinding targets or projecting light long distances.

The TLR-7 Sub produces the most candela out of the three.

Color Temp, CRI

Olight is one of the few manufacturers that spec their color temps. For the PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie, they claim 6500K CCT and 70 CRI. In general, it’s best to have a lower (<6000K) color temperature and a higher (>80) CRI.

I’ve started measuring this data at two meters from the light, in the center of the hotspot. This consistently produces lower color temp readings than my previous method, but it’s more true to how the light will appear in real-world use.

Spec	Color Temp	CRI
Olight PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie	5866K	69.5
Streamlight TLR-7 Sub	5676K	70.2
SureFire XSC	6670K	71.4

I’m impressed by how low the color temperature is on my sample of this Olight, but maybe I’m just lucky.

Takeaways

So which light is best for you? That depends on what you need.

If I carried a micro-compact, I would opt for the TLR-7 Sub because I don’t mind using non-rechargeable batteries, and I want the most performance possible. Plus, I prefer the switches. If rechargeable batteries are important to you, or if you’re operating on a tight budget, then the price savings of going with the Olight could make sense, especially considering its performance is similar to the TLR-7 Sub during the first ten minutes.

Whichever light you go with, they both seem to be solid options.

Here’s some pros and cons of going with the Olight:

Pro	Con
Rechargeable batteries High lumen output Affordable ($100!) Olight warranty	Less lumen output than TLR-7 Sub Less candela than TLR-7 Sub Lower runtime than TLR-7 Sub Unproven rail clamp design

If you’re looking for holsters for the Olight PL-Mini 3 Valkyrie, make sure to go to my website and use the holster finder. At the time of writing this article, we have holsters for the Glock 48/43x MOS, and the Sig Sauer P365/P365XL, but we have plans to create holsters for use with fullsize Glocks, the P365 X-Macro, and the Hellcat family.

What do you think? Are you planning to purchase one of these lights? Is there another aspect of these lights you’d like to see me test? Let me know in the comments!