Unparalleled Brightness for the Price (With a Catch): COAST XP40R Flashlight Review

I pushed the button, and my eyes squinted into the suddenly very bright night. Good grief, I thought. This Coast XP40R is one shockingly bright flashlight.

My buddy was unimpressed — that is, until we compared beams. I shut down the XP40R and let him light up a powerful headlamp with around 1,000 lumens. It didn’t hold a candle to the light cannon in my right hand.

In short: The Coast XP40R is one of the brand’s most powerful flashlights, short only of its big brother, the XP80R. While far from the most powerful flashlight on the market, its modest size and reasonable price make it a very compelling choice for those who need major lumens with a mid-length throw. But it has several shortcomings, including a couple that may be deal-breakers for those who need genuinely long-throw lights and durability. Check the price at COAST.

COAST XP40R Review

Right to the point, the XP40R is a rather niche flashlight. It is large, weighing over 2 pounds and measuring more than 12 inches long.

It’s super bright with a turbo mode capable of blasting 8,000 lumens — for about 45 seconds. But it doesn’t have a very long throw, especially given its whopping power. In testing, I immediately started to consider how folks would use it and came up with a handful of use cases.

First, it would be excellent at job sites or on security details, where the user needs to light up a large area quickly and briefly. It does this job well, turning night into day in a proximity of about 75 yards.

The other good use would be in blood trailing during hunting. The medium-power 1,100-lumen setting can burn for 7 hours. That’s a great power setting for blood trailing, especially when coupled with the whopping turbo power for brief looks farther ahead.

But I’m getting ahead of myself a little.

The COAST XP40R is a $90 light. Nothing else comes close to this brightness for the price. So, if you just need a light cannon capable of lots of power for a short amount of time, this one will do it for much less than other models. But it comes with quite a few caveats.

COAST XP40R: A Bright Light, Limited Throw

This is my biggest gripe with the XP40R: At 8,000 lumens, it only has a range of 754 feet (230 m). That is a shockingly short throw for so much power. For context, my current favorite flashlight, the Fenix PD36R Pro, manages a beam distance of 1,247 feet (380 m) with just 2,800 lumens. And it’s small and is still very useful at close range.

The XP40R has a zooming function, which is cool (although some might argue unnecessary). But it simply does not zoom enough. Even at full zoom, the beam is about 20 feet wide at 20 yards. Given the sheer power of this light, it really needs a better throw and range well beyond 400 m.

But boy, the light is bright. At close range, and especially with the light zoomed wide open, it lights up a huge area. It provides excellent area lighting. I just wish it could reach out farther.

Button, Readout, and Charging

The user interface of the XP80R is simple and easy to use. One button turns it on and adjusts the power. Push to turn on, and it lights up at medium power. Press again to high, press again to low, and then one more time for moon (lowest) power. Press one more time for off, or press and hold for turbo mode.

In each mode, it will read out the power mode and time remaining on a screen. It’s intuitive and easy to understand.

To zoom the head, first make sure it’s unlocked. That requires a twist. Then, push it forward for a narrow beam and pull back for a wide beam.

Drawbacks

But herein lies a significant design flaw. When you pull the light head back to engage the wide beam, it compresses air into the body of the light. That air needs to go somewhere, so it pops the rubber cover off the charging port to allow the air to escape.

I suspect this could allow air and dust to get into the internal workings of the light. It’s easy enough to push the rubber cover back on, but this is just one of those weird design oversights that should be fixed in the next iteration.

Speaking of charging ports, the rubber cover encloses two USB-C ports, one marked “in” and the other “out.” That’s because the light can double as a battery charger. Cool, I guess. To me, this is one complication that doesn’t really need to be there. It might come in handy during an emergency — if you happen to have a phone cord.

But realistically, just plan for phone charging. I don’t want to drain my flashlight to charge my phone.

So I’m neutral on that functionality. It doesn’t hurt the light, but I personally would just plan to plug into my truck or a battery pack, and keep my light charged and ready for action.

Conclusion: Who Should Buy?

So, should you buy the XP40R (or the big brother, 15,000-lumen XP80R for $130)? If you want a super-bright proximity light, it’s a great deal. It has a few flaws but will definitely give you a good, bright, workable light for close range.

If, on the other hand, you want more range (and less room for malfunctions), I’d look elsewhere. My suspicion and hope is that COAST will address the problems in this model — particularly the compressed air-rubber cap explosion — with a second version soon.