If you have ever played fantasy sports you can relate to the thrill of finally getting all the pieces in place for your team before crushing your opponents. I haven’t played in a long time, but when I did, I took it pretty seriously. We used an auto drafter, so you would submit a list of draft preferences, the machine would pick an order and then draft accordingly. Once your list of folks ran out, the machine would default to the site’s internal rankings of guys. I noticed that the site really did not value positional flexibility. I also noticed that the site really like RBI totals from the year before, but did not take into account the team the player was on now. There are a host of little things that the site missed that I realized had some predictive value. This was the era of Dan Uggla being a top 20 pick because he mashed at second. But the site also didn’t seem to get that he wasn’t consistently good. So one year I created a formula in a spreadsheet that counted all sorts of factors the site didn’t. I spent a few weekends (this is all pre-kids, of course) tweaking the formula, and then the Sunday before the auto draft, I submitted my “perfect” list. The next morning, I woke up pretty early to see how I did. My roster looked crazy because I valued positional flexibility so highly. I didn’t draft a true short stop or second baseman, but I had an absolutely stacked team because I took people that most folks forgot were eligible at those positions. My dream team had all these features that I knew I wanted and that year I dominated. The guy that picked Uggla 8th was sad as he had a down year (that actually ended up being his last even semi-good year). It looked quirky, but my team was amazing.

For years, I have been waiting for a light that hit every single one of my requirements. It took years and years of waiting, but now there is a light that literally checks every one of my preferred features. That light is the Lau Lima Hoku Clicky. If I had created a “draft” of perfect features to include in a light, it would look like the Hoku Clicky. Here is the TLDR version of this review: go wait in line for this light to be released again, its the best torch you can find for EDC. Its amazing. The rest of this review will be an explanation as to why, more than a critical evaluation. Why? There isn’t much to criticize. It does everything right.

Here is the product page. The Lau Lima Hoku Clicky starts at $295 and goes up depending on materials. There are different metals, different machining patterns on the body tube, and at least two different sized clips. Here is a written review.

Finally, here is my review sample (purchased with my own money):

Design: 2

Slim, with an hourglass figure and three different output modes, plus the ability to tailstand. That doesn’t seem like a hard list of criteria to meet, but it is. No other light is as small, as simple and as useful as the Hoku Clicky is, which is why I like it so much. This light just balances everything so well—size, build quality, output, UI. Every design choice is thoughtfully made and every choice is mindful of the implications it carries with it. Very few pieces of gear hold all of those design decisions in equipoise with each other as well as the Hoku Clicky.

Fit and Finish: 2

Lau Lima has dialed in their machining and over the years their stuff has gone from nicely made and bulky to nicely made and svelte. I like the latter considerably more, but they never made bad stuff. Smooth threads, seamless connections between body parts, and a whole host of fine touches makes this light quite nice. At this point perfect machining is just par, but Lau Lima meets that standard with ease.

Grip: 2

There is, of course, a magic ratio between the diameter of the body tube and length and the Hoku Clicky has that magic ratio. When you add to the hourglass shape, the Hoku Clicky is one of the best lights in the hand you will find. Thanks to the dead simple clicky UI, you have superior control over the light in every way.

Carry: 2

The joy of a 1xAAA format light is that it is super easy to carry. The Hoku Clicky is no different. It is not as small as the twisty model, but its still quite small. Here it is compared to the very compact BOSS35:

With a small, sturdy clip, the Hoku Clicky rides as well as you will find in the flashlight world. If you like the 1xAAA format, this is why.

Output: 2

650 lumens on high and a moonlight low have both your bases covered. The medium is also pretty useful, giving you enough light to function in the dark reasonably well, but not so bright as to scorch your hand if left on and unattended. There are, of course, lights that are much brighter, but to get this slender form factor, you have to accept a lesser lumens. In the end, it is a trade off I am more than willing to make, but know that it is a trade off.

Runtime: 2

There are no public runtime charts, but thanks to my Gear Gremlin, I am confident the Hoku Clicky will run for a long time. He will randomly play with stuff and usually that means he leaves lights on. The Hoku was left on low for a day multiple times and it was fine, didn’t even need a recharge. I wish there were runtime charts to put numbers to these anecdotal experiences, but I am pretty sure this light will run for as long as you reasonably need it to.

Beam Type: 2

Only a handful of lights that carry this well use reflectors. Most production lights opt, like the Olight Baton series, instead, for TIR optics. I like TIR optics, but when they are chosen as a way of reducing the size of a flashlight, they usually result in some very, very squashy beam patterns. Here, thanks to a true reflector, the Hoku has a nice balance between throw and spill. On our nightly walks it does a good job of showing us what is up ahead, while still showing us what is around us. That is important when, as we learned a few nights ago, there are bears in the neighborhood.

Beam Quality: 2

This is pretty much a given for a small batch light, but the beam pattern here is flawless, without artifacts or holes, without weird shapes or splotches.

UI: 2

Three speeds, one clicky, and mode memory—there you go, the perfect UI. There are no secret modes, no Morse code, no oops I fell into lightning storm mode, just light in three outputs always easily accessible. Why people fuss with more is beyond me.

Hands Free: 2

Its funny to me that something that is super basic and simple to implement has evaded the makers of lights in this class for years. Making a design that tailstands isn’t hard. The electrical engineering to make a light work and the complexity of reflector design, those seem hard. Making a light with a flat base seems like a no-brainer. Yet, light after light after light in the 1xAAA clicky space failed do what the Hoku Clicky does incredibly well.

After a few different extended power outages I am convinced that every light should tailstand. It provides such a boost in utility. Yet, here we are years into a thriving market for custom flashlights and no one has done this. It so simple and yet, never done well. But the Hoku Clicky crushes it. It not only tailstands, it does so like statute. There is also no problem accessing the clicky itself. It can be done and lights that don’t do it are just worse because of it.

Other Considerations

Fidget Factor: Very High

With a slender body and a nice finish, the Hoku is like catnip for your fingers. The clicky also helps with the fidget factor.

Fett Effect: Very High

I want gear that looks like my gear, stuff that shows the signs of use and, hopefully, adventure. The aluminum body without anodizing, does just that.

Value: High

It is very hard to call a light this expensive a good value, but compared to other small batch lights, that is exactly what it is.

Overall Score: 20 of 20; PERFECT

As we enter the fall, I start thinking about my gear of the year candidates and the Hoku is really up there. There hasn’t been a lot of great stuff released this year, but the stuff that has been good has been VERY good. It will be fun and exciting to write that article. The Hoku is just amazing. It is a perfect light that works incredibly well. It does literally everything I want in a torch. For me, this is as good as it gets in the flashlight world. There are a few other lights that rank up there—my updated Haiku, the BOSS 35, and the Mushoundt Aeon Mk. 3, but that is some rarified air. The Hoku Clicky sits there with ease. Its that good.

Competition

The light that rivals this one most closely is, of course, the CWF Micro Arcadian. Having owned both, I can tell you that it is a no-brainer—the Hoku is just better. It is a simpler light to use, it has a better reflector, and it feels better in the hand. It is also significantly cheaper than the Micro Arcadian. Of course, another similar light is the original Hoku, which I like a lot, but I still prefer the one-handed operation of a clicky over a twisty. Other than that, they are exactly the same. If you like twisties or don’t care, opt for the original Hoku. One rival is the Muyshondt Aeon Mk 3. This light is smaller, no where near as bright, but gives you insane battery life and has the same simple clicky interface. Its a close call here, but I like the Hoku’s ability to punch out the lumens, quite a bit. If you can carry a significantly larger light the Focusworks F2 has a similar form factor with the same lumens and a very simple UI, all for about half the price of the Hoku. Its drawback is that it runs on a 1xAA.

There are some production lights that are pretty good and sit in the same market space as the Hoku. The Reylight Mini Pineapple is a small 1xAAA clicky that now outputs 500 lumens. But that light doesn’t tailstand anywhere near as nicely. Its clicky feels cheap and the reflector is not as nice. For the money, its definitely the wiser purchase, but if we are talking best light ever, price no object, the Hoku wins hands down. Another 1xAAA that is nicer than people think is the FourSevens Preon Mk. 3. But that light can’t tailstand at all and is 1/6th as bright. It too is much, much cheaper than the Hoku, but it is really a different class of product. I also like the Peak Eiger with the QTC button. Its not a true clicky, but it can get bright and does a lot of things well.

There is one other light, if we are going to include even hard to find stuff, that is worth mentioning—the Surefire Titan T1A. While it outputs only 90 lumens, its unique UI and very compact size makes it something worth considering if you are going the “price no object route.” Just be forewarned: they are both expensive and very hard to modify.

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