The Overready/Torchlab BOSS has remained unrivaled in the flashlight world for more than a decade. It is not just a flashlight, but an entire illumination system with new switches, bezels, emitters, and pocket clips. Its performance and UI were state of the art. They are still state of the art, more than a decade since its release.

Well, to quote my favorite video game ever: Here Comes A New Challenger!!!

The Exceed Design Rampant is, like the BOSS, a turnkey lighting system. If offers a ton of different customization with tons of emitter options, materials, and finishes. And like the BOSS (but in a completely different way) it has a unique and truly great UI. Is the Rampant as good as the BOSS? Let’s take a look.

Here is the product page. Here is a video review. Here is the review sample (purchased with my own money):

Quick Review Summary: S tier UI on an A Tier torch.

Design: 2

Remember the old adage “There are no solutions, only tradeoffs?” Well that could not be more true than here with the Rampant. Do you want a premiere flashlight with a new and incredibly good UI at the cost of the light being an inch longer than other enthusiast grade lights with the same battery? I am not normally one to side with simply making something bigger, but here the UI is THAT good (see down below) and, in an interesting twist, it puts the rocker switch right under your thumb if you have medium sized hands. Its size here is actually not that bad. Obviously, I’d prefer a smaller light with all the same features, but with the extra length putting you in real control, turning a negative into positive. The length will have a clear impact on another aspect of this light below.

Fit and Finish: 2

Enthusiast grade lights tend to be pretty pricey, but the aluminum version of the Rampant came in, fully decked out to my preference (but without the carry case), at around $130. That is not bad and significantly cheaper than other lights with equal complexity and performance. The fit and finish is really quite good. The threads are smooth (ah…aluminum, the material God intended flashlights to be made from), the stonewash is excellent, the optic is perfectly centered, and the clip is well made with no crisp edges. The clip and the rocker switch even line up, which must be a real chore for a machinist (note: they appear misaligned just slightly in these pics, but that appears to be a camera trick).

Grip: 2

As mentioned about, this light is longer than something like a 14500 Zebralight, but that length is not put to waste. As mentioned above, the rocker switch lines up precisely with my medium sized hands. There is also a very gentle hourglass shape to the light’s body making the Rampant a genuinely grippy light that’s pleasing to hold and use.

Carry: 1

We can work around the length in terms of design and it actually makes the grip great, but in terms of being in your pocket there are few ways to hide the fact that the light is just longer than it needs to be. At this point, battery format doesn’t really matter, as you can get 600 lumens from a 1xAAA format light, so why not skip the 1xAA format and go with something like an 18350 or a 16340. In the end, its not that big a deal, but smaller gear with equal performance is always better. As a side note—the sculpted clip is great.

Output: 2

With a 1300 lumen high and a single digit low, the Rampant’s brightness is great. You can choose both the color temperature and the emitter type giving you the tint you want. This is one place, like with a lot of the flashlight review format, that is becoming obsolete as lights get better and more customizable. Imagine that—the product is so much more advanced that the review format isn’t really working as well as it used to. If this were Motor Trend, I’d be talking about flying cars. BTW, where the hell are the flying cars? The Jetsons are that far off, like 40 years, and we don’t have anything like a flying cars. If you haven’t seen it, the Jetson 1 is pretty close, but they need to be way cheaper.

Runtime: 2

The specs here are fine, above par, etcetera, but there is something else I noticed, something that has come up with only one other flashlight (that being the HDS Rotary). When a light has such a precise and easy to use UI, you typically get better runtimes. Here is an example. Every night (and I am mean every night—last night it was about -5 degrees and the roads were a sheet of ice), my wife and I go for a walk. It takes about an hour. Normally I have a flashlight that I EDC’d that day and another one in my coat pocket as back up (our walk was shortened up due to a bear sighting…). Due to the extreme temperature last night I wore a different jacket and forgot my back up light. I had been using and carrying the Rampant for a few days on multiple walks so I was worried about killing the battery. With a light that has only a few output modes, I usually have to drop down to moonlight to keep the light running, but its often not enough. But with the Rampant (like the Rotary before it), I can easily dial in the output to just bright enough to see while still preserving the batteries. This is one of the benefits of a UI that I did not think about before—the more precise and easier it is to use, the more you can squeeze out of your batteries. There are very few lights with this combination of precision and ease of use and it is a real upgrade worth paying for over standard lights.

Beam Type: 1

You can choose your optic here, so I went with a TIR to give me a guaranteed clean output. The result is a very squashy throw, something that is a bit harder to tolerate in a light this long. Its not much shorter than the Surefire EDC1-DFT. Its basically an oLight Baton kind of throw which, when outdoors, really impacts the perceived brightness of the light. Even when the 1300 lumens, it seems like it is not much brighter than a 600 lumens light. They do offer to models with true reflectors, but I was concerned because the head is quite narrow and reflectors tend to be more hit and miss than TIRs. If they offer the optics separately I will definitely grab a reflector in the future and report back. Given the size of the head I can’t imagine the reflector, even if I knew it was good being all that much better.

Beam Quality: 2

I chose a neutral tinted dedomed 519a emitter and it delivers exactly what you’d expect—clean, bright light with good but not great color rendering. Realize, however, that we are going through something of a tint Golden Age. Malkoff’s new light, which is also in for review, yields vivid reds and lush verdant greens. The Rampant is a little cooler (as configured, you can get a rosier tint as well), but that was my choice. One thing that is really funny is just how good tint in lights has gotten. Five years ago this would be the king of the mountain. But flashlights are better now than ever before and very good isn’t the bleeding edge anymore.

UI: 2

Of the UIs out there three stand out as really, really great:

The HDS Rotary’s button/rotary combo
The Frelux Synergy 3 LT
This one

When you name the light after the UI, it better be good and here, it is. With a small metal switch like the rocker switch on a light plate, the Rampant gives you tons of control at your fingertips. The tail switch activates the light and the rocker switch near the head of the light controls its output. Double press down will give you the moonlight low and a double press up will give you max. You can use a single press to lower or brighten the light. When this is combined with mode memory, you can get any output you want with this light with a single click of the tail cap. Its brilliant, easy to use, and easy to explain—the ideal flashlight UI.

Hands Free: 2

The light can tailstand because all good EDC lights should be able to tailstand. It is also slim enough to be held between the teeth in a pinch (like when you check to see if the floo is open on your wood stove with a fire poker in one hand the door being held open with the other…yes, this review was written in the dead of a New England winter or as flashlight fans call it—Prime Time).

Other Considerations

Fidget Friendly: High

The smooth, hourglass shape and the super convenient switch are just great in hand.

Fett Effect: High

I have long preferred aluminum to titanium and this light shows why—the cool patina seen in the pictures above will only get better over time.

Value: High

For all of the amazing tech that went into this light and all the custom options you can pick it is super competitive on the price front.

Overall Score: 18 out of 20

The Rampant is a great flashlight system. I hope that Exceed uses it as a platform and releases some accessories, like a 18350 body tube and a wand attachment. I would also like to see reflectors and other parts offered as user swappable pieces so you can lego together the light you need for a given task. All of that flexibility and upgradability will go a long way in making the Rampant a mainstay of the EDC world. As shipped to me, I am a little disappointed by the the squashy beam and the length of the light, but it is still quite capable. The namesake feature of the light is truly special and given the comparatively low price, I think the Rampant is an excellent EDC option in 2025. The build quality is quite high and this all makes me want to by the Avair, Exceed’s folder. This is a great time to like flashlights.

Competition

Think of this light in three ways—comps based on size, comps based on battery format, and comps based on price. In each one of these, there is some interesting gives and takes.

First, in comps based on size the aforementioned EDC1-DFT really is hard to avoid. That is a premiere outdoors light and one of my wife’s favorite night walk companions. It seems vastly brighter than the Rampant largely because of the throw. 1300 lumens that goes out 30 feet doesn’t seem as bright as a light that illuminates stuff a mile away. But the Rampant is a better EDC light than the Surefire and so this comp seems like a bit of a draw. I’d rather carry and use the Rampant, but its noticeably less useful in the dark outdoors.

Second, in comps based on battery format, the Zebralight 1xAA makes for a very good challenger. It is one of the best lights of all time and rides nicely in a jeans coin pocket. For a 1xAA that is impressive. The Rampant is almost twice the size of the SC5 I have. Furthermore, thanks a really solid reflector, the SC5 seems as bright (or more correctly stated, as useful) as the Exceed Rampant. But the SC5’s downfall is the UI. Its definitely better than I original gave it credit. Yes, Scurvy was right again. But compared to the silky ease of the Rampant, its a horse of a different color.

Then there is the closest comp in my mind—the Focus Works F2. They look almost identical. The F2 is a smidge shorter, a tad wider, and almost the exact same cost. The F2 has better throw, equal fit and finish, and a dead simple UI. But it is not as simple as the Rampant’s.

In the end, the Rampant has a set of features and a price that make it competitive with some of the coolest 1x cell lights on the market. That is a very good sign. This is a good torch for a lot of people and a truly brilliant UI.

Amazon Links

oLight Baton 3

Surefire EDC1-DFT