Your cellphone’s flashlight may be convenient, but it isn’t as powerful or versatile as an actual flashlight. If you want bright light that’s always close at hand like your phone, you need a keychain flashlight.
Most people think of keychain flashlights as novelty items, but they’ve really come a long way. They’re small, cheap, durable, convenient, and some keychain flashlights can put out around 400 lumens of light. For the sake of comparison, the LED on your smartphone puts out 50 lumens or less of light in a much less convenient form factor.
RELATED: The Best Penlights for Pocket-Friendly Illumination
But there are a lot of keychain flashlights on the market, and they come in all shapes and sizes. That being said, not all keychain flashlights make the grade. They may be too bulky for your pocket, or too weak for your late night dog walks. That’s why we’ve taken the time to find the best keychain flashlights on the market, for everybody’s needs.
Keychain flashlights can get get pretty bright, but if you want a light that’s a little stronger (yet still small) you could always buy one of the slender options in our penlight-size flashlight roundup.
Finally, while we’ve focused on picks here that range from super-budget-friendly to very-budget-friendly, we have some premium picks too. We’re big fans of flashlights and if you’re looking for a premium pocket flashlight to add to your keychain, check out this roundup of compact flashlights too.
Meco Keychain Flashlight 10-Pack ($9)
If you’re looking for a cheap, convenient keychain flashlight, then you should check out the 10-pack Meco keychain flashlight. These flashlights are super small, and they put out 45 lumens of light. That means they’re about four times more powerful than your cellphone flashlight. You don’t have to worry about buying batteries for these lights, because they’re built-in.
Since these flashlights are so cheap and so small, you could easily use them for more than just your keychain. You could attach one to your backpack, strap one to a dog leash, or put a couple through your shoelaces.
SdeNow Mini Keychain Flashlight ($16)
Powerful keychain flashlights usually require batteries, and they tend to take up a lot of your keychain’s real estate. But the SdeNow mini keychain flashlight can be recharged by micro-USB, and it isn’t any larger than a car key fob.
