If you rely on your smart phone for a flashlight, you’ve probably gotten caught without it at least once. Drop your phone in the dark? No flashlight to find it (especially when your phone doubles as your flashlight). But now a tiny gizmo called Bullet is billing itself as the world’s smallest LED flashlight. It was designed specifically without any fancy features so that it fits on your keychain or in your pocket without taking up unnecessary space.
Bullet’s origin story is a little farfetched, but Slughaus, the San Francisco company behind the flashlight, explains it on Kickstarter: “It all started when I needed a flashlight one evening after I dropped my phone under my car. I immediately needed a light but did not have one. I thought to myself, ‘It would be great to have a flashlight, but the size of a bullet.’” The company put an LED flashlight in a bullet-inspired casing, hung it from a keychain, and Bullet was born.
Bullet really is tiny, and the powerful LED flashlight is just about the size of a bullet. It measures in at 10.5 millimeters by 30 millimeters (about one inch by half an inch), and weighs only 6 grams. And Bullet definitely mimics some common ammunition designs, from its tapered shape to its Matte Black and Gunmetal color options. The functionality is extremely simple — a quarter turn of the flashlight’s head turns Bullet on, and the same motion in the opposite direction turns it off.
Slughaus claims that the flashlight itself is virtually indestructible, since the LED doesn’t contain any glass or filament parts. Slughaus says their LED can last a lifetime, which makes Bullet a good choice for outdoorsmen or survivalist experts. The aerograde anodized aluminum body also helps. Bullet is powered by LR41 Button Cell batteries to produce 15 lumens of light from the tiny LED at its tip.
Another aspect of Bullet’s inspiration came from the “everyday carry” trend. Bullet shunned fancy buttons and multiple functionalities to keep things simple and, most importantly, compact. Although Bullet’s original Kickstarter funding goal was set at $10,000, the campaign has already raised more than $140,000 with more than a month to go. A pledge of $8 gets you your own Bullet in any color, and a $17 pledge earns you three Bullet flashlights so you can keep one in your car, one at home, and one on your keychain. Backers will earn their rewards by May 2016 if all goes according to plan.
