Lander Cairn XL Smart Lantern Review

The Lander Cairn XL Smart Lantern + Power Bank has extensive capabilities and features to make it the perfect light and power source for any base camp. It features a bright 350 lumen LED with up to 300 hours of light time at its lowest output, and their smartphone app lets you control power, dimming, colors, light alarms, proximity lighting, and a strobe. As a power bank, the 10,000mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery can charge up to four mobile electronic devices, such as smartphones, GPS units, and cameras. You can use it as a sitting or hanging light source, and the included elastic tether lets you wrap it around tree branches, hooks, posts or looped on a strap inside a tent making for a secure and versatile lantern.

The Cairn XL weighs 285g, has an IP65 water-resistant and dustproof rating, and retails for $99.99. For further information refer to www.lander.com.

Power

The main power button is multi-functional and allows the lantern to be powered on and off, to be brightened and dimmed, and set into strobe or color modes.

• On/Off — Press the light button once to turn on, and once to turn off.
  • Brighten/Dim — With lantern on, press and hold to increase brightness. At full intensity, continue holding to dim the lamp.
• Strobe — Rapidly press and release the power button three times to activate strobe mode.
• Color — Press and release the power button twice to activate the color mode.
  • Color Cycling — With lantern on and in color mode, press and hold to change the color.

Charging

To charge the Cairn XL power bank open up the side cover and insert a Micro-USB cable into the left port and the other end of the cable into a powered USB port such as on a computer, wall wart, etc. It can then take up to 5.5 hours to recharge depending on units current battery status. The rightmost LED will light up indicating current levels (1-5), and it will blink while the power bank is recharging. As the power bank is replenished the top lit LED will move rightward going from flashing to solid until all five of them are solid, at which point the recharging has completed.

To charge another device from the Cairn XL, plug its cable into the center USB port and the other end of the cable into the compatible device (smartphones, cameras, GPS computers, etc.) The battery indicator LED’s will illuminate to show that the power bank is doing a charging out and what the current battery level is, which will slowly decrease while charging the other device.

The battery life is dependent on how much you use the power banks functionality, the air temperature, the lights duration, and its intensity during usage.

Lander App

The Lander smartphone app allows you to take complete control of your Cairn XL, and it comes in an iOS and Android versions. Just pair the lantern with your smartphone phone to access all the available features on the Lander app. On the main screen, you can set a sleep timer and two proximity settings. The Proximity On/Off will turn the Cairn XL off when it senses you’ve left the 50 ft Bluetooth range, and will turn it back on when you come back in range. The Proximity Battery Save mode will automatically adjust the light output depending on where you are within the 50 ft Bluetooth range to the lantern, meaning it will decrease intensity while leaving and increase when approaching.

The secondary screen for the app allows you to control power, light intensity, color, and light strobe by utilizing various buttons and sliders. Click the right button for the color sub-screen where you can choose the desired full RGB color scheme from the bottom slider and its intensity from the vertical one. Click the center button to turn the lantern on and off (defaults to white light) and use its vertical slider for intensity. Click the left button for a white only strobe and its vertical slider for intensity. Hit the small Exclamation Point on any of the sub-screens to audibly locate the lantern and at the top left-hand corner is a battery level indicator for the unit.

Bottom Line

The Cairn XL Lantern is an excellent lighting and power bank system when you’re off the grid, whether it’s car camping, backpacking or adventuring anywhere in the world, plus it’s useful when the power goes off at home. It provides a powerful 350-lumen lighting source and the capabilities to recharge multiple portable electronic devices from its 10,000mAh lithium-ion rechargeable battery. At the lanterns minimum output of 2.5 lumens, it can last over 300 hours, while at the maximum of 350 lumens it can over 5 hours, so you do need to cautious when using its full brightness, so you don’t run out of juice.

The hefty 285g case measures 3.5″ square and 1.75″ thick and is well built, rugged, water-resistant and dustproof to help deal with inclement weather condition and dirt. The lantern is relatively simple with an ample light on the top, a protective metal bottom, a multifunctional power button on one side, and the opposite has a five LED battery indicator and an opening with a port for charging the battery and another for charging other mobile devices.

You can operate all the lighting features from the power button, but the Lander smartphone app provides a potent and highly functional interface, and lets you control power, brighten and dim the light, change the lights colors, set light alarms, set proximity lighting, check the battery levels, and a turn on a strobe. I liked being able to adjust the light’s intensity while laying on the floor of my tent and appreciated the ability to add some soothing and mellow colors. The integrated elastic tether was handy for hanging the lantern from various locations by a campsite, in a vehicle, and the inside of a tent.

The Lander Cairn XL Smart Lantern + Power Bank makes a perfect light and power source for any outdoor adventure. It features a bright 350-lumen light, a powerful rechargeable power bank for electronic devices and a highly functional smartphone app to control power, dimming, and colors. It’s a bit heavy and slightly expensive, but it sure packs a big punch in a small package.