Walking Equipment and Accessories

Princeton Tec Remix 450 LED Headlamp | Review

This is a bright, easy to use and long-lasting head torch that boasts excellent burn times – ideal for camping, backpacking and hiking

When you’re hunting around for a head torch, it’s tempting to go for the biggest and brightest one you can find. But actually, there’s more to a lamp than lumens alone. After all, any brand can stick a high-power LED and a chunky battery on an elastic strap. But the best head torches are generally those that balance brightness with burn time, bulk and weight.

The Princeton Tex Remix 450 LED head lamp is one of the best in its class when it comes to long-lasting light. It will give you an impressive 63 hours of runtime on the highest setting (450 lumens). For preserving night vision, it also features a cluster of red LEDs that outperform a lot of rival headlamps.

Otherwise, it’s been designed to be simple and easy to operate, with a wide elastic strap that is easy to adjust. The main light unit has a single large push button on top of the casing that allows the user to cycle through the various different functions.

Materials

The main spot beam comes from one Maxbright white LED, which has three settings: high (450 lumens), medium (300 lumens) and low (100 lumens) outputs. Secondary red lighting comes from a cluster of three Ultrabright LEDs, which can be switched from high (15 lumens) to low (3 lumens) output.

Thanks to its triple red LED cluster, the Remix 450 is noticeably brighter than most rivals equipped with a red-light function. So, it’s a great choice if this feature is important to you, perfect for night navigation or nature and wildlife spotting.

The LEDs are housed in a hard plastic case, which also contains the battery compartment. The Remix 450 runs off 3 x AAA alkaline batteries. It’s reasonably compact and fairly lightweight at 83g (including the batteries). This makes swapping batteries out for spares quick and easy (though the battery compartment latch feels a little flimsy). However, it’s arguably not as user friendly as a USB-rechargeable headlamp, or a lamp that works with removeable rechargeable battery packs. And from an environmental perspective, using disposable alkaline batteries isn’t ideal either – though of course, you could use this headlamp with rechargeable AAAs to minimise your eco footprint.

Our team using the Tec Remix in Scotland during autumn. Photos: Dave Macfarlane

The plastic casing is attached to an asymmetrical and repositionable single arm bracket, also made from plastic. It has an easily accessible battery door enclosure. Lastly, a large push button switch on the top of the unit ensures swift operation, even if you’re wearing bulky gloves. It’s worth noting that the unit is only IPX4-rated, which means it will resist splashing water, but no more. If you expect to be out in a downpour, you might want a more waterproof option. And if you’re hard on your gear, you might also want a more impact-resistant headlamp.

The final element of this headlamp is a simple elastic strap, with rear adjustment for a quick and secure fit. There’s no overhead strap or inner grip strip to help keep it in place, but it works fine for general activity on the trail or around camp. The strap is nice and wide, and feels well made.

Features

As already noted, the single large button situated on the top of the headlamp controls all the functions. One short press activates the red light mode, and another short press increases the brightness. A longer press switches on the white spot beam. Two further presses cycles through medium and high beam. To switch off the head torch, hold the button down. All very simple and intuitive.

On its maximum 450-lumen white light setting, the beam offers good penetration (up to 51 metres) and excellent all-round vision. It doesn’t have a flood mode or a tighter focusing setting but works well to illuminate trails and campsites. And the stand-out figure is that impressive run time – you should get 63 hours of light (plus an emergency reserve of 22 hours) on full beam. That’s really what elevates this lamp above most of the competition.

Strangely, the figures on medium and low settings aren’t as impressive – the brand quotes run times of 14 hours (74 hours reserve) and 6 hours (44 hours reserve) respectively at 300 and 100 lumens. If those numbers are correct, you might as well always use the high beam to get the best balance of brightness and burn time. FYI, in red light mode, you should get 6 hours run time on high (15 lumens) and 73 hours on low (3 lumens).

The bottom line is that this is a simple and easy to operate headlamp which is very user-friendly. In terms of light output, it’s also pretty bright and exceptionally long-lasting. It also has an excellent red-light mode. So, for general hiking, hillwalking and wild camping, as well as for nature-spotters, anglers and other outdoorsy types, it ought to tick all the big boxes.