Lepro 2000lm Rechargeable Camping Lantern Review: Good Enough for a Power Cut?

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A good power cut lantern needs to do two things: light up a whole room, and keep going when you can’t charge it. The Lepro 2000lm Rechargeable Camping Lantern does both. You charge it by USB while the power is on, and when the power has been off long enough that there’s nothing left to charge it from, it runs on ordinary AA batteries instead.

That dual power setup is exactly what we look for in a rechargeable camping lantern for the home emergency kit. If you came looking for the Energizer Hybrid Solar Lantern, it’s currently unavailable on Amazon UK, and this rechargeable camping lantern is the one we’d point you to instead.

Why a Rechargeable Lantern That Also Takes AA Batteries

A rechargeable lantern is cheap to run and always ready if you keep it topped up. The weakness shows on day two or three of a long power cut, when the lantern is flat and so is everything you’d normally charge it from. A battery powered lantern has the opposite problem: it works for as long as you have spare batteries, but you’re buying and replacing them all the time.

The Lepro camping lantern gets round both. Use it on its rechargeable battery day to day, keep a pack of AA batteries in the kit, and you’ve got light for as long as the cut lasts. A lantern that still works when everything else has stopped is the whole point.

What You Get with the Lepro Camping Lantern

The Lepro 2000lm Rechargeable Camping Lantern offers:

• Up to 2,000 lumens with a 360° beam, bright enough to light an entire room
• Dual power: USB rechargeable, or 6 AA batteries (not included)
• Five light modes: 2,000lm mixed, 1,800lm cool white, 220lm warm white, plus steady red and flashing red
• Stepless dimming: long-press the button to set the brightness exactly where you want it. The dimmer you set the brightness, the longer it will last on a charge.
• IPX4 water resistance: protected against splashes from any direction, so light rain and snow are fine
• Run times on the internal battery: 3 hours at 2,000lm combined, 5 hours at 1,800lm daylight, 7 hours at 220lm warm white and 20 hours on 7lm red light
• A USB charging cable in the box, with a full charge taking 6 hours
• Retro lantern styling that looks at home on a kitchen table as well as at a campsite

It’s rated 4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon UK, which is a strong score for a rechargeable camping lantern at this end of the market.

How the Lepro Works as a Power Cut Lantern

At 2,000 lumens on its brightest setting, this isn’t a lantern you squint by. Stand it in the middle of the kitchen or living room and the 360° beam lights the whole space, which matters more than people expect. Cooking, finding the kids’ pyjamas and sorting out the fuse box are all easier when you can see the entire room rather than a torch-sized circle of it.

The modes are where this rechargeable camping lantern earns its place in a power cut, though. Full brightness is for getting jobs done, and gives about 3 hours on a full charge. The 220lm warm white setting is softer and easier on the eyes for a long evening, and it more than doubles the run time to around 7 hours. With stepless dimming, you can turn it down to just enough light for a bedside table or a landing, rather than being stuck with three fixed levels.

The red modes are useful too. Steady red light keeps your night vision intact if you’re up in the night, and at just 7 lumens it runs for up to 20 hours on one charge. The flashing red mode can mark a hazard or show someone where you are.

Charging and Battery Backup

Day to day, you keep the Lepro rechargeable camping lantern topped up by USB. It comes with its own USB charging cable, takes about 6 hours to charge fully, and you can charge it from a plug adapter, a laptop or a power bank. Six hours is longer than you’d want to wait once a storm has started, so keep it charged ahead of time and top it up as soon as a weather warning goes out. That last one matters: if you keep a power bank charged, you can top up the lantern from it during the first part of a power cut and save your AA batteries for later.

When the rechargeable camping lantern’s internal battery runs down and there’s nothing left to charge it from, switch to AA batteries. AA batteries are the easiest kind to find in a UK supermarket, corner shop or petrol station, and the easiest to stockpile. Keep a sealed pack in your blackout box with the lantern, and check the date on them once a year.

Who the Lepro Rechargeable Camping Lantern Is For

• Households putting together a home emergency kit or blackout box who want one lantern that lights a whole room
• Anyone who has been caught out by a rechargeable lantern going flat halfway through a long power cut
• Families who want a safe, candle-free light around children and pets
• Campers and caravanners who want a bright lantern that earns its place at home too

Lepro Camping Lantern: Our Verdict

The Lepro 2000lm Rechargeable Camping Lantern ticks the box that matters most for a power cut lantern: two ways to power it. Recharge it by USB while the power is on, then run it on AA batteries when it isn’t. Add a genuinely bright 2,000-lumen top setting, a gentle warm white mode for long evenings, red night modes, stepless dimming and IPX4 water resistance, and it’s a very easy rechargeable camping lantern to recommend for the home emergency kit.

If you want one battery powered lantern that won’t leave you in the dark on day three, this is a good place to start.

What the Rest of the Team Think

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Pros and Cons

Pros

• Dual power: USB rechargeable, or AA batteries when there’s nothing to charge from
• Up to 2,000 lumens with a 360° beam lights a whole room
• Five modes, including a soft 220lm warm white and two red modes
• Stepless dimming, so you set exactly the brightness you need
• Up to 7 hours on warm white and 20 hours on red light from one charge
• IPX4 water resistant, fine in light rain and snow
• USB charging cable included, and it charges from a power bank

Cons

• AA batteries aren’t included (takes 6), so buy a pack to keep with it
• A full charge takes 6 hours, so charge it before the power goes, not after
• Run times are for the internal battery only; Lepro doesn’t list run times on AA batteries
• No solar or hand-crank charging, so a long cut relies on your AA battery stock

Frequently Asked Questions