Have you ever been in a dark place with no electricity, trying to juggle holding your phone as a flashlight to read something? Usually I smack myself in the face. I knew I wanted something for vanlife that could act as my phone’s flashlight without worrying about draining the battery or recharging it daily.

When I saw the Suaoki Clover Foldable Lantern, I was intrigued.

Pros

Living in different tiny homes has proved that we need gear that’s compact, functional and energy efficient. The Suaoki Clover Foldable Lantern has all these things.

The first thing that drew us to the lantern was that it’s small (about 2.5 x 6 inches when closed) and weighs less than half a pound. But I also like that it can get big when you need it to. Keep it closed when you need light to shine in one direction and expand its three blades when you want to disperse light thoroughly.

It has three different settings that allow you to go from low-brightness to high-brightness to flashing. It also comes with a hook at the top that allows you to fasten it to the top of your van, tent or anything high up, maybe even a tree.

Leave it out in the sun for just an hour and you will be able to use your lantern for half an hour, but with a full charge, it can last up to four hours. It also charges with a USB to a computer so that you can charge it when you do have electricity.

For its low cost ($28.99), this lantern gives us everything we need for nighttime reading or games.

Cons

We don’t use the flashing setting, but we appreciate it being an option in case we ever decide to need it. We’d also like to see a future version that might be able to charge our other devices, such as our phones.

Suaoki