BioLite BaseLantern - Portable LED Camping Lantern with USB Power Bank | Perfect for Outdoor Adventures, Emergency Lighting & Charging Devices

DO NOT BUY - The “BaseLantern XL” the 7800 mAh combination lithium battery bank and lantern, is *totally abandoned* by BioLite.Go to the Instruction Manuals section of their website; the BaseLantern and BaseLantern XL products do not even appear under their support section. Unacceptable. A manufacturer cannot just decide they screwed up and pretend a product doesn’t exist by withdrawing all mention or support for it on their site.Much of the function relies upon a mobile device app. Without the app, the BaseLantern and XL version are about 30% useful; the exterior controls are unintuitive and require the user to memorize double and triple button presses, or press and hold button presses. Good luck when you’re out in the woods. The app is abandonware. It has outstanding bugs that people have reported years ago and are not fixed. The light I received this afternoon won’t even pair with my iPhone 11 Pro.BioLite provides *no* customer support telephone number anywhere on their website. With the precision of a surgeon, they have very carefully removed any way for their customers to reach a human. This unreachability is a primary sign that a company views its customers as an inconvenient but necessary evil for money extraction who, as it turns out, grow hostile when their products underperform.Because they seem to be a company that overpromises and underdelivers, who cowardly try to pretend like the products that cause problems after they’re released into the world never existed in the first place, and who make products that rely on apps and then fail to actually commit resources to their continued ongoing development, I will never purchase a BioLite product again and will strongly urge all my friends, relatives, and acquaintances to avoid their products at all cost. Never do business with a company who clearly believes their responsibility to their products ends the moment they’ve made the sale.the quality of the product exceeded my expectations. saw Elsa Rhea and Barron use this on their youtube channel and thought if they are using it on a daily basis for light it must be good. much bigger than I thought it would be and quite heavy, feels like a substantial product and the ability to work it through your phone and adjust the light to different colors is amazing!Unfortunately this was defective and would night charge. I gave 4 stars because the company immediately gave me a refund.This was dead on arrival and now I have to pay to return itI’m sad to say that this product does not stay connected to my iPhone. Every time I open the app it asks me to locate the base lantern so the proximity feature, which IS THE MAIN reason I got this, is useless. I’ve written to BioLite about this and after a polite response telling me they’d look into it, I never heard back. So there really is not follow up to this issue. The lantern does work great with their large hanging Sitelight lamp and the Sitelight minis. But overall there are a lot of other products out there that work just as well for far less money.It’s also rather heavy and bulky so not something you would want to carry if your a backpacker. I use it in the RV or my outdoor shelter. It’s a solid product but the main feature just doesn’t work. My guess is that it’s an app issue but in the end it’s a Biolite issue if they don’t correct this.Initially like the product, used on a few camping trips, and the light was good, the app was OK and the battery was decent. Mine has stopped taking a charge after probably a half dozen uses, now is basically an expensive paperweight. Only a 1-year warranty and although they still sell it, it does not appear anywhere on their actual site anymore. It seems like they are phasing out or discontinuing. I would not recommend this or any BioLite power products.I received one as a gift 2 years ago and still use it constantly. Purchased as a gift this year and recipient was thrilled! Loved it as much as I do!I love my biolite equipment. This particular item would be hard to justify backpacking. It is so heavy. But it's a giant battery.I love the bluetooth function we can easily change the light color or intensity.It's an attention grabbing light, for better or for worse.Would not charge. Sending back to Amazon, but this (and other reviews) have undermined my faith in the product. Simple quality assurance (1. plug in. 2. does charging light work? yes/no) would have avoided this...Lots of fancy marketing for BioLite, and the price is on the high side. I'm tolerant of minor issues, but if you send me an expensive brick that I have to go through the trouble to mail back, sorry... I'll find another product.Can't say enough about Biolite products, sturdy and dependable. I use it to control my mini-lights t the cottage and it works great.very bright and handy and easy to use