Olight Open Glow Review: A Bolt-Action Pen with a Clever New Twist

Introduction

Olight has taken its bolt-action pen platform another step forward with the Open Glow. It keeps the core idea of the earlier Opens, including a pen, a light, and a laser in one body, but rethinks how the whole thing works in daily use. If you have followed the Open Pro or Open 2, this is the newest take on the same concept, and it arrives with a few genuinely thoughtful changes.

What Makes the Open Glow Different

The familiar bolt action is still here. Pulling it upward deploys the laser just as before, but instead of a stationary port on the top, the bolt action now fires up the light when pushed. That small mechanical change is the biggest departure from the traditional Open form factor.

Brightness is handled in a sensible stepped sequence. The first setting on startup is 5 lumens, Olight’s Moonlight mode, followed by 20, 60, and 120 lumens as you cycle through by holding the switch. That is plenty of output to move around a dark house or a nightly path through the woods, though it is not the kind of light you would run blindly through a forest with at night.

A Writing Light for Dark Rooms

The most clever addition sits on the front end. Apparently plenty of people were taking apart their older Open pens to turn on the light and then write with it in the dark, so Olight noticed and built the solution in. A separate 0.2 lumen light on the front end turns on with a button press, letting you see what you are writing without lighting up the whole room.

If you want both lights running at once, you can set the main light to your preferred level, deploy the pen, and hit the button again to add the writing light. As soon as you stow the writing end, the front light shuts off automatically.

The Laser: Solid, With One Missing Feature

The laser itself is very solid. The beam is cohesive and produces an excellent spot compared to a lot of green lasers, which matters when you actually use a pointer regularly. Deploying it through the bolt action keeps the operation quick and one-handed.

The one feature missing here is momentary control. Turning the laser on and off requires cycling rather than a quick flick, and for anyone who uses a laser pointer often, being able to fire it briefly and release it would be a meaningful improvement.

Charging and Everyday Practicality

Charging uses a small magnetic port, and Olight includes a coin on the bottom of the dock so you can stick it with adhesive to another surface and drop the pen into place, much like some of their other rollover lights. A red indicator shows charging in progress, switching to green once the battery is full.

Overall it is a great design, and Olight is clearly pushing this space with new manufacturing methods and features most people did not realize they needed until they had them. The company is reportedly heading toward going public as it grows into a bigger operation, which will be interesting to watch, and it is currently running a big sale. Olight also offers small companion items, including a neat little clamp light with cycling modes that doubles as a free gift with purchases.

Buying Advice

The Open Glow makes the most sense if you like the idea of a pen, light, and laser in one pocketable tool and will actually use the writing light in dark rooms. If momentary laser control is central to how you use a pointer, that limitation is worth weighing before buying.

Conclusion

The Open Glow is a confident evolution of the Open line. The bolt-action light deployment, the built-in writing light, four useful brightness levels, and magnetic charging all add up to a well-considered EDC pen that solves problems its predecessors left to workarounds.