Coleman Rugged Rechargeable 400 Lantern Review (Bought & Tested!)

This is my Coleman Rugged lantern review. I put it through many different tests, all of which you’ll find below in this post.

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Quick Summary

Overall, I felt that the Coleman Rugged 400 Lantern was a decent rechargeable LED lantern, but with way fewer features that I would have liked. Because I have loads of other lights to use, I don’t really recommend this lantern over the others.

RELATED: Best Rechargeable LED Lanterns

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Check out the Coleman Rugged 400:

1. In the Box

Here’s everything I got in the box after buying the Coleman Rugged Rechargeable Lantern:

• Coleman Rugged 400 lantern (batteries are in-built)

• Instructions

• Charging cable in charger storage

• USB plug adapter

2. Charging Input / Rechargeable Battery / USB Port

Peel off the rubber flap at the back, and you’ll find 2 charging ports underneath. The top is a micro-USB input, and the bottom is a regular USB-A output.

To recharge the lantern’s rechargeable battery, use the provided cable and the micro-USB input at the top (see below).

When you start charging the Coleman lantern’s rechargeable battery, the light indicator at the back will turn red. It’ll turn green when it’s done charging in about 6 hours and 15 minutes (my personal tested timing):

Take note there’s no separate rechargeable battery pack, the rechargeable battery is in-built into the lantern itself. Additionally, the lantern does not have a solar panel, which could be a limitation for some users.

3. Charging Output

The bottom regular USB-A output is for charging phones and other electronic devices.

On a full charge, I used it to charge my iPhone 12, the indicator light behind turns red when doing so, and here’s the results:

• Day 1 charging: 63% (2 hours 5 minutes)

• Day 2 charging: 16% (40 minutes)

• Total charge = 63+16 = 79%

• Leftover light: 45 minutes (high) or 3.5 hours (low)

• Estimated capacity: 3,500-4,000 mAh (the Coleman company didn’t provide the capacity, so this is just my estimate)

The connection nearer the end was rather spotty too, it kept disconnecting and reconnecting, and I think once your phone starts doing that, that means the battery is pretty low.

4. Light Modes

At the middle of the lantern, you’ll see this light switch, which shows just 2 different modes – low to the left, and high to the right.

Unfortunately, the lantern is not dimmable beyond the low setting, which limits the adjustability of the light settings.

5. Lumen Output

Now, exactly how bright is this lantern? Here are my tested results of the highest setting and dimmest setting along with the specs marketed by Coleman:

Lighting Mode	Official Specs	My Testing
High	400 lumens	675 lumens
Low	100 lumens	178 lumens

I got the number of lumens by using a lux meter against the lantern, like so:

6. Run Times

And what is the burn time of the Coleman lantern? Again, here are my tested results compared to the official specs provided by Coleman:

Lighting Modes	Official Specs	My Testing
High	4 hours	4.25 hours
Low	20 hours	20.75 hours

So, yeah, I’d say the official specs are pretty accurate. Good for you Coleman.

7. Shine Distance

I used my same lux meter to test the shine distance of the LED lantern, and here are the results:

Lighting Modes	Official Specs	My Testing
High	12 meters	8.6 feet / 2.6 meters
Low	6 meters	6.9 feet / 2.1 meters

8. Light Quality

The exact light temperature isn’t provided, but the lantern was a little glaring up close, even on the low setting.

The color temperature of the light is not specified, which could be important for users sensitive to different light temperatures.

I thought it can be a bit more frosted on the inside LED casing, so the light will be softer.

9. Handle

There’s a single handle at the top of the Coleman lantern, it’s nice and big, I found it to be the perfect size for most hands, and it was comfy to carry around.

I couldn’t hook it up to a tent cos the handle isn’t detachable, but if you use a carabiner to do so, it works fine, and here’s what it looks like hanging from my Sundome tent.

10. Charger Storage

Another feature of this lantern is the charger storage at the bottom, which is the perfect size to hold the charging cable and a few smaller items too:

11. Weight

The weight of this Coleman lantern comes in at about 21.8 ounces or 619 grams, that’s just the lantern itself without the charging cable in its base.

Note: On the other hand, the lightest USB-rechargeable camping lantern (excluding solar ones) I have is the Goal Zero Lighthouse Mini, coming in at a mere 8 ounces.

12. Packed Size

The packed size of the Coleman Rugged comes in at about 5 by 5.5 by 10.5 inches, or about 12.7 by 14 by 26.7 centimeters.

13. IP Rating

The rating on this Coleman lantern is IPX4. This means it’s protected from splashing water from any angle, which also means that it should be able to take rain decently well, but it is not 100% waterproof.

To test this, I put it through 30 minutes of heavy rain, and found that it still worked fine after:

However, water had gotten in near the USB port because the black flap covering it isn’t the most water-tight; hence, it doesn’t have a higher rating:

14. Drop Testing

I’ve also dropped the Coleman Rugged a few times, and everything has held up fine since, though everything will drop out from the charger storage at the bottom:

15. Warranty

It has a 3-year warranty, which is decently long.

16. Pros, Cons, Recommendations

Pro 1: Easy to use

For all of you guys who want a lantern with a simple on off switch and nothing else, this is probably the way to go. I found this lantern very easy to use, it took me 2 seconds to get the hang of it.

Pro 2: Lifetime LEDs

I also like how it charges via USB instead of using batteries like most Coleman lanterns, so it’s very much more environmentally friendly.

And the lifetime LEDs in this lantern never need replacing, according to Coleman.

Pro 3: Lighting area of 232 sq. ft.

The lighting area of the lantern is also really good, and here are my test results for the low setting:

• Shine distance on low: 6.9ft

• Lighting area on low: 149.6 sq. ft

• Coleman WeatherMaster 10: 143.6 sq. ft

Here are my results for the high brightness setting:

• Shine distance on high: 8.6ft

• Lighting area on high: 232 sq. ft

• 14-person Tent: ~230 sq. ft

Pro 4: Cable storage

And of course, the charging cable storage at the bottom is kind of unique, it’s interesting to have.

Con 1: Bulky

But this lantern can afford to have that cable storage cos it’s quite a bulky lantern. And that’s the least of our problems.

Con 2: Low mode is too bright

There are quite a few reasons why I do not like this lantern.

The biggest reason is that there are way too few light modes. The low mode here comes in at 178 lumens, which is way too bright for me at night.

If your eyes have already adjusted to the dark, this is super bright. I’m more used to having a 0 to maybe 10-lumen low output just for a little bit of illumination.

Con 3: Short run time

And also because the low mode is so bright, the max run time on this low mode is not even 21 hours, making it not a great emergency light for an extended period of power outages.

Con 4: No emergency mode

Another light mode the Coleman’s missing is a flashing or SOS mode, which most other lanterns have.

Con 5: No battery life indicator

Another con I noticed is that there’s no battery life indicator, like most other lanterns have. You can’t tell at all how many much battery you have left in the Coleman at any time.

Recommendation

Overall, if you swear by the Coleman brand and you love their stuff, sure, this is one perfectly functional and good lantern for a short car camping trip. It can definitely light up any Coleman tent that you use.

17. Bonus – MUST Read!

However, for me, it just doesn’t make the cut, because I have other USB rechargeable camping lanterns right here.

Otherwise, check out the Coleman Rugged 400: