Storage pouch — a smart solution for carrying your NAO RL. It transforms into a lantern and can be used to store the lamp with enough space to accommodate an extra battery. Longer burn time, greater visual comfort, and less manual operation with REACTIVE LIGHTING® mode, which allows the light sensor to automatically adjust brightness and beam pattern, optimizing battery usage The most useful part of the app is the battery management aspect. The app tells you exactly what percentage of the battery is left, a huge step up from simple 3-bar battery life indicators on some headlamps. It also allows you to manage the brightness of the beam to achieve a certain battery-life. Ultra powerful and lightweight — with 1500 lumens of max brightness at only 145 grams, NAO RL sets a new standard for ultra running headlamps. Although these functions are very useful, we found that the app was most useful to set the headlamp up when you begin a night hike or activity and we did not use it after that because it is too much of a hassle to get your phone out each time.

Rechargeable R1 battery can be used as a spare battery to charge other devices, such as phones or watches

Lighting performance

REACTIVE LIGHTING® Technology — a light sensor allows brightness and beam pattern to automatically adapt to your surroundings. This optimizes battery life for longer burn time, increased visual comfort, and reduced manual operation. So you can stay focused on the finish line. This setting allows you to achieve the perfect light setting without the hassle of flipping through all the available light settings yourself. It will also extend the battery life of the headlamp by reacting to the light produced by others headlamps when you are hiking in a group. See and be seen — continuous or strobe red lighting at the rear helps you to remain visible to others. It can be turned on with a separate button. The reflective headband also helps increase your visibility at night.

Spare battery available for long distance trail runs, or simply to switch out the battery when it dies (R1 battery available as an accessory) I’ve always admired the robust quality of Petzl’s headtorches. Being an established and trusted brand founded in the mid-1970’s, there’s that overwhelming sense that with each headtorch developed there’s continuous innovation, and there’s a number of important considerations that Petzl take into account when designing the headtorch. They look at the design from the point of view of those who will be wearing the equipment and carefully design the product, its fit, the battery life, weight, adaptive sensory lighting, and much more. “This is the 5 th Petzl I’ve used, and I’m pleased to confirm that it lived up to my expectations.” Like the Petzl Reactik+, the Nao+’s most impressive feature is the reactive lighting mode. This mode uses a sensor at the top of the headlamp to evaluate the ambient light and the proximity of objects to adjust the amount and type of light that should be emitted.There were times at night during a recent 75-mile recce in the Lake District that we hit the road with occasional passing cars on the narrow country lanes, so it was really good to be wearing the NAO ® RL with the ‘red lighting’ at the rear of the head torch as it gave great visibility to them. Petzl has developed this feature as a continuous or strobe mode for extra versatility. Three white lighting levels: MAX BURN TIME, STANDARD (better power/burn time balance), and MAX POWER As a race director for GB Ultras, the test of the new Petzl NAO ® RL has given me an opportunity to see how headtorch tech has continued to develop and improve over the years. Testing ground for the headtorch was in the Brecon Beacons National Park (50+ miles covering the central Fans and the Carmarthen Fans), as well as on one of Scotland’s great trails, the Southern Upland Way from Sanquhar to Lowther Hill and then once again, while marking the Chester Ultra 50 mile and finally, during a 75 mile recce run in the Lake District National Park. Conditions were sometimes pretty testing with wild weather, wind-chill, night running at times, along with the standard springtime hail and rain. Kind of sad to see this “I don’t want people to be following me in a race” type of attitude from a trail runner, but, well, it is what it is. Thanks for the article. Fantastic bright light with an easy to change battery. Easy to change the brightness and automatically turns off when you move into a bright area.