At just 43g in weight, but with output up to a respectable 250 lumens, the Smini is an ultra-compact headtorch that proves to be more than just a backup for emergencies. Used as your main light this torch is bright enough for short night runs and evening dog walks, at least on less challenging ground, while it's so small that you won't mind carrying it as a just-in-case second light for hill days, climbing, races, or indeed pretty much anywhere. The best emergency torch, after all, is the one that you actually bothered to bring.

Weight

Silva's own quoted weight of 53g includes the detachable rear safety light; remove this and you're down to 43g. I'd consider this impressively lightweight for the power of torch on offer, though the similar Petzl Bindi is lighter still (more on the comparison later).

In use

Silva suggest the Smini is good for urban running, and this does seem like a good home for it since it prioritises lightness over brightness or burn time. Perhaps this is just as much a torch for being seen in as it is for seeing with - especially considering that it offers the addition of a detachable rear red light. I can see it being really handy for running after dark in the park or on a towpath, since it's easily carried in a pocket or even round your neck like a pendant in places where you might be passing in and out of street lighting.

I've used it for short night runs and dog walks in my very dark, non-illuminated rural neighbourhood too, and find the 250 lumen max output more than adequate for easy forest tracks. Medium brightness is still decently useful for moving with if you don't need to see that far ahead, while low mode will be just about enough to feel your way home when all else fails.

Being so compact, this would be a good thing to slip into a pocket on a multi pitch climb. However it doesn't last all that long at max power, and you would not set out on a longer night outing with a Smini alone. And this goes double on fiddly hill terrain, where a more powerful light and a bigger battery capacity both trump lightweight every time. In a more consequential outdoors setting - be that hillwalking, hill running, or climbing, the Smini should be considered your get out of jail card, not your primary light.

Operation

With a limited range of modes the Smini could hardly be simpler to operate. Its single button - which can be pressed with gloves - cycles through three white output modes, plus a red LED and a button lock. That's all there is to it, and as I'm a big fan of simplicity in a headtorch I count the Smini's basic feel very much in its favour. IPX5-rated water resistant, it's fine to use out in the rain.

Fit and strap options

Contoured and padded for comfort, the small battery unit sits on your forehead, while it's just the light unit that pivots (a useful 90 degrees). This means the weight, such as it is, stays fixed to your head rather than wobbling forwards, ensuring effectively zero bounce when running.

The standard model, which we've reviewed here, comes with a slim 15mm flat elastic strap. This is easily adjusted, and features a rubberised strip on the inside to prevent slipping; the one downside of this is that the strap does get a bit sweaty (albeit it's thin, leaving most of your head free to perspire).

This strap is fully removable, and for the truly weight-conscious the torch is available instead with a minimalist elastic string - the Smini Fly at £39.99 (38.5g). For my money the full Smini (£49.99) represents best value since you get a more substantial headband plus the additional rear safety light, which on its own retails at £14.99. 

Charging, output and burn time

The inbuilt USB-C-chargeable 700 mAh battery recharges pretty quickly, and there's a charge indicator scale to keep easy track. In terms of output and burn time, Silva's figures are:

• Max: 250 lm / 1.5 hours
• Med: 100 lm / 2.5 hours
• Min: 10 lm / 20 hours

Once the battery is down to 10%, you get a power reserve of 2 hours.

I would take the maximum output time with a pinch of salt, since I've not managed to get full brightness out of mine for much more than one hour. The full quoted light distance of 80m also seems optimistic; I'd estimate more like 50m of usable light. Still, there's only so much you should expect from a torch this tiny, and what you do get in terms of brightness and battery life is really pretty good. As usual with Silva, the clear white quality of the LED light is beautiful, while the mix of wide angle and distance lighting makes the most of its relatively low-powered beam.

Alternatives?

As a simple compact torch that's portable for just-in-case while also being genuinely useful in non-emergency settings, the Smini occupies similar ground to something like the Petzl Bindi.

Both are very light and compact (Smini 43g, Bindi 35g), and each has a decent output and quoted burn time on max power (Smini 250lm/1.5hrs; Bindi 200lm/2hrs). The beam pattern on the Smini is better, offering a sensible combination of wide angle and distance, while the Bindi's light is comparatively broad and diffuse. Neither is a bad bet but it's worth saying that my old Bindi stopped working after two or three years, and in a head-to-head fight I think the Smini edges it thanks to its superior distance vision.

Ethics and environment

Last year, Silva's Terra Scout turned heads with the use of recycled plastic and hemp, not something we'd seen before in torches:

The Smini follows suit, with a housing and strap made of recycled materials. It's also designed to be easily disassembled at the end of its life cycle.

The verdict

Lightweight and tiny, but deceptively capable for its size, the Smini is usefully more than just an emergency backup torch. Whether you're running, walking or climbing, it's well worth the money.