Coleman 360° Sound and Light Lantern: What It Does and How to Use It

The Coleman 360° Sound and Light Lantern is a rechargeable lantern that also works as a Bluetooth speaker. Coleman describes it as a 2-in-1 device offering a full 360° of light and the wireless capability of a Bluetooth speaker, with up to 400 lumens of hands-free light¹. It runs on a built-in lithium-ion battery charged through a USB port, and a USB cable is included¹.

For a household preparing for power cuts, the useful numbers are these. On its highest light setting the battery allows up to seven hours of light, or five hours of light while streaming music on the Bluetooth speaker¹. It carries an IPX4 water resistance rating, which is protection against splashes rather than a promise it can be left out in the rain¹. And Coleman's BatteryLock feature is designed to prevent battery drain without decreasing the quality of light, so a charged lantern kept in a cupboard should still have its charge when you reach for it³.

That combination suits two jobs at once: a room light for an evening without mains power, and something to play music from in a tent or a garden. It is not a substitute for a torch you can carry, and it is not a power bank for your phone. What follows covers what the lantern is, what it can do and for how long, how to charge and store it, and how to use it safely.

A lantern and a speaker in one body

Coleman's description of the product is specific: "The 2-in-1 device offers a full 360° of light and the wireless capability of a Bluetooth speaker"¹. The light comes from a globe rather than a single forward-facing lens, and Coleman says of its lantern globes that the design "ensures an unobstructed and shadow-less light output"⁴. In practice that means the lantern lights the space around it rather than throwing a beam at one wall, which is what you want when a room has lost its ceiling light and several people are sitting in it.

The speaker is the second function. It streams over Bluetooth, and Coleman's run time figures treat music as an extra load on the battery: five hours of light while streaming music, against up to seven hours of light alone at the highest setting¹. The lantern is therefore best thought of as a light first and a speaker second. If music matters to you during an outage, expect to trade some lighting time for it.

Where it fits against other lighting is a matter of circumstance rather than quality. A torch is what you carry to the fuse box or up the stairs; a lantern is what you put down to light a room; a head torch leaves both hands free for a job. The Coleman is in the lantern camp, with the speaker as a bonus. If you are choosing between the two forms for a first purchase, our comparison of a lantern or torch sets out which lights a room better.

Specifications at a glance

Coleman publishes a short specification list for this model. The table below uses the maker's own figures.

Two of these deserve a plain explanation. The first is the model number. 2000033876 is how Coleman identifies the 360 Sound and Light Lantern, and it is the number to quote when you check a box, ask a retailer about stock or contact Coleman about a fault³. It identifies the model, not your individual lantern.

The second is IPX4. Treat it as a lantern for a sheltered spot, a porch, a tent or a windowsill, and bring it in when the weather turns. Our guide to what IPX ratings mean explains the scale.

Run time: up to seven hours of light on its highest setting

Coleman's headline figure is that the battery allows "up to seven hours of light at its highest setting"¹. That is the number to plan around, and it is worth reading carefully. It is a maximum, measured at the brightest setting, and it is the figure for light alone. Add music and the maker's figure drops to five hours of light while streaming².

What that means for an evening is straightforward. A power cut that starts at teatime and ends before midnight sits inside a single charge at full brightness, with nothing to spare. A cut that runs longer, or a second evening without power, needs either a dimmer setting or a second light. Coleman does not publish run times for lower settings on this model, so treat the seven hours as the figure you can rely on and anything longer as unconfirmed.

The BatteryGuard models use a different battery approach: a slide switch that disengages the battery to retain its life until it is required⁴. If you want a lantern that takes ordinary cells rather than a built-in pack, that range is the one to look at, and our page on rechargeable or battery torches covers the trade-off in general terms.

Charging and keeping the battery ready with BatteryLock

The lantern charges through a USB port, and Coleman includes a USB cable in the box¹. You still need a USB power source: a mains USB adaptor or a power bank will do, and the cable is for charging the lantern rather than for charging other devices from it. The battery is lithium-ion and rechargeable, which Coleman describes as "longer lasting and rechargeable"³.

BatteryLock is the feature that matters most between emergencies. Coleman states that it "prevents battery drain without decreasing quality of light"³. In other words, the charge you put in should still be there when you take the lantern out of the cupboard, rather than having leaked away over months of storage. That is the difference between a lantern that works on the night and one that needs an hour on a cable first.

A few habits keep a lithium-ion lantern ready:

• Store it where you would reach for it in a blackout, not in a loft or a shed.
• Check it at the start of winter alongside your other lighting, using our winter lighting checks.
• Keep the USB cable with the lantern, so charging does not depend on finding a lead.

For the wider question of how to look after rechargeable lighting, our guide to charging and storing rechargeable torches safely covers the same principles. If you are unsure whether a USB charger you already own is suitable, can the wrong USB charger damage a torch battery answers that directly.

Using it in a power cut or outdoors

The official advice on lighting during a power cut is consistent across the UK. SP Energy Networks, which runs the electricity network in central and southern Scotland, Merseyside, North Wales and Cheshire, tells households to "make sure you've got some light, ideally a battery or wind-up operated torch or lantern instead of a candle"⁵. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service says: "During a power cut use battery-operated lights or torches as an alternative light source"⁶. Monmouthshire's community council advice is to "keep a torch handy"⁷, and North Wales Fire and Rescue Service gives the same instruction for a power cut or failure⁸.

A rechargeable lantern fits that advice squarely. It is a battery-operated light, it lights a room rather than a spot, and it does not involve a flame. The fire services' preference for battery lighting over candles is the single most important safety point on this page.

In the house, put the lantern on a stable surface in the middle of the room you are using, so the 360° globe does the work. Keep it out of walkways and away from the top of stairs. Outdoors, the IPX4 rating covers splashes, so a sheltered table on a patio or a spot inside a tent is fine, but bring it in from open rain¹. The speaker is useful for keeping children calm in an outage, but remember that music shortens the run time to five hours².

Where it fits in a household emergency kit

The Ready Scotland emergency kit guidance lists "a torch and spare batteries" among the things a household should have ready⁹. The principle applies to a lantern with a built-in battery: one object, charged and in a known place, beats a drawer of loose parts.

The last row matters. Coleman lists a USB port for charging the lantern¹. If keeping a phone topped up is part of your plan, that is a separate piece of kit, covered in our backup power section.

Support, spares and checking for recalls

If your lantern stops holding charge, the route is Coleman's own support or the retailer you bought it from, not a third-party cell.

Before relying on any rechargeable light, it is worth a minute's check that the model has not been recalled. Our page on recalled and unsafe torches and chargers explains how to check and how to report a problem. The same page covers what to do if a charger or cable shows signs of damage.

For the wider picture, our section on emergency lighting at home covers torches, lanterns and candles side by side, and lighting your home safely when the power goes off walks through the evening itself. If someone in the household is older or disabled, lights for older and disabled people in a power cut sets out what to keep within reach, and torches, candles and children covers keeping young ones safe around any light source.