38.5 grams including the headband: about as heavy as a coin sitting on your head. The Silva Smini Fly won an ISPO Award 2024 for its eco-friendly design, but on max it only lasts 90 minutes. Here's our full review of the Swedish brand's smallest headlamp.
© Silva, official photo used for editorial purposes
The Silva Smini Fly is an ultralight headlamp that weighs 38.5 grams with its 3 mm headband, is rated at 250 lumens on max with an 80-meter beam, and won an ISPO Award 2024 for its recycled polycarbonate housing held together with screws, so it can be taken apart at end of life. Several verified customer reviews praise the crisp white light and a weight you forget the moment it's on, but some users find the red LED weak, and max-mode runtime is capped at 90 minutes, offset by 20 hours on the lowest setting. List price is €44.90, and French retailers often sell it for €38 to €44.
The Smini Fly rounds out Silva's headlamp range at the ultra-minimalist end, alongside more powerful models like the Trail Speed 5R. Launched in fall 2024 in three colorways (Black, Rose, Mint), it won an ISPO Award 2024 in the Mountaineering/Hiking/Climbing category, recognition for its circular design approach: housing and lens made from recycled polycarbonate, screwed together rather than glued so the lamp can be taken apart and recycled at end of life.
The pitch is simple: a reliable light source in the smallest, lightest package possible, built as your main headlamp for short runs or as a backup you stash in a trail vest pocket on longer outings.
| Brand | Silva |
| Model | Smini Fly |
| Type | Ultralight headlamp for trail and road running |
| Weight with headband | 38.5 g |
| Max output | 250 lumens, 80 m beam distance |
| Medium output | 100 lumens, 50 m beam distance |
| Low output | 10 lumens, 17 m beam distance |
| Runtime | 1h30 (max) / 2h30 (medium) / 20h (low) |
| Battery | Built-in 3.6V 700 mAh Li-Po (2.52 Wh), USB-C, 3h charge |
| LEDs | 2 semi high power white LEDs + 1 red LED |
| Technology | Silva Intelligent Light (long-range and close-range beams combined) |
| Water resistance | IPX5 |
| Headband | 3 mm adjustable, reflective cord, tilting lamp head |
| Housing material | Recycled polycarbonate |
| Award | ISPO Award 2024 winner (Mountaineering/Hiking/Climbing category) |
| Colorways | Black, Rose, Mint |
| List price | €44.90 |
| Compatible accessories (sold separately) | Smini rear light, Smini 15 mm headband |
© Silva, official photo used for editorial purposes
Silva Intelligent Light pairs a long-range spot with a close-range flood, designed to kill the tunnel vision that slows you down on technical descents. The three brightness levels (10, 100 and 250 lumens) cover everything from stretching the battery over a long outing to a quick burst of light on a technical section.
The red LED on the front of the lamp is there to protect your night vision in low light, a use an independent field test rated positively. Don't mistake it for a rear safety light meant to make you visible to others, though: several customer reviews find this red LED too weak for that job, and Silva actually sells a separate Smini rear light as an accessory for exactly that purpose.
We cross-checked three French-language sources for this review: the headlamp is recent, but customer feedback already covers it well.
Verified customer reviews from retailer i-Run (6 reviews, 4.7/5, 83% satisfied customers) agree on how light it is. One runner (Mickael G.) describes a run of more than 25 km where the lamp proved light, sturdy and powerful, with a runtime he found tight but enough. Two reviews are less kind about the red LED: one (Yves georges R.) misses a rear red LED for visibility, the other (Alexandre D.) finds the red light a bit weak compared with the white, while confirming the white light is very good overall.
A review published by Outzer.fr (Theoph, rated 10/10) is more positive about that same red LED, this time valued for protecting the wearer's night vision rather than for being seen by others: once you separate the two uses, the reviews don't actually contradict each other. This tester also praises the fast USB-C charging, a runtime judged more than enough for runs of several hours at moderate output, and the brand's eco-design approach.
A buying guide from French retailer Snowleader ranks the Smini Fly second in its list of the best trail running headlamps of 2026, behind the Petzl Iko Core, and confirms the lock function that prevents accidental switch-on and the 90-degree tilt of the lamp head.
© Silva, official photo used for editorial purposes
| Silva Smini Fly | Petzl Bindi | |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 38.5 g | 35 g claimed (34 g measured) |
| Max output | 250 lumens | 200 lumens |
| Max beam distance | 80 m | 30 to 36 m |
| Water resistance | IPX5 | IPX4 |
| Charging | USB-C | Micro-USB, unprotected port |
| Official price | €44.90 | €39.95 to €49.90 depending on retailer |
Both lamps target the same minimalist use and are only a few grams apart. The Smini Fly keeps a slight edge on beam distance and water resistance thanks to its protected USB-C port, while the Bindi is the older, proven benchmark, with independent measurements of its real output available. In the end it mostly comes down to the price you find on the day, since the two official price ranges overlap heavily.
The Smini Fly is first and foremost for runners who want a headlamp they can barely feel on their head, for short runs or as a backup stashed in a trail vest. Its power and max-mode runtime fall short if you need a main lamp for a long night ultra on technical terrain.
The Silva Smini Fly delivers on its promise of extreme lightness and backs it up with an eco-friendly design recognized by the ISPO Award 2024. The score is held back, though, by a genuinely short max-mode runtime and a red LED that doesn't replace a rear safety light: two things to know before you buy, not deal-breakers if you use it for the right job.
7.9/10: a minimalist, award-winning headlamp built for short runs or as a backup, not as your main light for a night ultra.
© Silva, official photo used for editorial purposes