Astrolux has gotten into the multiple LED flood and secondary LED’s with the MF01 Mini I have before me here. It’s available in 5 body colors, 3 material choices, and 3 LED tints with a high CRI option I have here. Thanks to Banggood for sending this to me and providing my viewers a discount. Make sure you check the description below if you are interested in this 5500 lumen light.
YouTube Version of this Review:
Get the Astrolux MF01 Mini at Banggood for $45.99 with Coupon code BGMF01Mini at http://bit.ly/340Nczj
Packaging & Accessories
Packaging is consistent with other recent Astrolux lights. A white box with minimal info on the outside other then the lights name and a silver line drawing of the light. Inside things are packed nicely with foam for protection. Accessories on this one include the light itself, A basic lanyard, and 2 adapter tubes for 21700 and 18650 batteries. No charging cable is included here which is disappointing considering this light requires USB-A to USB-C.
Construction
My MF01 Mini is made from Aluminium and has clear anodizing. They offer a variety of colors including black, olive green, a tan/gold, and gray. They also offer a special edition in Brass, copper and an aluminum copper combo. Machining is average, a few tool marks can be found on flat surfaces, they are smooth to touch and nothing wrong for a light in this price category.
The light tail stands well with the flat base, and the lanyard hole is at the base. Inside it has large stiff dual springs, this allows it to accept 26650, 21700, and 18650 batteries with the included adapters. Rattling was a small problem with the 18650’s but not an issue with the larger cells. The body tube has a crosshatch knurling patterning put on.
The head grows in diameter some, it has 4 gills milled in on either side for cooling. The switch is domed and sits prowd. It’s a silicone button and has texture on top. It has LED’s underneath to indicate charge status like other Astrolux lights. Opposite the button is the USB-C charge port. It’s covered by a silicon port cover and includes an area for the tab to sit. It’s out of the way no issues. The bezel on my light is aluminium however a stainless steel one is available for extra durability. There is a glass lens on top of the 7 LED optic. Underneath the optic you have the daughter board with the secondary LED’s. The light is IPX7 water rated, and I had no issues running it under a stream of water.
Size & Weight Comparison
This is primarily a 26650 light, but other similar sized batteries can be run. I measured length at 112mm, Minimum diameter on the body at 33mm, and maximum diameter on the head at 44mm. Weight with a 21700 battery installed was 254.6g.
The Fireflies E07 is a similar light also with 7 emitters and secondary LED. It’s smaller in diameter and lighter then the MF01 Mini, but the MF01 Mini does a better job of dissipating heat. That said the Mini can run 3 different battery types which is handy.
LED | Beam | Runtime
The MF01 Mini is using 7X SST20 LED’s. My example is using the 4000k tint, but 5000k and 6500k are also available. With the 4000k tint, the CRI is 95, less so on the cooler tints. The SST20’s have a bit of a reputation for having a bit of a green tint, especially at lower powers and that’s pretty apparent here. Andril firmware is great but it also means the LED’s can be driven very low and this is where the green comes out. At higher powers the tint is pleasing to me, it’s no Nichia 219 but not bad either. The beam is floody, with ever so slight hot spot in the center. For a floody light it throws decently well.
The light also has secondary LED’s in 3 colors, under the optic. Green on the outside, blue in the middle, and purple/pink in the center. These LED’s are on all the time the light has electrical contact.They are somewhat adjustable if you take the bezel and optic off there are 3 pots where you can adjust the brightness of each up to a point. There is a current limit so it’s better if 2 of the 3 are bright.
Runtime
I did my long duration runtime test with a Keeppower 5200mAh 26650 battery since that’s really what this light was originally designed for. It does fit 18650 batteries and 21700 with the included adapters. Total runtime here with this battery was just shy of 400 minutes. 99% of this time was at about 15% relative output. Turbo output is good for under a minute on this light and it continues ramping down fairly quickly.
Heat on this light surprised me, I expected it to get quite hot based on other lights I have that are similar hot rods but that isn’t the case in my example and it’s a bit of a problem. So heat at 1 minute was 81F, at 5 minutes was 83F, and at 10 minutes 82F. The problem with this the light will start stepping down pretty quick. After I calibrate the light this should improve and allow the light to stay brighter for longer with the byproduct being heat. Low voltage protection kicked in at 3V.
UI
This light is using Toykeeper’s Anduril UI. It’s currently one of my favorites available as it has a ton of options and neat little easter eggs that commercial UI’s don’t include. By default the light comes in ramping UI which is where I left it. The ramping is fast and logical. A stepped mode is available that you can configure as well if you prefer.
The light has thermal controls, you can configure beacon mode, as well as 5 types of strobe including candle mode, party strobe, and lightning storm. You access these with 2 taps and a hold, and then two taps to change modes inside this group. Candle and lighting mode are my personal favorite. How practical these are could be a point where one could argue, but I like that they are present and it just makes things fun. Due to how you access these strobe modes I would not call the light a tactical UI or tactical light as you have to remember a series of presses and pauses to get there.
Personally I find the UI to be easy to use for what you want to do most often, but a little more complex to get to those modes you don’t use very often. This is a UI where you should take a look at the manual or at least the graphical manual for the UI and spend some time playing with your light to get the most out of it.
Recharging
This light has an onboard USB-C port for recharging, however it doesn’t support USB-C to USB-C cables, meaning you have to use a USB-A to C cable for recharging. For me this kind of defeats the purpose of having USB-C. Charging was reasonably fast, I charged my 5200mAh Keeppower 26650 battery in 3 hours and 30 minutes at a max rate of 1.85A. The battery stopped charging at 4.19V.
Pro’s
- 5 colors, 3 tint’s available in Aluminum, Copper, Brass options are also available
- High CRI (95) available with the 4000k tint option
- Versatile battery options with this light (21700, 26650, 18650 all work and the light includes spacer tubes
Con’s
- Only support for USB-A to USB-C Charging. Doesn’t work for C to C.
- With great power and lumens comes heat!
- The SST20 LED’s in my example have a pretty green tint at lower outputs
Conclusion
Good competition for the Fireflies E07, Pretty good value at around the $60 mark normally or about $46 with my coupon in the description at the time of this video release. I enjoy secondaries on lights like this. They use minimal power and make them different from the competition. Overall a pretty good value light, hopefully Astrolux and other flashlight manufacturers will soon allow their USB-C lights to use C-C cables! Make sure if you decided to pick this one up, to take advantage of the color options here both in body color and tint. Let’s support one less black flashlight!
Get the Astrolux MF01 Mini at Banggood for $45.99 with Coupon code BGMF01Mini at http://bit.ly/340Nczj
Full image gallery can be found at https://imgur.com/a/AGU2g8L
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