Golisi is a brand many flashlight users may not be familiar with, they are more well known in the Vape community for their batteries and battery chargers. It’s a brand that I have heard of but is new to me too. Today I will be looking at their brand new 18650 charger, that acts like a powerbank, and has a wireless Qi charging pad on it too. Thanks to them for sending this too me, I will link to their product page where you can find it where it’s available for preorder at the time of this review.
Packaging is a nice high quality printed heavy cardboard box, with information on all sides. Inside the Mothra is protected with foam. The only accessory was a USB-A to C cable. Since mine was preproduction it did not include any paperwork but I was able to get the manual from Golisi’s website.
Construction
The Golisi Mothra is built from a high quality glossy plastic and a solid feel. It has an attractive black and white color scheme with gold lettering. There is no water rating given on the unit. On the top you have a translucent outline of an X that lights up blue when the QI wireless charger is active.
The front has the USB-A (Labeled output) and USB-C port (Labeled input) a small LCD screen and a single button. The LCD screen is inverted with a dark background and light colored letters, and is backlit in blue. The battery door in what I will call the back of the unit, has a slide mechanism with a detent to stay locked in place. When open I would caution you to be a bit careful of the hinge as it only opens up 90 degrees.
Cells are installed with the positive end facing the LCD screen. I used LG HG2’s unprotected flat top cells that I had for my tests, and these worked fine. I put a few different types in included protected and button top protected and had no problems with cells of different lengths.
Size and Weight
I measured the Mothra at 90mm x 90mm and 33mm tall. With 4 LG HG2 Batteries it comes in at 346.2g. I will put a few comparison photos of other multicell Powebank and chargers that I have reviewed in now.
As a Battery Charger
The Golisis Mothra is designed to charge via USB-C. It supports Power Delivery as an input and officially supports 5V @ 3A, or9V @ 2A. I don’t have a charge graph with this one like I would normally. Despite suppring PD my meter would not come on when connected in any of the configurations I tried. My guess is something here with the handshake doesn’t meet the spec 100%. That said I successfully charged it via PD with my Xtar, Aukey, Anker, and Energie chargers that I know meet the PD spec. So I ended up timing how long it took to charge my 4 LG HG2 batteries. They took right at 3 hours to charge. Terminating voltage was 4.15V, so a little low but reasonable.
As a Powerbank
As a powerbank you have a few options to charge your devices. The Mothra has USB-A out that can output 5V at up to 3A. You also have USB-C which can output the same 5V @ 3A, 9V @ 2A, or 12V @ 1.5A. The USB-C port supports PD delivery, and the A port supports the QC charging standard.
Your other option is the QI wireless charging pad on top of the Mothra. To activate this you have to press the button on the front for 4-5 seconds and a blue outline of an X across the top will light up to show it’s active. This is reported to charge at 10W and my Samsung smartphone reports it as fast wireless charging.
I love the addition of the wireless charging pad, as that’s how I charge my phone most of the time, but the one here I found to be a little tricky to get the position just right. After some practice this got easier though.
When in powerbank mode the percentage of charge of the cells read individually. Golisi told me that it chooses the highest charged cell, then when everything random it picks cells at random to discharge. Kind of a unique way to do it. My experience is this varies, by up to 4% but in the end was fairly balanced. It will charge via wired or wireless with any combination of 1 to 4 batteries. The charger does support pass through charging.
Golisi reports the charger as being about 70% efficient when used as a powerbank, and my capacity test was lower then that with 4x LG HG2 batteries only seeing 6228mAh. These batteries are older which I believe is part of the issue.
Conclusion
The Mothra is currently available for pre-order from Golisi direct for around $66. At that price I feel like it’s a bit expensive. There are other products that have 2 of the 3 features and support less batteries but also cost quite a bit less.
I do think they did things right here in supporting the most common and up to date standards. Bi directional USB-C to C charge/discharge with PD support, as well as Qualcomm Quickcharge. While not the biggest thing I wish the display was more predictable, when discharging there seems to be a percentage sag vs when there is no load on the device. I have seen a roughly 10% swing on a loaded vs unloaded cell. It’s frustrating but not a deal breaker.
Overall a nice device, that seems to do everything it claims. I like the addition of the wireless charging pad a lot. I have a hard time fully recommending a device that can only charge 18650 batteries for flashlight users given there are smaller and larger sizes that are popular these days. That said this offers more features than just a charger on it’s on, so it’s definitely worth considering if you want a multifunction charger and powerbank combo and you’re solidly in the 18650 camp.
Todays’ video is on the brand new Olight Warrior Mini 2. Olight took feedback from the community on the original Warrior Mini, which I have done 2 previous videos on, and made some changes for the Warrior Mini 2. The Mini 2 follows in a similar manner on how Olight upgraded the S2R Baton II, into the Baton Pro with it gaining in length and features. Olight did send the new Warrior Mini 2 to me to review it and help promote their flash sale that starts tonight at 7pm Eastern Time. I will explain the sale further on in this review, but do know that if you’re interested in anything, using my link below will help the channel, and if you’re watching after the sale is over, I will have a code below where you can save 10% off regular prices. This will be a longer review, but it has chapters so make sure to skip around to see the parts your most interested in.
10% OFF Coupon code: LQ10 Coupon Code will work during sales on non-sale listings only.
A little bit about that flash sale before we get into the review. It starts June 17th at 7pm Central time and it runs for 24 hours. You can get the Black or Tan Warrior Mini 2 for 35% off $67.46 during that time. They will also have a Warrior Mini 2 Mountain Sky limited edition color for $71.21. There are bundles for all 3 with the i3T Mountain Sky edition too for a few more dollars. Other sale items include the Odin which I have reviewed previously, the new Olantern Mini, and some Mega packs of Olight products. If you order during the flash sale you will also get a free Olight Fathers day Mini tool.
Packaging & Accessories
Standard Olight packaging applies here with the white boxes, and nice glossy photo, and full of tons of information on the back. Inside is a pull out try with the light including the yellow read me card to help you get the basics of your light down and ensure success.
Accessories that come with the light are the warrior Mini 2 itself, Olight custom and proprietary 3500mAh 18650 battery (ORB-186C35), the MCC3A magnetic charger, lanyard, and carabiner style ring as well as a manual.
Construction
Construction quality is typical Olight, quality machining, fit and finish with the design and anodizing here. The tail is a one piece design with the body tube, so the battery goes in only from the head side. The button on the rear is all metal exterior construction and features the tri lug design we have seen on other recent “tactical models allowing the button to be pressed more easily with gloves. It’s also magnetic but not strong enough to hold the light horizontally on the few painted metal surfaces I tested, it does tail stand though. The button itself is spongy, and fairly stiff. It’s a two stage actuation which I like quite a bit from a UI perspective but it takes a bit of muscle memory to know how hard to press to get into that first lower output mode.
The texture on the body is aggressive but not sharp in the hand. I really like the feel of it. The downside is it’s aggressive enough to tear up pockets with pulled in and out during repeated use. Threads are smooth, square cut and nicely greased. Up until this point it’s all the same as the Warrior Mini. The one difference on the body tube is the addition of a pocket/lanyard clip indention at the rear of the light. I’ll talk about the options this opens up during the retention section of the review.
The head internally has a single short spring in the center, and then a ring with pogo pins for making contact with the proprietary batteries negative terminal on the top. This is the same basic design as the Warrior Mini, and the heads are in fact interchangeable. On the exterior the clip is captured. The button is the same as Olight has used in recent models with the LED underneath to indicate battery charge status. It can display, Green, Orange, and Yellow.
The head is what’s the most different on the Warrior Mini 2, over the outgoing model. It’s longer overall, with an aluminum bezel that protects the glass lens (yes). Inside is still a TIR style optic, but a little different style, it’s deeper and has a clear center instead of a bubble center. There is also the proximity sensor in the bezel, it doesn’t have a noticeable effect on beam quality.
Is it Safe?
Since I know this is what a lot of you are wondering I will make it it’s own section but talk more about how the proximity sensor and UI works in the LED and UI sections. The video is really best for this part where I demonstrate all this, so make sure to check that out. So let’s take a black synthetic sock and put it over the lens of the light to show what happens and that this one won’t melt any clothing. I will speed this footage up a bit to show that after stepdown the light will shut off after 1 minute if the lens is still blocked. I wasn’t able to get anything to make the tail cap turn the light on with a high resistance metal object. I tried Keys, Ball Chain, Coins, etc.
Size and Weight
I measured the overall length at 118mm, minimum diameter at the tail at 23.3g, and maximum diameter at the head at 25mm.Weight with the battery and main pocket clip installed is 120g. The light is IPX8 water rated and drop rated for 1.5M. So the light grew in length by 11mm and weight by 15g over the original Warrior Mini that I have in the same accessory configuration.
Retention
You have some new retention options from Olight with the Warrior Mini 2, First up is the pocket clip, this is similar to the one on the original Warrior mini, being that it’s a dual direction clip and can be used to clip onto a hat to use as a make shift headlamp, but the new clip on the Mini 2 is longer by 13mm. It can also now mount on the rear of the light if you wish for a no show deep carry carry. In the top position the clip is captured and won’t rotate, but when mounted on the tail cap it can rotate. The fit here is tight though so it takes effort.
It also has a clip style attachment for a lanyard point which can be mounted anywhere the clip can be mounted too. You can use the included lanyard here or on the clip if you wish. Or you can use the new Carabiner style ring and put a finger through it so you don’t drop the light. Both of these retention options will fit on either the top or the bottom of the light.
LED & Beam
The LED being used in the Warrior Mini 2 is the SST40 in a 6000-7000k tint. It has a little green tinge on the lowest modes but once you apply more power that fades substantially. I have no problems with the SST40 LED but wish one of the neutral tint bins was used here.
The beam is good through the TIR optic despite having the proximity sensor taking up some of the available room. There is a glass lens here, instead of the one piece plastic Lens/TIR optic that the Warrior Mini used. This, combined with the proximity sensor should eliminate the melting lens and clothing issues the original light had.
Warrior Mini 2 on the Left, Original Warrior Mini on the Right
Overall the beam here is great for EDC in my opinion with a medium to large hot spot and quite a bit of spill, good for close up and medium to far range. With the tail switch this would be a good option to do a one handed grip of your weapon and have the light nearby in the opposite hand (Harris or Chapman style) if you wished. The one downside more of the light sticks up out of your pocket here with heads up carry which are key to those grips.
Olight lists the official output modes as:
Turbo – 1750 – 500 – 200 Lumens with step downs.
High – 500 – 200 Lumens
Medium – 120 Lumens
Low – 15 Lumens
Moon – 1 Lumen
Turbo sees a slight bump with the Warrior Mini 2 as does the step down modes in Turbo and High outputs. The stepdown upgrades are only 30 lumens so it’s really hard to notice but the extra 250 on Turbo you can notice slightly. There is a very small amount of PWM that I can detect with my oscilloscope on Low mode, on all the other modes no PWM was detected.
For Night Shots, please see the video.
Runtime & Heat
One minor annoyance with the proximity sensor is it’s made testing runtimes very difficult because even in High the light will shut off after 1 minute when it detects an obstruction doesn’t move. The white surfaces of my test rig reflect light well and make this feature turn the light off, and not step down. So I improvised and used a dark room with the light testing sensor about 3 feet away.
Olight lists turbo as lasting for 4 minutes on the Mini 2, and as you can see from my graph that lines up very well with what I saw, you only get top output for a minute before it steps down to 29% relative output over the next 3 minutes. After that it runs for 208 minutes (Exactly what the manual says) before stepping down 2 more times. Total runtime was 4:20:00. LVP on the battery was 2.75V. Max temp I saw during this time was 54C at 1:45, but during the bulk of the runtime the light ran about 41C. I also ran a runtime on medium and got numbers that were within 2% of Olight’s claimed runtime. I have every reason to believe Olight is telling the truth here.
UI
The UI on the Warrior Mini 2 is the same that’s was on the Olight original Mini. It has 2 buttons for operation, first the two stage tail switch which is the more tactical operation, and then the standard silicone button up front for normal uses. It follows Olights basic UI for the most part.
When you half press the tail button, you get medium in configuration 1, and then turbo 1750 lumens when you full press. This is in configuration 1, In configuration 2 the tail switch goes to turbo on half press and strobe on full press.
UI is similar to other Olights but with some differences. Long press from Off to go to moon light mode, Double click to go to Turbo, and Triple click to go to strobe.There the front eswitch is mostly used as a mode switch but can be used to turn the light on and off from off as well.
The proximity sensor on the Warrior Mini 2 is the first time they have got it right in my opinion and I have not wanted to disable or remove it to make the light better. What they did right was to give the programming the ability to step the light down to safe outputs and temps if the lens is obstructed, but then step back up the light to its previous level when that obstruction is removed. It’s super simple, but no previous Olights that I have reviewed with proximity sensors have worked this way. The sensor is also unable to be disabled on this light from what I can tell. One minor annoyance with the proximity sensor is it’s made testing runtimes very difficult because even in High the light will shut off after 1 minute when it detects an obstruction.
I would be a fool` for not mentioning that the Warrior Mini 2 has a lockout mode after what happened with the original Warrior Mini. I am sure Olight would like me to mention you should use lockout when carrying this light in your pocket. The manual does mention to lock the light if it’s left unused or carried to avoid accidental activation. To enable lockout hold the front button for about 3 seconds, when off, moonlight will turn on and then off to let you know it’s activated. The same will deactivate it. You can’t mechanically unscrew the light to stop any parasitic drain on the light, the light will work if any threads are engaged in the head of it.
Recharging
Nothing new to report on the recharging front with the Warrior Mini 2. It comes with Olights newest MCC 2A charging system which is faster and denoted with the red ring inside. The magnetic charging system is convenient and easy but does require a proprietary battery (3500mAh in this case) and the Warrior Mini 2 is no different. The proprietary Olight battery goes with the positive terminal facing the head in this light though which isn’t always the case. This battery doesn’t have a plastic ring that stands proud and can be charged in a conventional charger like the Vapcel S4 Plus, or various Xtar chargers I have reviewed in the past. I did test the capacity of the included 3500mAh battery at 3398mAh so a little short of the rating but not too bad.
I saw total charging time take 2:35:00, and as usually my charging monitoring system doesn’t like the drops in current that the MCC chargers do so my graph is incomplete. Max charge rate I saw was 1.3A at 1:16:00 mark. Once full the battery measured 4.2145V. LVP was measured at 2.75V.
Pro’s
I like that you can mount the clip either near the front or the rear of the light but you pay in overall length.
Glass Lens = No melted lens issues
Proximity sensor here means the light isn’t going to melt clothing or damage itself, and the programming here is good
I couldn’t get the light to come on with stuff in my pocket on accident via the rear contacts.
New carry option with the ability to mount the clip on the rear of the light, and new retention options.
Con’s
Longer than the Warrior Mini, which makes it less appealing to EDC in my opinion, but it’s safer to carry too.
Still cool white only options
Name, I would have called this the Warrior Mini Pro to mirror what Olights done with the Baton line.
Conclusion
So if you follow this channel and I hope that you do, you will know I have done 2 previous videos on the previous model light, the Warrior Mini. Overall I liked the light but it had a few issues, that occurred when the light came on accidentally while in people pockets for various reasons. This resulted in melted lenses and a few melted pieces of clothing. Well with the Warrior Mini 2, Olight solved that problem by using a glass lens and installing a proximity sensor, and I think their implementation here of those is good.
On past Olight models, I have not been a fan of the proximity sensor, but on the Warrior Mini 2 I think they got the programming right to where it provides added protection so you don’t melt your clothing or burn yourself if the light comes on accidentally, but still let’s the light be useable since when the obstruction is removed from the lens the light goes back to its original brightness.
I wouldn’t have called this light the Warrior Mini 2, and instead called it the Warrior Mini Pro because it’s s similar upgrade on what Olight did with the S2R Baton II and Baton Pro, where output was increased as well as overall length. You don’t notice the brightness change much on the Warrior Mini 2 but the increase in length is noticeable, if you choose to EDC.
Overall the Warrior Mini 2 is a nice light, and a good upgrade over the original with more performance, and more importantly it fixes the flaws in the original light with the added proximity sensor. This makes for a better flashlight thats much safer to use. I just wish it wouldn’t have grown in length as much as it did.
So if you have made it this far you might be considering picking up this light, and if you are the flashsale that starts tonight June 17th will be the best time to pick up the light during Olights Flash sale and introduction of the Warrior Mini 2.
Sale Details
You have 3 colors of Warrior Mini 2 available on the sale. Black and Tan for $67.46 and Mountain Sky for $71.21. For about $4 more you can get a bundle with the I3T mountain sky edition too.
Odins are back in Black and gray for $118 and $125 respectively. There are bundle deals with Obulbs and the new Olantern Mini’s too.
Olantern Mini is being released for the first time in Black and Red for 25% off $44.96 and has a bundle option for the I1R 2 in Desert Tan.
There are also Mega Packs and Free tiers too to get free products or save more. Everyone who buys something will get a free Fathers day Multitool too.
Today I have the Astrolux WP1 LEP flashlight. It’s capable of 250,000 candela, and 480 lumens out of the included 21700 Liion battery and it’s UI is a control ring. If you have seen my review of the Jetbeam RRT M1X Raptor you might notice a few differences more on that further on in my review. Thanks to Banggood for sending this light to me and providing a discount for my viewers.
The Astrolux WP1 comes in a large plastic case with a handle, on the front is a large sicker showing the light and listing a few headlining stats. On the back is another sticker showing a runtime chart and links to various social media platforms.
As far as accessories the light comes with an unbranded 5000mAh, 21700mAh battery with MicroUSB recharging onboard, A basic lanyard, an extras bag with 2 red orings, and spare tail cap, manual and a basic holster.
Construction
Astrolux brought out 2 LEP style flashlights earlier in 2021 that appear to mirror the Jetbeam RRT M1X and M2S WP-RX, in physical appearance and closely in performance with the main difference being the engraving on the body. I suspect the parent manufacturer for Astrolux is Jetbeam. The anodizing Jetbeam useses is a somewhat distinct gray in the flashlight industry, and it’s being used here as well. Side by side they look the same anodizing wize.
Starting at the tail you have a forward click mechanical switch and 2 tails where you can attach a lanyard. It will tail stand but it’s not very stable. There is minimal knurling on the tail and body tube that add some grip. Threads are square cut, nicely greased and anodized.
You do have a rubber tactical ring which is nice to allow you to cigar grip the light if you wish. The body tube has flats milled in for the labels and a little added grip. The body tube is also removable from the head, but not reversible. I was able to swap around the head, body, and tail from the Jetbeam RRT M1X as well. The orings on the WP1 are the same distinct red color as the Jetbeam.
The head features the rotating ring controls, with a total of 5 detents that are just over 180 degrees in total movement. They feel ok, not super crisp but not mushy either. I like rotary control on a light like this, they are simple and they work great with gloves on which is important this time of year. The bezel of the light is non removable. It does stand proud of the “lens” and the cuts in the side allow for some light to leak when head down.
Size & Weight
I measured the length at 158.3mm, minimum diameter at 24mm on the flats of the body, and maximum diameter of 36.7mm on the control ring. Weight with the supplied battery is 230g. The light is IPX8 Water rated. Here are few photos of similar lights or competitors that I own.
Retention
Retention options with the WP1 are the included lanyard which can be attached at the tail cap and then the holster. The holster has a velcro front cover and is made with a neoprene lined ballistic nylon. On the rear it has a belt loop that’s attached with a button and velcro.
Emitter & Beam
So instead of an LED, the WP1 uses a LEP or Laser Excited Phosphor. Astrolux calls this the WP-T2 LEP (Same as Jetbeam). LEP’s work by using a blue laser emitter on a layer of phosphor to create a “whitish” beam that is then sent through a convex lens.
The result is a beam that’s extremely concentrated. At 8ft it’s less than a 5 inch circle, it also has basically no spill like your traditional flashlight does. This concentrated beam does spread out a little at distance but it’s not as much and my night shots show that. When I compare it to my Jetbeam RRT M1X the beam here is larger, in shorter distances, but still quite small by LED flashlight standards. The tint here definitely has a blueish tint to it. There was no visible PWM to the eye or camera.
(Astrolux on the Left, Jetbeam on the Right)
Heat & Runtime
I expected that this light would produce more heat because of how intense it was but it doesn’t Maximum heat I saw was about 36C during testing, and that’s a regulated temp. With the smaller body it does get about 4 degrees warmer than the larger Jetbeam model. It does seem to have a timed stepdown, to 40% relative output after 3 minutes. Compared with other LED based throwers I have this is good, given the other LED based throwers generally produce a lot more heat.
Total runtime starting on high with the included fully charged 5000mAh battery was 5:14:00 with several step downs along the way. After 12 minutes your running at about 30% relative output but you can bump back up manually. When the light shut off I measured LVP at 2.974v. You don’t need a high output battery for this light either with the maximum amperage requirement I measured under 3A. So since this light is using a non proprietary button top protected battery (Long in length) you can choose based off of capacity rather then performance.
UI
The UI here is simple with the rotary switch at the front. It’s 5 position switch with detents at every point, total rotation is just over 180 degrees. Starting from the left most detent and working clockwise you have low, medium, high, strobe, SOS. The switch at the rear is a your on and off control without a momentary mode as it’s a forward clicky switch. Strobe is very fast here, almost to the point of it not being useful as a strobe.
Recharging
Recharging here is accomplished with the included unbranded (My guess is it’s the same battery Jetbeam supplies with their lights) 5000mAh 21700 battery. The battery itself has microUSB built into it, with a small LED at the positive side. Red when charging, green when charged. I would have loved to see USB-C instead here, especially on a premium light. It took a lengthy 7:31:00 to fully charge this battery which is quite slow, the fastest charge rate I saw was .75A, and it only decreased from there for the remaining 6 hours. Fully charged the battery measured 4.206V.
My recommendation would be to use your own charger like the Vapcell S4 Plus or Xtar VC4SL and charge at a more reasonable rate. This battery can very safely handle a 2A charge rate and that will cut the charge time to more than half. I tested the capacity of this battery with my VapCell S4 Plus charger at 4719mAh.
Pro’s & Con’s
Pro
Simple Name
Good size for in the hand use & filters are available to make the LEP more practical for more tasks
The control ring is easy to use especially with gloves
Beam here is wider and slightly more practical.
Con’s
Strobe is too fast
Wish it came with the optional diffusers to make it more practical
Not inexpensive.
LEP tint isn’t great, very cool white.
Conclusion
Given this lights apparent similarity with it’s sibling Jetbeams cousins, I would say go with whichever you can find the best deal on. Banggood is known for it’s coupons so it might end up being the Astrolux versions. From a physical and performance stand point I can’t tell a lot of difference. I don’t have both to do direct comparisons on but from reading in the forums and looking at them, and comparing the Astrolux WP1 to my Jetbeam RRT M1X Raptor I think they are likely the same.
The big difference between the two models are their size of head and a bit of styling. The Astrolux WP1 here is a much smaller design thats easier to fit in the hand
While LEP’s are really fun, and the performance is incredible, I struggle to find many uses for them in general. The hot spot here is a bit larger then my other LEP’s which makes it better, but realistically this isn’t something most people need and still quite small with no spill. It does work well for that smaller hand held search light application, signaling, and possibly on a hunting rifle at lower settings or with filters but this isn’t something you would want to take camping or be super useful in a power outage. That said it has pretty solid performance, and a LEP is something every flashlight obsessed individual should have in their collection.
What would happen if you took an AA Lumintop Tool and made the body out of TurboGlow instead of metal? Well that’s what we basically have here with the Lumintop Gift-G1 a flashlight where most of the light is made out of TurboGlow and copper. It’s available in a number of colors and has both Cree and Nichia emitter options too. Thanks to Lumintop for sending this to me to review. It’s a fun light so let’s take a closer look.
The Gift-G1 comes in a small cardboard box with minimal information on it, on the back you have the emitter chosen and the body color of the light. Inside accessories include the light itself, yellow lanyard, 2 spare orings. A glow ring and 14500 battery are both optional. No pocket clip is included with the light, more on that in a minute.
Construction
The Gift-G1 is made from TuboGlow with an internal aluminum sleeve for electrical conductivity, and at the head, the pill is made from raw copper. TurboGlow if you don’t know is the premium solid glow in the dark material. It has a much longer glow life then normal glow in the dark material. While there are several color choices available, especially with the Gift-G1 such as Lava, Red, Rainbow, Pink, Purple, Blue, and Green, I went with green because it’s the brightest color that lasts the longest.
The tail cap has a semi translucent black button inside and it has RGB LED’s underneath. These LED’s come on when you have a liion battery (14500) in the light, so you get a neat effect on the sides of the LED’s slowly fading between Red, Blue, and Green.
Internally the parts are the same as the AA Tool, and interchangeable if you have both lights. There is an aluminum tube under the TurboGlow for conductivity. At the head of the light there is a exposed raw copper pill with light engraving of the Lumintop name, and model number. It’s a nice functional heat emitter too.
Lastly at the front the front bezel is TurboGlow and easily unscrews to expose the TIR style optic. This exposes the MCPCB. This makes the light very easily modded if you wanted to do an emitter swap.
Size & Weight
I measured the length at 88mm, minimum width on the body at 19.21mm, diameter at the head at 21mm. Diameter of the glow ring is 30mm. Weight with the light, 800mAh Keeppower 14500, and Reylight Lan/Pineapple clip is 70g. The light is IP68 rated.
Retention
The Gift-G1 comes with a yellow lanyard as the only factory supplied retention option, that can be attached via an optional anti roll ring/cigar grip ring. This works if that’s how you want to carry the light like this, but for me if I am going to EDC a light I need a pocket clip, so I went through my lights to see what I had that might work, and I found that the clip from my Reylight Lan/Pineapples V3+ work decently well here, You basically get the entire cap section sticking up out of your pocket (20.5mm) which is a bit much for me, especially when running a 14500 and having the tail cap light up but it’s still better than no pocket clip.
I should note, with a clip like I had, I had more then one person stop me and said the light in my pocket was on when in fact it was just the tail cap LED’s or TurboGlow glowing. So it did draw some attention to itself.
LED & Beam Shots
The Gift G1 here is available with a Cree XP-G3 LED in cool white, or a Nichia 219C LED in Neutral white which is what I choose. It can be powered off of a AA or 14500 battery. I will include a chat here showing the claimed outputs for each emitter and battery combination.
I found the beam pattern to be nice for EDC, It’s got a medium large hot center with a large dim spill, good for general shorter range and medium range tasks good for maybe 200ft max. One quick note about TurboGlow is it really lasts a lot longer than your traditional GITD material. With this light when you use it, you get light leakage around the front of the light so it continuously charges it. It makes for a lot of fun, kids love it. I found no visible PWM here to the eye or camera.
Heat & Runtime
As mentioned before the light will run from 2 different power sources, either a AA 1.5v battery or a 14500 3.7V battery. You get the best performance and tail cap LED’s only if you run with the Liion 14500 but I did test both battery types.
With the 14500 the light stepped down from 100% relative output after 2 minutes and then ran at 55% relative output and declined in a slow manner. To me the curve looks unregulated. Total runtime was 1:10:00 but after this the light staid on in it’s firefly mode for about 2.5 additional hours. Maximum heat I saw was 48C at the 20 minute mark. The exposed copper does a nice job here with heat dissipation and adds some style points too. The light does have LVP.
I did my AA test with a Amazon Basics High Capacity NiMH battery. These have proven to be good performance in the past, and here we saw a very flat output curve maintaining 98% relative output for 2:12 minutes. Heat here was minimal and I saw the peak being 36C at the end of the runtime.
UI
The UI here is simple, it’s a 4 mode light, starting at the lowest mode. Once on, you can half press the mechanical button to go up in modes. There is a strobe mode, to access that, once the light is on, click give it a half press 6 times to get to strobe.
There is memory when the light is off for 3 seconds this will memorize the setting and the light will come back on to that desired setting. That said my light has a firmware bug, and this only works with a 1.5v battery, if I use the 14500 Liion, memory mode doens’t work. Lumintop confirmed that they are aware and plan to fix it on the next batch of lights.
Pro’s
Fun
Choice of Body colors and Emitter options
Good beam profile for EDC
Con’s
No clip is included, but there are options on the market that fit.
The glow ring isn’t included and without it or a clip it leaves a gap on the body of the light.
Memory mode firmware bug.
Conclusion
The fun with the Gift-G1 is the TurboGlow body, it’s availability in several colors, and the LED’s in the tail cap that change color when using a 14500 battery. Inside it’s basically a Lumintop Tool which is a good EDC style light. For me the let down was no pocket clip, a must on a light this size if I am going to EDC it but luckily the clip from my Reylight Pineapple fit to make it more usable on a daily basis for me.
I think this would make a great gift, a nice addition to a flasaholics collection since there are very few lights made from so much TurboGlow or a gift for a child (kind of expensive) to get a kid into the hobby if you like.
Today I have a review of something special from Thrunite, a flashlight that has a giggle factor for really anyone. It’s the Thrunite TN42 V2. It’s a mighty search light featuring 4x 21700 batteries, USB-C charging, and an impressive 4848 lumens from an Luminus SBT90.2 LED. Thanks to Thrunite for sending this out to me to review this beast of a light.
Get the Thrunite TN42 V2 on Amazon and Save $89 by using my link https://amzn.to/3olu4qB and clicking the on screen coupon until 5/18/21
Packaging & Accessories
The large TN42 comes packaged in a large Thrunite style brown cardboard box with very minimal information on the exterior. ON the inside the light is nicely secured inside a bag and surrounded with foam. Accessories include a bag of spares with extra orings, port covers and a spare button. You get a shoulder strap that attaches right in front of the button and on the rear tail cap with clips, 4x high performance 4000mAh 21700 batteries, and an AC USB-C charger. The charger has an attractive texture on it, with foldable US plugs, but feels quite light. It says it’s capable of 5V DC 5A.
Construction
The light is made from Aluminum and is hard anodized in a smooth semi gloss black. Fit and finish here is as good as I have seen from Thrunite. The tail cap has 3 winglets with 2 openings in each, just large enough to fit paracord in it which I plan to make into a wrist strap since one didn’t come with the light. While it looks like a 2 piece design it doesn’t unscrew so I suspect it’s glued.
The body tube has blocks milled into it for style and grip. Not a lot of either in my opinion but it does the job decently well. There is a large oring at the base of the threads that create a very tight fit. Threads are square cut and nicely greased. Mine had 2 slightly damaged areas but I don’t think this is what makes it somewhat difficult to unscrew. The battery carrier has large diameter single springs at the base and an inner aluminum brace to keep the cells from moving around.
Inside the head is a simple brass contact ring, the light has batteries in parallel so it will run with just 1 battery or all 4. On the exterior of the head you have milling for heat dissipation, on the front you have the larger electronic button with the LED power indicator in the middle. The button has very little play and a good feel for an eswitch. On the back you have the silicon port cover for the USB-C charging port. It’s nicely recessed and stays out of the way.
The light then grows substantially in diameter to fit the large smooth and deep reflector. The LED is centered well but has plenty of room around it before the reflector starts. The lens is antireflective coated glass and is slightly protected by a bezel with light crenulations allowing light to spill out. Markings are quite minimal on the light which I like, Just the model name on the front bezel and then the ROHS, FC, CE and SN on the back. On mine Kerning on the serial number could be improved.
Size and Weight
This is a big boy light, while not the longest I own, it’s does have the largest reflector and front diameter. Length I measured 191mm, Diameter of the body at 60mm, maximum diameter of the head is 104mm, or 4.1”. So it makes a baseball or a 50 BMG look pretty small when placed on the front reflector. Weight with the batteries installed came in at 959g, or 33.84oz or 2.1 lbs. Weight without batteries was 648g. The light is IPX8 water rated, and it’s too big to really test in my sink.
Some comparison with some other Lights.
Thrunite TN42 V2 on the Left, Astrolux FT03S on the Right.
Retention
Your retention options here are limited from the factory. The light comes with a shoulder strap that clips into the front of the light above the button and rear tail cap. The front mount is kind of unique in how it mounts, it’s also close to the button but doesn’t interfere. While I am not typically a wrist strap person I think one here would be nice just do to the sheer size of the light and to add a bit more security when holding it. So I will build one with paracord. Let me know if you know of any good tutorials for this.
LED & Beam Shots
The TN42 V2 is using the Luminus SBT 90.2 LED in 5700k with a CRI of 70. This LED is 3V on a single die with a large physical size. It combines high output with high lumens which makes for very high output and far throwing flashlights and in the TN42 V2 that’s exactly what you get. The beam profile that results on the TN42 V2 is a quite small hotspot, a small corona, and a large area of a dim spill. At a couple hundred feet you get a little bit of a donut shape in the very center but this isn’t super noticeable.
Official output specs
There was no noticeable PWM with this light.
Heat & Runtime
Thrunite lists Turbo 4848 lumens, as lasting for 125 second before stepping down and in my tests it lasted 120 seconds before really starting the ramp down, so pretty close. At 145 seconds it was down to it’s steady 40% of relative output, an estimated 1737 lumens. It maintains this for 2:30:00 before declining down to firefly mode over the next 30 minutes. It will run in firefly for about 2:20:00 until low voltage protection kicks in at 2.89V. Total runtime from turbo to LVP was 5:16:00. FL1 was more like 2:42:00. Maximum heat I saw was at 2 places, First at 51C at 2:20 and then again at the end of output at 2:30:00.
I will throw up another graph here of the relative outputs comparing all 4 batteries to 1 battery so you can see the runtime differences. Realize that the outputs here are not identical but similar.
UI
The UI here is simple and the same as many other Thrunite lights. From Off Long press to go to firefly mode. Once on just short press to turn off. Once on, a long press on the button will cycle the light through the 3 main modes and a short press will turn it off. Double click to go to turbo, and triple click to go to fast strobe. The light does have memory for the main 3 modes.
Recharging & Power
The TN42 V2 uses 4x 4000mAh 21700 sized batteries in a parallel connection. While the batteries that are provided are of the proprietary nature, with positive and negative on the same end of the battery they are not required here. Any button top 21700 thats the correct length will work on this light. Because the light is using batteries in a parallel connection the batteries should be married to the light for safety.
The included charger is light weight but seems to work just fine over the USB-C connection. I tested with it and a 45w USB-C charger from Aukey and got the same charging time for both. Charging from LVP at 2.89V to full at 4.18V with all for took 8 hours in my testing. Max charging rate I saw was 1.85A, and it will charge via USB-C to C or USB-C PD. While charging the light will work in Firefly and low modes.
The LED in the center of the button is a power level indicator both when using the light and while charging. Double check the manual for the color codes that are being used here.
Pro’s
Giggle Factor
Standard button top 21700 batteries work here.
Massive amount of Light at a long distance, very useable beam with the spill too
Con’s
Very large light
Expensive
I would have liked to see a small bag included to protect the light when not in use and for storage.
Conclusion
The Thrunite TN42 V2 has the giggle factor, both in terms of performance and size. It really creates a massive amount of light, with both the spill and long distance. No other LED light I have comes close. The 2 LEP lights I have have a more focused beam but no where near the number of lumens. I have other high lumen lights that create a ton of flood but no where near the distance. My Astrolux FT03S which has the same LED as the TN42 V2 has doesn’t throw as far or is quite as focused.
While the TN42 V2 is big it’s really the best optimized SBT 90.2 light I have seen and it gets solid life out of the 4x 21700 batteries. It’s impressive both to flashaholics and civilians. While scouting out locations to film my night shots I had people come from the other side of the lake to check this thing out because they couldn’t believe it.
The TN42 V2 isn’t going to be for everyone due to it’s size and price but if your budget allows, you won’t regret the purchase here. The light definitely would be useful as a search light if you have a lot of land, need to spot animal threats, or for search and rescue tasks. I can definitely recommend it!
Thrunite is running a Coupon till at least 5/18/2021 to save about $80 off the cost of this light. No coupon code needed so if your thinning about this one it’s best to order now to get the best deal.
What if I told you could get S35VN blade steel for under $50? That’s what I have here with the LA Police Gear TBFK. S35VN is considered a premium powdered USA made blade steel and typically found on knives more than 2X the cost. I am going to call this a version 2 model because some changes have been made over the version that was first released a few years ago. So let’s take a look and see if the rest of the knife holds up. Thanks to LA Police Gear for reaching out and seeing if I was interested in taking a look at some of their gear.
Packaging is very simple, it’s your cardboard tray style box that other manufactures use. The knife was wrapped in plastic inside and had a generous coat of oil. It’s a pretty generic box that looks like it could be used for multiple models, but on the back there is a sticker that has all the details telling you the model name and number, finish style, handle color and SKU.
Size & Weight & Comparison
Unopened length I measured at 4.5”, Opened length at 8”. Cutting edge at 3.4”. Blade stock at 0.13”. Overall thickness at 0.58” give or take with the tapered scales. Weight is 5oz so this is definitely on the heavy side. Here are a few comparisons with other common knives.
The Good
Let’s talk about materials here because that’s what caught my eye and really is the big value here. As I mentioned in the intro this knife is using S35VN for the blade steel. Through the years a few youtubers have tested it and it does appear to be genuine S35VN. On my knife it came shaving sharp from the factory and has maintained that edge fairly well although I think the heat treat might be a little soft based on my cardboard cutting performance. That said it stopped up nice and sharp again with just a few passes.
The modified drop point blade here is flat ground about ¾ up the knife blade. The sharpened edge was symmetrical as well. The knife comes in 2 versions, a satin blade and a blackwash blade that I have here. Scales are all the same black G10. The G10 has a little texture to it and is 3D contoured. It fits the steel liners here fairly well but there are few areas on my knife where they are not perfect. Overall the materials to value ratio is outstanding.
One of the improvements on the version 2 of this knife is that it’s been switched from a tip down carry position to a tip up, The result is a knife thats super deep carry which you know is important to me. The clip here is long and does a good job of being secure in the pocket. It is right hand carry only, sorry lefties.
In my medium sized hands it’s good, the jimping on the back of the blade spine is in the perfect spot, I do get a small amount of a hot spot by where the clip flares out when using it in my right hand but I don’t think many people will be bothered by that. The 3D contoured scales do take up more room in the pocket but fit nicely in hand.
The Bad
Let’s talk about the action here I would label it ok, keep that price point in mind. This is as it came to me, I have been using the knife for about a month, and carried it a few weeks during that time. It started off a bit stiff but has gotten looser over time. It’s a bit gritty and could benefit from being taken apart and cleaned. I did put a drop of oil on it and this improved things a bit. Even with the I was expecting more given this knife is on bearings. As is I couldn’t tell you if it was washers or bearings.
Even thought it has a strong detent, and the flipper is large it flips pretty well and I have not complaints there. The flipper does have some jimping on it which I like on a blade this size. When I do go ahead and open it up to clean I will probably try to drill out the steel liners and reduce the weight here.
My knife has a bit of an early lockup I would say about 40% engagement of the liner lock or so. That’s room for it to wear in
The Ugly
The Thumbstuds
I don’t care for the thumb studs here. While the tip up carry eliminates the issue the first generation had of having them get snagging in the pocket I still think they are unnecessary since this knife flips pretty well. If you are going to have thumb studs anyway, I think they could be smaller.
The Branding
I am not a fan of the branding on this knife, the LAPG logo is kind of large and very visible when the knife is closed. The TBFK name is an acronym for “The Best F***ing Knife, and I think that’s a stretch. V1 of this knife had issues, which they have made some changes, so if it was the best and you changed it to make it better was it ever the best? It also doesn’t roll off the tongue very nicely for me.
Since the knife did change, I really do think LA Police gear needs to update the photos on their website to reflect these changers. While they do make note in the description of the relocated pocket clip and removal of the lanyard tube, that relies on people reading. Updated and accurate pictures are a must for ecommerce.
Conclusion
I have mixed feelings on the LA Police Gear TBFK V2 Knife. Admittedly I have become a bit more of a knife snob in recent times but I still see merit and value here. The overall value here is quite good. I can’t think of another knife that offers S35VN blade steel and G10 in this size for under $50. Even if the heat treat here might be a little soft that’s still a fantastic value.
That said the knife has some issues and its action is only ok and it’s fairly heavy. I wouldn’t be surprised if the profit margins here are less than your more typical $50 knife, and I suppose they have room to do that since they are selling it directly not through other dealers. I think the thumb studs are unnecessary and the branding just isn’t for me but those are not deal killers.
The value here is quite high, and the overall knife is decent. Other than being a bit large and heavy there isn’t anything that would prevent me from carrying this knife daily. So if you’re looking to try out a more premium steel or needing a good knife under $50 to try out a super steel, I can recommend this, but don’t expect it to compare to the fit and finish of knives over the $75+ range with lesser steels.
Today I am taking a look at a new Lantern and video fill light from Wuben with the F5. It can produce 3 tints, at 3 different brightness levels each, up to 500 lumens. It has an internal 5200mAh battery that can power the light and also be used to charge your devices. Thanks to Wuben for sending this to me to review and take a look at.
Pick up the Wuben F5 at https://bit.ly/3xwOYqY and get 10% off by using the code CD10F5LR at checkout.
Packaging & Accessories
The Wuben F5 packaging is a nice box with a photo of the light and it’s lumens and battery size at the front. On the back you get a few more stats about the light and the box seals.
Included accessories is a rubberized lanyard, USB-A to C charging cable, and a metal 2 way S binder. The manual is usable but could use some polish by a native English speaker.
Construction
The F5 is made from plastic all around. The build quality feels solid, with the front diffuser feeling a little hollow. The front panel is domed and acts as a diffuser for the approximately 90 LED’s underneath. The sides and back panel are all one piece and available in a dark green or black color.
Each side of the light has a feature, with the top having 4 LED power and locator LED’s. On the left hand side when looking straight on you have the port cover for the USB-C input, and USB-A output ports. Opposite that you have the 3 buttons to control the light, on/off, and up/down buttons. On the bottom you have a ¼ 20 brass grommet to connect into for mounting or for use on a camera. On the back you have a raised circle that features a fairly strong magnet inside that easily supports the lights weight to mount on metal surfaces. Around that is a hinged metal ring with a fairly stiff hinge. You can use this as a small kickstand to prop up the light or to put your finger through to hold the light in a more secure way. One corner is drilled to accept the included lanyard.
Retention
As mentioned previously there is the included rubberized wrist strap that attaches at the corner of the light. On the back there is the magnetic ring that supports the weight of the light well in any position on a variety of ferris surfaces. There is also that metal ring and stiff hinge acting like a kickstand or finger hold.
Size & Weight
I measured the size at 78.8mm by 84.6mm by 33.7mm. I measured weight at 206.5 grams without the lanyard. The light is IP64 rated. So it’s dustproof and rated for submersion upto 1 meter. The light does not float.
LED & Beam
There is no mention of exact emitters that are in use here but I can tell you there are 3 tints in this lantern, 3000k, 4500k, and 5700k. I can’t say exactly what CRI is here but my guess is somewhere in the 70-80 CRI, so pretty standard. There are a total of 30 emitters the 3000k and 5700k tints, 60 in total. For the neutral white mode the light actually runs both emitters at the same time. The beam is very even and diffused thanks to the frosted lens/diffuser on the top of the light.
Exact outputs here vary based on the tint being used but Low ranges from 7-10 lumens, Medium 120-140 lumens, high 430 to 500 lumens with step downs from 230 to 300.
There is some PWM here, especially in the lower output modes. I can’t see it with my eye but I can with my scope. The images here are from the warmer 3000k mode.
Runtime & Heat
Runtimes on the F5 are quite good, I did my runtime tests with a full 5200mAh internal battery on each color mode, in the top brightness. All 3 exceeded Wubens runtime numbers with warm white being 11:25:00, Neutral white and cool white both at 10:09:00.
All 3 tints sustained theirs for about 8 minutes before stepping down to about 65% relative output. Basically this is a great light for long sustained outputs, perfect for that lantern application. Heat was really not worth talking about here, the sides and back stayed at room temp and only the front diffuser slightly heated up to be just warm.
UI
To turn the light on or off it’s a quick press on the center on/off/mode button. Wuben mentions stepless dimming here, and I don’t want anyone to get confused, this light does have steps, it’s not a light with ramping. That said the changes between modes are a soft fade. You have a plus minus button to adjust brightness in 3 steps. To change tint’s once on it’s a quick double press. The order it goes is cool white, neutral white, warm white.
The battery indicators on the side also have what Wuben calls a Breathing LIght, I would call this a locator function. The lights fade in and out slowly to help you locate light in the dark. Useful for if your camping or trying to find it in a bag. This can be turned on or off if you triple click the central button with the light off. There is a lockout mode as well if you press that center button 4 times.
Recharging
The Wuben F5 has a 5200mAh lithium ion battery inside. It’s non user serviceable. On one side of the light it as a large port cover that’s covering the USB-C port for charging, and a USB-A port to use it as a powerbank. There are 4 LED’s on the side that give you charge status when charging and discharging. These values are a little different depending on the mode so make sure you consult the manual for the exact.
For charging the light does support USB-C to C which is great to see, and in my tests took 3:22:24 to charge to full. Max charge rate I saw was 1.7A.
As a powerbank I ran a discharge test at 2A, 5V which is the maximum it can output and it did this for 1:31:00. Capacity after conversion was measured at 3039mAh. So not the most efficient circuit here.
Pro’s
3 Built in Tint options with every light
Long runtimes for a pretty compact package
Charges via USB-C to C
Can be used as a powerbank
Strong Magnet, ¼ 20 grommet, and finger ring retention options
Con’s
Non user serviceable battery
Only 180 degrees of light instead of 360.
Conclusion
Lanterns are not the most exciting light in your collection but possibly one of the most useful. The Wuben F5 is up there in my opinion with the BLF LT1 I looked at last year. It’s smaller and doesn’t output in 360 degrees like a true lantern does, but it has a host of other features that make it useful for both the enthusiast and general user.
The ability to run all 3 tints at 3 brightness levels really is great, for me I will definitely leave it in warm or neutral tints. The light is nice and diffused too.
I feel like the size and weight here are right. As much as I love the BLF LTF, it’s big, and heavy, the Wuben F5 is a reasonable size here and has more output/battery life then lanterns from larger brands and for less overall cost.
If you don’t have a lantern in your go bag, I would strongly recommend one. This would be a great addition to that tornado, hurricane, earthquake or general power outage situation since you can use it to provide 10 hours of light on high, or 20 hours on medium, and use it as a powerbank to keep your phone topped off. Safe to say I am a fan and I do recommend it.
Today I am taking a look at a preproduction sample of the Nitecore MH11. This is the basic, budget model for Nitecore in their MH series, and they advertise it as the least expensive 1000 lumen Nitecore model available today. That said it still comes with an 18650 battery and has onboard USB-C charging or it can be ran with 2x CR123 or 2X 16340. Thanks to Nitecore for sending this to me to take a look at along with this Nitecore Tiki in blue. I previously reviewed the green glow in the dark models so ill include a link to that below.
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Packaging & Accessories
The light I received didn’t come in a box, since it wasn’t printed yet, but I will include a picture of what it looks like. My light came with a USB A to C cable, 2 extra orings, hand lanyard and a pocket clip. I believe the retail light will also come with a basic holster.
Construction
The MH11 is made from aluminum and anodized in a hard black finish. It appears to be the same finish as the MH12S I reviewed recently. The overall design is simpler than recent Nitecores, a cost cutting measure I would assume to make machining time quicker. At the tail cap you have a single large mechanical on off button on the tail that servers as the on/off switch and mode button. It’s flanked by wings that can protect it but also server as attachment points for the lanyard. It does tail stand either when on or off but isn’t the most stable.
Inside there is a dual spring in the tail cap, and threads are anodized, and ACME cut. The clip only attaches at the rear of the light. Knurling on the body is pretty standard diamond shaped, fairly knocked down, so the light isn’t super grippy. It does have 2 flats milled on the sides with the branding and model number laser engraved.
On my sample the flats don’t line up with the head, but then again the head doesn’t have any buttons on it so is there really a top or bottom? The light does disassemble into 3 pieces. The head itself has a very simple heat diffuser at the front thats shallow. The USB charging port cover runs horizontally across the light. It’s well concealed and didn’t pop loose easily. The front has a crenulated bezel thats shallow. It has a glass lens with a smooth and deep reflector.
Retention
The light comes with a branded lanyard that seems to be standard on most Nitecore lights. It also comes with a pocket clip that attaches at the rear of the light only. It’s reasonably deep carry with about 13.5mm of the light sticking out of pocket. The bad news it has a very large step off the body of the light without a ramp. It will catch a pocket every single time and requires 2 hands to put back in. Not a great design in my opinion..
Size & Weight
The length is 128mm, max diameter is 24mm, minimum diameter is 22.5mm. Weight with the battery and clip is 110.8g. The light is IPX68 waterproof, and water resistant to 1 meter. Here it is when compared with a few other lights.
LED & Beam
The NItecore MH11 is running a Cree XP-L2 V6 LED in cool white, no exact tint data is given but it’s pretty typical. The beam does have tint shift across it and it’s not a super smooth beam. The center is hot and intense, with a bit of yellow/green as you move into the spill, and some blue on the outer fringes.
Official Outputs are the following. There is quite a jump between high and turbo.
Turbo 1000 Lumens
High 230 Lumens
Mid 50 Lumens
Low 3 Lumens
My scope didn’t measure any PWM here which was a bit surprising.
Heat & Runtime
I did my testing with the included 2600mAh 18650 battery. The light will also run on 2x CR123a or 2x 16340’s but you loose the ability to recharge the smaller batteries. With the 18650 Turbo is good for 4:20 before the light steps down. It will then run for 1:48:00 at about the 50% relative output. At the 2 hour mark it’s running on it’s low mode of 3 lumens for another 3:10:00 before LVP kicks in at 2.907v. Max temp I saw was 46C at 3:45.
I do wish they would have included a larger capacity battery. 2600mAh is pretty low capacity and larger capacity batteries are minimal additional cost.
UI
The UI here is very simple, the light has one button and it serves as your on/off as well as mode button. It’s a mechanical button that takes a decent amount of force to use. The light has memory that remembers where you left off, so it’s possible to turn it on in turbo if that’s what you last used. It’s a simple 4 mode light and it goes from lowest to highest output and restarts at the top. You can half press the mode button to cycle between modes once the light is on. There are not shortcuts or blinking modes.
Recharging
You can recharge this light via the onboard USB-C if your using the included 18650 battery. The battery itself is a standard button top cell, so other brands will work here, nothing is proprietary. Charging does work via USB-C to C which is nice to see on a budget light. Charging here is a little strange, with it not being a constant current charging algorithm like we see in most other things. Periodically the charging rate here drops to zero every few seconds. My charging graph shows this but it’s not complete since as the cell charges it tirkcs my charger. Real charging time is closer to 3.25 hour. Max charging speed I saw was about 1.2A at the beginning of the charge. The battery measured 4.102v when full.
You do have an LED on the side of the head of the light that glows blue when charging and slowly fades in and out. When the light is full this goes solid. This same side LED acts as a low voltage warning and comes on when the light is needing recharged.
Pro’s
No proprietary battery
Can take CR123a, as well as 16340 batteries.
Simple interface, for a basic light.
Con’s
Beam has some artifacts.
2600mAh battery is included.
Pocket clip has way to large of step, it catches pants every time.
Conclusion
The MH11 is an interesting offering from Nitecore. As a light it’s basic but does everything most people need from a flashlight. The build quality is still good, but it does feel like a more basic design and the anodizing feels the same as Nitecores more premium models. The UI is basic, but functional. While I appreciate the use of USB-C for charging and it’s C to C compatible.
While I don’t always comment on price I kind of have to here, given how this light is being marketed. The MH11 is more affordable than many Nitecore models for it’s output, it’s still more expensive than other well regarded brands that I have reviewed here that offer budget lights.
It’s hard for me to recommend it for that reason if budget is one of your top priorities. That said if you were looking for a solid, basic light, from a company that’s been in the LED flashlight industry since the beginning this would be a decent place to start. It also has a very simple interface that anyone could understand which is a big selling point sometimes.
