Category: Reviews

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Acebeam E70 Brass Review (95+ CRI, GT-FC40 LED, 21700)

Today I am taking a look at the Acebeam E70 in Brass. This is one of the many variants of the Acebeam E70 that have been made, in many different materials, a few colors, and with LED choices. The one I have here has a new special high CRI large format LED which I will talk about here later on in the review. Acebeam sent this one to me as a gift, but I decided I would do a review for you guys too as this one is pretty cool I think.

 

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https://youtu.be/fy3vVufv5WQ

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Pickup the Acebeam E70 at https://bit.ly/Acebeam 

 

Packaging and Accessories

A few notes on the versions of this light, you can go for a black anodized aluminum version, as well as Copper, Stainless Steel, a bead blasted or rainbow titanium and a polished brass which I have here. 

The packaging is a nice cardboard white box, with clear plastic window showing the light itself. In the case of the brass light it came sealed in a vacuum sealed bag, which I opened before I took pictures (a cardinal sin of flashlight reviewing). Acebeam sells this light with and without a battery, but everything else is included. A lanyard, manual, warranty card, and warning card, a Lanyard, extra orings, a felt drawstring bag, and a USB cable allowing you to use to charge the optional battery and use it as a powerbank.

 

Construction

Instead of covering everything on the design here I want to hit the highlights while you look at all the photos I have taken of the light. So somethings to note, the tail is flat so it tail stands well, on my version the electronic button in the rear is brass but this is normally stainless steel on the aluminum version.

The light uses a dual tube design, and they have chosen to mill out areas of the body tube to see the inner anodized aluminum blue tube. This creates a pretty unique look for a production light. It’s also a dirt trap, so probably not the light I would choose to go camping with but fun none the less. The body tube also has a place for 6 small tritium tubes milled, which isn’t seen commonly on production lights.

Threads are square cut and work well, although I had minor issues starting them on this light repeatedly. The head itself has holes drilled for style mainly and I like this look. The bezel is does unscrew and is quite sharp around the outer edges. The lens is mineral glass and the reflector has an orange peel. The internal connection points such as the springs are gold plated. 

 

Size & Weight

The E70 is a medium sized 21700 light, with length coming in at a measured 128mm in length, 30.2mm in diameter at the head. Weight with the battery was quite heavy on this brass model at 284.8g or 10.04oz. 

 

Retention

The light features a standard clip design with 2 screws, so your popular aftermarket clips will fit here. Kind of unique are the 3 predrilled locations for the clip. The stock clip is good but a little thin in my opinion for this lights weight. The front bezel is also pretty sharp, so I would personally think twice about EDCing this one inside a pants pocket, but it works great in a bag instead. 

LED & Beam

There are 3 LED options available in most but not all of the E70 varients. The base models use a Cree XHP 70.2 LED in either 5000k or 6500k at 70 CRI. Optionally on many but not all of the models there is a new Getian GT-FC40 LED at 4500k producing 95 CRI which is what I have. This required a driver change as well as this LED runs off of 12V instead of the 6V for the Cree. You take a decrease in performance though with the High CRI option at 2800 lumens instead of the 4000 the XHP 70.2 produces. 

The beam is a hot round center with some tint shift a rosy corona out into the spill. At distances this is mostly a flood light with the orange peel reflector and the massive doamless LED. It’s more pleasant to use in my opinion then a mule style flood since it does have a bit of optic but it’s not a thrower. Quite nice for normal tasks. 

 

Heat and Runtimes

I did my runtime testing with the optional Acebeam branded 5000mAh battery. Output on the GT-FC40 LED in my light here is somewhere between 2500-3000 lumens in turbo, and step down came at 1 minute and seems timed. It then ran at 35% relative output for 90 minutes, stepping down a few more times for total output at a little over 2 hours. While this is producing a lot of light, it’s certainly not the most efficient LED or driver combination I have seen. It also produces a significant amount of heat, that builds over time with this light in a pretty linear fashion. You are going to want gloves or turn it down for sustained use, max heat was at 1:30:00 at a crazy 84.9C (185 F). 

 

UI

The UI here took me a few times to get used to, but the more I use it, it’s become a good UI that builds in an element of safety. To turn the light on you can double press the tail switch to turn the light on in low, the light does have memory so if it’s recent it will turn on in the last mode used excluding turbo. Once on, long press and hold to advance into the 4 available modes. Double press to turbo, triple to strobe. The light also has moon light mode which you can access from off by long pressing, as well as lockout. Lastly to turn off it’s a simple quick press to turn off. This seems to be a change over previous versions of the E70.

 

Recharging

Charging is not built into this light. Acebeam sells an optional 21700 battery for an additional cost that has a USB-C plug on it. Recharging this cell took  2:07:00 to charge. You can use standard cells inside the E70, but you need to use a longer cell, like something that’s protected or a tall button top. 

 

Conclusion

My conclusion on the Acebeam E70 is it’s a nice higher end model of production flashlight with a lot of nice features that have been well thought out. I love that Acebeam continues to offer LED tint choices, and on this model different versions of LED’s. For an application like this I will take the GT-FC40 LED every day over a XHP 70.2, especially when I can get a warmer tint and high CRI. 

 

The brass and copper versions of this light are quite heavy with a battery, so if you were planning to use this as an EDC I would get one of the lighter versions like Titanium or even the Aluminum which also happens to be the most economical. I like that they included a standard clip configuration here so if you want you can further customize the light. I wish they offered a smooth bezel in the box too, this would make EDC in a front pocket a more pleasant experience. That said this is a bigger light and not one you will probably find me EDCing in my pants pocket often as a result. I will use it often for going on walks, etc. 

I can recommend this one without reservations, especially with the GT-FC40 emitter, it’s got a wonderful tint in my opinion and produces enough lumens for most tasks. That said it does get quite hot, but this isn’t because of the LED choice itself. 

 

Pickup the Acebeam E70 at https://bit.ly/Acebeam

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Olight Seeker 3 Pro Review & October Flash Sale (Obag Sport, Open Pro, i3T Breast Cancer Charity Sale)

Today’s video is going to cover a mini review of the new Olight Seeker 3 Pro, as well as the new Obag, an Ember Open Pro, and a special edition Olight i5T to support the breast cancer foundation. This video is in support of Olights October flash sale which starts October 28th at 8pm EST. As usual this is the best time to grab the new items and some of your favorites for the largest discount, and help support my channel at the same time, a link to the sale is in the description. Thanks to Olight for sending me these things to take a look at.

 

 

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Olight Flash Sale Link: https://bit.ly/OlightLQ

10% OFF Coupon code: LQ10 Coupon Code will work during sales on non-sale listings only.

 

Seeker 3 Pro Review

Instead of doing a full review on the Seeker 3 Pro like I might normally, I am going to cover the main differences between the older Seeker 2 Pro and the new Seeker 3 Pro. The two largest changes are the move from a triple LED arrangement in the head to a quad, and the new button/interface. 

I will insert a few pictures here of the packaging and how it arrives and everything it comes with. Notable for me, is that new Orange Case on my Orange light. This thing is bright and looks great! Build quality on the light is up to Olight’s standards, with no notable flaws. The new light is just slightly longer then the Seeker 2 Pro, and 2 grams heavier. 

 

Performance

The Seeker 3 Pro is using 4x Osram P9 LED in 6000-7000k cool white tint. This is the same LED that the Seekr 2 Pro, used but one more. The beam is a bit more floody, but with the increase in LED, you see an increase in output in turbo, from 3000 lumens to 4200 lumens, without  a decrease in runtimes. The other modes, Moon, Low, Medium, High, are all the same as the Seeker 2 Pro, making the mode spacing here good, but turbo being a large bump from high, 1200 to 4200 lumens. Throw increase slightly by 30M to 250M with that increased power as well.

 

 

UI

Instead of the normal button that you are used to on other Olights, they have chosen to go with a sudo rotary switch on the Seeker 3 Pro, this was originally an X9R feature. The bezel of the switch now has a dial that spins, and you still have the brightness and battery check found on either side of the switch.

So a couple of things you need to know on how this works. First you do still have the traditional Olight UI here with a small twist being auto lockout. The light will automatically lock itself out after 30 second of non use. To unlock you have to press the button and spin the wheel to wake up the light, and then press the button to turn it on. There is no way to disable this. SO once on you can press and hold to go through your normal moon, low, medium, and high outputs, double click to go to Turbo, and triple click to go to strobe. You also have the ability to spin the dial left and right to step the light up or down in very small steps to get it at a more precise output. It takes a full 5 resolution of the dial to go from the lowest to highest outputs (non turbo). On a light like this I feel like it’s a little clunky, and auto lockout takes additional time. I am not a fan out the automatic lockout here, and I wish I could disable it.

 

The light also has a proximity sensor, but new is the ability to override the stepdown if you want. The proximity sensor works the same as it did on the Warrior Mini 2, meaning when on in turbo it will step down when it sense it gets too close to something, but also step up when moved away. The override here is easy to use too, once stepped down, just double click the button to override it. These two combined makes the proximity sensor really useful as a safety feature without harming the output of the light if you know what your doing. 

 

Recharging

Recharging is similar to recent Olights, The light uses a customized Olight 21700 5000mAh battery with onboard recharging via the magnetic MCC charging system. Charge time from Empty at 3.03V to full at 4.18V takes about 3.5 hours, and follows a typical olight charging curve that my meter can’t fully record. There is no Ldock with this model although I suspect the one from the Seeker 2 Pro will work here just fine. 

 

Conclusion

My conclusion on the Seeker 3 Pro is a larger upgrade in performance than I was expecting. That said it’s not game changing. Turbo is noticeably brighter but that’s it in terms of performance as the throw is very similar, and beam shape is similar as well, lower modes are the same as the Seeker 2 Pro.

I don’t care for the dial here and the way it works for it’s infant adjustments. It’s slow and I would prefer a ramping UI instead, at least the standard Olight UI still works. Auto lockout is basically a deal breaker for me, as I almost fumble with it every time I try to turn it on, this should get better as I use it but I wish I could disable it. The proximity sensor is a winner here, with the ability to override it if you want, this improves the lights safety, but doesn’t interfere with how it operates. 

 

If you have a Seeker 2 Pro, this isn’t a necessary upgrade, and I would say if your a first time buyer, pick whichever you can get at the best price or in the color/material combination you like best. 

 

Extras and Sale info

So the sale starts October 28th at 8pm ESt and runs till midnight on October 29th. Everyone who logs in during the flash sale will receive an OD Green i3E for free, just pay shipping. I have the black i3E here, as the green were not available yet at the time of filming. It’s a nice but basic AAA keychain light. 

 

Olight Flash Sale Link: https://bit.ly/OlightLQ

10% OFF Coupon code: LQ10 Coupon Code will work during sales on non-sale listings only.

 

Obag Sport

Next up is OBag Sport here – This is a free gift if your order is between $129 and $228, and additionally you get $10 coupon good until the end of November. This is a heavier weight nylon bag, that has padded draw strings, handles, and is water resistant. It has a nice Olight logo down one side. This is an upgrade over those free bags given away at trade shows. It would be nice for taking to the gym or pool, a light weight bag when camping etc. Olight also has some other free gifts if you spend more such as the new Olantern Classic, and a Seeker 3 in OD Green.

 

Open Pro – Ember Edition

Next up is the New Open Pro in a limited edition Ember color. This is my first time handling the Open Pro and I think it’s an improvement on the Open 2, It’s a little bit narrower in diameter which I like, and the LED light is in the clip, and out the top you have a green laser. Everything is run with the bolt on the pen which is pretty cool. Ink on this is a ball point cartridge instead of the gel based ink that caused problems on the Open 2. It’s still the same size cartridge though so finding aftermarket options is a little more tricky but they are available. This is a limited edition with it’s splash of orange color and will be available during the flash sale for $56. If you want to see a more in depth review of the Open Pro, let me know in the comments below.

 

i3T Breast Cancer Awareness Edition

Last up that I have is a Pink i3T charity sale to support the Breast Cancer Foundation in the US. It’s a cool pink and white camo anodizing on this light, and best of all it’s only $16.46 during this flash sale. I can see mine going to my wife for sure, this would make a great gift for any of the ladies in your life. It’s a simple AAA light making 180 lumens with a simple interface. I would recommend putting a NiHM or Lithium primary in it to prevent any corrosion in the future though. 

Olight has other bundle deals available during the sale of a bunch of existing products, many available in Orange for the first time, like the Fryer, the Drever in both Orange and White, Purple Perun 2, and the all new Warrior 3. So make sure you check out my link in the description below to the Olight Store website so you can check out everything and make a purchase to see the biggest discount on new stuff for October. Don’t forget the sale starts Oct 28th at 8pm CST. 

 

Olight Flash Sale Link: https://bit.ly/OlightLQ

10% OFF Coupon code: LQ10 Coupon Code will work during sales on non-sale listings only.

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Olight Drever Review (Olight’s First Knife Design, N690, Made by Kizer, 20% Off Coupon)

So Olight made a knife, well they released a knife, and no it doesn’t contain a flashlight inside. You might have seen I made a post about this here on my Youtube community and Facebook channel page when it was announced. I have had one now for about a week and have been carrying it pretty much exclusively so here are my quick thoughts. Thanks to Olight for sending this to me to share with you. 

 

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Save 20% on the Olight Drever by using the code LQ20 at checkout at https://bit.ly/OlightLQ 

Background Info

A few things you should know, Olight didn’t actually design or manufacture this knife, it’s a collaboration with Kizer knives, a well known Chinese knife manufacturer, and it was designed by Yue Don a Kizer knife designer. This should help ease the concerns of some of the Olight faithful on Facebook who were concerned that Olight should stick to making flashlights, etc.

 

Full disclosure I know Yue, and he has provided me a bit of inside info to share. Kizer is the only folding knife manufacturer in China to have ISO14001 (Environmental Standard), ISO9000 (Quality Standard) certified. The coatings used on the Drever are FDA certified so it’s safe to use with food. 

 

Packaging & Accessories

Olight does packaging well, and the knife is no different. You have a nice true to size color photo of the light on the front slip cover and a full set of details on the back. Inside you a nice nylon and velcro slip with Oknife embroidered on it and felt inside. Inside you have a sleeve for the copper colored challenge coin. It has heft to it, but I don’t think it’s actual copper. Olight seems to be getting into the challenge coin with a few models recently. The other accessories include a gray microfiber cloth and the manual with some care directions. 

 

Stats & Versions & Size Comparison

The knife itself weights 3.42oz, thanks to skeletonized scales, and comes in at 4.5” in length with a 3.49” blade, so just under my city/states legal limit. I measure it as 0.52” thick so not the thinnest knife in the world but I haven’t had an issue with the smoother contoured G10 scales in my pocket or hand. So it’s a large knife blade wise, but not too bad in the pocket.

The knife is using Bohler’s N690 with a full flat grind, which is a new steel for me, I have read up on it online and for a conventionally produced steel (Not powered metallurgy) people seem to like it. It will take a very fine edge, and hold it reasonably well, some suggest slightly better then 154CM or VG10, while being very stainless, so it should make a decent food prep steel. 

Out of the box it came pretty sharp, and I have no need to sharpen it currently, but I am excited to sharpen and put a mirror edge on it with my TS Prof Kadet sharpening system. For the price range here, I think it’s a solid choice and should be easy to sharpen. It’s a liner lock, made of 3CR13 Stainless with the scales being G10. 

There are two versions, available currently, a Blackwash blade, with blue pivot and clip, or the limited edition blue scales, pivot, clip and stonewashed satin blade that I have here. Each knife is serialized on the blade on the show side. 

Here are a few photos of how it compares to other knives in this price range/size that I have. 

 

How it feels in my hands and pocket

Ergonomically I like how it fits in my medium sized hands when open and closed. I have no obvious hotspots when gripped firmly. When open you can choke up easily with the large finger choil on the blade, or hold entirely on the handle. I could see if you had large hands, it might be a little small.

 

In my pocket 

As far as how it carries, I really like they went with a deep carry clip, it’s right side, tip up carry only on this model. The flipper tab hasn’t grabbed my hand or other stuff in my pocket. I wouldn’t mind a bit more tension on the clip or texture on the G10 to make it just slightly more secure in my pocket. 

Action

The knife is running on bearings, and has 2 main deployment methods, you have the short flipper tab with jimping on the tab or thumb studs on both sides. I found the initial detent to be very positive, and it taking a decent amount of force to get going with the flipper, that said it’s still easy to open, just more force than normal. Hopefully this will break in more. 

I am able to deploy the thumb studs easily. Thumb studs are not my favorite way to deploy most knives but it works here very well. It floats nicely  when opening, and after some use is easily drops shut without any wrist action, hard to film with the angle I have here. Centering when closed is spot on, and there is no blade play when open. I found the lockbar easy to get to with the G10 contouring as well as the texture on the lock bar. 

Conclusion

I think Olight was smart here to partner with Kizer to produce and design a really nice knife from day 1. This allows Olight to keep up their reputation for making quality products and designs. The experience with production and design here are obvious in my opinion. As competitive as the knife world is, especially at this price point, it was a good business decision. Quality is quite good, centering was spot on and the knife is solid when deployed. Hopefully it’s a partnership that will continue and we see other designs in the future. 

 

I won’t lie, I like this knife, this price range has a lot of competition but this is a serious contender. For me it fits well in the hand and pocket, the full flat ground sheepsfoot blade, performs well too. This should be a blade shape that’s easy for anyone to sharpen on any system or stone too. 

I don’t have much to say here in terms of negatives for the MSRP price of $69.95 with a sale price of $52.46. The detent is pretty strong when using the flipper tab. The pocket clip is tip up, right hand carry only, which some people may not like. The blue scales make for a lot of blue on the knife, and I wish they were a bit darker in color. 

 

The good news is the Black Drever is in stock currently. Hopefully the success here means we will get some special edition colors (Orange scales?), and maybe other knife designs in the future.

 

If you do decide to pick one up make sure you use my code LQ20 to save 20% off the regular price. That code is good anytime on regularly priced flashlights and accessories too. https://bit.ly/OlightLQ

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Thrunite Catapult Mini Review (680 Lumens, 89,000 Candela, 18350)

Today I have a shortened review of the new Thrunite Catapult Mini, a handheld thrower running an Osram LED and a 18350 battery. While not super bright in number off lumens, the light really throws well for its very small size. Thanks to Thrunite for sending this to me to take a quick look at and review.

 

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Get the Thrunite Catapult Mini on Amazon (Save 20% by clicking the coupon on the page)

Gray https://amzn.to/3ma0JAD

Black https://amzn.to/3yEHWAA

ThruNite Store: https://amzn.to/37zrsOj

 

Accessories

Packaging is the standard Thrunite box. Here is a photo of all the accessories the light comes with. It’s nice to see them include the spare button and port covers still, that’s not something every manufacture is still doing in 2021. 

 

Short overview of construction

The Catapult mini is available in 2 colors black and gray, and I have gray here. It’s made from 6061 T6 aluminum and nicely anodized. Despite it’s small size, they didn’t skimp out on machining quality. The light separates into 3 pieces easily, and it does stand on it’s flat, non magnetic tail. The body tube has the squares milled into it like we saw on the Thrunite TT20 but deeper, and it’s non reversible. 

The body head section uses the standard Thrunite button with LED indicator in the center, and USB-C charging port opposite with a silicone cover. The head itself is the largest part of the light, with a small flat bezel. The bezel does unscrew easily to remove the lens and optic, which should make this light fairly easy to mod if you wish. 

The Lens itself is covered by glass, with a plastic TIR style optic below. This optic reminds me of some of them I have seen on some of my larger Acebeams as well, it helps diffuse the beam a bit but still create that nice hot center and throw. 

 

Comparison with other lights

LED & Beam

The light is using an Osram KW.CSLNM1.TG in Cool white, but to my eyes it’s definitely more neutral than cold. The beam is extremely focused, it has the slightest amount of spill that fades very smoothly without artifacts. It’s a great beam profile for a mini thrower. No PWM was observed on any of the 5 modes.

 

Outputs are listed officially at 

  • Turbo – 680 Lumens
  • High – 235 Lumens
  • Medium – 96 Lumens
  • Low – 21 Lumens
  • Firefly – 0.5 Lumens
  • Strobe – 680 Lumens
  • 89,600 Candela

Night Shots

Heat and Runtime

Turbo on this light lasted for 1 minute before step down, maximum temp was reached at 1:30 at 35C so it gets warm pretty quickly but not in the danger zone. From there the light steps down to about 35% relative output where it will run for 2 hours before running in firefly mode for another 30 minutes or so. Total runtime was 2:30:00. Nothing here surprising. 

 

UI & Recharge

The UI here is standard Thrunite, 3 main modes with firefly at the bottom, and turbo at the top with memory for the main modes. Long press from off to access firefly, double click to access turbo, triple click to access strobe. 

Recharging is accomplished with the onboard USB-C port. It is incompatible with C to C charging or PD charging and requires an A to C charging cable that’s supplied. This is disappointing in 2021. Charging is on the conservative time, it took 2 hours even to charge the included 1100mAh 18350 battery from LVP at 3.035V to full at 4.145v. Total charge rate was about 0.6A. While charging you can use all modes on the light.

One quick note about the battery, it has the positive and negative terminal on the one end of the battery like you see with many brands these days. However in this case you don’t actually need it to use or charge the battery in the light. That’s great news. I tested with a flat top unprotected Keeppower battery and had no issues.

Conclusion

Pocket thrower flashlights seem to be the popular type this year. I found the Thrunite Catapult Mini to be a good performer, especially for it’s size. While not the brightest in terms of lumens it really does throw impressively. I seem to say this a lot but non flashlight people will be impressed with how far you can reach with such a small light. I remember using a 6D Cell Maglight as a kid because it could go so far, it was huge and weighed a ton. This little light outperforms it in all ways, at a pretty affordable price. 

 

I do wish Thrunite would go back to offering more Neutral and even Warm LED tints when they launch new products. They were one of the only manufactures doing this but have seemed to get away from it recently. That said I would call the tint here pretty neutral, so about perfect despite the box saying cool white. 

 

I like the Thrunite Catapult Mini and can recommend it. Everyone needs a pocket thrower, and this is a good choice thats a lot of fun, and comes in a color other then black, if you want that. Thrunite has good customer support too should you ever need it, and best yet it’s on sale for around the $40 price point at the time of filming this video. So if your interested please check the link in the description to see where you can purchase it at. 

 

Get the Thrunite Catapult Mini on Amazon (Save 20% by clicking the coupon on the page)

Gray https://amzn.to/3ma0JAD

Black https://amzn.to/3yEHWAA

ThruNite Store: https://amzn.to/37zrsOj

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Olight Warrior Mini 2 Fire (Titanium) And X9R Cell Review

If you follow my channel you know I have reviewed the Original Olight Warrior Mini, and it’s past issues. You will also know I reviewed it’s successor the Olight Warrior Mini 2 just last month. Today I am looking at one of the special edition “Four Elements” versions of the Olight Warrior Mini 2 made of titanium, that will be on Olights July flash sale starting on July 26th at 8pm Eastern time. This is their biggest sale of the year with upto 50% off select models, and some new stuff. The Titanium Warrior Mini 2 will sell out fast, so let’s take a quick look at how these differ from the aluminum models and take a quick look at another new Olight product the X9R Cell. Thanks to Olight for sending me this stuff.

See my full review of the Aluminum Olight Warrior Mini 2 https://liquidretro.net/2021/06/17/olight-warrior-mini-2-review-1750-lumens-listening-to-user-feedback/

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Olight Flash Sale Link: https://bit.ly/OlightLiquidRetro

 

10% OFF Coupon code: LQ10 Coupon Code will work during sales on non-sale listings only.

 

X9R Cell

I want to take a very quick look at the X9R Cell, a very small keychain light that’s modeled off of Olight’s much larger X9R. You can get an X9R Cell for free by logging into your Olight account, and it will be added to your cart. This thing is tiny, only 35mm in length, and 11mm at the head, and weights only 4.5g. It’s rated for 2.5 lumens for an impressive 30 hours. It’s using a very small CR425 customized battery that Olight is giving away free replacements till the end of 2023. 

On that battery it sounds like Olight has shortened the positive contact pin to make it customized. Rechargeable versions of this battery can be found online, I am interested to see if people will be able to modify those to work here. My bet is it will work.

Olight has thought about the design here, when the head is screwed all the way onto the light, it’s off. You have to unscrew the light slightly to use it, this is nice because you are less likely to loose the head when it’s on your keychain since it can be tight. It’s a fun little novelty light that works, worth adding to your order, or probably paying the shipping if your collector.

 

Titanium Warrior Mini 2

Versions

On to the Titanium Warrior Mini 2. Only 4000 of each of the 4 colors will be made worldwide according to Olight and you can buy them individually or as a set. The first color is Fire which is what I have here, it’s anodized in a rainbow finish and has flames, as well as the word fire milled into the body tube section. Water is anodized in a dark blue, great looking color and similarly has the word water and waves milled into the light. Air is a silver titanium finish and had Air milled into it, Lastly is Earth, in a brown/bronze anodizing with a geometric shape and the word earth milled in. To be honest the words and symbols on the light I could do without, it feels a like Yu-Gi-Oh ish to me, especially since each comes with their own unique “trading card” and that’s not something I have ever been into. 

Packaging & Accessories

The lights come with the an upgraded packaging that Olight does with their special editions, with updated pictures and text, and no specs on the back. 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, Warrior trading card, as well as a manual. 

Construction

The biggest difference in the construction of the lights is the material, with it being titanium here and the different colors of titanium that are offered. Each different color gets a different body texture milled into the light to suit the name and color. I am going to say neither are as grippy as the original aluminum model. 

Other small differences are under the clip it has a slightly raised surface to take the wear. I like this modification. All other markings are the same, parts are interchangeable between the different models as well.

 

Size and Weight 

Diameters and lengths are the exact same between the lights, but weights are where things differ. Most thing of titanium as being lighter, which isn’t actually true, it’s stronger for its weight in my applications when compared to aluminum. So the new Warrior Mini 2 in Titanium without a battery but with a clip comes in at 91.9g, where the aluminum light in the same configuration comes in at 70g. So Titanium here is actually 21.9g heavier. This isn’t something I noticed and may partially be down to the milling differences on the body too. 

LED & Beam

There are no changes in the LED, Beam, or runtimes here. Olight’s using a timed stepdown mode so runtimes are the same between the lights as well. 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. On special editions I think having a different LED option would be nice, wouldn’t a warm white be awesome for the “fire” model 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. 

 

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

 

UI

The UI on the Warrior Mini 2 Titanium is the same that’s was on the Olight original Mini 2. 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 works much better than other models with the proximity sensor. 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. 

 

Recharging

Nothing new to report on the recharging front with the Warrior Mini 2. It comes with Olights newest MCC 3A 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. This battery doesn’t have a plastic ring that stands proud and can be charged in a conventional charger.

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.

 

Conclusion

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. I do wish for the special edition here they choose to put in some special edition LED’s too but unfortunately we just get the standard SST40 in Cool white. 

I am glad they have decided to come out with some special editions of this light in titanium, one of my favorite materials. I expect because of that and the limited numbers of production these will sell out fast. While the body milling isn’t my favorite, I do like the anodizing choice here and the price on this flash sale isn’t much higher for Titanium. 

 

Flash Sale

So if you like the colors, the milling, or titanium you will want to be waiting at your computer or phone when this flash sale starts tonight July 26th at 8pm Eastern Time. Remember they have other lights on sale, up to 50% off and a few more new colors and new products like the OPen 2 Pro with a green laser, a new weapon light, and new colors on the X9R, and Olight Warrior Turbo. Remember to use my link in the description below to help support the channel, and if you miss the flash sale you can still save 10% by using my discount code LQ10 on non sale priced items.

Get the Warrior Mini 2 in Titanium and X9R Cell using this Flash Sale Link: https://bit.ly/OlightLiquidRetro

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Lumintop Thor II Review (LEP, 1800M, 18350, 769500 Candella, Turboglow)

Today I have a fun one, with a new LEP light from Lumintop with the THOR. It has a Turboglow ring in the head as well as little viewing windows and a tail cap with colored LED’s. Thanks to Lumintop for sending this to me to look at and review. I will have links to where you can pick it up from them in the description below as well as a coupon code where you can save 21% on this fun LEP light which is nice.

 

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Pickup the Lumintop Thor II (In Aluminum) at https://lumintoplighting.com/products/lumintop-thor-ii-1800-metersthrow-lep-flashlight-154 and use code TPOR2J to save 21% from Sept 30 2021.

 

Link to the Titanium Thor II and use code TPOR2J to save 21% from Sept 30 2021.

https://lumintoplighting.com/products/lumintop-thor-ii-titanium-1800-metersthrow-lep-flashlight-163

 

Packaging & Accessories

I received a retail package, that was Lumintops cardboard box with an oversleve. The outside showed the outline of the light, and the options that were inside on the side. Accessory wise mine was pretty basic, just the light, 18650 extension tube and the basic manual.


Construction

The Thor is available in a couple different material configurations. You have titanium options with 2 different finishes, and an aluminum model with 4 different color options (Black, Grey, Sand, Raw). I have the Grey color here which is the same as what the FW3A came in originally if you have one of those.

As usual let’s start at the tail cap, the light will tail stand, and it has a machined metal mechanical button with the “old” bunny logo. Surrounding it is a clear plastic ring. Under the ring are RGB LED’s that fade to Green, Yellow, Red, and Blue over about 30 seconds. It adds to the fun in my opinion. Below are some tear drop shapes, and a small place for a lanyard to attach. Inside there is a spring.

Depending on which configuration your running there may or may not be a body section. With the titanium version of the light, it includes the 18350 extension, with the aluminum version it’s an add on. If you do opt for it it allows you to run 18650 batteries too. There is a square knurling pattern milled into it for a little style and grip.

The head section is the rest of the light, You have an interesting add on style ring which on my light is gold in color. This features the name and serial number of the light. Fit on mine isn’t great so it spins freely but it’s also completely removable if you wish. The head has a little more of the square milled knurling and then grows for the emitter like a traditional flashlight shape.

 

What’s not so traditional are the little windows that are cut into the bezel, what looks to be preinstalled tritium is actually little vial sized pieces of Turboglow in Red and White. When the light is on, light leaks into these and charges them creating a neat effect that makes the light look really cool when in use and after for a little while. 

The front of the light has a glass lens, underneath is a glow ring around the outside edge of the same Turboglow material. Underneath is a biconvex lens made of plastic, and below that is the emitter. The front of the light comes apart easily, but I don’t recommend it as it’s very hard to get back together without getting dust inside.

Size and Weight

Minimum diameter is 25.6mm, Maximum diameter was 41.5mm. Length in the 18350 configuration is 116mm, with the 18650 extension it’s 148.4mm. Weight in 18350 configuration with a battery inside was 194.4g. Weight with the 18650 tube and battery came in at 233.6g. The light is impact resistant to 1m, and IPX8 water rated.

 

Retention

Not much to say here, the light has a lanyard attachment point in the tail cap. It’s too small for paracord to fit but fine for a split ring and then paracord. No lanyards or holsters come with the light in the box. 

 

Emitter & Beam

The THOR is using a LEP or Laser Excited Phosphor. It’s a technology I have covered in the past but it’s similar to a blue laser shining onto a piece of phosphor to produce white light. In the Thor the tint here is better then my Jetbeam and Astrolux LEP lights, in my opinion because it’s less cool white, and more neutral, almost slightly warm when you look at them side by side. The beam is pretty small with very little spill and this is exactly what you want out of a LEP. While not many lumens it makes up for it with extreme 769,500 Candella, and a 1800m max claimed distance. No PWM is visible during the use of the light. 

 

Heat & Runtime

I tested the light both with 18350 (Keeppower 1100mAh), and an 18650 (Sony VTC6 3000mAh) batteries. With the 18350 runtime at high mode was stable for right at 5 minutes, before taking a stepdown to about 30% relative output that was mostly flat out to 52minutes. Total runtime was 57 minutes, with maximum heat being found at 6 minutes at 42C .

 

With the 18650 it was a very similar story, Turbo lasted the same amount of time, the s tepdown roasted out to 2:45:00, and total runtime ended at 3:07:00. Temps were a a little higher at 51C and peaked near the end of the runtime here. 

https://i.imgur.com/2FqiLAc.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mMfX5jQ.jpg

 

You don’t need a high amperage battery here, as max power draw is only 9W. You do get quite a bit more runtime with an 18650 battery so that’s worth doing if you want/need that. 

 

UI

The UI on the Thor is very simple, it’s an easy 3 mode light with a reverse clicky mechanical button and linear progression from Low to Medium, to High. The light will always turn on in the next mode. The button itself is quite easy to press and change modes by half clicking, almost too easy. There is no flashing or blinking modes, and I can’t find a way to disable to LED’s in the tail cap either if you wanted.

 

Conclusion

This is my favorite LEP light that I have so far, because it’s emitter is a more neutral, almost warm color and it’s performance is great, especially when your running the 18350. That said I would definitely recommend adding the 18650 extension it to your order if you decide to buy this light in aluminum. Really for this price it should be included.

 

I still maintain LEP lights are not super practical, but they are a lot of fun and great for specialized applications. This is a super compact thrower with great performance without the heat limitations that a lot of the smaller LED based throwers have. It’s a step above the other LEP lights that I have tested this year. While I love titanium the increased cost here is hard to justify, my recommendation is to choose aluminum and pick one up. 

 

Don’t forget that coupon code in the description below that Lumintop has given me to save 21% on this light through September 30th 2021. 

Posted on

Nitecore P20iX Review (4000 Lumens, 4 LED, 21700, USB-C)

Today I have a new Quad LED light from Nitecore with the P20iX that produces up to 4000 lumens on a 21700 battery and it features onboard USB-C charging with Tactical and Daily modes. Thanks to Nitecore Store for sending this to me to look at and review. 

 

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Pickup the Nitecore P20iX from NItecoreStore at https://bit.ly/2YTVTKT

 

Packaging & Accessories

Packaging is a step up, with a nice high quality box full of information. Inside the light is packed in foam with all the accessories underneath. It reminds me a bit of how Olight does theirs. Accessories include a branded lanyard, Extra Oring, USB-A to C Charging cable, Pocket clip, CR123A battery adapter, hard plastic belt holster and a Nitecore specific 5000mAh 21700 battery.

 

Construction

Machining on the aluminum light is good here, and the anodizing is high quality. The tail cap has a large off center mechanical on/off button that’s covered with a textured silicone boot. It stands proud making the light unable to tail stand. Your mode switch is a flat, textured area. This is flush, but protected by the outer rim of the tail cap. For me this was harder to find in the dark and hard to actuate with gloves on. 

The body has some tame knurling on it, the pocket clip attaches near basically the middle of the light in either direction. The head does not separate from the body. On the head you have a large antiroll ring to keep the light in place on it’s side. You do have a blue LED that’s built into the side of the light that’s used as a charging indicator, similar to the MH11 I reviewed earlier this year.  The charging port has a large silicone cover and it fits tightly. 

At the front the light has a short bezel that doesn’t stand out from the lens very far, it has 3 protruding areas each with a small ceramic balls in them, I presume for striking glass that law enforcement may use. I believe the bezel is a little different material due to it’s slightly different finish. The lens is glass, and underneath there is a custom quad silver reflective optic for the 4 leds. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length of the light at 140mm. Minimum width on the body at 25.4mm, maximum diameter on the head at 32mm. Weight with the included battery in the light and no other accessories is 191.7g. The light is IPX68 water rated and drop rated to 2M. 

 

Retention

The P20iX has a couple of retention options that come in the package. First is the lanyard which is primarily slip fit over the light or attached to the clip. The clip which is a press fit is fit down pretty low, which leaves a lot of the tail or the head of the light sticking up out of the pocket. This is disappointing to me personally. That said the plastic belt holster that the light comes with does a pretty good job if you want to carry the light on your belt or on a mole vest. The light clips in with the front bezel facing down. 

 

LED & Beam

THe light has 4 Cree XP-L2 V6 Led’s in cool white with a maximum output of 4000 lumens. The tint here is cool white, likely around 6000k or a bit higher. The beam is somewhat compromised in this quad. The hot spot is pretty round but it’s not a smooth transition in the spill and you do get some Cree Rainbow. The very outer edges are a bit rough. That said it’s hard to nice in real world use at distance. 

 

Heat and Runtime

For my Heat and runtime I ran the light with the included 21700 battery. The light will run on 2x CR123 batteries in the included adapter if you wish but you generally get less output and for a shorter time. With the 21700 on turbo the light lasted only 30 second before step down. This was disappointing especially since the heat during this time at least measured externally didn’t amount to much. Step Down was pretty significant as you can see from the graph. As the light continued to run heat pretty quickly increased though up to about 55C, at about 21 minutes. Thermals eventually regulated at about 25C for the duration of the runtime. The light went into it’s lowest mode after about 3 hours of runtime where it continued for another 2hr and 20 minutes for a total runtime of 5:20:00.

I did another runtime graph with comparing runtimes of the 4 highest output modes, Turbo, Highest, High and Medium. The 3 highest don’t have a ton of overall impact on output. Medium ran for considerably longer, a solid 8 hours without stepdown. 

 

UI

The P20iX has 2 modes, a Daily mode which it ships in with 5 individual modes, and then a Tactical mode with 4 individual modes. To switch between them, you turn the light on, press and hold the mode button on the tail and unscrew the light. It will flash Once for Daily, or twice for tactical and then you screw the light back together for it to be remembered.

 

Daily mode is where I am using the light most. In this mode the light starts in the lowest output and goes up with each press of the mode button. It has memory so you can shut the light off and when it comes back on it will be in the previously used mode. This mode has outputs of 2,50,300,850,1700 lumens, and then to get turbo (4000 lumens) you hold the mode button in and it works in a momentary manner. Double click this mode button to go to strobe in momentary. 

 

Tactical mode is similar but it goes from highest output including turbo down, and only has the 4 brightest modes.

 

Recharging

The light features a USB-C port on the side covered by a tightly fitting silicone rubber cover. I used the included 5000mAh 21700 battery to run my charging tests and found total charge time took 3hr and 54 min. Max charge rate I saw was 2A. The light will charge via USB-C PD without issue. While charging the battery in the light, it’s not possible to use the light at the same time. The LED on the side will blink when charging and go solid when charged. When a battery is inserted it will also blink the voltage. 

 

The included battery looks to be custom with a negative terminal on the positive end. It’s a long protected battery with a shallow button top. It fits in my Vapcell S4 Plus charger and works just fine there. Due to that length I wasn’t able to find another battery I had that fit this light

 

Conclusion

This is a pretty nice high power flashlight from Nitecore. I like that it has a pretty practical daily mode, and that it’s not all tactical. It’s an interesting choice to have Turbo be only in momentary in daily too. I do wish Turbo had more runtime before step down though.

 

The clip on belt attachment here works well, and I suspect that or in a bag is how most would carry this light. For me the pocket clip is super impractical due to it being so far down the light, and that’s a disappointment. 

 

I wish the battery was more universal, but this semi proprietary format with the protected batteries and positive and negative terminals on on side of the light seems to be the way most manufactures are going with their 21700 light that have onboard charging. It’s a disappointing industry trend in many enthusiasts minds. To be clear this is an industry thing, not just Nitecore. 


Overall this is a solid light for general purpose and has some nice tactical features without being 100% tactical. I can see this being a good option for many if you don’t mind the cool white LED’s or short turbo runtime.