The Lumintop GT Nano is tiny, it’s modeled off the big BLF GT thrower that took 8 18650 batteries and came with a shoulder strap, the GT Nano looks similar but is smaller than your thumb. So you might be thinking something this small can’t possibly be functional right? Think again.
This light was provided for me for free by Flashlightbrand.com a newer reseller based out of China.
Packaging here is a nice high quality box, and you get a number of accessories. Obviously the light itself, an 80mah button top 10180 battery, the recharger, a very short MicroUSB charging cable, split ring, lanyard and carabiner. There is an optional 10440 tube that you can purchase to run larger battery and more runtime but mine didn’t come with that. The light does come in black aluminum, titanium, and copper version too.
I will note my light didn’t come sealed in a vacuum bag to prevent patina like Lumintop does normally. I asked FlashlightBrand about this and they said they open them up to make sure they are working…… I let them know this is not normal and my light arrived with fingerprints on it and scratches on the tail. All of the studio shots of the lights in the video were taken as the light came out of the box. Hopefully they stop this behavior.
Construction & Design
The Lumintop GT Nano is basically an exact clone as the larger BLF GT but just scaled down here significantly. I am not going into extensive descriptions here as the video and pictures will do it justice. There is a bunny logo on the tail inside the recessed area on the tail. The button here does seem large but that’s just because it’s such a small light. The front bezel does unscrew by hand easily it does have a AR glass lens and smooth deep reflector. Internally the head has just a center post, and the tail has reasonably long spring for the overall size of the light.
Retention
For retention you do have a small lanyard attachment point at the tail. A lanyard and split ring as well as a small keychain carabiner is included here.
Size & Weight
I measured the length at 54mm, max diameter at the head at 24m, and diameter of the body tube at 14mm.
Weight with the battery installed is 1.74oz or 49.4g. The light is IPX8 water rated.
LED & Beam
The GT Nano is running an Osram Flat White emitter the actual model is a CSLNM1.TG quite a mouthful. It’s a great choice here. On my Opple meter measured a CCT of 7289 and CRI of 71. Neither are very surprising.
The beam pattern here isn’t the most beautiful but for what it is it’s ok. You have that very hot small center, and then in the spill there is a notable ring and some minor artifacts further out. It’s no surprise there is PWM here it’s pretty fast, here are some visualizations.
The driver here appears to be unregulated with the manual warning not to exceed 2.4A of draw. With the 10140 battery this isn’t an issue, but if you do buy the 10440 tube make sure you throw a battery of the proper maximum output in or you risk damaging the driver. With the LED under the switch and such a small battery it would be best if you mechanically locked the light out when not in use.
Official Outputs are listed at 450 lumens with a throw up to 300 meters;.
Night Shots can be found in the video version of this review.
Runtime & Heat
With an 80mAh battery in this configuration runtime were never going to be anything super impressive. That said I feel like a maximum useable runtime from turbo of 24 minutes is decent. The brightest of that output lasts for the first 8 minutes as you can see in the graph. The peak in temp was about 38C after about 8 minutes. The brass here does a good job of holding heat. .
I did a second runtime test in stepped mode 3 of 5 so a medium output and it was able to hold the brightest of that mode for 17 minutes before stepping down and ending at about 28 minutes.
UI
The GT Nano is running Narsil M version 1.3. Narsil is kind of old firmware at this point and something I haven’t seen on a light in a few years. It’s nice firmware but kind of complicated with all it’s different configuration options. I won’t go into those but I will link to a chart that explains it.
What you need to know for the GT Nano is it ships in ramping mode. Ramping mode is good, and fast. You can change it to stepped mode if you wish which is how I tested in my runtime graphs but for general operation I prefer ramping. Switching between them is easy, with the light on press and hold for about 3 seconds the light will flash twice pause, and then blink once. It’s easiest to then just let the light exit programming by putting it down for about 45 seconds.
Recharging
The light comes with it’s own charger and it’s neat how it works here. It looks like a lanyard bead with a MicroUSB port on the inside but upon further investigation the end with hole unscrews and you actually unscrew the tail of the light that holds the battery and then screw the side with the USB port into the tail of the light with the battery and your in business. The white plastic dome is the charge indicator here, red charging, green charged. This only works with the 10180 battery, if your running a 10440 you need your own charger. I am using my Vapcell S4 Plus because I can manually select a low charge speed of 250mA.
For an 80mAh battery, you want to charge very slowly, and it does this at 0.09A, so charging here takes about 90 minutes. LVP was measured at 3.33v and full at 4.14V.
Final Thoughts
A lot of tiny flashlights are gimmicks but the Lumintop GT Nano is the real deal. I am frankly quite amazed at how well this actually works. It throws an impressive distance especially for it’s size. Most of the time throwers are larger because that larger head works better for throwers, but here its quite small. That said with an 80ma battery your run times are very short and for that reason it kind of is a gimmick, so for that reason spend the few extra dollars and make sure you get yourself the 10440 tube too so you can increase that runtime.
Today I have one of Thrunite’s newest models and an update to one of my favorites the TV15 V3. It’s a 18650 powered, Cree XHP35.2 general purpose EDC flashlight with onboard charging. Thanks to Thrunite for sending this to me to review. If they have provided me a discount that will be in the description below along with all my social media links to check out.
Pickup the Thrunite TC15 V3 at Amazon https://amzn.to/3uZY8xh (Be careful to select the V3) Use code LBJQKH2I to save an additional 5% until 3/10 on top of the existing 10% click coupon on the page.
Standard Thrunite packaging here that I will let the photos do the descriptive work. While the box does note that a NW emitter is available, it’s not out at the time of review. Accessories that come with the light are the flashlight itself, a Thrunite branded standard 3100mAh 18650 IMR battery, branded lanyard, USB-A to USB-C cable, 2 extra orings, spare USB port cover, pocket clip, nylon holster and assorted paperwork.
Construction and Design
The TC15 V3 looks a lot like the previous TC15 V2. Starting at the tail cap it is mostly flat with a small indent, and non magnetic. Your lanyard attachment point is on the rear. There is no knurling on the light, with only flat areas milled in the tail cap for grip to remove the battery. The body tube has flutes milled into it for style and a bit of grip. As mentioned in the retention section the clip only attaches in the middle of the light and the body tube is not reversible.
Internally there is a spring at the tail, and a solid post in the head. Threads on both ends are square cut, lubricated and anodized. The head has a anti roll ring where the button sits. It’s the same e-button Thrunite has used on many other lights and tolerances are good, no side to side movement. It makes a nice click and requires slightly more force than normal to push. The charging port here is 90 degrees to the right of the button, in a very slim silicone cover that stays out of the way.
The front is one piece, no extra bezel, what bezel is there is smooth. The glass lens is slightly recessed and has AR coating. The reflector has an orange peel and is deep.
Retention
Retention options on the TC15 V3 are pretty typical with one asterisk. Thrunite does include nice branded lanyard that attaches on the tail cap. You also get a branded holster, it’s ok, mine had lots of loose strings and felt kind of thin.
Lastly is the clip on the TC15 V3. It’s changed from being mounted near the tail, to mounting in the middle of the body. It’s a dual direction clip but backwards from how I would carry this light, head down. That means to carry it head down you have to lift your pocket over the rather large bend of the clip. Once you do that it carries pretty well but it’s just not easy to put in the pocket like pretty much every other knife or light with a clip. Oh and for those suggesting you rotate tube so the pocket clip carries more traditionally you can’t. The thread line up but it doesn’t make electrical contact due to a 1mm difference on the head side. Not a fan of this design personally.
Size and Weight
I measured the length of the TC15 V3 at 122.5mm (4.82”), minimum diameter at 23.5mm (0.925”), and maximum diameter at 25.6mm (1”). Weight with the included battery and clip was 134.5g or 4.74oz. The light is IPX8 water rated and 1.5M impact resistant. Here are some comparison shots with similar sized lights you might have. Branding is pretty minimal on this light which is great.
LED & Beam
The TC15 V3 is using a Cree XHP35.2 LED. As of the creation of this video it’s only available in cool white. My unscientific Opple Meter registered this at 7000k in turbo with a CRI of 72 in the center. The beam has tint rainbow, with the beam getting green around the spill. The beam shape is a medium sized hotspot in the center and large amount of spill. This light does have PWM, but I don’t notice it with my eye. I will throw up what the meter shows in medium mode. I measured parasitic drain at an acceptable 47uA.
Thrunite lists the official outputs as the following.
Heat and Runtime
For my runtime tests I measured the % of relative output at the 30 second mark to set what 100% relative output is according to the FL1 Standard then let them run. I did this with the supplied 3100mAh battery fully charged.
Turbo ran for 3 minutes stepping down gradually as heat increased. From here it ran for 1:20:00 before 2 final step downs for a somewhat short total runtime at 1:35:00. Maximum heat was recorded at 1:20:00 at 46C. I then compared Turbo, High, and Medium runtimes and there really is not much difference between Turbo and High runtimes, less than 5 minutes. However medium ran out to 4:10:00. I did test low but didn’t graph it, it clicked in an impressive 58 hours and 17 minutes which is longer than The United claimed runtime.
UI
The UI here is pretty simple. When the light is off, a quick press turns it on in the last mode used (memory), a press and hold lets you cycle through the 3 main modes (Low, Medium, High). When on double press to go to Turbo or Triple Press to go to strobe. When going to turbo or strobe the light does blink to off for a second which isn’t my favorite thing. From off long press to get to firefly mode, to lock/unlock from firefly press and hold to lock.
Battery and Recharging
The TC15 V3 comes with a Thrunite branded 3100mAh IMR battery. This is a standard button top battery which is great to see. The light charges via the USB-C port on the side of the light. It is USB-C to C compatible and USB-C PD compatible. I charged from LVP at 2.94v to full at 4.1v in 2:17:04. It’s worth noting that charging speed here hit 2A almost immediately and continued at this rate for the first hour. Not a ton of light actually hit and hold 2A charging. Make sure you have a high quality power supply though to hit this.
Final Thoughts
The TC15 V3 is mostly a win for me. It’s a nice size, easy user interface, and uses standard batteries with onboard USB-C charging. The pocket clip is what doesn’t make a ton of sense to me, it really should be flipped to the tail for deep carry, or mill the body so you can mount it in either direction. Both would be great solutions and improve the carryability of this light. As is to carry it head down it’s basically a 2 hand operation to put it back into your pocket. Not idea in my opinion.
I do hope we see a NW emitter for the TC15 V3 some day, it’s a personal preference of mine and something Thrunite has been good at in the past. I hope this isn’t a situation of slower sales of NW emitters causing the company to choose not to come out with that option.
So if your looking for a good quality general purpose, non complicated 18650 flashlight with an easy UI and good customer service, look no further than the TC15 V3.
Pickup the Thrunite TC15 V3 at Amazon https://amzn.to/3uZY8xh (Be careful to select the V3) Use code LBJQKH2I to save an additional 5% until 3/10 on top of the existing 10% click coupon on the page.
Thrunite has a new product on the market with the TS2, they are calling it a self-rescue light. I am going to call it a mini lantern. It’s a simple product but well thought out and I think it has a wider appeal then just the flashaholic market. Thanks to Thrunite for sending this to me to look at.
Packaging here is a step up from what Thrunite has done in the past, it’s a white cardboard box with color photos and info, upscale a bit. I will show a picture of everything that comes with this package, but let’s talk in depth about each piece in the next section.
Construction and Details
So the light part of this kit is the small plastic piece with the dome at the top. This plugs in via USB-C on the side of the 21700 battery, and doesn’t use the contact at the top of the cell at all. All power comes from the USB-C connector, the positive terminal isn’t used. The “light” part has a single protruding side where the single power button can be found. I did find the head works on other batteries, I tried a Acebeam 21700 I had with a USB-C on the side and it fit perfectly. Presumably if you had a Female USB-C cable you could plug this in and run indefinitely.
The battery is a standard button top 21700, 5000mah cell coming in at 77.3mm long. Not much to write home here about other then it has a neat power indicator on top that I haven’t seen before. 4 LED lights with a tiny button that you press for 3 seconds to show you the power level. When recharging the battery these go solid green too.
Case and Hanger
The battery and light assembly slide into the plastic tube that it comes with. It stays in place via a magnet at the bottom of the tube. The helps to protect the battery, and server as an attachment point. You can attach a lanyard here, or attach it via the magnet. It’s enough strength to hold on a painted metal surface. Your last mounting option is a magnetic hook that’s magnetic and pretty strong. This would be great for attaching to a bag, clipping to a wire or branch, etc.
Cables
The cable here deserves some attention. It’s a bidirectional cable, with multiple connection types. So you can use it to recharge the cell, just take the light off the battery to expose the USB-C port. Then use the cable via USB-A or remove the cap to expose the USB-C and charge via C to C. You can also use the cable to charge your phone or other device via the USB-C, Apple Lightning, or MicroUSB connections. Total charge time from when the battery was empty to full was 2:07:00.
Size & Weight
Weight with the battery and light comes in at 3.00oz, add in the plastic case for a total of 3.65oz, and then the hook and everything else 4oz.
LED, Beam, and Runtime
No data is given on what LED is inside of this light, but I can tell you it’s 4 warm LEDs under the diffuser which is nice. Official outputs are High at 118 Lumens, for 11 hrs, medium for 40 lumens for 30 hours, low at 5 lumens for 180 hours, and SOS at 118 lumens for 20 hours. I will insert my runtime graphs that show this.
UI
UI here is very simple, the light has 3 modes, and one button. Push for about one second and the light will come on in the low mode. Press and hold to cycle up to medium or high. Double press to go to SOS mode. Single press to shut off.
Conclusion
I like the TS2, while it doesn’t put out a ton of light, it’s a very functional small/light weight lantern of sorts. Like the box says, good for an emergency or rescue situation. I can see putting this in a glovebox in your car, in a go bag for natural disasters, in home or work desk for power outages, or to take camping to hang in a tent. The addition of the plastic sleeve makes it safer but I am not sure it’s quite kid proof since it’s only held in place with a magnet. Speaking of which the magnetic hanger is strong but I could see it coming loose if brushed up hard.
I really like that nothing here is proprietary, I was able to get this working on an Acebeam 21700 battery I have with USB-C on the side. Remember it doesn’t use the batteries traditional contacts like all other flashlights use, it uses the USB-C port for power.
As far as value it may not be the best value on the market, but it’s a unique product that I think a lot of people who watch my videos would find useful. The cable alone is really handy especially when travling to charge a variety of devices or lights. So I can recommend it without reservations. It would make a great stocking stuffer too for the holidays.
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 wanted to share with you 2 special editions that Olight is going to have for sale on their upcoming Valentine’s day Flash Sale tonight. The i5T in Brass, and the OPen2 in blue anodized aluminum. Now you have probably seen lots of gear influencer video’s in the past on other Olight sales, this isn’t one of those videos, but full disclosure Olight did send me these to help promote the sale, and provide an affiliate link which does help support the channel. I have been a long time Open2 and i5T user so let’s talk about the sale and get into the details about both items.
Free Tiers:
1) Over $129 get a FREE i3T Black (MSRP: $19.95)
2) Over $199 get a FREE M1T Plus DT (MSRP: $59.95)
3) Over $299 get a FREE Seeker 2 (MSRP: $109.95)
