Today I have a review of the Thrunite TT10, a tactical light using the Cree XHP 70.2, a 21700 battery, and with onboard MicroUSB charging. Thanks to Thrunite for sending this to me to take a look at. Let’s dive in.
Full Image Gallery: https://imgur.com/a/BVl8EKA
Youtube Version of this Review:
Packaging & Accessories
Packaging is typical of Thrunite, it’s a brown cardboard box, elegant printing of the model name of the light, a wire outline, and then on the sides the emitter tint. Inside the box the light is protected in die cut white foam, and housed in a plastic bag. Accessories include the Thrunite branded protected flattop 21700 5000mAh battery, a microUSB charging cable, manual, holster, extra button covers, and lanyard. The holster is like other Thrunites, decent quality Nylon with a plastic Dring.
Construction
The light is made from aluminum and anodized in a smooth semi gloss black. Starting at the rear, you have the tail which has ample room for the lanyard on each side. In the center you have 2 buttons, a larger mechanical switch that gives you direct access to turbo, and then a smaller square e-switch to give you direct access to strobe. Rear threads are raw, anodized and ACME cut. The light features a dual wall design to make the combination of switch, and tail switches work with the onboard microUSB charging and the inner double springs stout.
The body has a rectangular frag pattern milled into it. All of the edges are nicely rounded and as a result, there isn’t a ton of grip on this light. For a tactical light that’s a little disappointing.
The head has an anti roll ring where the front E switch lives and the MicroUSB charging port, both opposites of each other. The switch is very much like we have seen from other Thrunite models, with a silver metal button surrounded by a silver bezel. It’s low mounted and the button has a LED in the center used for charging indication. Further up the light has minimal heatsinking. The bezel on the TT10 is aluminum and has aggressive and sharp crenulations. While I understand this for a tactical light it would be nice to include a bezel that the user could swap in that’s less aggressive. The bezel is easily removed. Underneath is a anti reflective coated glass lense and a fairly deep orange peel reflector.
Size and Weight | Competition
I measured the overall length of the Thrunite TT10 at 138mm, diameter at it’s maximum at the head is 33mm and minimum on the body at 27mm. Weight with the battery installed 190g.
The Olight Warrior X is similar dimensions to the TT10 but the Olight is running the smaller 18650 battery, different emitter, and a optic designed more for throw. The closest direct competitor I have is probably the Klarus XT21X as its running the same LED, Battery size, and has a similar tactical role. The Klarus has more throw due to the longer smooth reflector vs the smooth more shallow reflector in the Thrunite TT10.
LED | Beamshots | Runtime | Heat | Output
This light is using a cool white Cree XHP 70.2 (70B) LED. A neutral white version is offered as well unfortunately I have the cool white version here. That said this cool white has some green too it when I compare it to my Klarus XT21X and looks more natural then cool. The beam pattern has a large hot center that gradually fades into spill. The light doesn’t have a hard cutoff on the edges and the edges get a bit blue/purple tint.
Thrunite lists the official specs as:
- Turbo 3700 lumens stepping down to 1100 lumens
- High at 1750 lumens stepping down to 1100 lumens
- Medium at 300 lumens
- Low at 28 lumens
- Firefly at ½ lumen.
I will note that other reviewers have not been able to replicate these output numbers, with actual results being 20-30% less then stated on the higher modes. This isn’t common for Thrunite as they typically tend to have results pretty close to what reviewers see. I am in the process of building my own testing rig for output and hopefully I will have something done later this year. Mode spacing could be a little better, it’s a huge jump from 300 lumens in medium to 1715/1100 in high. Once high steps down it’s a little better but I feel like there should be an additional mode in between medium and high.
Overall runtime of the light was just shy of 120 minutes. Turbo is a timed step down after 2 minutes and takes about 30 second to complete going from 3700 lumens to 1100, it’s a gradual and smooth step down at least to my eye. After the light reaches the 1100 lumen mark (about 50% of relative output) it operates here pretty consistently for 115 minutes before low voltage protection kicks in and shuts off the light. I measured LVP at 3.095v.
Heat during my runtimes were about as expected, the light gets warm but not too hot to touch.
- 1 Minute 94F
- 5 Minutes 107F
- 10 Minutes 111F
UI
For a light with 3 switches it really mainly operates with the front e-switch and the 2 rear switches are direct access to tubro and strobe. The front switch is fairly straightforward and the manual does a good job of explaining it. From off, long pressing on the front switch gives you moonlight mode, single press again to turn off. A single press from off starts the light out in the previous used mode (low by default), to increase in brightness long press. You only have access to low, medium, and high. To get to turbo double click, or triple click to strobe. The light also has electronic lockout.
The UI on the tail switch has direct access to turbo mode with the large round mechanical button. It also has direct access to strobe with the smaller rectangle button.
There is no complete mechanical lockout on the light, if you unscrew the tail slightly this just disables the tail switches but not the e-switch upfront. Since the light starts on low hopefully that won’t result any melted holsters or bags.
What would have been nice is to see Thrunite offer a non tactical mode for this light as well, similar to what Klarus did with the XT21X. I think this makes a light designed for a tactical role have a wider appeal to more people.
Recharging
This light does have onboard microUSB charging. The small LED in the front E-Switch serves as a charging indicator, going red when charging and blue when charged. The silicone flap is pretty well secured when closed and sits flush and stays out of the way. Charging speed started and stayed right at 1.96A for the duration of the charge pretty much. That’s nice to see on such a large battery. Overall charging time from LVP to full is right at 2 hours. A full cell measured 4.18v.
Pro’s
- Side switch has a “locator” function that blinks every 4 seconds or so to help you locate it in the dark. This is pretty dim which I prefer.
- Both Cool White and Neutral White LED’s are offered. Cudos to THrunite for continuing to offer both.
- The UI is easy despite there being 3 switches on the light. Not much different than if you already own other Thrunite lights.
Con’s
- Still rocking MicroUSB instead of USB-C for recharging. While the full 2A speed is nice to see it’s time for USB-C to be the standard on new lights in this price category in 2019.
- Not much grip on the body of the light.
- No non tactical UI modes.
Conclusion
The Thrunite TT10 is designed as a tactical light and that shows throughout with emphasis on short duration of high output. I like it’s small size and fit in the hand but wish that it’s grip was a bit more aggressive, especially if you were going to use it with gloves. It’s nice to see a brand offer a tactical light in Neutral white as well. The UI here is not well optimized for the additional buttons and it makes lockout kind of awkward. I really wish Thrunite would have offered a way to switch the light to a non tactical mode so it’s more dual purpose. I find Thrunites name of this light to be a bit confusing as it’s too close to other TT models but is a different function. While Thrunite typically offers a high value I feel like the price of this light is a bit high when compared to it’s peers at current pricing. With a coupon this becomes a better value though.
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