Review: Sunwayman C13R - RCR/18350 XM-L2 U3 rechargeable (pics, beamshots, runtime)

I received the C13R from Sunwayman for the review.

The C13R is a compact light, featuring an XM-L2 U3 emitter powered by a RCR/18350 battery, with micro USB port for charging and electronic switch on the head. It is available in different colorations (grey and black).

The C13R comes in this box.



The content: C13R, lanyard, o-ring, plastic spacer for using RCR without rattling and manual.

The C13R.



The tailcap can tailstand, has several lanyard attachment points and a tripod screw as well.

The head is the bigger part of the light, hosting the big single stage electronic stage switch, and the micro USB port for recharging, covered by a rubber cover.

The XM-L2 Emitter in the smooth reflector. The glass has AR treatment.

Interestingly, the rubber cover gets out of the way rotating instead of lifting upward.

The threads are anodized so physical lockout is possible.

Here with the battery spacer.

The contact point at the head is a raised bottom, so button top and flat top cells will work.

The contact point at the tail is a spring with rather large coils in order to provide physical protection against polarity inversion: if the battery is inserted with the opposite polarity, the coil will not make contact point with the small positive pole of the battery. Note that this will work with batteries with small positive poles; I can see some large flat top positive poles make contact even with the coils.



For those who wonder, I used RCR battery without the plastic sleeve without any problem.
I tried my protected Keeppower 18350 battery in the C13R: the battery will enter in the body but is too long to make the head fully twist. My unprotected Keeppower 18350 works fine.
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UI
Click the switch to turn the light on and off.
The light will turn on at the last used mode. Press and hold the switch to cycle between low, medium, high and turbo, in loop.
Keep pressed the switch when the light is off to turn it on at moonlight mode.
A double click will activate strobe. Keep pressed the switch when in strobe mode to cycle between SOS and beacon.

There’s a LED under the switch, that will be RED when charging the battery, GREEN when the charging is finished.
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Beamshot at 0.5 meters from the wall







The tint is not a pure cool white on my sample, the spot is a bit yellowish/greenish.
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Output and runtime
Both tested with Olight IMR protected 650mAh 16340 battery.




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My thoughts
The light is well built and finished, and has a distinctive look with the big head and rather short body.
The level are well spaced and regulated, but the max is underpowered for modern standard; and has a thermally unnecessary stepdown: the max output this light can continuously run is 180 lumens only.
I like the direct access to lowest mode, but there is no direct access to turbo mode.
The switch is really exposed and easy to find, but if you carry it in your pocket, you will turn on the light by accident. Remember to carry it with the head slightly untwisted to avoid accidental activations.

I would like to see this light come with more output, a sheath, a pocket clip and a XP-L Hi emitter (it may be a nice pocket rocket) and a neutral tint.
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*Thanks *to: AntoLed for the camera advices and the luxmeter.

Thanks for the review. Personally not a fan of push and hold for changing modes… What is your idea about that?

This is a partial list of lights i have where you keep pressed to change modes:

- Zebralight all models

- Armytek Wizard all models

  • Olight all models with electronic switch

as you can guess, i definetly don’t have a problem with that.

Thats probably the reason i dont have any of those lights :slight_smile: