Hey all,
Sofirn was looking for folks to review their new lights, so i offered to review the SF32 18650 cigar shaped EDC light.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/SP32-Powerful-LED-Flashlight-Tactical-18650-Cree-XPL2-V6-1000-Lumens-High-Power-Pocket-Light-Penlight/32809965513.html
They sent me one to review, so here it is, finally…
(had some camera issues, hence the delay…)
This came in the mail a couple of weeks ago:
a box
Containing a light in a bubble bag, a micro USB cable, a single slot charger, baggy with 2 spare O-rings, a manual.
And there it is, the SF32. Looks good, i like the stainless steel side switch in particular.
No tailswitch on this one, but you can lock out by loosening the tail cap a quarter turn.
Pretty heavy, but that’s because…
…there’s a battery inside it. 
According to my Liitokala Lii500 the capacity is (not yet finished… will update later)
Without battery the light weighs 70 grams
The little charger which was included.
Lubed anodized square threads for the tail cap.
I personally prefer triangular threads because they centre the parts when tightening, but square threads seem to be popular with customers, so they use square threads.
It’s nicely machined though, i find the whole light nicely machined and assembled, Sofirn did a nice job.
Click for full resolution if you want to read the manual.
Some highlights:
Seems legit, maybe a little exaggerated, probably LED lumens, but i have no way of measuring it, but i’ll compare it with another XP-L2 V6 light later in this review.
Surprise:
Apparently this light can also run on 2x CR123A.
The driver must be a buck driver then.
Unfortunately this is all i can show you of the driver…
That nice brass retainer ring is glued in there, i tried but it won’t budge.
I said i would do a tear down, but the head is also glued, it won’t budge either…
Maybe later when i have the courage to heat the lot up with a small butane torch, so that the glue will soften.
The pocket clip is strong and sturdy, maybe a bit too sturdy for my liking.
It will definitely hold the light in place.
The UI is identical to the ThorFire S70S.
But this driver ramps between modes, which is a nice touch.
So it’s long press for moon, but you can’t go to the other 4 modes nor to strobe from moon mode, you have to turn it off with a short press.
You turn the light on in low mode with a short press, cycling through the modes with short presses, long press is off.
Short press from off is the last used mode, so it has mode memory.
Double click for strobe, both from off and from the regular 4 modes, not from moon.
It seems to be a current regulated buck driver, so: NO PWM :+1:
Now for some more pictures:
It looks the part, between those two must haves. :+1:
…yeah, the picture turned out rather grainy, but i had to show off my lighted C8 tailcap…
The glass lens is unfortunately not AR coated.
The manual claims it is AR coated, but it is not… 
Allright, a beam shot then, on a white structure painted wall:
My camera (i should get a new / better one…) didn’t pick it up too well, so i enhanced it a bit to represent what i see in real life.
I mean the tint shift of course…
I really dislike tint shift, but it seems the modern LEDs have a lot of it.
And not only the latest Cree LEDs, the Nichia 219C also has considerable tint shift.
So it’s no wonder the XP-G2 is still widely used in stock flashlights, or the 219B for that matter.
Shame really, but can be solved with a diffuser film or by replacing the reflector with TIR optics.
Since this light has glued head parts, i could only put some DC-fix on it.
…and so i did…
Much better. Less throw though, but i like it like this for a 18650 tube / cigar EDC flashlight.
And here’s my other XP-L2 light, i put a Kaidomain XP-L2 V6 ‘3B’ in an Astrolux S1 with a Nanjg 105 8x 7135 driver and replaced the reflector with a 30° (i think) TIR optic with a pebbled surface.
As you can see, the modded S1 is brighter.
You can also see it’s probably not a 3B tint, although TIR optics do usually have a cooler tint coming out the front, because the cooler light form the front of the LED is also focussed, unlike the cooler spill of a reflector light.
None the less, it’s quite a lot cooler tinted than the Sofirn, which is specified to have a 3A tint.
Since the Sofirn uses a buck driver, i didn’t bother to measure the tail cap current.
But i guestimate it pushes around 2.4 Amperes through the LED, maybe less, or maybe it’s not a V6 brightness bin, or maybe that TIR in the S1 is better than i expected, or is it the DC-fix that dims the Sofirn?
A lot of maybes… :person_facepalming:
CONCLUSION
I quite like this light.
It looks good, it works well, the UI is okay, it’s well built, there’s nothing wrong with it.
But in my opinion they should have used TIR optics and NOT use glue !
This set i received costs around $ 24 on AliExpress.
The light only is around $ 18.
Hope you enjoyed the read.
