Review: Haikelite SC01

HAIKELITE SC01

Introduction
Haikelite is a relatively new player in flashlight business they just celebrated their first anniversary but they are already has several solid flashlights in their range that cover most needs, From MT03 to MT07 in their flagship to a more manageable size from SC Series to MT Series but currently they dont have a single 18650 EDC light but i heard that they are currently in the work and soon will be available. The SC series are a rechargeable 26650 flashlight which means you dont need a separate charger while MT series are using multi-cell configuration.

Pro:
Simple one button E-switch, click and hold activation no rear clicky. I prefer this compared to the two buttons action in MT07.
Simple UI with direct to Turbo and Moon Light.
Good size for hand gripping, 26650 tube make for a good ergonomics.
Perfect finish no damage or uneven anodizing.
Throws measured @92160cd / 607m (600m Claimed) which is spot on as a comparison my stock Convoy L6 measured 78336cd / 559m, considering its small reflector, using XHP35 HI is probably why it can make such a good throw.
Silver anodizing is beautiful not many provide this color as option. The color is matte silver it is different compared to clear anodized flashlights and not shiny like SS lights.
Built in charging, without the need for rubber cover.
A really thick spring at the tailcap.
More runtime compared to 18650 lights.
Mechanical lock-out but needs few turns, Electronic lockout is available.
Got hot on turbo but still manageable, but in colder environment the turbo could be well maintained.

Cons:
Not as small as i would like it to be, for example Imalent DN70 is much smaller also with the build-in charging as well. without the tail-cap the length is almost as long as the DN70. The tail-cap is making this light unnecessarily longer
Because of its light color, the thread easily look dirty.
No NW tint available afaik.

Few things to note:

Spring is press fit not soldered to the tailcap.
Not well greased when arrived so i had to add more.
Stainless steel bezel can be unscrewed so emitter swap is easy.
After engaging the thread feels rough after few turns it become smoother not as smooth as other Haikelite probably because of the thick and strong tail-cap spring.

A few words from Manufacturer:
Specifications:

—-Emitter: CREE XHP35 HI CW
—- Material: 6063 Aluminum Alloy ; HAIII Anodized finish
—- Battery: 1x26650 (>6A drain)
—-Switch: Side-click metal waterproof Button
—-Aluminum SMO Reflector
—-Ultra Clear AR Coated Toughened Glass Lens (99% light transmission)
—- IPX 8 Waterproof
—-Digital Full Current Regulation ; 91% driver efficiency
—- With Anti-reverse protection ; Anti-discharge protection ;
—-With Battery power detection Function ; Low-voltage protection
—-With Temperature Control protection.
—- With Build-in Charging Port

—-Dimensions: 135mm x 45.5mm x34mm
—-Weight: 220 gram
Accessories: Gift Box ,;spare O Rings ; Landyards ; USB charging wire

Brightness level :
— Low Low—20 lumens
— Low —–200 Lumens
— Mid —500 Lumens
— High—1000 Lumens
— Hidden Turbo—2000 Lumens (double click)
—Hidden Strobe—2000 Lumens (press the button for 2 seconds in off status)

User Interface:

—Single click on / Single click off
—Press and Hold the button to switch modes
—Mode circles —- Low Low > Low> Medium>High
—Double click in any mode to access Turbo mode
— With mode memory

Lockout Function:
When the light is on, fast single click + long press to lock out the switch.
Fast click + long press again to unlock the light.

Battery power detection:
In off status, Press 4 seconds to activate battery power detection function. battery >50% flash 3 times ; battery >25% <50%flash 2 times ; battery <25% flash 1 time.

Attention :
In turbo mode, the light will become hot , Please do not continuously use Turbo mode for over 10 minutes. If the light gets too hot in turbo mode, please switch the light into a lower brightness level to let the light cool down. Medium mode and high mode is bright enough for daily use.

Additional data:
Battery draw at the tail-cap (boost driver) so doesn’t reflect emitter current.
— Low Low—20 lumens (0.133A)
— Low —–200 Lumens (0.527A)
— Mid —500 Lumens (1.44A)
— High—1000 Lumens (3A)
— Hidden Turbo—2000 Lumens (5A-6A)

This is how it is delivered inside the plastic protective box. A lanyard, a folded manual (nicer material this time), usb charging cable and spare o-rings.

The manual, Haikelite have been criticized for the lack of good manual included, sometimes the information provided is wrong but i am glad they improved the manual slightly.

Two different boxes, The left came with SC01 the right came with MT01. Not your typical Pelican Box quality :smiley:

This is how they ship their Flagship flashlight. :stuck_out_tongue:

A lanyard, double O-rings, Micro USB cable

SC01 in 3 parts even the SS bezel is removable. 26650 AWT unprotected for size reference.

this is how 26650 AWT unprotected(65.8mm) sits inside battery tube.

using Imalent protected 26650(67mm) I think this is the limit of 26650 i dont have longer battery to test.

Yeah i like it he said.

The SC01, a good thrower! The switch is nice no mushy feeling you get from rubber clicky almost similar to switch in Convoy L6 without the clicky sound. So the switch is silent i like that.

The smooth reflector and XHP35 HI emitter no dust can be found inside also equipped with AR coated glass.

The charging end, what you see is the USB charging port. Notice how thick the tube wall is?
!

The driver side with thick spring.

Size comparison to other Haikelite, MT03, MT02 and SC01 (left to right)

Notice how small the MT03 is despite its 9000Lumens output.

Reflector size comparison.

Size comparison to Imalent DN70 both uses a single 26650, notice that DN70 is smaller.

A serial number at the tailcap just like MT07 and MT03, but the number is almost invisible.

The charging port, no need for annoying rubber cover the port sits behind the O-ring, the only downside is that you have to unscrew the front tube to charge the battery. No need to unscrew the tailcap. With build in charging you dont need to open the tailcap ever! Just forgot that it is there.

The front end of the battery tube that meets the driver.

another angle.

I dont see any solder, so must be press fit.

Thread look dirty almost immediately

SC01 in my hand.

Red LED when charging.

The charging circuit draws ~1a of current from the USB.

Burn Test on Turbo:
Note: ambient temprature is 29C with no airflow before 4 minutes.
1 minute mark

2 Minutes

3 Minutes seems to stabilized a bit.

4 Minutes i found that it stabilized at this point so @4m20s i started adding fan to simulate airflow.

5 Minutes 51c is where it stabilized after 5 minutes+ so with colder ambient and your hand holding the flashlight to dissipate heat the result could be lower.

Beamshots:

this is some candela readings:
Haikelite MT02: 69120cd / 525m (800m Claimed)
Haikelite SC01: 92160cd / 607m (600m Claimed)
Haikelite MT07: 163584cd / 797m (750m Claimed)

SC01 vs MT02 hotspot. SC01on the left both running XHP35.

SC01

MT02 almost similar to SC01 but with bigger and less intense hotspot.

MT07

MT03

Sumarry:
Haikelite SC01 is a relatively small light that also come with good throw. The throw is noticeable compared to its sibling the MT01, SC01 with it’s smaller hotspot and also almost 50% more intense despite using the same emitter. I found that SC01 is also not suitable for walking light, i would recommend other flashlights in Haikelite line-up for such as SC02 with flood beam pattern and nice neutral tint. If you are looking for a small thrower than this is perfect for you.

Thank for the review. Just ordered the SC01 in silver/white yesterday. Yea I guess the difference in throw of the MT02 vs SC01 can be explained by the XHP35 HD vs XHP35 HI

Thanks for your good review. In part it has helped me to buy it. I love this flashlight, I hope it arrives soon.

I think you made a small mistake in the review. You’ve put some things into “cons” by mistake, I think.

Things like:

“Tail-stand? And it is
Mechanical lock-out but needs few turns, Electronic lockout is available.”

I even think this:

“Got hot on turbo but still manageable, but in colder environment the turbo could be well maintained.”

Is a pro, because a flashlight with this size and this power is normal to be hot in turbo, and if in fact that heat is not exaggerated, it seems good news.

Thanks again, greetings.

Thanks a lot for the review; I’m really impressed with Haikelite. :partying_face:

Thanks for the review.

But why is this in the CON section? :slight_smile:

The light is so beautiful, you should be holding it in your hands?

Agreed :smiley:

Agreed i’ll fixed up right away. it probably got mixed up in the editing form :stuck_out_tongue:

I have to redo the Burn test and i also add 2 more minutes to the test, as i just realized my battery was not fully charged, the behavior almost similar slightly hotter though.

Thanks again for the review, can I ask you a favor? Could you show a photo whit the Haikelite SC01 next to the Ultrafire C8 and the Convoy S2 +? To get a better idea of the size, thank you in advance, greetings.

Sure no problem at all.

here you go. :partying_face:
i also threw in 18650.

Thank you very much! I hope receive mine soon, looks great.

Does it come with an adapter for an 18650 battery?

Nope it doesn’t, but with the adapter 18650 is fine in this flashlight.

I just received my SC01, and a bit disappointed in the turbo lumens and throw.

I measured the modes as follows:

Mode Spec lumens Measured tail amps

low-low 20 48 0.10A

low 200 255 0.46A

med 500 615 1.28A

hi 1,000 1,074 2.69A

turbo 2,000 1,639 5.65A

Turbo throw: 60 kcd (measured at 5m), 490 meters

This light is a 40.1 mm diameter head, and reflector I.D. of 31.0 mm. An Eagle Eye or BLF X6 has an I.D. of 29.0 mm, so it's a little bigger which is good, but puts it in about the same class.

I would say the lumens in turbo is about expected, compared to hi mode - the higher the amps, the lower the efficiency of amps to lumens. Also I think the 60 kcd is expected for a reflector of this size,and these amps drawn from a single cell with a XPH35 HI.

To get 92 kcd from mine, the lumens would have to be about 2,400, 50% better than what I'm getting. The optics in mine looks good: nice AR lens, reflector looks perfect, LED is aligned well and seems reflowed well. I can't see anything wrong, but who knows...

For the low turbo lumens issue, going from hi to turbo and double the lumens, you have to more than double the drawn amps by quite a bit. 2.7A to 5.7A is not enough to double the lumens. It would need over 6A easy, maybe ~6.5A would get you close. You can see the delta from med to hi in amps vs. lumens, and at higher amps, the ratio of amps to lumens has to be even higher.

this is the draw i got from the tail.

— Low Low—20 lumens (0.133A)
— Low —-200 Lumens (0.527A)
— Mid —500 Lumens (1.44A)
— High—1000 Lumens (3A)
— Hidden Turbo—2000 Lumens (5A-6A) 6.05A at the start.

i am not sure how comparable your result to mine, but my Luxmeter could read higher.
I have no way of measuring Lumens other than using relative ceiling bounce but then again the result is not comparable to others.

This are the relative lumens output on some of my lights. it is below MT01 and MT02 and above BLF A6 but i have no idea how much Lumens my BLF A6 made. But on thing a agree on is that SC01 doesnt output 2000Lumens.

This I guess makes me feel a little better (i think), because just from purely looking at the difference when I would go from High to Turbo, it was very subtle, so it made me doubt that it was actually 2k lumens (dont have a light meter yet). When compared to the KDlitker, output seems to be almost identical. Again, this is me just looking at the output using my eyes so very subjective.

I recently bought an SC01. As has been described by one or two others, I encountered a switch/driver issue which requires multiple button presses for the light to turn on. Within a few days of purchase, I emailed Haikelite, and they ignored my email. I sent a follow up, which they eventually responded to but did not offer any remedy (they did ask if I would be technically able to replace the driver, but did not actually offer to send me one). Follow up emails were also not responded to. I cannot think of any reason why I would buy a Haikelite product in the future, since the company does not seem interested in resolving customer issues and is horrible about responding to email.

SC01 (left) vs D1s (right)

Credit to coaoxx



Which is which?

SC01 (left) vs D1s (right)

Ohhh - had to widen my screen. Pics were vertically stacked, not next to each other. Once widened, makes a lot more sense

Looks like CW vs NW and the smaller reflector D1 has a tighter beam because of the XPH HI.

Mine only throws a fraction of yours, 60 kcd vs. 92 kcd, so yours is really tweaked, or mine is pathetic, both factory stock. These things do seem to happen though from HL - I've seen it with the MT07 and MT03's.

Even 60 kcd vs. 43 kcd, the SC01 should easily beat it, but doesn't seem that way in the pics, the last shot specially. It's like the lights are reversed or, the D1 does 80 kcd and the SC01 does 40-50 kcd -- the pictures don't make sense against the specs.

Wonder if coaox tested kcd, or maybe modded up his D1.