Review: Folomov EDC-C4 compact side-switch 18650

LED Flashlights ā€“ General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

Folomov EDC-C4

Introduction: Folomov reached out to me and offered the opportunity to review their recent light, the EDC-C4. While the flashlight was provided for free, I try to be unbiased.


Fit & Finish: The EDC-C4 arrived in nice retail packaging with an included protected 2600 mah 18650 battery. The overall construction is pretty good. Iā€™m not a huge fan of square knurling, but itā€™s clean and it works. The anodizing is decent, slightly on the shiny end of the spectrum. And the finish is slightly different between the head and the body.

LEDs & Tint: This Folomov uses a cool white XP-L LED. Itā€™s not stated, but perhaps in the 6500K range with a hint of blue in the beam which is very clean overall. If youā€™re wall hunting, there is a single outer ring, but I donā€™t find it bothersome. Unlike many of Creeā€™s newer chips, I havenā€™t noticed much tint shift with this XP-L. The reflector is very clean and shallow, resulting a floody beam.

Modes & UI: The EDC-C4 has four standard modes rated at 1200 - 200 - 75 - 10 lumens. My rough lumen estimates (DIY lumen tube) are relatively close to that: 1271 - 362 - 165 - 4 lumens using the included battery. Pretty good numbers, but Iā€™d say the jump from low to medium is a bit too large. The mode order is L - M - H - T - H - M - L (ramp up and back down as opposed to wrapping) with mode memory. Strobe, SOS, and Beacon are present but (thankfully) hidden behind double clicks. Lockout can be enabled with a triple click.

USB Functionality: A micro-USB port is present and can be used to both charge the flashlight and to serve as a powerbank (say, to charge a phone). The cord to take care of these tasks was included. While I donā€™t typically rely on built-in USB charging, itā€™s a nice feature to have in a pinch. The same goes for powerbank capabilities.

Conclusion: The Folomov EDC-C4 is pretty compact (short!) for a 18650 flashlight. Itā€™s solid overall, and bright. I like the fact that it comes with a battery. To me, the one place where I struggle with this flashlight is pricing. At the time of this writing, the EDC-C4 is $43 on Amazon

Some size comparisonsā€¦

2

:weary:

I wouldā€™ve so much preferred the C4ā€™s UI than the D4ā€™s (H/M/L/strobe/ā€¦).

Hella bright, and short, but the UIā€¦

3

Yeah, I really appreciate that the blinkies are hidden. I havenā€™t checked out the D4 - does it always start on high?

Short, bright, USBā€¦ there is quite a bit to like.

4

It has memory, but the order is always highā†’low, which bugs me. And having strobes in the main cycle is just a Rick James slap in the face.

If I could lobotomise the driver to have it ā€œstuck on highā€, Iā€™d be kewl with it.

And yeah, itā€™s the shortest 18650 light Iā€™ve got, and gets hot really fast, telling me thereā€™s some excellent thermal path from LED to case.

So many nice features, but the UIā€¦

Right now itā€™s relegated to my nighttime ā€œwhutā€™s that noise out there?ā€ light where I keep it kicked up to high and leave it, but the UI would just piss me off were I to try EDCing it.

5

I have the exact same model, I like it a lot! Is my new EDC, wish it had Narsil as the user interface, it would make it the perfect light for me.