Yup, I don’t have a FW3A but I tried to EDC at work an Emisar D4 that is very similar in size. 6 clicks to lock / unlock is a bit too much, not a problem in itself except when unlocking quickly I ended up clicking 7 times, more often than I would have liked. Unscrewing the tailcap instead is useful since it reset the D4 to 1x 7135 @ 100% but you need both hands and have to wait the end of the 2 flashes to turn it on.
I much prefer the JetBeam RRT01 old version, shorter, slimmer, even if it has a much less capacity. I’m also using a Jetusolis 6500°K and a tool AAA 219B that are also always in my work pant.
Considering the popularity of the FW3A, I doubt that a single emitter 14500 FW3A would be unpopular. I don’t see the point to ramp from 10 lumens to 400-500 lumens (max considering the size). 3 or 4 fixed brightness settings are well enough to cover this range of brightness.
99% of what the average office-dweller is likely to need a flashlight for could be taken care of with the built-in flashlight app on any modern smartphone. Most people in the flashlight community don’t carry a flashlight because they truly need it, but because they want to. At least I can admit it. Most people here wouldn’t, because they’re so fixated on the idea of these toys being for real practical uses. Sure, you can drive a Lambo to work every day, but that’s not why you bought it. Just be honest with yourself.
While I agree with you (I’m very well self conscious about my addiction, and carry my bright toys just to have an excuse to play with them), you talk like you come from an other well known place that I don’t like at all.
Unpopular opinion doesn’t need to be judgmental.
My flashlight is way superior over a phone as EDC light. Not because of output, tint and beam, although that is a bonus, but because it is always in the same spot (my left front jeans pocket) and one fast blind click away from light.
My girlfriend very regularly asks for my light even though she has a phone (ok, could be laziness, the light comes flying towards her while she has to fetch the phone herself)
To feed this thread I can also confess that I like twisty (because shorter than clicky) AA & AAA flashlights, 1, 2 or 3 fixed modes with cycling UI. Boost driver only as i’m fine to not be tempted to generate too much heat for such small formats and degrade runtime too quickly. There are larger formats for more brightness.
I never own 14500 battery and never be tempted so far.
My 2x sofirn C01 and 2x jetusolis have plenty of use. Excellent CRI, small enough to be carried everywhere, all the time.
Kudos for the unpopular opinion, well found, I pretty like it but :
In europe, more and more office dwellers are commuting with a bike. Do you think that they are using their smartphone as a bike light ? Or as a headlamp ?
A smartphone can do a lot of things but never as well as a more dedicated tool. Recording live music with the built-in mic, in portrait mode… :disappointed:
In winter I have a dedicated 18650 light (currently a modded Folomov 18650S) for bike use to work (30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening) that lives in my coat pocket, but I also regularly use my EDC light on my bike (on a simple clamp on the handlebar).
On summer DST and now with the days getting shorter, it’s dark at around 5:40 AM when I leave to work, so I carry an 18650 torch as a bike light. The best I have for this is the Convoy S2 OP on around 400lm mode.
In the same vein, I have to turn on all the lamps and AC units in the library I work at, and you’d be surprised at how the smartphone’s LED doesn’t reach far enough through the aisles to be comfortable. A light with a reflector is indispensable, if only for peace of mind when I hear a strange noise.
And lest we forget, the ergonomics of smartphones are utter dogshit.
No, you actually want to recharge and keep using as much as normally. That’s usually easy nowadays with USB outlet in any computer, in public places, in most cars, increasingly in public transport. Then - quite a few actually EDC powerbanks.
Same things as always. If you’re worried about dropping a phone, get a case or a tough phone. If you’re not the question is irrelevant.
I believe good majority would be OK with a mule. Maybe not 99% - and the biking example was what made me think so.
But then - maybe the bikers would get a dedicated bike light and carry something else. Like a cell phone.
Do you have a phone that can’t produce continuous LED light?
You presented 4 questions and 0 facts. I suppose the questions were meant to be rhetorical with obvious answers. And they were not.
I have two clones of that SupFire S1. Not quite as nice as yours, but as close as I could get. It’s a pretty good host for custom lights. One has a red XP-E2 and acts as the tail light on my bike, while the other has a Nichia 219B 4500K and resides in the shower. Both are, incidentally, not good places for a smartphone flashlight.
A single-emitter FW3A would be nice (FW1A), and a 14500 version would be nice… but I think I’m even more interested in something a little smaller. I still want an 18350 aluminum version of the Olight S-Mini, modified to have a good neutral white emitter and run Anduril.
This is a bit old, but I still haven’t found a better 1xAA light than the L3 L10-219.
Well, a powerbank would require an additional USB cable to be plugged in constantly, which isn’t practical at all.
And it can fall, killing the port. Didn’t happen to me, but happened to some of my friends.
A dropped phone, even in a case, can sustain damage or fall in water, or even fall in a sewer…
I would be sad if my light dropped, but my phone that is much more expensive and has a lot of data? I’d be extremely worried and anxious.
Phones have a lot of glare due to having a flashlight, which can be detrimental when you want to do work with other people, and the unfocused beam makes it hard to have a significant amount of light close by.
That was in relation to the phone. If your phone’s battery pack is dead, even a powerbank won’t be able to recharge it instantly, and you’ll be left without light.
The main reasons phones will never replace flashlights are because of physics.
If we could fit a 1mm2 95CRI LED consuming 1W of power, and outputting 1000 lumens with a tiny lens, then maybe most of us wouldn’t need, or even want a flashlight.
For now however, flashlights will never be replaced by a phone’s light by a long shot.
I and the other night workers must be in the 1% of people who truly need lights better than those on a phone. I use multiple lights every night. Some for the outdoors, some for large buildings, some for miscreants. I came to this forum not to feed a hobby but out of necessity. The funny thing is that I did get hooked and went for the lambo, but I could have gotten by with the jeep. A cell phone light is more like a scooter by comparison.
