Astrolux FT02 vs FT03: why such price diffrence?

Compared roughly the specs FT02 vs FT03. While these two seem to perform quite simmilar (at least by numbers) the price discrepancy is hard to understand for me.

FT02……FT03
Output LM: 2215 vs 2400
Intensity cd: 180k vs 190k
Range m: 848 vs 875
UI: stepless diming vs stepless diming
then why: $50+ vs $30+?

Can someone help me understand the price diffrence? Furhermore, no matter what the promo is, these both prices are never lower so it makes me thinking, there might be a reason why FT02 is more expensive. I doubt the cost-generating part is just the boost driver…

The FT02 is a XHP emitter which is more expensive and needs a higher voltage and a more complex thus more expensive driver.
The FT03 is just a single cell driver and will drain your battery very fast.

I have no experience with the FT02, but no matter how good the FT03 is, it feels kinda cheap.

I like my ft02 much more because it has a better ui and is noticeably smaller. Turbo is able to be memorized so that I can click to turbo from off with a single click. And I’m able to ramp up to turbo.
But I have a defective ft02, the parasitic drain is crazy high. It will bring a fully charged 30q to 3.2 volts in a week and without using the light at all.

Yeah, I’d expect FT02 has something FT03 does not. Boost driver and XHP35 still does not convince me to add $20 over linear and SST-40.

On the other hand there’s also company pricing strategy. They tell customer to pay 80% more for similar performance - kinda hard to justify.

It’s like Convoy S2+ in price 180% of Convoy S2.

Non defective one also have a huge parasitic drain, around 4mA, wich will drain your battery in a month, i love my FT02 but the parasitic drain defeats the purpose of the led switch, this is a pretty big design flaw.

The 4mA parasitic drain (it is 4mA with and without the breathing switch light on) is a design flaw, all FT02’s have it. Remember to slightly twist the tail cap to lock the light out every time.

I have both the FT02 and FT03. I think a lot of attention went into the design of the FT02 which they want to earn back, the FT03 was easier as it seems a spin-off of the FT02, the design looks less nice and they did not do the centering of the led right. What I like about my FT02 is that the lens sits in a u-shaped silicon sleeve, like many Olight’s. The FT03 does not have that. What I don’t like is that it has a micro-USB port while the FT03 has the more robust USB-C port. A friend of mine had broken off the micro-USB socket off his FT02 (micro-USB is notorious for that), I managed to solder it back for him but it was almost impossible to do that.
The user interface of the FT02 is simpler than the FT03 (it is not Anduril) but I actually like that for this type of light.

Agree with you all - I also have both (FT03 even in both LED options) and because of tint shift and temperature I prefer my FT02 warm too.
So this leads me to a conclusion, that FT03 was a quick project oriented to sell in big number with little margin (was it 2500pcs within 2 months? or so?). Contrary to FT02.

Anyway, waiting for autumn and shorter days to have an opportunity to play with these 3 beauties.

I much prefer the look of the FT02 but the price of the FT03 is hard to beat.

Mateminco TO2 (Astrolux FT02); Mateminco MT35Mini (Astrolux FT03); Mateminco MT35 (Astrolux MF02); Mateminco MT35Plus (Astrolux MF04)

Big difference in reflector diameter, yet little throw difference (between FT02 and FT03)

Tatasal - how many flashlights do you own?
(and where do you store them :smiley: )

Only the lights that I edc are not stored, all the rest (like those in the photo) are sleeping soundly in their original boxes, together with the various chargers and batteries that I also hoard. How many? I never counted them yet, though not many as the others have here.

Well, isn’t this :confounded: ?

:beer:

The main difference in prices come from the a bit more expensive emitter and the fact that it uses a boost driver

Does that explain the negligible throw difference between the two even though the FT03 has much larger reflector?

Domed vs dedomed

I thought FT-03 had unregulated (FET) driver, not a linear one.

You thought probably right Agro. I just didn’t check becasue I meant only to put it in opposition to Boost.
So let it be, (…) over FET and SST-40.
:beer:

I tried to learn more about it…None of the reviews that I see mentions that. Actually none shows a head disassembly. One appears to show regular spare o-rings.
Could you tell us some more about it?

Only some reviews nowadays show a complete disassembly, it was more normal back in the days.

I checked my FT02 and I was not completely correct: instead of one u-shaped ring there are two o-rings instead: one regular one at the reflector side of the lens, and one L-shaped one at the bezel-side also covering the side of the lens. So the lens is protected at all sides just like with an U-shaped ring but then a bit different.

Thank you for producing this picture djozz! :beer:

The design of the FT02 looks much better. I especialy like the functional design of the heatfins.