[Review] MHVAST TS35 ( XHP35-HI, 1 x 26650) - Output, Power and Thermal Regulation Test, Outdoor Beamshots

The flashlight was sent to me by MHVAST for review.
Here's the product's link: MHVAST TS35

The flashlight comes in a hard cardboard box.



The accessories included are the following:
2 x o-rings, 1 x charging port plug, a type-C charging cable, a manual and a carrying pouch.



The carrying pouch is made out of nylon.



In the back of the pouch, one finds a belt loop and a regular plastic loop.



The flashlight is covered by matte, black anodization.
I am really keen on the aggressive / multi heatsinking-groove design of the flashlight.



The side e-switch is made out of metal and has an indicator LED embedded into it.
While operating, the indicator is used to indicate the battery's level (Green = OK, Red = Recharge)



Opposite to the e-switch, is the charging interface.
The USB type-C charging port is sealed by a rubber flap.
It's always nice to see the manufacturers moving forward and start using type-C ports!



The head integrates multiple deep heatsinking grooves.
A mildly aggressive, stonewashed metal bezel is installed in its front.



Being a dedicated thrower, the TS35 comes with deep smooth reflector and an XHP35-HI emitter.
Thanks to the white centering plate, the emitter sits to the absolute center.



The back side of the tail has two flat protrusions, which allows the flashlight to tailstand.



The one-sided, 12V boost driver is press fit and glued in place.
The positive terminal is made out of a brass tab in order to achieve maximum efficiency.



The tail houses a very thick spring.



The head's threads are square cut and anodized, which allow the flashlight to be mechanically locked out.



The tail's threads are also square cut (but not anodized).



Keeping up the tradition, the TS35 also comes with a MHVAST-branded 26650 cell.



The battery's capacity is rated at 5000mAh.
Here's a closer look at both terminals of the battery.



And here's a comparison with some other flashlights.
From left to right: MHVAST TS70, Lumintop GT Mini, MHVAST TS35, Convoy L2



User Interface

Similarly to the TS70, the MHVAST TS35 has a very nice user interface.
Here's all the supported actions:

Turn on/off: Single press.
Mode cycle: Long press (Low > Medium Low > Medium High > High > Low > ... )
Turbo: Double press from anywhere (Single press returns to the previous mode or OFF, if Turbo is invoked while the light is OFF).
Moonlight: Long press while off .
Strobe / SOS / 1Hz Flash: Double press while on Turbo. Each additional double press cycle's modes ( Strobe > SOS > 1Hz Flash).

Output

Here's the output I measured for each power level, along with the corresponding current draw.



As seen, the flashlight is delivering more than 2100 lumen on Turbo, which is very impressive for a single cell XHP35 light!

Power and Thermal Regulation

Here's a V/A regulation graph I created.



What we can see in the graph:

  • Turbo delivers full power between 4.2V - 3.8V and the output is regulated.
  • Between 3.5V - 3.8V, Turbo draws 6A and again the current if fully regulated.
  • Turbo stops being accessible after the battery's Voltage is < 3.5V
  • All the other modes are fully regulated for the whole span of the battery.
  • (Not shown) LVP kicks in at 2.8V


And here's a Thermal regulation graph of Turbo.



What we can see in the graph:

  • Full brighness is sustained for 2.5 minutes.
  • After the 2.5 min mark, the output slowly steps down to 1020 lumen.
  • The first stepdown is sutained up to the 13 min mark.
  • After 13 mins of total usage, another minor stepdown occurs at 800 lumen.
  • The final stepdown is fully sustainable.

Outdoor beamshots

And for the final part, here's a few outdoor beamshots of the TS35.




Pretty impressive flashlight if you ask me
Excellent regulation, great throw and output!

Hi very good info as always

Thrunite Catapult V6 in comparison?

As they seem comparable.

I had the oppurtunity to play a little bit with some throwers: MHVAST TS35, Convoy L2, Convoy L2 Modded with white-flat 1mm^2, Lumintop GT Mini, Sofirn C8T.
The TS35 easily out-throwed everything except the white-flat Convoy L2 :)

Unfortunately I don't have the V6, but I think its performance is similar to the Convoy L2 with XP-L HI.

Thanks for that and your time.

I’m avoiding boost drivers like this until they can boost to full power* turbo from 4.2V to at least 3.5V. Thanks for the review though!

Does the UI have memory? Or is it a mix, like Olight flashlights?
Thanks for the review! :+1:

I have yet to see a flashlight that can provide full turbo regulation with a 12V boost driver.
Maybe it could be possible, but the efficiency would be terrible.

It does have regular mode memory.
Though Turbo and moonlight aren’t memorized.

This light, and several others that they make, look very much like thrunites, but their prices are quite a bit higher. Odd, you don’t usually see copies priced higher than the originals. I have never heard of mhvast before. Anybody have any background?

Performance of this one looks quite a bit better than the Catapult V6 it is patterned after. I was always disappointed thrunite didnt drive the xhp35hi harder in the cat v6.

(A little off topic:) Didnt I see somewhere that somebody (lexel?) Is making a hot rod boost driver for the catv6?

As far as I know, MHVAST is a relatively new company.
Their previous model, the TS70, was one of the most solid single-cell XHP70.2 flashlights I have reviewed and got pretty popular among the community :slight_smile:

Here's a few more outdoor beamshots I captured yesterday, while playing with the flashlight.

@10m


@30m


@220m (white stable)


@400m (white van, barely visible in photo, easily visible in real life)

Interesting light for sure. It’s like a more powerful Catapult with a type-c port instead of micro. Even the switch looks similar.

Here’s a runtime graph from an Armytek Wizard Pro, cooled by immersion in water. While the XHP50 offers an MCPCB-selected option of 6 or 12 volts, Armytek runs these at 12 volts for some reason (driver commonality with XHP35 models?). It’s not very efficient, but a 26650 light with a flared head has much more room for driver components.

How does the TS35 compare to the Notigon K1?