REVIEW MANKER E03H XPL

I ordered a discounted E03H with a 219C, they claim WW, and they are still available at 1/2 price. Got mine in today - it's pretty nice, but the filters are a bit of a pain - mine are tough to slide. All in all, a good deal though, nice quality. The headband is so-so. Feels tight but also feels like it's gonna drop to my nose.

The 219C wasn’t available for the E03H when I ordered a few days ago. I’d much rather have the 219C.

Whoa da - didn't notice this before, but on a good Vapcell 1000 mAh 14500, on turbo the tint turns blue quick! I quickly turned it off - LED still seems good. It really doesn't seem that bright to be maxing out a 219C. It must be on a bad alum MCPCB or something...

Tom E Where did you see 219C still available for the E03H? It’s been out of stock for a while now.

LiIon doesn’t seem like a good idea, even if some have tried it:

I see the 219C right there on the page link you pasted.

Uhh, that voltage range just might be the problem... :FACEPALM:

Did you select Nichia?

I see:

Yeah, think it's past my bedtime.... Oh well.

well, last night I fried my E02 after Steven at Manker said the light would work on a 10440! Website clearly states 1.8V is the max.

I think Steven said latest batch E02 support 10440.?But your E02 was bought 2 years ago.

There was a thread in our Forum, BLF, from May of 2017 where you Manker said we could run the E02 on a 10440! Here is the link to the thread, yours is post number 29

if you tell us we can run our E02 on a 10440, and we try it and our light dies, are u not responsible? That is not good Customer Service, would u agree?

I ordered a discounted E02 and E03 with 219C. Both have ugly brown circles in the hotspot. Not so bad in the E02 but very obvious in the E03.

Strange, I can’t see a brown circle in my 2 years old E03H 219C…

Maybe only with the newer ones?Few day ago I ordered an E02 219C, very curious to see the beam when it arrives…

Mine old E02 does not have it, but this new (Dec 2019) E02 and E03 has it.

On E02 it is subtle, on E03 it is very obvious. 2 units is too small a sample size to make any claim … however I am suspicious that both half-price units have this problem. Like maybe they had some QC issues and decide to dump them for cheap.

My E02 219C is also discounted, bought from the Mankerlight store on aliexpress.Maybe I can better cancel it now it isn’t shipped yet :smiley:

No, don’t cancel. Wait and see.

I’m not gonna cancel it,because I only payed 10,37€ :wink:
I’ll keep you informed about the brown circles

I can't say I see a brown circle. I see a hot spot, a duller inner spill area and somewhat brighter outer spill area. I'm running it on a Eneloop Pro now.

I love the E03H! I just got it 2 weeks after ordering. That is a record for me for delivery from China.

It’s so compact that for a second I thought I was sent the E02 by mistake. I looked up the dimensions and the 78mm E03H is only 6mm taller and has the same 20mm head diameter!

Mine (from AE) came in a cardboard box, not the retail packaging shown in the OP, but that’s fine with me.

It has a premium look and feel, which is not easily conveyed by photos. The surface has a matt, satiny, almost “soft-touch” feel to it. I had to run my fingernail over it to verify there is no rubber coating. Very pleasant.

The first thing I noticed when turning it on is how the wide well-blended beam is the best I’ve seen from a Cree-based flashlight. The hotspot is wide without hard boundaries as it blends nicely into the spill. While it is cold (I wish the Nichia weren’t sold out!), I don’t notice artifacts like corona around the hotspot or distinct color bands.

If held close up against a white surface, the “fried egg” (yellow green hotspot and blue spill) is still present, but at normal viewing distances the light is sufficiently uniform and blended so as not to be distracting. For a cold LED I really like it a lot!

As for the biggest weaknesses I could find, the long-press to turn off takes a bit of getting used to. Also, it is easy for a muggle to just cycle to moonlight and think it is off, or use a single press to turn on in moonlight mode and think the flashlight isn’t working.

Another point is that multi-press commands cause intermediate commands to be acted upon. eg. while in Turbo, double-pressing returns to the normal modes. However, the first press of the double-press will first cycle to Strobe, and upon the second press, it is recognized as a double-press and goes to the normal mode. Similar things happen when pressing four times to get into moonlight engineering mode. I suppose this is a tradeoff between getting instant response from each press versus elegance in UI functions.

One small note is that changes in brightness are handled very pleasantly with a rapid ramping up or down instead of an instant brightness change. It is quick enough not to be annoying, but slow enough to give a satisfying experience.

The headband is simple, and it’s a bit difficult to get the flashlight into it, but it works well enough. Since the EO3H is quite light, I don’t worry about it falling on my face and don’t feel an over-the-head strap is needed.

The diffuser is a nice unique touch and works well for general illumination. Being built-in, there’s a better chance I’ll actually use it. It is a bit difficult to slide up and down, so I wonder if some lubrication will help, or if it will be easier after a break-in period.

Overall, within minutes the E03H has become a favorite. I think it will be my go-to pocketable flashlight when I need some light quickly for a task. Its good mode spacing, regulated output, and good battery life (untested) make it so practical. And perhaps most importantly for satisfaction is that it gives a feeling of joy each time I use it.

I finally got my E03 after having it spend 10 days in US Customs. I don’t see a circle in my beam pattern when wall hunting and am actually pleasantly surprised by the pattern and the tint. Seems like a nice solid light and the only thing I don’t like about it is the switch. Too hard to double click it to get to turbo but I probably won’t use that mode very often.

I threw it into the glove of my car next to my Sofirn SF13 so I’ll probably never use it again :slight_smile:

Does the E03H have reverse polarity protection?

I noticed the manual says: “flashlight won’t work once battery reverse.”

Not sure if that means permanently. :laughing: As curious as I am, I’m not about to try it to find out.