3 in 1 review. At the end there will be a summary for those who like only particulars, in each topic I will bold the key sentences for those who read a little more, and a long waffling for everyone else. Enjoy!
(this review was translated by my girlfriend, so enjoy her deep and wide knowledge of English)
For VERY large photos: click -> on the photo page right click -> "Open image in new tab"
I got this flashlight for the review from Convoy, so thank You, Simon.
Table of Contents:
-General parameters
- Package content
- Appearance, parameters
- UI, runtime and charging
- PWM
- Waterproofness
- Light pattern, tint
- Beamshots
- Usage and my experiences
- Summary
LED: XHP70.2 5000K
Reflector: SMO
Lens: With AR-coating
IU: Continuous brightness changing, and 6 clicks for simple 4 mode UI
LVP: Yes
Protection against reverse cell insertion: Yes
Battery: 1*21700
Switch: e-switch on the head
Dimensions: 55mm head / 28mm battery tube / 159mm length
The packaging is a higher quality cardboard box, inside there is a foam protection and the flashlight. That's all. But at least the box is nice.
It looks almost the same as M21C, the only difference is the switch on the head instead of the back.
On the front, a steel ring, AR-coated lens, SMO reflector and XHP70.2 diode, and of course, decent cooling.
The only defect is the reflector flying inside- as if the lens is too weakly pressed by the ring, which has a little slack on the sides and flies slightly.Then there is the e-switch on the side and a metal ring around it - it is not a switch protection, as the ring sits in the casing. But it looks nice.The driver does not have a spring, but a metal lozenge, which improves contact with the battery.
-Bypassed spring in the tail cab
Design I rate as very nice
UI
Oh my, I have a big problem with this UI. To be honest, I don't like it. I'm explaining:
There is a stepless dimmable UI here. In theory it sounds very nice, but in practice it becomes worse. It is very clumsy to operate, completely unintuitive. Comparing this UI with the basic function of changing the brightness from Anduril, for the first one I give 3, for the second 10.First of all, changing the brightness is unnatural: low brightness dims and brightens very quickly but high brightness - slowly. I don't know much about software making, but it seems to me that Convoy has set the same lumen change rate for high and low brightness, while for low it should change slowly and for high it should change quickly. I think it was done in Anduril. I illustrated it with a graph I sketched (this was actually sketched by my girlfriend):
But that's just my speculation.
Another thing is the clumsiness of this UI:
1) From the off position we have the lowest brightness of 15lm - we cannot increase the brightness upwards or anything. This is just one mode.
2) from the on and off position we have the highest mode after two seconds. To decrease the brightness from it, you have to hold the button, the flashlight seems to increase the brightness, blinks that it is at its maximum (but this is not true, because it was already there a moment ago), then you have to let go and hold it again to decrease the brightness.
The flashlight memorizes the max brightness mode after a double click, but does not memorize the minimum when you hold the switch from the off position. This means that if you turn on the turbo and do not change the brightness, there is no option not to "hit" it when you turn on the flashlight again. That's weak, I already had a few times that I needed a medium light, and knowing that I would hit the turbo I covered the spotlight with my hand.
But we have another option, after 6 clicks we have access to simple 4 steps UI, with long press for moonlight and double click for turbo. Much better UI in my opinion.
Runtime
Chart of brightness change in 10 minutes
Temperature after:
2min - 39°C
5min - 47°C
10min - 47°C
Brightness after 10min - 1183lm
You have to admit, cooling does the job. This is better than last year's M3, and this one is even lighter.
I have not observed any on the lowest brightness
Tested 2 hours in the aquarium, at a depth of 30cm
Test passed 100%, I am impressed, especially since the twin model, the M21C did not survive 40 minutes under water.
XHP70.2 5000K
Min brightness: 15lm
Min brightness of ramping mode: 77lm
Max brightness: 3185lm
As you can see in the last photo, such a ring is formed on the edges, it is caused by a steel ring on the head, which reflects light in this way. Quid pro quo.
ISO200, t2s, f/3.5 sunlight white balance.
Photo of what the forest looks like:
The right pictures:
And a simple 4 mode stepped ramping:
There is a lot of light, it is something between throw and scatter, more towards the throw. A good flashlight if you are wondering about something bright, medium sized.
Unfortunately, due to an underdeveloped driver, in my case this flashlight will not find many applications. This is certainly an interesting beginning of Convoy's path, but my patience has learnt the limit. I'm not saying it's a bad flashlight, but this control is too clumsy for me. But if you don't mind it, I can recommend it, it collects a lot of advantages from me for design, heat dissipation, good throw and water resistance.
The Convoy M21C-U is the grey beginning of the Convoy's journey towards more modern drivers. Grey as the flashlight itself. But not as bright. I would estimate it about 500lm.
Pros:
+ high water resistance
+ nice design
Cons:
- Clumsy control
- The reflector in my unit rattles slightly in the head, and I know 13 other cases, so let's call it a global problem
About host - threads, knurling o-rings and so on
Rating: 5/10 if you have rattling reflector, but 9/10 if not
About light - UI, tint and so on
Rating: 6/10 (stepless dimming: 4/10, simple 4 modes: 8/10)
1 - very bad flashlight hurts to look at, terrible quality, not worth any (even very low) price
5 - average flashlight, at a reasonable price - for the average person "great". Or better flashlight, but overpriced
10 - flashlight meets all my expectations in a given category (e.g EDC, headlamp, thrower), it's durable and neatly made, perfect light tint, worth its (even slightly inflated) price - just pure perfect, so I doubt any light can get a 10 from me
I hope you enjoyed!
