Review : XTAR WK41 SIRIUS AA

Thanks for the video! On a NiMH the 150 lumens seems too low. They should have got it up to atleast 200 lumens

Hi.
True, but they have tried a good balance Lumens-Runtime.
Not a big flashlight to use outdoors, but as EDC is enough.
These 150 Lumens, light as well as 170 Zebra or Sunwayman lumens.

Just wanted to say thank you for the excellent review. I bought one earlier this week specifically because of reading this review and it just arrived today. This is by far the best EDC flashlight I’ve ever owned.

I’ve been using it with the Eneloop XX 2400mah AA, and I wont really get a true opportunity to test it till tonight. But this review hits everything spot on, its small, lightweight. The quality is top notch, one thing I noticed in particular that the threads when removing the battery compartment have INCREDIBLY smooth action. And in event of a zombie apocalypse you’ll have a flashlight that will take any AA battery you find laying around. I may venture to try a 14500 battery at some point but the Eneloop on turbo (4th setting) really does put down a lot of light, so I’m not in any sort of rush.

Two other notes, the Strobe is pretty easy to learn so if you have to use it for self defense; its very accessible with 2 quick taps, and you will hit strobe every-time whether the light is on or off. Also the memory works fantastic too, so if you leave it in high its in high mode when you turn it back on (also great for self defense as well).

Overall this is the best $40.00 i’ve spent in a while. Its probably the most expensive flashlight I’ve bought prior to this I’ve only had crummy nebo & ebay-amazon-generic cree flashlights. And It has absolutely been worth every penny! Xtar has won me over!

The only mild disappointment was the difficulty of finding these, I had to order it on ebay (new), I guess I just get spoiled with ordering with Amazon Prime though!

You’ve been using it a few days. Are you happy with it?, I did not get out of my pocket 8)

Thanks for a terrific review, Trevi_lux. In my country there is a local distributor for Xtar lights and I’ve already ordered the WK40.
However, after reading your review I may have to buy the WK41 as well :8).

I am 99% happy with it, only one pretty minor complaint (see cons)

Pros

  • Excellent Durability, Dropped it once and it hardly left a mark, all you can see is a few very fine nics (truly an anodized finish, no cheapo flake off paint here)
  • Excellent beam pattern, its VERY wide spread maybe better described as spill in this case( at about 15-20 feet, its enough to illuminate a majority of a 50 foot wide lawn) However this is exactly what you want, In my experience from retrofitting HID Projectors into automative headlight housings you want beam spread, because if beams are too narrow its difficult for your vision to focus on anything other than whats directly under the focus of the beam. I think this beam pattern with focus in the middle and nice wide spill/spread to the sides is ideal because it gives you a great compromise between a bright single beam, and a wider coverage.
  • Beam Does not have the ability to focus, which is a pro in my opinion because its so annoying to deal with focusing a flashlight that is an EDC, shouldnt ever be needed, and the spread on this beam is perfect!
  • Excellent Battery life with the Eneloop XX, and the low battery warning is awesome, I’ve never had it completely die on me because of that one feature. I just swap to a fresh battery when that red light lets me know its that time again.
  • It still gets me every time how smooth the threading is when I replace the battery, LOVE IT!

Cons

  • C-Clip belt/pocket clip: This is my ONLY gripe and its pretty minor, just something I noticed when the clip has fallen off once on me, and I simply I herd it fall from the clank on the road and noticed right away though. You can see it pretty well in the image below(just a crop of one of the above pictures you took), the clip is a c-clip based design, so it can pop right off with enough pressure in the right direction. Dont get me wrong its not “easy” to pop off and takes a good amount of pressure, but its doable by accident. The only thing I’d lose is the clip itself (not the flashlight), since I keep the flashlight tucked into my pocket clipping onto the edge of it. So not like its a major crisis or anything, just something to be aware of.

If the C-Clip gives me any trouble aside from what happened already I may try to design one up in CAD to get 3D Printed, maybe something with a screw/set screw based fastner printed in stainless steel. But for now its only fallen off once(which I’m hoping was just an odd unlikely scenario), which I can deal with, its really only a problem if it starts regularly falling off(If that ever happens I’d definitely post an update as well).

Nice review of what looks like very nice light.

Looks like a great light, I want one!

I purchased this light from Mark at MDlightsource a few weeks ago.In my quest for the “perfect” EDC light this has been one of the best I have found.I have been carrying it for about two weeks straight and don’t intend to stop.One thing that this light does well that other AA/14500 lights don’t do well at is to keep the lower modes with a 14500.(Speaking specifically about the Xeno EO3)This light has the same output on the two lower modes with both NiMh and 14500.My favorite EDC lights are now narrowed to the SB S-mini(XP-G) and the Xtar WK41.The advantage of the WK41 is that normal alkaline AA’s are easier to find than charged 18650’s.In a true emergency, the Wk41 will always have a power source.

Thanks a lot for the review! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.

I hate to sound like the negative nancy here, but I received this light recently and while it’s a decent little AA light it’s not without a few complaints.

Firstly the switch. It is much too small and very very difficult to locate by feel alone. The tiny button sits nearly flush with the surface and its difficult to activate quickly, especially with larger hands and forget about with gloves on. Aligning the pocket clip with the switch helps give some tactile cues as to where to press when it’s pitch black, but its still not very fast or user friendly.

Take the Zebralight SC52 for comparison, it uses a much larger side button which is easier to feel and activate, and then it is recessed so that you can clearly find the button by feel alone very quickly. The pocket clip is bolted in place which means it always helps align you with the button once you get used to it. The same can’t be said for the WK41, although the pocketclip isn’t that big of a deal.

The second issue I have is also related to the switch, but more about the UI and buttons timings. Double clicking to select special modes is fine, however the timing requires you double click the button extremely fast, to the point where I cannot reliably get to the blinks modes. This seems like a bad idea for a feature that may be needed in very dire situations.

Thirdly, and again still on the switch, the amount of time required to turn the light off is annoyingly long at 1.5 seconds. It sounds quick on paper, but in actual EDC use it feels like an eternity, and the thought of waiting on my flashlight is absurd to me. Fenix uses a long click to turn some of their lights off, but their timing seems to be a bit better thought out, or I’m just impatient. :slight_smile:

Finally with so many normal modes to cycle through I feel like they missed a real opportunity to do something with a long-click from off, either for momentary on, or direct access to high or some other setting. Cycling through 4 modes to get the one needed is again an exercise in patience with this light, in fact everything about this light feels like it’s testing my patience.

I will give Xtar credit for their beam and tint quality, it is quite good and somewhere between cool and neutral. The beam is fairly floody, and very smooth, a great beam for an EDC light. Support for 14500s from the manufacturer is very welcomed to see, and the low battery indicator is pretty neat, although I haven’t gotten the hang of how many minutes of light are left once it comes on. Overall this isn’t a bad light despite my numerous complaints with it, but I don’t think I would buy it again.

Hello IClight

I think most of your complaints relate to issues that you should know before you buy. Specifications and photos on the web of Xtar are simple and well explained.

If I do not like red cars, and I bought a red car. Is it fair that I’m complaining then “do not really like the color of my car”?. I think I should not have bought the car ….

I just couldn’t resist, thanks to you, Trevi-lux :smiley:
Pulled the trigger on the WK41 just this afternoon.

I don’t believe that makes my criticism any less valid, however. I’m just trying to be objective about this light, whether I bought it myself or was given it to review shouldn’t change my opinion of it.

I found the critisisms interesting. I dont think the difficulty in accessing the disco modes would bother me in the slightest though!

This is my new WK42.

Received a few days ago, more compact and powerful than WK41.
I love my wk42 (I paid for this, the wk 41 was donated for review by Xtar, I liked it so much that I bought the wk42).
Now I prefer the 42 as EDC. I’ve used it with EagleTac 16340 and LIR123A Xtar 800mA and Nitecore NL-146, all fit perfectly. The low battery warning goes perfect with rechargeable and non-rechargeable. It’s a small cannon with RCR123A.

IClight .
Of course all the criticism is legitimate. I’m sorry if I upset you. :beer: :beer:

I’m in agreement with you ICLight. I too, bought the XTAR WK41, and as much as I want to reach for it when I need a light, I am always reaching for my SC52.
I think the WK41 is a very handsome light, and although not the most powerful, I was actually OK with it. In comparison with the SC52 on Eneloop AA, I didn’t find the difference in brightness to be a huge issue.
I have a Fenix E25, and also notice it felt quicker to turn off. To quantify it, I timed it a few times. Repeatedly, I got 0.6 seconds on the E25, and 1.2 seconds on the WK41. To the WK41’s credit, it does turn on instantly, whereas the E25 requires the 0.6 seconds to turn off.
XTAR’s own website states it is 1.5 seconds to turn off, so the 1.2 seconds that I recorded is even better.
I bought this light when I read Trevi-Lux’s excellent review, and I feel he has been quite accurate in his review. What is hard to convey, are the more subjective elements like switch feel, or how easy it is to activate.
I always intended on gifting this light, and I will miss it when it is gone, in spite of its shortcomings. Perhaps I will replace it again with another WK41, as I see myself now becoming a collector as opposed to someone who buys lights to keep up with the advancements. Also, the price I paid for it at MD-Lightsource is incredible value (IMHO) for a well-built light with excellent features.
My perception of value may have been permanently altered though, as I received my Fandyfire Warrior today. Now THAT is a light with exceptional excellent value!!!

As to the criticism of the button accessibility, I have to agree. I tried the light a little whether it would be suited for situations in which I might need the strobe mode, and the button was very difficult to detect in the dark with bare hands. It would be close to impossible to use it as an effective strobe light in a real life situation without a minimum of calm preparation time - not to speak of use with gloves. This is too bad since the direct strobe mode access is actually pretty nice. A sufficiently elevated ring/semi-circle around the button might significantly improve quick tactile detection…

However, I still love and carry the WK41 in my bag all the time for situations when the performance of my keychain Olight i3s EOS does not suffice for me or for when I might need a decent strobe light with some calm preparation time (the olight i3s EOS hidden strobe is almost never really an option IMHO). Also, the WK41’s groove is nice and allows holding it with the mouth/teeth quite comfortably which may prove useful (not sure if this has been mentioned already).

Now, I have seen that not all 14500s are suited for use in the WK41 (which is a shame), and I am therefore still using AAs. I would really like to have the additional notch of performance provided by the 14500 but I want to use protected ones for safety reasons (nonwithstanding the battery level indicator). Does anyone know already (positively) of a protected 14500 that works fine in the WK41?

ps and btw: Hi girls and guys, I am fairly new in the flashlight world and try to catch up on the respective knowledge. Help is always appreciated :wink:

Congratulations Trevi, excellent very detailed review.
I have to make a gift for a friend, I am torn between Fenix E11 and XTAR WK41 or WK42.
I read with great interest your review and all the other comments from other users.
In Italy we have a vendor who has both models, I am undecided.
You can make the case for more photos? I'd love to see photos in open space (outdoor)

I have the Fenix E11 which has less beam performance but has a slightly more concentrated (more throw)

I think the XTAR WK41 is ok but I would like to know if throw is enough

Many thanks


(terrible translation by Google :)