Manker Quinlan T-01 Review

OK, first off cards on the table: I don’t know how I got on the “reviewer” list, but I was lucky enough to be contacted to receive a pre-production model and it was shipped 2 day express from Hong Kong. Got it last night.

My background is something along the lines of I like lights, have a decent number of odds and ends of them around, but I’d say my knowledge is more or less along the casual lines and most any of you know a LOT more than I do.

So, as far as the light itself. It arrived well packaged but more or less in a plain brown box with the Manker logo. No instructions or anything. Thankfully my contact had already sent me a jpg of the instructions.

My main thoughts are as follows:
-It’s a pretty nice, fairly small light with quite a bit of power.

-Seems well built.

-Is not the most intuitive to control. I’m getting the hang of it, but it’s going to take some practice, and it wasn’t until I looked at the directions again this morning that I think I understand how to get into the whole second set of controls which look twice as complicated as the first, but also I guess the only way to go full turbo mode…
-Basically in the “normal” mode side of things, you have to hold the button to get it to turn on. Then single click to change brightness. And a double click to get it to go into the flashing/sos/whatever mode.
-Then it seems I have yet to try this 10 second hold to switch over to the “special” mode, which is similar to everything I just described except it looks like there’s about 3 settings for each of those modes, plus a battery level indicator and direct current mode which does have a warning about how hot it’s going to get.

-I’m waiting for a shipment from Battery Junction for some real batteries(Eneloop pro and a 14500). The best thing I had laying around was a relatively new Rayovac rechargeable from Walmart.

That said, it throws some serious light. I stopped for a couple minutes this morning on my way for a run with my Petzl Nao(supposedly 575 lumen) to compare to the supposed 500 lumen of this T-01. I’d say that’s about right. The Petzl covered a wider area, but couldn’t reach quite as far as the T-01.
And from what I’m reading once I get a 14500 in there, the light ouput should be more than 50% higher? Yowza.

Like I said, I’m a casual reviewer, so picture me trying to do the best I can with a good cell phone camera and kids screaming in the background(and wanting to steal the light).
So I’ll attach what I can of some pictures that were sent to me by my contact that I didn’t see on Manker’s site, a few pictures trying to show the difference in brightness modes, and a video of the unboxing and again, trying to show the different modes. Sorry for the lack of quality.

Levi

Low: Dim enough to not be seen by my camera

Medium:

High:

Turbo:

Information:

Thanks for the review, livesmith. The light as seen in the video is after all not as bulky as I thought it was :-)

I was looking forward to the screaming children in the background, but unfortunately the sound is not working for me.

Haha, No I decided to just mute the audio on the video since I didn’t really say anything anyway. Figured that would be a safer bet. (: I probably should have put some music on or something.

As far as size goes, I’d say it depends on what you have in mind. They told me it was an EDC light and I guess it depends on how you want to carry it. I initially was thinking more like an old single AAA Maglite keychain I used to keep on my keys in my pocket like 20 years ago. It’s certainly not large, and I could see keeping it clipped on a belt with the clip quite well. But it’s a bit bulky to be stuffed in a jeans pocket. Then again, I can see tossing it in my cargo pants pockets without any trouble. I guess that’s always kinda a trade off as far as lights or even phones go I’ve noticed. It’s nice to have something as small and smooth as can be to just shove in and out of pockets, but once you have it out, it’s kinda nice if it’s a bit larger and has more grooves and grippy surfaces to hold on to better.

I have relatively small hands and it’s about as long as my finger, so not bad at all. but that head is probably closer to the size of a quarter in diameter.

What is your nick on the other forum? Sound fishy you are the ‘lucky’ one…

Two first posters here and they both post about this light. That’s some coincidence.

I’m LeviGSmith on CPF. I posted the same review there. That was in the request with them sending me the review unit.

I agree it sounds fishy. I was HIGHLY skeptical almost 4 years ago when I got an email from someone in China to send me a flashlight to review (the Eye30, which I believe is the only other review I’ve done: http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?328801-Niteye-EYE30)

Levi

IIRC, what seemed to be the case back when I reviewed the EYE30 was that a number of people were sent these lights to review and showed up as new posters on CPF.

I guess I understand the concept but am not entirely clear on what you’re worried about. Are you afraid that new posters are just people in China who work for the company posting exactly what they are told and you’re getting false information? Or something else?

Either way, if you have any questions let me know.

Cleared my doubts man! Coincidences do happen! I’ll check out the review first. A number of AA lights are coming out recently and from pricing alone, I can see this one being on the higher end …

Nice review and Welcome to BLF!
Pics are bit large but they will do.

I can understand why you would be confused with that UI, flowchart is dizzy.
Thanks,
Keith

Huh, I thought they were blank black screens, had to scroll right and up to see the image part.

Suggest editing and/or using the percentage-size option

Sorry about that. Was trying to give the highest quality but I guess it just makes it more difficult to view. I dropped the width in half now.

Thanks for the review! Don’t like that you have to hold button for power on in normal mode.

Had me messing with my computer audio the whole time thinking my sound was messed up :).

I agree, I’m not overly fond of the controls, though in reality they do seem to work well enough with a bit of experience. It just seems I shouldn’t have to “learn” how to use a flashlight. (:

I played around with it for a bit more and have got it into the special mode. This is kinda quirky as well… It’s nice to have the battery level in there…(Well, in the second level of the advanced mode) but why not have it in the normal mode(s)? That’s something I’d be likely to want to see frequently. But once you get into the secondary section of the special mode you start out in the strobe/beacon section which personally would be rare/never that I’d ever need that mode…

Wow, I don’t know how anyone is going to read this and understand. I’m getting lost just trying to type it out.
I guess it comes down to this:
-Battery level is something I would use frequently.
-Strobe/beacon modes are something I would almost never use. And less than a “don’t need it” it’s more of an annoyance cause I don’t really want/need maximum light flashing out of my light. It’s rather jarring unless you’re ready to be dancing at a rave and/or trying for seizures.

To get to the battery mode you have to go into “Special” mode via a 10 second hold from off. Thankfully it seems to stay in that mode after a power off.
So if you’ve already enabled the special mode, then to get to the battery level from off you:
-Hold the button for 2 seconds. Light turns on and remembers whatever low/medium/high/turbo setting you last used.
-Double click the button to go into the secondary mode. Now the light is pounding you with strobe.
-Press button. SOS Mode now.
-Press button. Beacon Mode now. This one is I think the most attention getting for your eyes.
-Press button. Now you’re in Turbo mode, dump the battery, maximum light!
-Press button. Tada! Now, it will blink once for each 25% of battery remaining.

If you keep pressing the button it goes through the usual low, medium, high, turbo and then back to strobe mode and repeat of above.

I have yet to determine what the 1/2/3 under each of the modes in that chart mean in Special mode, or what the Custom Settings shown on that chart are for. Seems to go straight from Battery level to low. I’ve emailed Manker for more info on those.

Now, that said, I still like the light. To my limited knowledge, it seems quite nice. But this control structure is a bit cumbersome. Seems like they could have just put the battery level in the main mode. Maybe put that direct current turbo/hot mode as a special 10 second press and then just do away with the whole second set of controls all together.

Seems like a nice light with great output. But dear god, that UI sounds like a total mess.

You have to press for 2 seconds to turn it on, and then you have to click the button to cycle between 4 modes? And Turbo is hidden in the blinkies? Urgh.

A flashlight costing $70 should have a decent UI, and a shortcut to moonlight & Turbo.

theres shills from Odepro… ID: Faustine and another ID:Christine

Do they tend to mislead with only positive info?

Not sure abt that… us regular members know what’s good and bad so it’s quite difficult to say at least from my pov

Nice job on the review. I love the flow chart and the run-time graph. I was informed by someone close with Manker that the T01 does not use a current control driver but used PWM & PFM instead. Looking at your runtime graph I have to disagree with him. That sure looks like a proper current controlled light as I originally assumed it was.

PM incoming.

Just to be clear, those 2 images were supplied by Manker.