Review – Big smooth steel POP lite 博睐: P73, P75, P673, P65, P9

I am not going to rate these with stars, because I don’t know anything to compare them to. They are too big and shiny and beautifully shaped. The only thing they lack is the ability to zoom into a flood mode. (To be picky, one could also ask for square threads.)

I have a P673 and a P75. The only visible differences are the longer tube of the P75 and the charging port of the P673. Both of my examples have the newer faceted optics with large tunnel and aspheric, XM-L2 LED and probably higher current buck driver, but some pictures and specifications show older more reflecting optics with only a small cylindrical opening in front of the LED to refract light to the TIR surface, and an XR-E.

Click for full size. P673

P75

I read 0.7 A at the tail of the P75 and between 1 and 1.5 A at the P673. The P75 probably has twice that current at the XM-L2.

My P673, the last one left at Gearbest, was the last of these big POP lites that Google found. My P75 came from YoyCart which has summaries in English but the main descriptions in Chinese. More can be found on Taobao.com, using Google translation and English language agents. This is probably because they have been mainly marketed in China. The nice color owners manual is in Chinese only.
If they had XR-Es, I probably would have called this a classic review, and thought mostly in terms of classic value and modification, but an XM-L2 is not obsolete. These may be still in production, and just hard to find in the West. One who is happy with about 1.5 A has no reason to change anything. I payed $83 for the P673 and $103 for the P75; they can probably be found for less than that on TaoBao, including agent’s fees and double shipping.

The 673 came with three run down C cells, soldered and wrapped into a pack, that recovered most of their advertised capacity with a few cycles.

Inside

P75

It is screwed together and unscrews easily, except that the heads were glued on, as usual for POP lites. (I have strap wrenches now.) The star and driver are on a pill that screws into a larger aluminum piece that screws into the head, so there is a lot of contact for heat transfer. There is a wide cylindrical gasket inside the head instead of o-rings. There is supposed to be an o-ring between the head and center section, but it was missing on one of them. (The glue probably sealed it better than an o-ring does.)

The P673 driver says P75 XM-L on it, and the P75 driver says P75 V3.

P673

Beam shots

P75 on right, 4.5 A. CNQ host on left (12x7135, Nichia 219C, 3.9V, Ahorton lens).

Zoomies usually have only ugly rings as spill. This optics is mainly intended to put a lot of light in the spot, but it also distributes stray light in a way that will sometimes be useful. It would be nice to see a zoomy with this same optical element.

Modification potential

This optics would work well with a multi-die LED, except that it might melt. There is a lot of space around the LED, so it would probably stand a lot of power. The star is a regular indirect aluminum one, so it needs to be changed for high current, even if the same LED is used. (XR-E POPs are direct thermal.) The head screws apart easily. It has 8 mm. x 21 mm. for the driver components, on the front, and a lot more space behind it if the spring were moved out of the way. The driver board is 28 mm. and held in by two screws 25.1 mm. apart. Surprisingly for a light this size, it has a 16 mm. star. There is nothing but some gunk holding the star down to the pill.
26650s don’t fit, but NiMH, or even alkalines work well in these sizes and numbers, and I see a vaping site with red Efest 26500s that would probably fit, or one could hone one out for 26650s. The P65 and P9 are intended for one and two 26650s, so they should fit.

See post 6 for a straight forward modification.

Thanks.
Interesting lights.

Thanks for the review. Always enjoy seeing what’s inside the light.

I think really dedicated shoppers, for all industrial products, should stop watching TV and learn Chinese.

You got a point there Fritz

What a beautiful designed lights these are.
Strange this is not copied more often.

Modification Notes

I put a 5 Amp. Mountain Max. buck driver with 3 minute turbo timer and an XP-L V6 3D in it. I used an LED with a dome to maximize total output rather than throw. This may not be an improvement, but this LED is probably newer, and, anecdotally, XP-Ls have lower forward voltage at high current than XM-Ls do. I used thermal epoxy for the star and heat sink compound under the driver and on the threads.

P75 Max. on left, same CNQ as above on right:

It draws around 2.5 A at the tail, dropping smoothly to 1. A after three minutes.

Stock P673 vs. mod. P75. Both with high drain Tenergy NiMH cells:.

The modified P75 head gets much too hot to hold after a few minutes in turbo, but the switch is still comfortable to use. The P673 head gets warm but not hot.

My brother has on old multi-5 mm. light that has a similar shape, as I remember. He said it was made in France. So this may be a copy. It might even have been in stainless.
There do seem to be various copies of the POP/Lenser zoomies.

I have not seen it recently, but my brother confirmed that his French 3xC light is very similar in shape and finish to these. It is stainless steel and has a smoothly curved waist. The only thing wrong with it is that it has only old 5 mm. LEDs. Little is original in the flashlight industry.