Review: Olight S1A (XM-L2, 1x AA/1x 14500)

The S1A is substantially brighter than the SC01 in both AA and 14500. Almost 160% in AA and about 60% in 14500.

The S1A is a much more floody beam; however, it’s increased output manages to just barely out throw the SC01. 3800cd vs 3500cd. Both using 14500 cells.

Edit:
Data tables will hopefully be up later tonight. are up. Just several runtimes and beamshots left for the bulk.

Run times added.

Charging cells for beamshots tonight.

I ran mine with Sanyo UR14500 and they worked great. Also tested the Xtar 800mah 14500s and they worked also.
I think I had some efest that also didn’t make good contact, but cant remember.

Thanks for runtimes, Great Work!!!
Perfect light for NiMH batteríes.

My Efest Purple flat tops didn’t make contact. When I looked down the battery tube, it looked like there’s a plastic washer on the back of the driver. The positive contact is in the middle of the hole in that washer, but it doesn’t come all the way through. I speculated that it might be some attempt at reverse polarity protection. I ended up soldering a tiny piece of copper wire to the positive plate of my Efest cell to make a button top. It works fine now, but I wasn’t really comfortable with having to solder to a high output IMR cell!

Thanks for the runtimes, much appreciated!

This looks like a winner on NiMH, finally a good upgrade to s15 from Olight. Only problem with s15 was nimh output on high in 1xAA (was great with 2xAA though).

You’re welcome.

And I agree. It is quite nice on NiMH cells.

One major thing it has going for it is the wide/floody beam. It really fits the small form factor side switch AA.

Btw, I snapped some beamshots in my ~50 yard location. I should have them posted up by this evening.

Edit: Posted. :+1:

Cross-reference, for finding the other recent reviews of the S1A:
http://budgetlightforum.com/search?q_as=S1A%20review

I think this is the 8th

Does it have parasite drain?

Lots of reviews, but I always enjoy reading them. Nice graphs!

Ma :beer: KE MY DAY!

For whatever help it might be, my purple Efest IMR cells drop right in and work fine, as do my protected AW LI (black; which are sized very much like an unprotected cell) and my AW IMR (red) cells.

BTW, Unknown, this review was really well done. Bravo.

Interesting. My guess would be the very slight differences in the Efest cell and/or flashlight determine whether or not it will make contact. Mine probably doesn’t make contact by a fraction of a mm. I thought about adding a tiny solder blob to my Efest cell, as I’ve done with many 18650 cells, but as small as the 14500 is I was worried about the heat.

I should elaborate on the keeppower protected cells too. These cells were from a year or two back when KP was wrapping over the cell’s original wrap making them very wide (I don’t know if they still do that). Other protected cells should be fine, my eneloop XX cells are very wide and work fine, the KP’s are just a little too wide.

Thank you very much for the compliment. :slight_smile:

I can’t accurately measure very low current at present. My multimeter died on me a few months back. The best I can do is say that I measured .000 Amps with my clamp meter.

Well, let’s be honest. The complement was very well deserved.

Lots of us post written and/or video reviews from time to time and most of us, myself include, do a very amateurish job of it. And that is all well and good. I always appreciate the effort someone makes, even if they are only just giving me their opinion about something. However, in a veritable sea of Olight S1A reviews, which will eventually include one of my own, your review really stands out. Easily right up their with what this community would expect to see from HJK or SelfBuilt, etc. I would say it is the written equivalent of an Mhanlen video.

As for Efest being unable to consistently manufacture a standard, well, I personally think they are, perhaps, the least able of the “quality manufactures” to provide reliable quality control, as illustrated by these cells which were purchased from a large, US based vendor.

Finally got my replacement DMM.

I measure 1.4 microamps. Just under 100 years to 50%. :+1:

I’ve placed an order for the Sanyo unprotected UR14500p without reading reviews.

Does it work with S1A without the use of magnets?

Probably not. My similar Efest 14500 doesn’t.

The one on the left doesn’t work with S1A even if it isn’t recessed, the one on the right does.

For those of you who didn’t like the CW tint, emitter swap is feasible :

I love this little light and it instantly became my favorite EDC. But I noticed that it wasn’t remembering the mode I last used even though it’s advertised as having memory mode. I assumed it was defective and wrote to Olight in the US. I received a quick response that stated:
“The S1A will remember the mode just for 9min and then it will automatically change to medium.”
So it has 9 minute memory mode only. Not terribly useful. A minor inconvenience.