Aurora SH-032 Stainless Steel Cree Q3-WC 3-Mode 160-Lumen Memory LED Flashlight (1*18650)
Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★★★
It claims Q3 in the spec, but the head says different. From the output I'd say the body is telling the truth.
Summary:
| Battery: | 18650 |
| Switch: | Reverse Clicky |
| Modes: | 3 |
| LED Type: | Body says Cree XR-E R2, spec says Q3 |
| Lens: | Coated Glass |
| Tailstands: | No |
| Price Payed: | $21.61 |
| From: | http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.32563 |
Pros:
- Small for an 18650 light
- Doesn't get as hot as some stainless steel lights
- Bright
- Quite a narrow beam (Some may call this a con)
- I like the heft of stainless steel lights (Others might find them too heavy)
Cons:
- Has a disco mode
- Stainless steel lights cost more
- Heat sinking not as good as an aluminium light
Features / Value: ★★★★
Nicely put together stainless steel body. There is also a 5 mode version which is 85 cents more expensive at $22.46. http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.32564. As you might possibly have noticed, I really like stainless steel lights. Bear this in mind for my ratings on any stainless steel light.
3 modes, high, low, slowish strobe (disco mode). Would be better without a silly flashing mode. It is rather heavier than an aluminium light - it weighs 152.4g with an 18650. For comparison the Uniquefire R5 with dropin and two 16340 cells weighs 160g but it is considerably larger.
Build Quality: ★★★★★
Pretty good. Nice threads with decent dual O rings at head and tail end.
Body Tube
Tailcap. It protrudes so the light doesn't tailstand.
Inner tailcap.
Head. The LED is perfectly centred as far as I can see.
Other side of the head. Soldering not done by a drunk blind person with a stick which is the norm on most Chinese lights. This one is better soldered than most.
The switch is firm and positive, I've not yet managed to get it to do anything odd despite my best efforts. It is not as loud as some, but you will hear that you have switched it on or off.
Battery Life: ★★★★★
Up to 4.2V so no 16340s in this light. 18650 only. The manufacturer claims 900mA to the LED and since the only way I can test this involves messing around with the light engine disassembled and I like this light a lot so I'm not about to do it. 900mA is fairly conservative drive for an XR-E which can take up to 1.5A (With adequate heat sinking which is isn't getting in a stainless steel light. Current draw is 1200mA on high so it should give around two hours on high. Low current draw is about 520mA so it should give up to four hours on low. Strobe is about 650mA so you can make yourself ill for about three hours with it. This all assumes that the actual as opposed to rated capacity of the protected 18650s I'm using is around 2400mAh. This is IMO a pretty well balanced design as it hasn't gone for hand burning, LED killing maximum output at all costs. Battery life is not all that important to me as I'm rarely far from power and the power here is clean and very rarely interrupted - there have only been two outages since 4th January 1990 when I moved in and the longer of the two was only 25 minutes. The other one, in 1994, was 4 minutes. For the sort of light it is, I'd say battery life is excellent.
Not a lot of regulation on high. Odd the way the output rises.
2hr 14 min to 50% is pretty good.
Low: 4hr 19min to 50% Here's the graph. Ignore the spike at about 52 minutes, I knocked the light off the box.
Again not really regulated at all.
Light Output:★★★★★
Claimed 160 lumens which is the same as the actual measured output from a Preon 2 which I happen to own. My eyes say it is putting out considerably more light than it does so I suspect that DX is underselling the light as it probably has an R2 in it instead of a Q3. The light box says 965 lux for the Aurora on high as opposed to 720 for the Preon which implies a lumen output of around 220 lumens which it can do for a couple of hours. It gives 11,900 lux at 1 metre for throw, over 10x as much as the Preon which, of course, was never intended to be a thrower. Incidentally the Preon 2 with the clickie switch is about 6mm longer than the Aurora. Beamshots to follow if it gives up trying to snow and then raining hard instead. From the weather forecasts this may take some time.
Oops - forgot to put these in. These two are on the alternate test range and are rather longer distance than the usual tree. The stick between the buildings is 114 feet (34m) from the camera (and light)
Control
High
Low
Here's another R2 light (a P60 dropin) on high
I'm sure I have done backyard beamshots of this light but I can't seem to find them just now. So here's the snow shots from a few weeks ago just for fun.
High
Low
Weather permitting I'll do the standard shots tonight.
Summary: ★★★★★
A well rounded design with a sensible balance of output - lots of light for a couple of hours without setting your hands on fire, though it does get hot if not handheld for an hour.
