THRUNITE NEUTRON 1A (updated with pics and more comments)
Battery: | AA/14500 |
Switch: | Clicky |
Modes: | 7 (5 brightness, strobe, SOS) |
LED Type: | XM-L T6 |
Lens: | Glass |
Tailstands: | Yes |
Price Payed: | $53 |
From: | LightJunction |
Date Ordered: | 05/01/2011 |
I just received this light last night so this is a basic review. I'll try to add some pictures later. As most of you know, after some debate I ordered this non-budget light with a little extra cash I received on the potential that it may put out a large amount of light off a AA battery.
The big question for many of you is that is this light worth the non-budget price? And the answer, at least on my sample, is a resounding no.
Build Quality 2/5
Here-in lies the big trouble. Keep in mind that I am judging this based on cost to value. If you buy a more expensive light, you expect excellent build quality. This has been the case for me in the past with the purchase of my Fenix LD20 and ITP C7. Thrunite falls through here. The knurling and anodization is excellent and pretty much flawless as you would imagine. The clip is very solid and held in place by a retaining ring screwed on to the body. The aluminum is quite thick on this body. It would take a steamroller to crush this one. However, after that first impression, things go downhill. First of all is the boot to the clicky switch. The boot feels a tad too large and very thin. You touch the boot and you feel gapping all around the switch and it gives the switch activation a very poor, squishy, tactile feel. It also makes you wonder if the boot is going to last. If you look at the battery tube, the inside egde on the tail end has not been smoothed at all, leaving a sharp edge It is very sharp which is highly noticeable when changing the battery. The threads themselves seem decent, but if there was any lube on them, it was exceptionally light, as the thread action left something to be desired and there was a very audible squeaking when threading and unthreading on the tail cap. The overall impression is one of sloppiness or laziness, which I wouldn't expect from a non-budget light.
Finally, the biggest build issue becomes apparent from the operation of the light itself. The user interface is the same as that used by the similar fenix lights. With the head tightened, you have turbo and strobe modes, switched by half-pressing the clicky. With the head loosened, you enter the regular modes , sequenced: firefly (0.1 lumens), Low (9 lumens), Med (55 lumens), High (100 lumens), and then SOS (which actually has a pause of about 15 seconds between each cycle of SOS). Unbelievably, the head is very wobbly when loosened, if you loosen a 1/4 turn to enter regular mode, any bump to the head will flash turbo mode at you. My son was handing the light to me on firefly and the very act of exchanging hands gave me a nice blast of turbo to my eyes. Not good. If you loosen the head more, to a half turn, that symptom stops, but the light head is very loose at that point. You can sit there and wiggle the head and hear the battery tube clacking against the head. Also, not good. I contacted the dealer about this and they claim that Thrunite told them that this was normal behavior. That is a pretty major engineering gaffe for a light of this price when the loosened head is a core part of the lights operation.
Update 5/13/11: Thrunite has responded to my inquiries over at the other site. They claim that the reason for the wobbly head is that they changed the o-ring material shortly after the start of manufacturing to the same material as the tailcap boot. This material is much softer than regular silicone so it allows more give when the head is loosened, but is supposedly more durable. Because of the complaints, they are switching back to regular silicone. As of now, no one has confirmed this claim. To me, if the material interferes with proper operation of the light, it is an inferior material, even if it is more durable. Isn't that why you provide extra o-rings anyway? Plus, why would you not thoroughly test the product to make sure there is not a functional difference before switching a material like that? Seems like a no name budget manufacturer way of doing things instead of a more expensive "name brand." But, Thrunite is a young company so maybe they are still learning this stuff and if this truly is the solution, I will give them credit for finding and solving the problem. In any case, I did send back my original light to Lightjunction and they have graciously agreed to test a replacement for me before shipping it out. If I end up with a good working light out of this, I will update this review again and provide proper kudos to lightjunction.
OUTPUT 5/5
Without equipment this light is hard to judge on output. This is one light that makes you go, is it really that bright? Of course the problem is the combination of an XM-L in a rather small OP reflector. The hotspot is very diffuse, which makes it seem like the light is dimmer than what it is. Comparing the beams on a white wall, I could tell that it was brighter than my C7, but not by much. Meanwhile, it seemed like the 175 lumens of my LD20 on turbo was noticeably brighter. However, then I tried a ceiling bounce and to my eye there was no difference between the LD20 and the 1A, so it very well could be putting out in the 175-200 range. Both of course were much brighter than the C7 on the ceiling bounce. I will try to take pictures later and see if I can tell via pic comparison and post them here. Also when brought outdoors in the dark, the brightness again showed up as the floody beam just lit up a huge area. This thing is a flood monster. I do not have any 14500's yet, so it would be interesting to see how it does when powered by them. If you like floody beams, you will like the beam of this torch as it is nice and diffuse with few imperfections. The color on mine does skew to blue, which is a noticeable contrast to my green skewing LD20.
Update: Pictures added. As you can see, the hotspot is quite wide on the neutron. The initial picture makes the Neutron also appear much brighter, which is slightly different from what I was noticing from the naked eye earlier. The diffuse beam really makes the light appear dimmer than what it is. If you look at the final high speed shot, that is close to what I am seeing from the naked eye indoors. As I also said, outdoors in the dark, it is a different story as all that flood becomes obvious and it is clearly a bright light. This also shows up in the ceiling bounce shots as the Neutron is clearly the brightest light. Yes, these are all on Nimh, so the Neutron does live up to its reputation of a great amount of light from a standard battery. With many tests pegging the LD20 at around 175 lumens, its safe to say that the Neutron is putting out at least an honest 200 lumens. In light of this, I may up my rating on output to 5/5 because this simply out performs just about anything else on 1xaa. Unfortunately, i can't turn the auto white balance off on my camera so you can't tell off these pics the tint color differences between the lights.
Beamshots are left to right, Neutron 1A, Fenix LD20, and ITP C7, all on maximum output.
Ceiling Bounce
ITP C7
Fenix LD20 Q5
Thrunite Neutron 1A
RUNTIME 4/5
I haven't had a chance to do any proper run time tests or current checks. However, the low modes really are where they are supposed to be on output. The firefly mode is low enough where you can look right at the emitter without a problem, which is kind of a cool effect. The low mode is right where it needs to be for basic walking around the house at night. I don't have any reason to doubt that the battery would last a very long time on either of these modes. Obviously, with the rather high output this light may present, you won't get much battery life off the turbo mode. There have been quite a few run time tests on these modes done so if you google, I'm sure you will find that info.
Firefly Mode:
OVERALL 3/5
I had a hard time deciding to give a 2/5 or 3/5 on this one. Needless to say, I am disappointed. The aforementioned build quality issues should not be present on a light of this price and my comparable brand name lights just are put together much better. With that said, every function works on the light. It does everything that it promises to do, although I have to question its waterproofing with how loose the head feels when its not tightened. It came in a basic box, with a lanyard and spare orings as you would expect at this price level. I'm debating whether I should return this to the dealer and get my money back.
Update: In light of the obvious performance output. I can say that I would solidy give this light the 3/5. The output and modes that everyone wants are there. It is the build quality at the price level that is dragging this light down.
I have also posted the link to my review on the Thrunite manufacturer's subforum at CPF. I have invited Thrunite to read the review and post their own commentary about the issues I've had. I would be happy to amend my review if another sample proves that my issues were an isolated incident.