Warsun H003
Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★½☆☆☆
Reviewer's Mod Host Rating: ½☆☆☆☆
Quick Summary:
Battery: | Integrated |
Switch: | Electronic top mounted switch |
Modes: | High - Medium - Strobe - SOS - OFF |
LED Type: | Cree XM-L Warm white |
Lens: | Plastic |
Tailstands: | yes |
Price Paid: | This light was provided by Banggod.com Regular price 38,69$ (without coupon code) |
From: | Banggood |
Date Ordered: | Ordered 28th May Shipped 20 June (I believe it was shipped twice due to issues) Received 14th July
|
Pros
Complete with everything (battery,charger and strap)
Safe chemistry acid battery
Ok throw
Nicely balanced in the hand
Tint options (Maybe, if you get the right tint, and emitter)
Cons:
- Plastic body
- Plastic pretty much everything
- No heatsinking
- Heavy considering the performance
- Not anywhere near as bright as it should have been
- Not close to being waterproof
- Plastic lens
- You have to cycle through all modes, including the blinky modes to turn it off
- No low mode
- Full of false advertising (this could be a pro, its quite funny)
- Came with WW XM-L (Manufacturer says XM-L2)
- Loose broken plastic parts inside it made rattling sound when shaking it
- No li-ion battery (or Ni-Mh like stated on BG webpage)
Introduction
I was happy to see a light with aluminium body of this form factor with a larger reflector and cheap price. So I asked for a review sample.
You know those lights that impresses you a lot. Lights that makes your think, "what a great light. Or just exceeds your expectations. This light isn't anything like that...
The light:
Its made out of plastic!! J) :_(
Why on earth did the description say anodized aluminium.
CDEE XM-L2 LED?
Its actually a Cree XM-L, despite that Warsun says XM-L2.
Size comparison with other lights:
Warsun H003, Fenix TK61, big head COROUI, HD2010
Like a TK61, its a large thrower, uses electronic switch for mode changing, it comes with a strap and it have similar bezel size.. Despite that, they could not be more different.
User interface:
According to specification on Banggood webpage. It should have High, medium, low and strobe.
According to specifications from Warsun. It should have High, medium and low. And maybe come with strobe, depending on where you check the specs.
What it really have is: High - Medium - Strobe - SOS - OFF
You have to cycle through all modes in order to get to off. Electronic switch feels and sounds cheap. There is no low. Modes are correctly printed on the flashlight.
Teardown:
Wide reflector, but not very deep. Could have been much wider opening. Made out of aluminium. Mediocre finish.
Zero heatsinking! The reflector is the "heatsink". And that is attached to the plastic body. MCPCP is attached to the reflector.
Heatsink fins on the head. The plastic head. The plastic head that is not attached to the mcpcb in any way. There is a red O-ring. Its the only O-ring on the whole flashlight. Makes it vely water ploof.
WHAT? Check that battery! (no, not the green 18650)
This is essentially the light in pieces (26650 battery for size reference)
Charger and battery:
According to Warsun it should have a lithium battery with 8000mAh. That is what most specs and the front side of the box says.
Its got a heavy 705g acid battery. 2 cells and about 4,5V. Measured to about 5000mAh.
I cant say the battery is bad. It is "safe chemistry" unlike li-ion. You cant expect comparable performance to a li-ion cells, but its fun to compare with a Keeppower 26650 that weighs 90g. That would give you about the same performance in this flashlight while getting rid of more than 600g of weight.
The charger is supposed to charge with 800mA. It charges with 510mA.
Its got two lights. Green is on when its connected. Red is on when its charging. The red LED lights up nicely when charging, but gets dimer once the battery gets full. It takes many hours to go from 80% full to 100% full, since charge current becomes lower and lower near the end. Seems to have a healthy charge pattern. Due to the barely lit red light, its easy to think its fully charged long before it actually is.
The "waterproof" light features a charging port that is connected directly to the battery.
Runtime :
Should give you about 3+ hours on high and 10+ hours on medium based on amp draw and battery. Considerably lower than advertised.
Due to the higher voltage of the battery (4,45-4,5V) when fully charged, output stays regulated from pretty much full to empty despite being a linear driver. So I expect my runtime calculations to be close to real life.
The heat is nicely transferred to the reflector. But with no heatsinking beisde that, I dont think the LED will be happy if you turn it on high in a warm environment for 3 hours Banggood webpage is right on one thing, "low heat". While the LED is "melting", the body is probably quite "low heat". :p
Light output and tint:
Rough numbers:
360 Lumens OTF @ 30sec
About 40Kcd @ 30 sec
About 2900K.
Due to having a short reflector, there is a lot of spill. Due to having a wide reflector, there is a defined hotspot with good throw considering the low output of the flashlight.
Emitter amps is around 1,6-1,7A. Or about 5W, not anywhere near the 15W or the claimed 1200 lumen.. :p
Might get back to beamshots....
Value:
You get lots of plastic and heavy battery for your money. Some might be into that..
The box:
Lets take a closer look at the specifications on the box.
15W of power should mean about 4,5A to the emitter. :D
They imported their Cree LED from the US? or was it CDEE as printed on the light? Certainly not XM-L2 like said in the specs..
100.000 hours LED life? Yeah right.. That is about twice what Cree says, if its got heatsinking and low current.
Overrated battery
5000 meter range... Maybe its visible from that range if you point it towards someone and conditions are perfect??
Waterproof function??? All the sides of the box says its waterproof. Now its got a waterproof function?? Despite not being anywhere near waterproof.
Let check out one of the sides of the waterproof flashlight.
What? Is this waterproof flashlight with waterproof function only supposed to used in environments where there is less than 90% humidity?? And what happened to the 8000mAh battery?
I cant bother commenting on other stuff, or other sides of the flashlight box. Contradictions, and stuff that is just wrong or makes no sense. Its an ongoing theme with this flashlight and its specs.
Detailed specs and facts (my numbers):
Performance:
Light Output: About 360OTF @ 30sec
Beam Intensity: About 41Kcd @ 30 sec
Power Source Options:
- Built in acid battery (Measured to about 5000 mAh)
Switch type:
- Electronic sideswitch
Modes, PWM, drain
- Modes: High - Medium - Strobe - SOS - OFF
- Emitter Amps: 1,6-1,7A on high. Medium/low 0,48A
- Current drain in standby: 31-40,1 µA depensing on DMM
- PWM High: 12Hz
- PWM Medium: 200Hz
- PWM whine: No, not audible
Memory:
- No. Always starts on high.
Dimensions:
Overall Length: 190mm
Bezel Diameter: 98mm
Neck Heat Sink Diameter:85mm
Body Diameter: 98mm
Reflector Inner Diameter: 72,5mm
Reflector Outer Diameter:87,8 mm
Reflector Depth: 45,5mm
Lens Diameter: 92,5mm
Lens Thickness: 1,72mm
Emitter star diameter: 24mm
Misc:
- Waterproof: no
- Anodizing: no plastic
- Bezel material: plastic
Weights :
Flashlight ready to use 1080g
Weight battery 705g
Conclusion: ★½☆☆☆
Warsun have made a light that does not even come close to most of its specifications. You have to wonder if the people that wrote the specs on this light were drunk or just went full retard. The light is not well suitable as a mod host due to being plastic junk, nor does it impress a flashoholic based on its stock performance. Most of the specs are just so off that it must be considered lying. Id guess its a nice flashlight for those who really like the formfactor, want throw, needs a WW led and want safe battery chemistry.
Thanks to Banggood for sending this light to me for a review. I had high hopes for it, and found the form factor interesting. Im really glad I did not waste my money on it. I was hoping that the weight was due to a well made anodized aluminium body and a half decent li-ion battery pack. Im used to wrong specs on Chinese lights, but this is a new record in false advertising.
Warsun, lighting experts my ass...
Thanks for looking. Please leave a comment or feedback. :)