They sent me one that arrived today.
Funny, I never would have imagined a $50 flashlight would impress me. I can’t think of any reason I’d have gone out of my way to get one even to try out.
But … wow.
This one does impress.
I was thinking, if I’d been with friends and been pulling out any of my usual tube lights that I tend to carry — you know what they are — and someone had pulled this little flashlight out, I’d have been all ready to mock it.
Boy, that would have been embarassing. This is … yeah, I said wow, didn’t I?
Lithium primary provided gives a plenty bright high; li-ion cell dropped in gives what they call ‘Turbo’ which is somewhat brighter.
I wonder how it will do with a NiZn high drain cell — trying that next, because this needs the higher voltage and I really don’t want to burn through a lot of primary cells. Yeah, I’ll see how it does with NiMH as well.
If I stayed with lithium primary this would have to be a car/quake/emergency kit light.
And I don’t think I’m going to want to let go of it for a while.
It’s as pocket-friendly as a #3 zoomie. Which is darned small.
Its TIR gives a broad bright area, right in the sweet middle in between flood and spot.
Three quick clicks for a strobe — making it darned good for crossing streets getting the attention of drivers — had it out for a long fast walk today in Friday PM rush hour traffic when our local drivers are darned near oblivious. It worked noticeably faster and better to get drivers’ attention than my usual walking light — (an amber S2+ I modded with an XP-E2 and qlite 5x7135s, usually carried with a shorty battery). And that has always been quite good at getting drivers’ attention).
Aw heck. Me, a fanboy?
I promised I’d be honest. I didn’t think, before I had the light, that I’d be giving an honestly enthusiastic review.
Give me a few more days, I’ll try to find something not to like or figure out how to break it in normal use.
And, oh, it doesn’t seem to come apart for modding. There’s that.
EDIT — two additions.
First, I commented that the “return to China for warranty service” made the long warranty less valuable.
They’ve responded to that: I got email saying they have a warranty service address in Atlanta now (I don’t have the specifics, but watch for that)
And, twice now, I’ve had the light go unresponsive while carrying it and using it — so I had to unscrew the tailcap to break the battery circuit.
Once while carrying it walking, just turning it on at strobe (3 clicks fast) at each street crosswalk.
Once after setting the 3-minute “off” timer and letting it run.
Both times, I suddenly had no response at all from the button.
I recall this has happened before with some other flashlight that had firmware bug issues, some kind of corner where it locks up ignoring the button until the power is completely removed.
