LED Tint: the LED tint bin isn’t specified by ThorFire, but it appears to be a nice neutral color. When compared side-by-side with a Cree 3D binned light, the tints seem very close. This is a great tint, very useful outdoors – unlike the common cool-tint LEDs that tend to wash out colors.
Beam Pattern: the S1 has a floody beam, as you’d expect from multi-emitter light with modest sized reflectors. Great for mid-range lighting, spreads a lot of light over a large area. This can be seen in the beamshots – the light on the left is the 2000 lumen ThorFire S1; the light on the right is a C8 with a smooth reflect with an XP-L HI 3D LED pushing approximately 1000 lumens. You can see that the S1 produces a nice, wide-area illumination while the C8 has a much tighter profile. In the outdoors shot it might look like the S1 is less bright than the C8, but that’s definitely not the case in person. It’s just that the S1’s light is much more spread out.
Modes: the S1 has three modes that are controlled by twisting the silver ring near the base of the handle. The progression goes off > low > medium > high. The modes are nicely spaced. Unlike some other lights I have, the low mode is actually very useable. And I’m glad they decided to start in low mode and working towards high mode – I strongly dislike having to get blinded by high mode when I really want low mode.
Batteries: the S1 contains a carrier that holds four 18650 batteries. The place for each battery is very spacious and should easily handle protected cells, though I only tried unprotected ones (Samsung 30Q’s). It’s worth noting that when powering multi-cell lights, you should only use identical batteries with the same level of charge. Don’t have four of the same cells? No problem! The S1’s carrier is a “4P” arrangement – that is, four cells in parallel. You can power this light using any number of cells (1, 2, 3, or 4) if you need too, just expect that the runtime will be decreased accordingly. In doing so, make sure to use high-drain cells as this light needs to pull around 6 amps to pump out 2000 lumens.
Build Quality: the S1 feels very nice and solid in hand. The anodizing is even and neither matte nor shiny. The handle is sturdy and makes holding the light easy. The silver bezels around each reflector add a nice aesthetic touch. If I had to choose one aspect to pick on, I’d say the mode selection ring is a bit “gritty”. When turning it, you get a distinct feeling of metal-against-metal without any lubrication. Big deal? No, but it takes away from it feeling like a “premium” light. Doesn’t seem to affect functionality in any way.
Conclusion: overall, the ThorFire S1 is a very nice searchlight. At a rated 2000 lumens, it puts out a ton of light and has enough heatsinking to keep it running at full power without worry of overheating. I would have appreciated seeing a bit more attention to detail in the "build quality" department. That said, I can see getting a lot of use out of this light. It will definitely be useful in my hunting and camping trips, illuminating the backyard, or easily lighting up an entire room during a power outage.
Side Note: this light is also marketed as a dive light. I don’t dive or do any other underwater activities, so I can’t fully test those claims. But it’s good to know that I’ll be covered if this thing takes a spill while I’m fishing, gets left out in the rain, etc.
I was kindly provided this light for review by ThorFire. That said, all remarks are my own and unbiased.
ThorFire S1 on left; C8 on right with smooth reflector, 3A driver, and XP-L HI V3 3D
ThorFire S1 on left; C8 on right with smooth reflector, 3A driver, and XP-L HI V3 3D (distance: approx 30 yards)
Body size comparison (left to right): Convoy S6, ThorFire S1, and Convoy C8
Head comparison: Convoy S6, ThorFire S1, and Convoy C8
Disassembled:
Battery carrier with a single Samsung 30Q:
