Thorfire asked me to do a review of the VG15s and of course with me liking the Thorfire products I couldn’t say no.
The VG15s is the upgraded version of the VG15 and has a better output than the previous version and a slightly different UI.
The light has the XM-L2 emitter with Orange peel reflector , 6 modes that are well spaced (Firefly through Turbo and hidden strobe) , last mode memory and double half press to get into the strobe function. There is also the Low voltage indicator which is several blinks of the light and shortly after if the light is not turned off it will automatically shut down when the cell is low. Mine shut off at 2.79 volts when I was testing.
I have heard some say the switch is spongy , but to me it feels ok and takes very little pressure to change modes when the light is on. The knurling , threads and overall quality of the light is very good IMO.
There is a 3 minute turbo timer that will step down the light at that time to the High mode. I think it is needed though as the VG15s does get pretty hot by the time the step down occurs and I wouldn’t really want to run it any longer on Turbo. The beam is a good smooth beam with the OP reflector in this light and it has a decent amount of throw for a tube light with OP reflector also. The Firefly mode should be well liked for those who like the really super low’s also , as it is very dim. The light has an aluminum MCPCB but it seems to handle the bit of extra current this light has over the previous model just fine so far. The LED on the sample I received is very well centered and again has a very smooth beam to it.
The runtime also seems to be excellent on this one , as I got 162 minutes starting the light on Turbo mode and letting it run until the LVP kicked in.
I don’t think I ever mentioned in the video portion of the review that the lens looks to me to be AR coated also.
The testing I did on the lumens kind of had me scratching my head , as it didn’t add up with some of the numbers listed but yet it was very close on the others. I got the exact 0.5 on Firefly that they list and was close on Medium and Turbo , but the Low and high are quiet a bit different. I used 3 different cells with the same results from each cell of the Low and High mode Lumens readings being a lot different than the listed ones. Still I would say the modes are well spaced to my eyes anyway.
Below is the charts I made from what testing I did with the VG15s…………
I will mention again the live footage outside with my cheap video camera , does not show as true to life as the beamshots do as to what I see out there.
For those who do not want to watch the whole video the still shots and teardown of the light start at 3:35 in the timeline (also beamshots with comparisons to 2 other lights) and the outside live shining starts at 8:34 in the timeline of the video. (also with the other 2 lights compared)
Video followed by the listed specs……….
VG15S LED flashlight is the upgraded version of ThorFire VG15 flashlight. VG15S is brighter and has 5 more reasonable brightness levels.
• Ultra Bright LED Flashlight: Gives out 0.5LM-1070LM output with 200m beam distance.
• 5 Modes: Firefly, Low, Mid, High, Turbo. Double tap quickly to activate Strobe Mode. Firefly mode gives out 0.5LM and Turbo mode 1070LM. ( Test with ThorFire 18650 Battery not included)
• Battery Usage: Runs on 1x 18650 battery ONLY. (NOT Included) (3V CR123A batteries are banned)
• Superior quality: Made of Aircraft-grade Aluminum. Waterproof to IPX-8 standard.