*Review* Sofirn SC31

Sofirn was nice enough to send me the SC31 for review. I have many Sofirn lights so I was curious to see how their rechargeable sub 1000lumen light performed. I have more than a few 18650 500 to 600 lumen lights and use them quite often. I love the run times with a high capacity cell and the added benefit of heat not really being a issue.

The SC31 comes with a XPG3 emitter with orange peel reflector and AR coated lens, reverse polarity protection as well as low voltage protection. It is IPX8 rated and can survive a drop from 1 meter. Also included in the box is a lanyard, charging cable and 2200mah cell. Removing it from the box it is exactly what I expected from Sofirn. Feels good in the hand and the knurling on the body and tail is easy to grip without being too aggressive. The tail cap is flat and tail stands easily. I would prefer a deep carry pocket clip but, the included one does the job for which is was intended.

The UI is fairly straight forward. Click for on, press and hold to cycle through modes, Low-Mid-High and single click for off. Double click from off or on for strobe. It does have last mode memory. The lighted switch stays on for 5 seconds when first turned on if the battery is full and above 30, slowly flashes below 30, and flashes fast when the cell is almost depleted. Press and hold the switch from off for a few seconds and the switch goes into a breathing mode to help you find it in the dark. A single click will turn the breathing off and another single click will turn the light on in the last used mode.

Claimed output on Low is 10lumens. Mid is 200lumens and High is 610lumens. Though I think High is more around 500lumens.

Claimed run times are 179.5 hours for Low, 9 hours on Mid, and 2.75 hours on High. Those test were run using a 3500mah cell. I ran test on Mid and High using the included 2200mah cell which tested out at 2186mah. I ran the light on Mid until it automatically stepped down to Low, I kept kicking it back up to Mid until it just wouldn’t hold Mid mode any longer. It lasted for 6 hours and 17 minutes and the cell was measured at 3.00 volts. On high it claims to run for 5 minutes before it steps slowly down to 400 lumens for heat management. Every 6 minutes I would kick the light back up to full output until it dropped to Mid and wouldn’t run on High anymore and kept it going till it stepped down to low and wouldn’t hold Mid anymore. The light did get warm running on High but never got to a point where it was uncomfortable to hold. I don’t think they really needed to use a timed step down and I would prefer it didn’t have it. The drop from full output to 400lumens was barely noticeable though. It lasted for 2 hours and 24 minutes the cell again measured 3.00 volts. On both test I didn’t let the light run down to full depletion on Low. I don’t have that kind of patience. I didn’t run a test on Low, but I have no problem believing it will run for days and days on Low at no problem.

Recharging the cell inside the light took a bit over 2 hours from 3.00 volts and the cell measured at 4.18 volts when it was done charging. The switch slowly flashes when it is charging. The light will be steady on when charging is complete.

The beam is, well, it’s a GP3 beam. (The bezel is glued) Not much more can be said about that. Some tint shifting is present and I would put the tint at about 5700 or so. I know it doesn’t look very good on the wall. Honestly though I didn’t really notice it when actually using it as it’s suppose to be used, as a flashlight. Using it outside and even around the house inside I didn’t really notice any imperfections. Will this light keep the tint and CRI babies happy? No. That is not what this light is suppose to do. It is a well rounded light made for anybody who wants some light when they need it and could care less about the tint and CRI. A rechargeable, reverse polarity protected, and LVP light that just about anybody can use without blowing up their house or amputating a leg or hand is sometimes all that is needed. At $17 with a cell it is quite a bargin. I wouldn’t have any problem at all gifting these lights to anyone.

I also didn’t notice any PWM in any mode and I couldn’t get my camera to pick up any PWM either.

Below are some beam shots. Three of them are just about 20 yards from those chairs and the shed in the other one is about 100 yards out. So it will throw out some light when you need it to and still has plenty of flood to make it a good all around flashlight for the not so affluent flashlight user.

Nice review !
Well done.

Thank you for review!
Congratulations with the 1000th post! :beer: