Zanflare F1 Review

This flashlight was provided by Gearbest free of charge.
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$12.99 coupon : SDDeal35

Specifications:
LED: Cree XP-L V6 (4500-5000K or 6000-6500K)
Modes: Moonlight (1lm) - Low (50lm) - Mid (290lm) - High (590lm)
Turbo (1240lm, 30s); double click on mode button
Strobe - SOS; hold mode button for 3s, click mode button to switch between Strobe and SOS
Battery: CR123A * 2, RCR123 * 2, 18650 * 1
Micro USB battery charging

Flashlight came in a nice white box with printed picture and specifications.

In a box there is flashlight, clip, lanyard, case, spare o-rings, micro USB cable and manual

Case is made of neoprene (I think) and is really a tight fit to put flashlight in but once in it gives good protection for flashlight. It also has loop to put on belt or similar.

Flashlight is dual button design. Tail button is on/off switch and side button is mode switch. This design gives good protection against accidental activation of flashlight while in pocket or backpack.
It has glass breaker, but I’m not sure is it useful.

There is micro USB charging port under protective ring with LED indication of charging. Red when charging and green when charged. There is o-ring so it should be protected against moisture or rain, but not waterproof.
In my test it charged cell with about 500mA.

With this flashlight I wasn’t able to use flat top batteries, only button top was working. There should also be reverse polarity protection integrated.
positive connection is button, and tail (negative) connection has spring.

Yep, nicely thought-out design, one of my faves, even though I haven’t carried one in a while. Love the “spline” knurling.

Some people complained about the tailswitch being “too stiff”, but to me, it’s got a perfect amount of snap to be quite decisive when turning it on/off.

If only it had a momentary-on function…

I also love knurling, look and feel.

It would be better IMHO to start in moonlight when tail on, without mode switch.

I added $13 coupon and I think it’s great buy for that price.

I have a F1. I use only flat tops non protected. Are you sure that everything is ok with the light?

I tried some flat tops and didn’t work. Button top worked (actually don’t have any so i used solder boobs).
I will check again later.

I use a Samsung flat-top. Works great.

Checked and no flat tops work for me…

Forgot what the driver-side pad looked like, but acto the picture above, looks like just a small solder-blob on the center pad would be enough to make contact with any flattop you’d throw at it, no?

I’d’ve suggested a small spring, but don’t recall how much clearance there’d be. Even compressed, a spring might be too “tall” for a cell to fit.

Wet the center-pad with some solder just enough to make it convex (vs solder-blobbing a cell), and it should work, no?

Come to think of it, I don’t recall what I was using in my F1 when I was carrying it. Thought it was a pulled panny-A, flattop. Then again, any leftover tack-welded part of the connection strip from the pack it came from might’ve been enough to make contact.

Eh… just something to think about.

I found problem!

All my cells are double shrink wrapped. With just original wrapping all flat top cells work.
That 1mm of wrapping was enough not to make contact.

Sometimes I feel stupid :person_facepalming: