Astrolux FT03 Banggood deals [EXPIRED]

Banggood is offering the Astrolux FT03 SST40 for $29.00 and the Astrolux FT03 XHP50.2 for $33.99 plus shipping from their China warehouse until July 19. These prices are similar to the best discount codes that have been available. I have the SST40 and use it almost daily.

SST40 notes: This deal has expired
This light draws 8-9A, so a high-capacity 26650 or 21700 is recommended. A high-output 18650 will work as well, but with reduced runtime.
Whereas the original pre-order offered a 5000K Neutral option, the light now offers either 6500K Cool or 5700K Neutral.

XHP50.2 notes: This deal has expired
This light can likely draw more than 12A, so a high-output 21700 may be preferable. Thermal step-down will occur rapidly due to low mass of light, so a high-output 26650 may provide less max lumens, but longer turbo runs and extended total runtime.
Choice is either 5700K Neutral or 6000-6500K Cool.

Freeme’s Stainless Steel bezel group buy is HERE.
Freeme’s FT03 Holster (hopefully upcoming) group buy is HERE.
M4D M4X deal on Astrolux Silicone Diffuser HERE

This is the required discussion thread for the Deal Alert HERE.

Thanks, I finally feel for a FT03, although I’m not a 26650 fan. Should be nice with a Boost HX if that led ever reaches us poor laymen. :slight_smile:

I have said it so many times this light is awesome such a good buy for the price nothing comes close price to performance wise. The only hard choice should be choosing the XHP50.2 or the SST40 model. This is a true BLF spirited light.

To me it's the truly modern HD2010 --> Yezl Y3 upgrade. Amaz'n it's sooo much better and discounted, sells for the same price! Way nicer though with the SS bezel option.

Not to mention, the Y3 was my go-to thrower to mod. The FT03, of course, is already modded so you get a high end LED, high powered driver with a great UI.

I can't help but to recall what I thought was a dream a few years ago, where we can put out a truly custom modded light into the hands of the masses at a cheap price. Though we've been doing this a while now in various sizes, this FT03 has a special significance to me, because it's everything what I wanted an HD2010 to be - better overall quality (threads, finish, look, LED, copper DTP MCPCB, etc.), slightly bigger reflector for more throw, e-switch, USB charging, great driver, and all at a great price of course.

I just found the HD2010/Y3's a great combo of throw and compact size. I was never a fan of the over-sized TN31 style lights. Much prefer a single 26650 to carry.

How does one navigate BangGood site? It comes up in German, and

The price is $45.95–only neutral white option?

Confusing.

Is it CN warehouse? For us, the US warehouse version is still the high price - I had to choose CN to see the low price and also the stock. US was low in stock.

I just ordered another.. Thanx OP!!

Ooops, also seems to be only SST-40 version on sale - the XHP50.2 version is still the reg price.

The $30 price tag is the sweet spot for this light, I might buy a few more for gifts.

Mine slipped out of my jacket pocket and hit hard on the asphalt but only got a few nicks on the head and bezel, it’s pretty durable.

With the weighted SS bezel, even a better chance of hitting the bezel when dropped, and more protection. It's hard not to buy these for $30.

I’ve corrected the original post with the link for the China warehouse to reduce confusion.

I have also noticed that the 6500K Cool White option ships within 24 hours while the 5700K Neutral White option says “Processing time: 22 days”, so they are yet again short on neutral white SST40 emitters.

Freeme’s FT03 Stainless Steel bezel group buy can be found HERE.

Are you suggesting that the heavier side will fall faster :nerd_face: ? I think you may have a valid point if the light rotates out of your hand like a pendulum before freefalling. Also, if the light falls quite far and its air resistance turns the tail upward (like an arrow), then the bezel has a higher chance of hitting first. I would suspect that the head has higher air resistance than the tail, though, so physics probably doesn’t favor the bezel except that it’s the largest rotational area to strike and thus likely does so more than the tail.

The heavier bezel may cause the user to drop the light more often, though :wink: , so SS bezel owners may get to test this theory.

Updated original post to note that Banggood now expects stock of the 5700K lights to arrive by July 11.

They’ve changed it back to 22 business days, so make sure to check the expected time when checking out as it seems to change unexpectedly. Perhaps they sold out of the July 11 shipment already?

Joining the group buys seems kinda pointless when they give out the same price coupons to everyone.

Might just as well wait for reviews and then buy it for the same price as the group buy.

sweet deal for 30$ public, sucks that neutral is still such a hazzle to stock the emitters for those that want , im pretty happy with the 5700 tint… amazing light for that price it makes the mf02 not needed since its so heavy and bulky this light throws almost as far.

I agree, but things don’t always work out this way. It does indeed appear that this particular light may commonly go on sale for $29.99, whereas the best pre-order group deal was $27.99 IIRC. The frequent sales on this light cause me to suspect that they are not selling them at the volumes that the pre-order might have led them to expect.

There’s also the issue of patience. Many people want to have a light right this moment and don’t want to wait for months or years for the retail prices to drop to group buy levels, so they jump on the GB’s. The FW3A may eventually come down to group buy prices, but right now it’s priced relatively high, probably because it’s more expensive to manufacture than other small lights.

We also don’t always know that a group buy light will continue to be manufactured, as it may do well enough as a group buy, but then fail to sell on the retail market for some reason. Thus, if we always ignore group buys and wait for similar sale prices, we might sometimes miss owning a light that we really wanted.

At the other end of the spectrum, if a light becomes a retail hit, then the price may rise well above the group buy price and not go on sale at all.

For example, the LT1 group buy is now huge and has thousands of lights pre-sold at ~$50. If Sofirn can somehow leverage a similar level of success in the retail market, they might charge more for the light and group buyers would feel pretty smug about their early purchase.

Still, your point is perfectly valid for the FT03 SST40, as it’s now being sold for prices that most of us had to get from coupon codes a few months ago… and then wait for months for our light(s) to arrive… and then worry about a few quality control issues. Banggood was reportedly rejecting the early batches as they were so bad. Most of us got quality lights, but there were a few duds even after a month of further delays.

Many updates and additions to OP over the past few days, including some accessory deals.

Banggood changes emitter tint availability almost constantly, so I can’t totally keep up with whether they are in stock or not, but I’ve been updating daily anyway :person_facepalming: . This either means that BG is moving a lot of stock in and out or their inventory system is buggy. I suspect both.

SST40 deal has expired, but XHP50.2 deal was extended until July 19.

I got the XHP50 version yesterday.
I love this light.
Does it make a difference which high drain 26650 is used?
Someone mentioned using a 217000, is there any benefit to that?
I do not have one to test.

Awesome. I only have the SST40 version, but I love it.

The XHP50.2 3V can draw well over 12 Amps, perhaps 15 (see HERE). Many cells will have quite a bit of voltage sag at such currents. The black Shockli 5500mAh 26650 is a great choice for balancing output with runtime, but some high-drain 21700’s, such as Samsung’s 30T or 40T, may provide slightly higher output at a reduced runtime.

Bear in mind, however, that this light has very low mass and heats up very quickly, thus dimming the output when temperature protection kicks in. This means that using the highest-output cells may be counterproductive. Bypassing the springs has a similarly limited payoff. The difference in initial output will be difficult to observe, so I recommend one of the black Shockli’s or the same OEM PLB-55A cell with other wrappers (see HERE or elsewhere in same thread) as the best all-around choice. It won’t be the brightest cell, but it will give longer turbo times and very good runtimes.

This emitter can consume everything this light can give it and then some. A “normal” cell simply runs it cooler for longer. More discussion can be found HERE.