GearBest's Entry into Flashlights, the zanflare f1! First Light from this manufacturer!

This just in ………….Rolex makes watches that are fairly accurate and sell at $5000, Timex makes watches that are very accurate at $19.99.
So why doesn’t Rolex go out of business you say?
After all, as you say “There are brands for the same money or even less.”

Different strokes for different folks or to put it another way, An Azz for every Seat and a Seat for every Azz

Maybe it is the word “entry” in the title…
Entry sounds for me as entry level, the item in a line up that requires least payment to obtain.
This is a introduction light for Gearbest, this lacks the implication of not being expensive.
I was surprised by the actual price. Would the title have read “high quality introduction light by Gearbest” I would not have expected a price of around $20 as I did now.

Come on be friendly to eachother.
yes it is a nice light with innovative features
yes it has some things that revolve around personal taste
and yes it is not cheap at all
however a good EDC that lasts a long time and looks special is worth something and whoever thinks this feature set and design is worth it will buy it :wink:
BUT we need to know how the charging works, remember that Nitenumen overcharging in a lot of lights, that would be a big no no here.

People get too carried away here. Flashlights are made to sell in the marketplace which isn’t BLF. And if companies can’t charge enough to make a profit then they can’t stay in business.

I’d like to be able to buy a SIG P210 for $100 but that’s not going to happen. I’m even willing to go up to $500 :slight_smile:

Rolex uses Gold, high end components inside. Timex uses plastic, cheap quartz crystal. And of course, the target audience is widely divergent.

I was asked what I thought this light should sell for. I gave my honest opinion. In the management positions I’ve held before, as well as the business I run now, a 30% target mark-up over cost is a good base to determine final selling price. Largely determined by other factors such as the target audience and what the market will allow. I put no numbers on it, not having a clue what it actually cost to produce. In all honesty, I expected the price to be higher.

Title adjusted to reflect reality. :wink:

There you go :smiley:
Now I expect something really good and expensive, say what, only $35? NICE!
:slight_smile:

I just figured out the charging system. Weird.

I’ve got the cell down to 4.0V, couldn’t get the charger to work, green light only. Then I turned it on at the tail cap, bingo! Red light, charging. I guess with the tail switch turned off there’s not a complete circuit through the cell for the charger to function. Seems counter-intuitive.

Thanks for the review. It looks like Gearbest have put a lot of effort into the design and build, and pleasing to see that it doesn’t seem to be a clone of an existing light. Instructions are a big bonus! Would be interested to see some more beam shots.

This is also the way they Eagle Eye X6R works! And going by the early adopters, it can stand up to a lot of abuse. I just got one last week and cannot praise it enough. Which is another reason why I thought this Flare is expensive. I was simply comparing it with what’s already in the market.

But of course, and it’s only natural to make those comparisons I guess.

Realistic? Probably not.

Get me to build you a complete new flashlight from scratch, for example, and the hours alone would make the price far outside of budget realms. It’d be one of a kind, to be sure, but then that’s not in the same camp as budget. For a company to develop a light, have it made, test it, produce it, sell it… I would imagine the start-up costs are immense. Only stands to reason that an established company with everything sorted out would be able to offer a lower priced item.

Absolutely, Dale, no arguments on that but ultimately the goal is to sell flashlights in a competitive market, as far as gearbest is concerned, in high volumes (which isn’t the case for custom and boutique makers). The general public (customers) don’t share our appreciation of what goes into making and selling one, and would be unlikely to consider these things as criteria in choosing one light over another. So, in a scenario where the market is always right, I wouldn’t be very optimistic with sales if priced as is currently. I would even go so far as to take a small loss on my first product so as to get the numbers in and for them to discover what a great product I’m making/selling. Again, all this is from the perspective of a large scale manufacturer/vendor.

Sure sure, that of course makes sense. But if you spent so much making your very first model, say it cost a real world $130 per unit to get it done initially, are you gonna sell it for $19.95 just because the demographics say it will sell at that point?

I have no way to know what it cost them of course. I’m just a guy that got an email and took pictures of their first light. :cowboy_hat_face:

LOL, I believe I said “small loss.” :wink:

Sorry. My wife is very extreme, must have had a bit rub off on me…

:laughing:

I look forward for reviews but I already own enough lights similar enough to this so I don’t see myself buying it. Might be a decent purchase for someone new to li ion lights who does not already own a charger. Might also be a good idea to package a cheap 18650 cell with this and market it as some noob starter set.

No, please not a cheap cell! :open_mouth:

GearBest had a special on Samsung 30Q cells, about $4.00 each when buying 8 as I recall. Inexpensive, not cheap. :wink:

I continue to like it. This is a “tuned” flashlight, no need to reach into use only.
We have bags of batteries in home. I do not want any added extra battery.
It may be a full pack and only a flashlight package to us more cheaply. OTR work, work here, too. :+1:

What GearBest said here on the Giveaway thread may give a rough idea of manufacturing cost, or not ;
“5 winners from all the posts, per winner will get one Zanflare F1 flashlight (link is external) or $20 gift card”

Looks like a flashlight that to me personally should be worth the current special price of $35 when you consider the copper star and good solid build that appears in your well photographed review.
Don’t like to pay for flashlights until they are actually in stock, so no pre-order from here now, but will order when they arrive.
Thanks!
Keith