Damn that flashahol…
I hear the craft brewed flashahol is pretty good, but the Chinese flashahol can sometimes leave a bitter taste. :confounded:
You’re supposed to warm the Chinese Flashahol over a power bank with a 6A draw on it for about 20 minutes, then it vaporizes on the pallet and leaves the zingy flavor on the taste buds. 
Make sure you use the 12,000mAh SakiFire cells in the power bank, it’s a must! 
Nice review DB… thank you. :+1:
I just ordered one. GB has them on some kind of ‘super sale’ for $29.99 and I couldn’t resist.
Then I scrolled down the page just a bit to ‘Buy Together & Save:’ and got a LiitoKala Lii-202 for $0.99, a Nitecore Tube for $1,99, and THESE for $5.99.
Seems like a pretty good deal to me. :+1:
I owe the “hot tip” to ‘evankouros’…. the member known yesterday as ‘KGB’. 
TCLO is a new acronym for me…tail cap loosened off?
Close! Tail Cap Lock Out. In practice, it means the same. You loosen the tailcap to lock out the light.
What do you mean by “lowest setting”?
Are you saying it reverts to Moonlight mode?
Maybe I got a “different” F1, because mine doesn’t do that. I’ll start in moonlight, doubleclick it, it “flares” to full-tilt, and stays that way. I waited like 10min to see how far down it’d go, but not too different from regular high. One more click brings it back to moonlight.
—
Okay, just did it again. 17:15 when I started, doubleclick from moonlight to flare. 17:16… 17:17… just turned 17:18 now. One click back to moonlight, and no rampdown.
My sample F1 will indeed ramp down to moon after about 30 seconds of use.
I just tested it again, immediately before writing this… I turned it and went through the modes with the side switch, then from the lowest I double clicked for Flare. After a 30 second run it started dimming and at about 35 seconds it switched to the lowest mode, moon. Very abrupt switch it was too.
Hmm. Makes me happy to have mine, then.
Weird. Does the owner’s manual mention anything about this 30 second ramp down?
Okay, I went and compared mine with another F1, and unless I’m seriously doing this wrong, neither one ramps down so quickly… or at all.
Okay, doing it again…
Turn it on. It’s on moonlight.
Click, click, click, now it’s on high.
Clickclick, now it’s even brighter, on flare.
It’s sitting on the table, been about 2min so far, still flaring.
Click, now it’s on moonlight.
The only difference I see is that if I’m in mode X and doubleclick to flare, don’t let it time-out, and then click, it’ll revert back to mode X.
After sitting a few minutes, it doesn’t revert back to high, but to the next mode, moonlight.
That’s it. I’ve done this a few times already, now on 2 lights, and it’s the same for both.
Okay, if someone wants to replicate the above, go crazy.
Got one from GB. After 30 secs on Flare it ramps down to something closer to Mid.
I got it on Flare several times in a row and it did the same, albeit the head was pretty hot to touch (like 60+ degrees C).
Got mine in couple of days ago.
It’s big.
Unfortunately the section with the tail cap threads is not really wide enough to widen the inner diameter for a 20700, let alone a 21700.
I changed the switch assembly too, you had to really push the button deep for the switch to click.
I wish to swap the LED too, with the high Vf of the XP-L the light is running out of breath pretty fast.
Other than that, i like it.
It’s got its own style.
It’s rather unique, I liked it pretty well but recently donated it (along with other lights) to a team going down to Houston in the rebuild effort.
Think I might get 4 of these to give as gifts to the guys on my bowling team. GB has an email sales price of $19.99 for the 6000-6500K version. The 4500-5000K version is $22.99.
I just got my F1 and I mus say I’m pretty disappointed. Anodization is very thig, flashlight itself is very light even with battery inside (thin walls) and it’s … massive! It’s one of the thickest 18650 light I own:
It has pretty deep reflector, emitter sits even below which ends up as a very narrow spill and moderate brightness. Switches don’t have much feel, side swith is cheap, plasticky and slightly loose. They say it also has MicroUSB charging point covered by the metal ring. Maybe they were ashamed of it because in mine it’s impossible to twist the ring without damaging the flashlight itself. I don’t know if it’s lube or glue, but the latter one would explain everything:
I paid $9.99 and that’s how much it’s worth.
Phantom, that’s pretty harsh don’t ya think? I mean, come on, it’s the first light they produced and as such, it’s a darn nice one! How much do you work for? $10 an hour? Can you make one of these in an hour? Not even considering materials cost, just time, the anodizing process alone takes pretty much that entire hour. An emitter will cost you a slick $6 easy, not seeing how there’s monies left for a nice mirror finished reflector to be made.
I found it to be a very nice interesting and unique entry for Gearbest, it works fine, handles fine, and as such it does what it was made to do. You show it beside lights costing much much more, are those your comparison level? Not really a fair test now is it?
I get a distinct feeling that I’m glad I’m not YOUR supervisor…
Still waiting for the 2 that I ordered to arrive. The 6500K shipped last week, but the 5000K isn’t supposed to ship until next week (fingers crossed). The sale price on these was attractive enough for me to order based on favorable reviews I’d read, and their USB charging port seems like a much better design than the ones that have the silicone type flap covering the port. Not expecting them to match up against some of my higher priced lights, but hopefully they are a good bang for the buck. I’ll keep the best one and gift the other.
So… wait… is it massive and the thickest light you have, or are the walls thin and very light? You sure you’re looking at the same light both times?
All the other stuff, no idea what you’re referring to. The switches on all of mine are nice and have a crisp snap to them, not loose at all. The ring over the usb port is tight by design, as it’s got an O-ring under the entire inner circumference, to seal out water.
I’ve endlessly bitched about the overly green beam, but construction-wise, and the whole overall design, is among the best I’ve seen in this category.