Edited for clarity and pics added July 9, 2017
Mark from Zanflare asked me to review their new generation F2S model 2xAA flashlight. It was a bit weird getting the light. Mark said it would be faster to get it from Amazon (I thought it was a Gearbest exclusive brand?). To that end, he gave me a discount code to buy it with. The code ended up covering all but $0.20 of the price, and left shipping to be paid by me. So, I did what any good flashlight hobbyist does – I ordered another cheap flashlight, to get the total order amount high enough for Amazon to cover shipping. The light came in a nice white retail box, which also included a user manual, a (belt? pocket?) clip and a decent-looking lanyard, all held securely in place in a cut-out foam rubber insert.
The Zanflare F2S has a low, medium and high modes, as well as strobe. These are all in order (no hidden strobe) and are accessed by half-press while on. The high mode is rated at 200 lumens. Honestly, that’s the only mode I used much in testing, because it’s such a low output already compared to most lights that I use regularly. The F2S uses a CREE XP-G2 emitter, and a regulated driver. The F2S also appears to have AR coated glass.
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Some users have noticed that the documentation mentions a CREE XP-G3 emitter, though all the lights shipped with the XP-G2 instead. The Gearbest representative said that the XP-G3 was intended but was scrapped for the older XP-G2 and they just didn’t get the documentation changed in time to ship. As for the driver, I found the regulation to be irregular. I tested the F2S with several battery chemistries, and used a free lux-meter app on my phone to check brightness. I won’t tell you the numbers I got, because they are generally useless. But, the interesting part is that with each configuration, there was a change in the lux reading on my phone. So, the claimed “current-controlled” regulation isn’t controlling very strictly when the input voltage changes. Here are the ways I tried the light:
• 2xAA Alkaline
• 2xAA NiMH
• 2xAA Lithium Primaries
• 1xAA Alkaline plus a spacer (yes, it works on one cell)
• 1xAA NiMH plus a spacer
• 1xAA Lithium Primary
• 1xAA 14500 Li-Ion plus a spacer
• 1xAA 14500 LiFePO4 plus a spacer
Still, the “AA” cells were all close enough to be called “the same” when measured on my phone. Even the 1xAA tests weren’t too far behind the 2xAA results. The 1x LiFePO4 I tried with a spacer gave only a tiny bit more output than 2xAA, and really it was still within range to be called equivalent. The 1x Li-Ion plus spacer was the only real stand-out with almost double the output of the other configurations.
An interesting thing you might notice in this test is that the light actually works with a very wide range of voltages from the 1.2V of a single NiMH to the 4.2V max charge of a single Li-Ion cell. I did not try it with 2x of either the LiFePO4 or the Li-Ion IMR cell. The official max input voltage is 3.5V, and the Li-ion cell is already above that. I wanted the driver to survive the tests.
The F2S has no low voltage protection of any kind. It will drain any cell(s) you put into it, until the driver can no longer get enough power to turn on the LED. This is probably why there is no voltage support gap between Alkaline and Li-Ion like other lights have. But, it means you have to watch the battery charge yourself. Thankfully, the engineers at Zanflare did implement a charge indicator LED to help with that. It’s on the head, not near the switch, which might have been a more obvious place for it. But, it’s hard to miss. It blinks a few times just after power is applied at the switch. If the power level is greater than 30% (of what? I don’t know!) the LED blinks blue. If it is lower than that, the LED blinks red. In the 1xAA Alkaline and 1xAA NiMH tests, the indicator LED blinked red from the start. Neither of those cells was fully charged, but I think it’s the “low” voltage compared to the top 3.5V rating that did it. The lights still seemed to work just fine on a single cell.
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I used the flashlight around the house after dark, and decided the max mode gives a pretty decent output for general use. The reflector makes a fairly tight hot spot, with a tight spill that cuts off abruptly at the edge. My Olight S1A has a 240lm mode, which I compared to the Zanflare F2S. Of course the F2S made a much brighter spot, since the S1A uses a TIR optic instead of a standard reflector. The tint of the F2S was a bit cooler than my Olight as well, but it looks plain white to my untrained eye. The beam is a bit ringy when white-wall hunting, but not too bad in real life usage.
The overall build quality of the light looks to be very good. The anodization looks and feels nice. The shape/style of the host is reminiscent of a Nitecore or an Olight. The single-line spiral knurling isn’t a style preference I’d choose, but it seems to be the Zanflare signature, as it’s used on other Zanflare models, and at least looks smooth and consistent. The F2S is similar in size to other 2xAA lights and just a bit larger than a Maglite 2xAA specifically. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to someone looking for a decent, low-priced 2xAA LED flashlight for general purpose use around the house or to keep in the car.
If I get a chance later, I can upload some pics I took while testing the F2S. I can’t do it right now. But, there are other reviews already around that you can look at in the mean time. Pics added If there’s anything you feel like I left out, or mistakes I made, let me know in the comments below. Thanks!