[Review] Mateminco S02 (Quad XP-G3, 1x18350) ~ A true pocket rocket

The flashlight was sent to me by this kind seller on Amazon.
Here’s the product’s page: Meteminco S2

Let’s start with the packaging.
The flashlight arrived in a cardboard box and is seated inside some protecting foam.
Overall, the packaging is more than good.

Except from the flashlight, the packaging also includes a bilingual instruction manual (English & Chinese), a cleaning cloth, two spare o-rings a and an adjustable lanyard.
Of course, the punch attachment is also included in the accessories list.

Thanks to its stainless steel body and copper head, the flashlight has a very interesting appearance.
The overall color scheme is definitely something different from the regular all-black flashlights and in my opinion, it’s the nicest looking flashlight that I have gotten to review so far.

The body of the light is heavily textured by diamond cut patterns, while the head and bezel are mirror polished.
As a side note, the S02 comes with a silver pocket clip installed.

The clip is pretty strong and can be installed both ways.
Provided that you have mounted it the regular way, it allows for a deep pocket carry.

The flashlight is operated by a side switch.
The switch is covered by a rubber piece and it requires a moderate amount of force in order to get it to actuate.
As long as there is a battery in, the switch pulses in a green color in order to help the user locate
the light during complete darkness.

Opposite to the switch there is the integrated micro USB charging port that’s protected by a rubber flap.
500mA was the max current that I measure during the charge of an 16340 battery.
I am still waiting for my extension tube in order to see whether the current output will increase with the use of an 18650 cell.

As usual, the flashlight is consisted out of 3 base pieces.
Using the format showed below, the light can utilize both 18350 and 16340 cells.
An extension tube that can be purchased separately allows the light to be used with 18650 cell as well.

The picture below might not do justice, but all of the pieces are made out of thick metal and feel extremely robust. As a matter of fact, I believe that the S02 is the most solid feeling flashlight that I currently have.

Despite not being square cut, the trapezoidal threads are cleanly machined are arrived nicely lubricated.

Both the head and tail springs are thick and should provide a pretty low resistance path for the current to flow once in Turbo mode.

Of course, the whole shebang of the light is located in its head, where you will find the quad XP-G3 emitters and a TIR lens.

And here’s a photo of the emitters while powered on.

The tail side has a machined hole that can accept the included punch attachment.
The attachment can be excellent for braking through glass or even for self defense scenarios as it’s very pointy.

Thanks to the solid copper head and the thick body tubing, the flashlight ends up weighting 155gr.
Considering it’s compact design, that’s one hell of chunky light that for some reason I really like.

User Interface

The UI of the light is quite a bit different from the majority of today’s flashlights.
At first glance, the UI might seem a bit complicated but after a day of using it, I became pretty comfortable with it.

As it would be pretty boring to go through the whole UI, I will just leave this mode schematic.

The mode groups can be changed by a double click, while the battery check mode makes the light blink and each blink represents a 20% of available capacity.

Of course, the light has low voltage protection which kick in at around 2.8V
Once low voltage is detected, the light will start blinking.

Current Draw and Beamshots

In order to get my readings, I used a clamp meter and a Samsung 25R cell.

Mode - Current (A)
Moon - 0.01
Low - 0.04
Mid1 - 0.32
Mid2 - 0.65
High1 - 1.00
High2 - 1.81
Turbo - 8.27

Seeing 8+ Amps from such a tiny light is more than impressive.
Of course, while on turbo the light will become hot after around 30 seconds and it will start ramping down to High2.

I don’t have any tools for measuring the actual lumen output, but after taking a look at Cree’s spreadsheet, an 8A draw should easily give 2500+ lumen of output.

Lastly, here’s an animated gif that runs through the flashlight’s modes.
Control Shot > Moon > Low > Mid1 > Mid2 > High1 > High2 > Turbo

Overall, I have come to love this pocket rocket.
Even thought some early production batches had some quality issues, it seems that Mateminco has sorted everything out.
I am more than sure that I will be dailying it for the moths to come :slight_smile:

Also known as Astrolux S42

The UI is bad, build quality is good

Yeah, I have heard that Astrolux is just a rebrand of Mateminco.

The only thing that starts bothering me about the UI is the fact that I can’t turn off the light directly from moonlight mode.

I think Mateminco is the factory for Astrolux, Manker and Utorch.

I made a Narsil driver for this light
I hope I can get the first boards next week

It keeps the charging slave board I will have the S42 special board in my sales topic after it got tested successfully
I can send you the board or assembled driver if you want
.

Looks almost identical to the BLF A6 UI, which I really like.

The A6 can turn off from moonlight, and go backwards through the modes, which this diagram doesn’t show.

That’s a nicely layed out board.
How much will an assembled one cost me?

The A6 has a pretty similar UI.
The three main differences I managed to spot are:

  1. The S02 can’t go in reverse mode order
  2. The S02 changes mode group via a double click rather than the A6’s 15-click programming mode
  3. The A6’s 2nd group includes Turbo unlike the S02

I will make a sales topic for S42 driver when it is ready
I will target 13$ with calibration