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

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.

Zanflare F1 switch is as smooth as my other flashlight like Utorch, Olight, Fenix or Haikelite.
It is very well designed and built. Price is unbeatable.

The F1 would have been better off with an NW SST40 though… (if that exists…)
The XP-L sucks a little on a single cell buck driver…

‘DB Custom’
Maybe my expectations were too high after reading some reviews. For $10 it’s alright but not more (they charged $40 at the beginning). Ultrafire level.
‘Lightbringer’
Empty space. It could easily fit 20mm cell inside. Walls seem hollow. MicroUSB cover is not just tight - I failed to move it at all. And ‘DENGOH’ - in my example rear clicky feels like a piece of stiff rubber, like there was no spring at all. Side switch clicks nicely, but it has some sideways movement and it’s made of thinnest and cheapest piece of plastic I’ve ever seen. Maybe they reduced the quality of the latest batch to make more money? It would be a typical chinese move.

Wellp, I got one just a few days ago, stuck a battery in it to test it against being DOA, worked/felt as expected.

I’ll take another look, but from what I recall, it was just as good as the first ones I got, no “quality fade”.

I’ve got a couple of F1s to give to my brothers, but I’m not sure which cells to put in them.

Should I give them a Sanyo NCR18650GA for maximum capacity, or would they benefit from a Samsung INR18650-30Q?

I don’t think that the F1 would draw enough current to benefit from the 30Q, but I don’t know much about the performance of either cell.

In practice, it wouldn’t make any difference. Even on turbo flare, it won’t draw so much as to stress out the sanny-A, and most times it likely will be used in lower modes.

I’m currently burning down ancient laptop pulls, still lights up fine in all modes.

Get 35E. No, the light won’t benefit from high discharge cell. 35E has marginally larger capacity than GA and costs less. The difference in power is marginal too, meaningless in this case.

Everything was nigh perfect. Okay, the ring over the usb port was tight, but not “glued”. Did split the “outer” O-ring (nearer the tail), though. Replaced.

Switches, perfect. Crisp feel, no wiggle. LED was a hair off-center. Not much green at all (improved!), or maybe I just won the tint-lottery. Yellow corona.

Quite nice, as expected.

Thanks Lightbringer and Afro.

I’ll give my brothers my barely-used Sanyo GAs, for the extra capacity, rather than my brand-new 30Qs.

The GAs are the cheapest cells I’ve found locally - AU $16 for two, including postage. I’ll keep an eye out for 35Es, as I think the only light I have that draws more than 3A is a BLF A6.

Yoiks! Sounds cheaper to buy a battery pack and rip it open for the cells… unless those, too, are obscenely priced.

I was looking into rebuilding some Makita 18v packs recently, and if you believe the seller’s claims about the cells inside it’s not worth doing yourself, unless you salvage the cells from a couple of bad packs to make one good one.

8 AUD is around 6 USD at the moment. The 30Qs cost me 9.75 AUD/7.35 USD. Once you factor in postage that’s competitive with AliExpress, with the bonus that you get the cells in two days rather than two months.

I just found out why it was so tight. The o-ring closer to the swith is bigger than the other one. Now I cannot close the ring, it just doesn’t go over the secondo-ring. I lubed it up, didn’t help much.

Just received my first F1 in the post today, CW, got a NW on the way as well. It is certainly much larger and more tinny feeling than an S2 or A6, though the UI is quite nice. Nice moonlight and high, but the mode spacing is not even and flare not impressively brighter than high.

I thought the ring over the USB was supposed to twist off, and it is marked that way, but it just pushes over, and on mine is very loose and flimsy feeling, it was open in the box.

It is good value for the $10-13 I paid, I suppose, but I must say I am disappointed. I remember when it first came out people were saying it was like a $100 light and a bargain at $40. If mine is anything to go by that is utter nonsense. The BLF A6 at $16-$22 is miles better in every way, only missing a USB.

I have no idea what a $100, or even a $40, light is like. I suspect though that unless you have very specific specs/needs, the gap between a $100 light and a $40 light is pretty small, and mostly in accessories that are probably only worth $10/tops.

I’ve got them both at hand right now, and I’d say the BLF A6 and the Zanfare F1 (received ~1week ago) are pretty comparable.

F1 is, indeed, a bit larger than the A6, certainly enough to notice in a pocket. F1’s anodization is a little glossier, but it isn’t clear that it is any thicker or thinner. The F1’s anodization is definitely more consistent — under strong light, none of the pieces on my A6 quite match. The F1’s clip feels less substantial.

I agree the F1s tail switch is a little mooshy feeling, a compromise, I’d guess, to make the tailcap shorter. Given that the switch is only used to turn the light on or off, I think that was a reasonable tradeoff.

The F1’s tube definitely has a bit more clearance, but the A6 seems like it would have trouble fitting the diameter of a thicker double-wrapped protected 18650 (I don’t have one to check with). The walls of the F1s tube seem as thick as the A6. They did do something interesting though, they have increased the inner diameter of the tube in the middle section, under the knurling. I’d guess the wall thickness is about the same throughout though; the knurled section has a larger outer diameter. I suspect this was done to reduce the weight. It might also reduce heat transfer from the head to the 18650 cell. I think it does contribute to the battery feeling like it has more play.

The microUSB cover on my F1 was very hard to loosen the first couple of times, but now it turns while still remaining securely snug.

The beam of the A6 is probably better closer up, as well as being slightly “cleaner”

I think I’ll end up using the F1 more, for two reasons. First, I like having the side switch. Second, the USB charging makes it much more self contained, which makes it more useful in many situations.

The USB port also makes this more practical as a “muggle” If I given someone an F1+a battery, they can just use it.

Some of the descriptions sound a little like ‘quality fade’ to me actually…
“Tinny”, “flimsy” and “hollow” is not how i would describe mine which i got a couple of weeks (months?) ago.

Umm, yeah, it’s supposed to screw on, not push on. Think you got a borken one.

Dunno who said it was worth 100bux. I don’t think any light is worth 100bux unless it could light up Sputnik or something.

At this point, maybe I’m jaded or something, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to pay more’n 30bux for a light, and it’d have to be droolworthy for me to do it. Still kicking myself for paying 80bux for my Quarks way back when. I just didn’t know better, and thought it was a “premium” light. It is, but not 80bux worth.

So I’d put the F1 in the 20-25buk price-point. Still love the design, but, yeah, there’s a limit.

At 10bux if I can score another one, I will. I kinda sniff at the 12.99 coupons, though, like, “nah, I’ll wait for a 9.99 one before biting again”. :smiley:

’Though I gotta say, with the exception of the green beam, all the ones I’ve gotten so far were nearly perfect.

I’d hope not, as that’s a surefire (haha) way to permanently damage the Zanflare name.

After that happens, they can design pure gold and no one’ll buy ’em.

Hi Y’all

I bought one of the first batch of these and liked it so much that I bought another one at the recent special price. It was delivered yesterday.

I don’t see any difference between the two. After playing with them for a while, I’m not sure which is the old one and which is the new one. Switches are both solid with a firm click. Finish is the same….it’s all the same.

For almost any single cell pocket style light that uses a single cree emitter, there is a clearance sale at LiionWholesale on the LG M26. It’s a flat top 2600mAh cell with a 10A rating, on sale for $2.99 each. Cheapest decent cell I could find.

They also have a protected button top in this cell for $4.49 each. And a clearance on Samsung 30Q button top for $5.09 ea. Worth looking into, if you’re in the US and in the market for a cheap cell or 10. :wink: