[REVIEW] HAIKELITE SC01

HAIKELITE SC01

LED: XHP35 HI
Battery: 1x 26650 / 1x18650 (adapter not included).
Modes: 5 intensities + stroboscopic.
Measures and weight: 135mm x 45.5mm x 34mm, 220 grams.
Date: August 2017
Links: http://www.gearbest.com/led-flashlights/pp_667393.html

PRESENTATION

Haikelite is a brand that has very little time in the market, but has started with very powerful models (not only the light they emit) and is making his space in the industry thanks to its good work and very competitive prices. The model that I’m going to talk about today caught my attention first because of its aesthetics, I fell in love with at first sight, but also because of the set of characteristics that it gathers, like its size, the used battery, the integrated charger, its throw, the combination of all these elements and others convinced me to acquire it, we’ll see if I got it right in my choice

The SC01 is presented in a small black plastic case, which although it does not stand out for its quality, is undoubtedly a presentation in my opinion quite more interesting than the typical cardboard box, besides, if you want, you can use it perfectly to carry the flashlight, the first impression is good.

Inside we see how the brand has included foam on the top and bottom to protect the flashlight, and not content with it, it comes wrapped in bubble wrap, very well protected, but … I see something strange on the right, that Cable mmm

Well, friends, what would have to be a usb to microusb cable, it is a burned / cut cable, here i get a little annoyed, certainly not something I would expect to find, and although a microusb cable is a minor detail, something that we all have to spare and that is also very cheap, the impression that leaves you on the quality controls of the brand is not the best.

We get out everything from the briefcase, flashlight, burned / cut USB cable, 2 spare O-rings, a hand strap and an instruction manual in English.

As you see, the manual is brief, clear and concise, really do not need more, let´s go with the flashlight.

AESTHETICS AND FINISHES

I love the design of the SC01, the first thing that catches the eye is the color of the anodized, a kind of gray / silver in mate that looks great.

The cylindrical body with 7 deep grooves provides a good grip in addition to being an aesthetic element that feel very well, the head is somewhat wider than the body, with a metallic bezel and in the middle of it we have a widening with several fins for a good refrigeration in addition to 4 planes, 2 wide and 2 a little narrow, that serve so that the flashlight does not roll on a smooth surface, being perfectly stable, in one of said planes we find the button, which is metallic and has a very good tact, It is also completely silent when press it. We will only find 2 serigraphy, one in the head, under the button, where we will see the make and model.

And another at the bottom of the tailcap, where a serial number will appear, although in the photo, because of the light it´s hardly seen, live can be read all the numbering, plus various symbols of safety and conformity .

In this rear part it has several grooves that besides improving the aesthetics also facilitate the grip when unscrewing the cover, and has 2 holes for the strap, both of type inlay so as not to interfere with the tail stand ability. In general, at the mechanized and anodized level, the flashlight is noteworthy quality, it is true that is not perfect, if you put to look “under a microscope” you can find some tiny notch or some small speckle, the real feeling is of a very good finishing level.



Here you can see the 3 main parts of the flashlight, head, body and tail.



We find springs both in the head to make contact with the body part where the charger goes, as in the charger itself for the positive pole, as in the tail for the negative, all of them good section, but especially the rear one that is really very thick, obviously we can use button or flat top batteries without problems.



The thickness of the aluminum body walls is very generous too, in general, the flashlight seems made bomb-proof, gives impression of sturdiness, we could say that it is almost like a tank


The threads are trapezoidal, perfectly machined, with enough depth in the grooves, their operation is totally fluid and they are very solid, the O-rings are also of a thickness greater than usual, you can see the microusb entrance that is perfectly protected from the water or the dust, being embedded in the thread, remember that this flashlight in theory has an IPX8 specification, so it should withstand an immersion of at least 2 meters deep.


The steel bezel is also quite forceful and besides reinforcing this area, it enhances the look of the model. We can unscrew the bezel without problems if we want to access the optics. The reflector is smooth and quite deep, free of imperfections.


Led is perfectly centered, have used a white piece of plastic as a centering, something usual.

The lens is made of glass and has an anti-reflective coating.


In the hand it feels very good, it is very comfortable to wear, even having small hands, and as I said before, it is very robust, it is true that it is something heavier than normal, something that maybe not like to some… I like it, I love this strength, and it is not that much heavy, with the battery on my scale indicates 326 grams, while, for example, the Nitecore EC4 (2x 18650 unibody) weighs 270 grams, okay, yes , Are 56 grams more, but after all, between carrying in the hand just under 300 grams or a little more than 300 grams, there is not much difference.

Now I want you to see it next to some models to give you a better idea of ​​its size:

By the way, the head measures exactly 40mm, the same as the Nitecore EC4 and other models of that brand, so the Nitecore diffusers fits perfectly for the SC01.

USER INTERFACE

On / Off: short press.

Changing modes: Long press, cycling modes in this order: Very Low - Low - Medium - High

Turbo mode: with the flashlight on, from any of the other 4 intensities we will make a double quick press to enter the Turbo mode, in that mode a short press will return us to the previous mode.

Memory mode: The flashlight will always turn on the last of the 4 “normal” intensities we used before turning it off, the Turbo mode and the strobe are excluded.

Strobe mode: with the flashlight turned off, we will make an extended pulsation of 2 seconds.

Battery level indicator: With the flashlight turned off, we will make a long press for 4 seconds (if, within 2 seconds the strobe will activate, we will not release the button, we will hold it for another 2 seconds) At that time, the strobe will stop, and the flashlight will indicate 2 times the remaining battery, if the flashlight emits 3 flashes every time, is that the flashlight has more than 50% battery, if it emits 2 flashes every time, Is between 50 and 25, and if it only emits one flash, the battery level will be below 25.

Electronic lockout: with the flashlight on we will do double quickly click holding the button in this second click until the flashlight turns off, this will prevent you from turning on the flashlight in a normal way, with a simple click, or with a long click, we will have to do the same to deactivate the lock, double click fast, letting the second hold until the flashlight turns on.

Here a video where you can see the flashlight and how the different modes work, I forgot to show you the electronic lockout, sorry:

MODES

This table I made based on the values ​​I obtained with the meter to 2 meters away.

Haikelite indicates this:

Very low: 20 lumens
Low: 200 lumens
Medium: 500 lumens
High: 1000 lumens
Turbo: 2000 lumens

In my opinion we have a good spacing of the modes, although we might wish a moonlight mode of about 1 lumen, which would not have been wrong as an added.

PERFORMANCE AND AUTONOMY

Well, here is a very pleasant surprise, this flashlight has temperature regulation and unlike other models of various brands where it is indicated that they have such regulation but then you do tests and not true. In this case, surprisingly (more than anything for its low price), Haikelite includes a real thermal regulation, it works!

The test that you see represented in the chart began with the SC01 in turbo mode without any cooling, as you can see, at 6 minutes the light intensity fell to 88, due to the heat, and it remained there. In the 16th minute I put a USB fan next to the head of the flashlight and after a couple of minutes, the intensity returned to rise above 100 (value recorded at the time of turning it on), something which I had never seen in any flashlight of my collection, very interesting. I also want to comment that it is very positive that it can hold perfectly 6 minutes in a row without overheating taking into account the size of the flashlight and the power it has, in this surely has much to see the thickness, there are enough mass to dissipate heat.

Then I performed a complete test of autonomy in turbo mode with ventilation from the beginning, as you can see, in this case the intensity does not drop to the 24th minute, we have 24 minutes at maximum power, and then it stays perfectly regulated around a 90 % Other 23 minutes, not bad. I also understand that the intensity in this case does not decrease by temperature, but by the battery voltage itself, although as I say, it is perfectly regulated, does not decrease in intensity as it loses voltage, has a good regulation.

Here I also leave the autonomy in High and Medium mode:

In all the graphs, the autonomy is indicated until the low battery warning that includes the flashlight goes into operation, from there, the flashlight starts to make oscillations of light intensity to indicate that the battery is exhausting, these oscillations last about 10 minutes, and finally the flashlight, due to the low voltage protection, turns off, in the tests I did, the battery had around 3v, so, the protection works perfectly.

Integrated USB Charger:

As previously indicated, the SC01 has an integrated microusb charger, perfectly protected in the thread of the head, the intensity of this charger is 1A, which is good. We have a led that will turn on red while we charge the battery, and will turn green after charging is complete.

PROJECTION

This model of Haikelite, despite not having a particularly wide head, due to the LED used, is a model that reaches many meters in the distance, between 500 and 600 meters, the projection however is very wide, we have a medium size central hotspot, very bright, but the area that covers the rest of the projection is very wide, also floods quite, and with a very good intensity, the tint is cold, but has a very attractive tone, not Bluish or greenish.

Here you can see the different modes projected to a wall at a 1 meter:

Same distance, compared to several models, all in turbo:

Here I compare the projection with the Convoy C8 XP-L HI in neutral tint:

And here I do the same but with very little exposure time, to try to see differences in brightness of each hotspot:

Now we are going to see the projection in exterior and compare it with several models, in this case focusing on a tree to about 40 meters of distance:






Animated Gif to see better the changes between each one:

And a second comparative in exterior, the farthest part, the area of ​​the wall that is seen high in the distance and the reflective signal will be about 300 meters away.





Gif:

As you can see, has an extraordinary throw for a 40mm head, and at the same time we have a very good flood, very good projection for my taste.

PERSONAL CONCLUSION

My first acquisition of this brand has left a great taste in my mouth (except for the usb cable), this model distills quality and robustness everywhere, it is incredible that in a flashlight of only 32 dollars have been able to include things like an integrated charger or a really functional thermal regulation, without neglecting the quality of the anodizing and machining, not to mention its exquisite design, the magnificent touch of the button, or the sturdiness of the elements that compose it, in short, I love it and is going to become one of my most precious pieces.

The bad:

The bad impression of a cut/burn USB cable when opening the box, has to improve the quality control before the products go to the stores.

It could include a moonlight mode of about 1 lumen, surely some will miss it.

The good:

Excellent quality of finishes, both machining and anodizing, which also has a beautiful color, very robust.
Temperature regulation.
Power, extraordinary throw and good flood.
Built-in charger.
Low battery warning.
Battery level indicator.
Low voltage protection.
Good distribution of modes and direct access to Turbo mode.
Electronic lockout.
Anti-rolling, tailstand.
Presentation in plastic briefcase
Aesthetics, it’s very pretty.

Great review and photos!

I have an MT02 in that color, and I really love that finish.

But that USB cable… OMG!!! How could this slip past quality control???

Really enjoyed this review even though I also already got the same light last week. Yea, can’t believe that USB cable. And at $32, I believe it’s a steal!

Thanks for your in depth review! Great job!

Aside from the cable (seriously, how did that make it out the door?), I’m very disappointed to see only cool white offered. Aside from a personal preference for neutral tints, cool tints in throwy lights produce more backscatter. Backscatter makes it hard to see the thing you’re illuminating.

Congrats Miguel, great job, and nice piece!!

Thanks to all for your comments, it is satisfactory to read that you liked my work, I hope to read more positive comments in future reviews, any further comments or doubts is welcome, greetings.

Regarding this point, I think I’ve read somewhere that the nature of XHP35 LED makes it impossible/difficult to offer such low lumen output. Maybe someone can confirm/deny…

Nobody told Zebralight, which offers a 0.01 lumen mode. That’s not a typo. A hundredth of a lumen.

In the ingeniering mode of the Manker MK35 you can select 0,1-1,5 lumens.

Nice work Miguel_79. Congratulations.

Thanks for the great review. Seems like good value

Thanks for the correction. What I’ve read must have been either related to a different LED or wrong altogether.

Just got my SC01 today. Great Job on this review! Appreciate the outstanding detail pics and comparisons.

I found the white lettering (I think) on the white body somewhat of a mistake. I can't make out the "SCO1" and the Haikelite name is not straight and appears blurred. Yours looks slightly better - straighter. They just couldn't have intended it to be this way.

For modding of a driver replacement, it's almost perfect -

  • separate charging circuit. Driver replacement has no impact on charging.
  • nice brass driver retaining ring

Look'n forward to NarsilM and maybe a dedomed SST-40.

I recently bought an SC01. As has been described by one or two others, I encountered a switch/driver issue which requires multiple button presses for the light to turn on. Within a few days of purchase, I emailed Haikelite, and they ignored my email. I sent a follow up, which they eventually responded to but did not offer any remedy (they did ask if I would be technically able to replace the driver, but did not actually offer to send me one). Follow up emails were also not responded to. I cannot think of any reason why I would buy a Haikelite product in the future, since the company does not seem interested in resolving customer issues and is horrible about responding to email.

Here’s an update regarding my experience with Haikelite after having bought an SC01 having a faulty switch/driver. After a bit of back-and-forth messaging on this forum with Haikelite, they agreed to send me a new head for the SC01, which arrived today and resolved my issue. :slight_smile: