[Review] Sofirn SP10B (AA/14500, XP-G2) ~ A mighty EDC

Sofirn was kind enough to send me their newly launched SP10B for review.
Here's the product's page: Sofirn SP10B Blue

Starting with the packaging, the SP10B comes in a simple cardboard box which shares the same design with almost any Sofirn product.


The accessories included are a lanyard, a key ring clip, 2 spare o-rings and a detailed user manual


The flashlight itself has a pretty appealing look.
It comes anodized in three available colors ( Black, Blue Red ). The blue color that I chose
is quite darker than the one showed in the manufacturer's pages, but I like it even more this way.


The body of the light has a diamond shaped knurling for added grip.
As seen, a quite strong pocket clip also comes pre-installed on the light.


Don't be fooled by the tail bump. There isn't a tail switch in here.
Everything is controlled by the metallic side switch.



Both tail and head threads are square cut and anodized, with those of the tail being somewhat thicker.
The anodization allows the light to get mechanically locked out by a slight twist of either ends.



The head comes apart in pieces very easily.
Below you see the front glass ( which doesn't look like it's AR coated), the orange pill reflector
and the XP-G2 sitting in an aluminum MCPCB.


Here's a shot of the emitter seated into the reflector.
The centering is on point.

The driver is kept in place by a brass retaining ring.
A brass tab is utilized as the LED+ contact.
It always nice to see the manufacturer's brand imprinted into the PCB.



No major surprises in the tail side other than a quite stiff brass spring.


Lastly, here's a side by side picture with other lights.
From left to right: Klarus Mi7 Ti, Sofirn SP10B, Blitzwolf BW-ET1, Convoy S2+



User Interface

The flashlight is using a pretty interesting user interface.

  • Turn on/off: Long press ( > 0.4s ) of side switch
  • Mode switch: Single press of switch ( Moonlight -> Low -> High)
  • Turbo: Double press from any mode
  • Strobe (Variable): Triple press from any mode
  • Lock / Unlock: Quadruple press from off

It's worth noting that thanks to the e-switch, mode memory is instant.
According to the manual LVP is supported only for Li-Ion cells (14500).


Performance

In order to get my tailcap measurements, I used a TrustFire 14500 cell and a clamp meter.

Mode - Current Draw (A)
Moonlight - < 0.01
Low - 0.18
Mid - 0.60
High - 1.61

According to XP-G2's datasheet, at 1.60A the light should be pushing close to 600 lumen, which is quite impressive for a light of this size and budget.
To compare its brightness to other lights that I got available, I took some ceiling bounce measurements.


As seen, this little guy stands above all of the other similar shaped lights.


Beamshots


Here are a few wall beamshots to help you understand mode spacing.
Of course, all pictures are taken with a a locked exposure.

Low


Mid


High

All in all, the SP10B is another great product that Sofirn has pushed to the market.
For $16, it's a nice little flashlight that you can EDC without having to worry about loosing.

Nice.

I like the colour.

That blue is sweet :heart_eyes:
And this is an awesome flashlight indeed!
Thanks for the review bilakos10 :+1:

Thanks for a fine review .
Is there visible PWM ?

I’m going to get another I like mine so much . Perfect pocket size .

You are welcome guys :slight_smile:

Nope, no visible PWM.
I can’t imagine that there are lights with visible PWM in 2018…!

Wow! That blue looks so beautiful in your pictures. I passed on it based on the Amazon pics and got the black instead.

And does the light turn off after 3 minutes? Quoting this from the specs.
​(Note: Activate high mode from “off”, after working 3 minutes, the light will turn off;)