I don't own any Sofirn or Fenix models, so my opinion is worth exactly what you paid... Nothing! That said, I think it's difficult to compare the two brands. The Fenix PD36R is marketed as a premium tactical flashlight, while the Sofirn SC31 Pro 5000K as more of a budget model.
I generally avoid Fenix products, but not because they are not well made. Most Fenix models are wonderfully sturdy and dependable, with quality electronics. I have long been a fan of the top-notch regulation provided by Fenix drivers. They produce near-perfect runtime charts with flat, constant output.
What puts me off Fenix are the design decisions it makes. All too often you get:
No neutral white
No high CRI
No moonlight (and no low 1 or 2 lumen mode)
No tail-standing
High price
For me, the high price, coupled with so many "no" answers, leads to "no sale."
In the case of the PD36R, it was impossible to support both tail-standing and tactical access to the rear switch, so Fenix chose to forego tail-standing. For the target market, that makes sense. Unfortunately, "tactical" is not the market where I shop.
Between the PD36R and SC31 Pro, I would go with the Sofirn, but I am not sure I would buy either. Good drivers, preferably of the buck/boost variety, are a high priority for me, and I just don't know whether Sofirn has those. On the other hand, Fenix does have excellent drivers, but falls down in many other areas.
Fenix drivers are on another level compared with Sofirn. Way better efficiency and regulation. But Fenix cost 4x the price so it depends on your needs and budget.
ya, im starting to see/realize why sofirn is budget, and why some lights are just expensive for seemingly no reason, im assuming a good driver costs a lot more.
While Fenix makes efficient and reliable lights, to me their downfall is their UI. Many without dual switches use the hold for on/off, and have no shortcut to either the lowest or the highest setting. All you get is memory and click to advance to the next higher setting until turbo loops back to low. Comparing that to Anduril is like comparing the options on a Toyota Corolla to an Audi.
Press and hold for off is the biggest problem with most Fenix lights. But the PD36R is a two button light with an exceptionally user-friendly UI and the quality is absolutely top notch. The PD40R is even simpler to use with its mechanical rotating switch. Too bad I’m not a fan of CW lights and all of Fenix lights use CW emitters.
If the OP want a high power EDC with usb-c recharge, Fireflies has a bunch of new lights scheduled to be released this month. They will blow everything out of the water in terms of output for single cell lights. They will also have HI CRI, WW, and NW options. Best of all, they will use an efficient buck driver with >93% efficiency and regulated up to 6A. For me, regulation and efficiency is very important for a practical EDC meant as a tool.
Sofirn lights are excellent for the bargain price but the driver along with other features are in a different class. The E07v2 is going to be ass kickingly good for an EDC.
I really wonder how the E07V2 will compare to the Sofirn at like 3 times the cost. I also prefer the form factor of the Sofirn and Fenix, but the specs on the original E07 are impressive.
The original E07 was one of my all-time favorite 21700. It has insane output for the size, nice looks, and high CRI with good tint options. It also had a very thick shelf and hefty copper mcpcb that gave it better heat sinking than all other lights of its class. The V2 should double the throw distance, have new high efficiency buck driver with regulated output, and 2A usb-c for fast charging. It’s going to be the best 21700 EDC on the market. I am super excited for the upcoming FF lights and I already own over 300 flashlights.
Sofirn makes great lights in its price range though. They are competing in a completely different league.
Perhaps, but comparisons between Sofirn SC31 pro to Olight warrior mini and baton pro make the Sofirn look much nicer for less money… They seem to have sort of found a sweetspot where they offer fairly crazy performance for the cash.
This seems to be my assessment and experience as well.
I have the SP40 and the SP70 and am awaiting the SF11.
That new e07 sounds awesome, I’m just not sure it’s worth like 3 times the SC31 (to me anyway). Now, if there were a groupbuy promo with battery included for the right price? I’m probably in!
The only thing pro-Sofirn is better tint. Other than that it’s just worse and the single switch operation is something I personally truly detest, one milion clicks in either direction, press and hold to change modes is extremely annoying because you have to focus a lot and if you miss - you have to start again. Fenix has much simplier and much much better UI.
I think you got this completely flipped around. I’ve had many conversations in the past with Sofirn and I know they don’t care about tint and don’t understand what tint is. They only know what color temperature is, which is not the same as tint. I’ve been trying to get them to use Cree NW A and D tint but I think they just don’t understand what that is or more likely it’s too expensive to buy binned tints for the super low price range they sell their lights at.
FF on the other hand cares about tint and always strive to obtain below the bbl tint bins. The SST-20 4000K FA3 is the rosiest SST-20 4000K used by any flashlight manufacturer by a good amount. They were also the first to use the SST-20 2700K JA3 below the BBL tint in flashlights. They were also the first non-custom flashlight manufacturer to use the legendary Nichia 219B sw45k that was though to be discontinued and unobtainable.
In terms of Cree emitters, they have the very rosy 5A and 3A tint bins. Compare those with any XPL used by Sofirn that are generally above the BBL and you will see how green the Sofirns are. The only decent emitter Sofirn has is the 5000k LH351D which is not too much above the BBL and I’m pretty sure that was a matter of luck that they got a good bin and it wasn’t because they sought a batch with binned tint, which is more expensive and harder to find than random binned batches.
There are a lot of pros with Sofirn lights but tint is definitely not one of them and I own over 2 dozen Sofirn lights. The non-custom flashlight company that cares about CRI and tint the most in the flashlight word at the moment has got to be Fireflies.
