[Review] Sofirn IF25A flashlight: $34 (discount code available) with 21700 cell, 3800lm, USB-C, Anduril [pic heavy]

Sofirn IF25A 4000K
Ordered from AE on 2020-11-11
Anduril version: 2020-03-08

Charging works between the IF25A using a USB-C to USB-C cable with a Google Pixel PD charger. IF25A also charges when connected to my Pixel XL.

Has anyone ever tried slicing the SST20s for better throw? Or wouldn’t it change significantly because of optics?

Just ordered the IF25A and was inpatient to wait for it to arrive, thus I have started to look after some more detailed info on the driver most importantly.. This sums up pretty much all I could find about the IF25A driver:

Only think I can think is: Wow! What an absolute joke.. They went from a 2 channels buck driver in the original IF25 to a FET +1.. Amazing, isn't it.. amazingly cheap that is.. Is there even ANY good buck or boost driver/s running Anduril in a decent flashlight.. ? Or at least the driver itself.. I thought with this IF25A I had finally hit the jackpot.. 21700 cell, USB Type-C charging, decent.. 'ish beam compact enough, etc. FET +1.. really..

WHAT

A

JOKE..

FET +1..

Aren’t your expectations too high? At a retail price of only $34 this is an inexpensive, cheap flashlight. I am not surprised that it contains an inexpensive driver.

Why would my expectations be high while they used to offer the same exact product, only more complex and obviously more expensive to produce at the same price to begin with ?

They have already set the standard expectations, fair or not for either party, with their own product. Now it's only fair for the new product to be judged compared to its original counterpart.

IF25: € 25,79 - 30,16 (price/s with/out battery)

IF25A: € 26,74 - 29,42 (price/s with/out battery)

You can observe that not only the IF25A is the cheaper one of the two to produce, but it is even more expensive, even if only by 1€..

Why ? Because it has Anduril ?? Well, that is even cheaper for them, because they don't even have to come up with their own code from scratch.. (which is the case for the original IF25.. )

I'm sorry to disagree, (not really.. ) but I would say that it would be only fair for one to not be surprised of it containing the same quality driver as before, not the other way around.

Of course I knew Anduril on a proper buck or boost driver would imply design changes and most likely code change/adaptation, hence the reason I was afraid this might not be the case.

The only thing that I had done wrong was to not do my research first and press the buy button second.. But that wasn't a big deal, as the light has not yet been shipped anyways..

I would say that making excuses for any company, while in the customers detriment is the least said.. counter-productive.

Btw, Suez Canal is now blocked since two days ago, the 26th by a Japanese company "Evergreen" cargo ship "Ever Given", thus shipping from China to EU is now paralyzed for who knows how much longer..

So for anyone in the EU waiting for their just purchased China orders, you might want to prepare yourself for the waiting game.. Or consider not placing new orders for a while.

Cheers!

I didn’t know the original had a buck driver. It seems many manufacturers are just chasing lumen numbers and using FETs these days.

That said, both Sofirn and Convoy do seem to be releasing a few more lights with buck drivers now.

I’m sure it’s irrelevant now… But the lens bezel was indeed glued on mine… I had to put it in a soft jaw of ice wrap the bezel in tape to protect it from being scratched and I had to use a pair of pliers/vice grips to get that sucker off lol was a real pain.

No glue on my IF25A bezel. It was just really tight and required vice grip locking pliers and rubber to unscrew.

I brought one of these last year. The anduril version was a little bit old. Have they updated it?

On the old version of anduril I got, the light turns on the moment the button is pressed down. By contrast, the more updated version of anduril turns on after the button pops back up. I thought that small UI change made hold for low a lot easier to use. It lets you know when you’ve held down long enough. With the old anduril version, I sometimes don’t hold down long enough. It’s kinda annoying.

Early versions of IF25A have the old Anduril (similar to the old SP36 BLF Anduril).

Seems like the later batches of Anduril-based flashlights (includes SP36 BLF Anduril, IF25A, LT1 lantern) now use the latest Anduril 1 versions (2020-03-18 for Anduril flashlights, LT1 uses 2020-06-02)

I like this light, got the 4000K CRI 95 version so some loss of brightness but still enough to be fun to play with. Haven’t flashed the version but I know I got a new version of Andruil so they are updating these.

One thing I didn’t know when ordering is that there’s a clip available now:

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005002870376003.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_home.productList_2692165.pic_0

Would have ordered it with the light as I’d have known, now it will have to wait for a next order because of high shipping on a separate order.

That’s good to hear. Do you know which version?

(You can check with this guide ANDURIL USER MANUAL & LIST OF LIGHTS - #114 by d_t_a )

It flashes 2020-03-18.

Ordered the clip:

Great light. Clip is a nice add-on

Same as my SP36 BLF. I have a IF25A on the way and am glad to know it has new firmware.

I want to mod it.Different leds for lumen race.Are the xplhi the brightest leds in this size for this optic?Iam bit lost in this new leds…thanks

Is it true that the button light of the IF25A doubles as a low-battery indicator, like this review seems to suggest?
https://youtu.be/INptFRO2gts?t=269

Do you guys have a pdf version of the instruction manual? I cannot find it anywhere…

Yes, the switch is an SOC indicator (although I’ve never tested it on my sample). As Anduril (both 1&2) offers a battery check option (3C from off), LED status indicator is moot to me as I rarely run a battery under 3.5V. YMMV. I’d suggest sending an email directly to Sofirn for a manual copy.
Great light!

Thanks for the reply. Just to clarify what I meant: I know that the button light in the IF25A shows the charging status while it is plugged into a power source (red light = charging, green light = fully charged).
I am also familiar with the battery voltage check feature of Anduril.
What I am unsure of is whether the button light also glows red when the battery is running low. The YT review I linked says it does (although does not show it). On the other hand I found a reddit post saying it does not.