Your coolest / best / favorite flashlight of 2021

Sofirn IF22A

I just ordered one a few minutes ago. Have a 21700 that needs a home.

I think for me, for new releases, it was the Lumintop FWAA but the little Wild Trail WT3M was a very nice surprise. If I were to judge based on the number of new cells I bought, it would have to be the FWAA.

Not new, but I also picked up a Noctigon KR4 and like that one an awful lot. Given that I had three extended power outages this year, the most useful light by far ended up being the Convoy M3C simply due to its output and fantastic run times at low-but-useful light levels. Least impressive to me were a couple from Wurkkos and Olight but they’re both still good lights.

Emisar D4V2 CuZn
Olight Warrior mini 2 Ti

Lumintop FWAA. It has hardly left me since I got it. It's beyond smaller than I could have imagined them making. It's not really an EDC due to the flood but it hasn't prevented me from taking it everywhere.

Astrolux EA01 (Mateminco MT01). Bought 3 TIR throwers in 2021 and the EA01 is my favorite. Or at least by far my most used. The others are fun but not practical. The EA01 has a usable beam up close and I've seen some IF22A posts as well so there's a lot of fans of TIR throwers with larger hotspots than Osrams produce. And it has the benefit of Anduril that none of the others have, until the DM11 debuts.

Update: Yep, the Mateminco MT70 Mini SFN55.2 easily makes my list.
The beam is flawless (no dark rings, crosses or halo’s. I have the Black Bezel, OP reflector) and it throws really well.
It’s balanced when you’re holding it, and the 26650 body size feels good in your hand.
If they come out with nice warmer tint’s, that would be the icing on the cake for me.

FWAA ti/cu

Despite that it has half the throw that I hoped for, my favourite and coolest flashlight is still the Lumintop Ant Man. I wanted a pocket-sized LEP light since LEP started and Lumintop did make one :+1: . It looks great, 77 kcd is still amazing for a small pants-pocket-size light (40% more than the Jacob A60, my thrower reference of old), the beam is the nicest of the 3 LEP lights that I own (and a relief compared to the distracting square beams of my aspherics), and because of the underwhelming output/throw, the current is under 1 amp which gives it more than an hour runtime.

I have to add the Olight Baton 3. 1200 lumens. 20 days at 5 lumens.

Astrolux EA01. Wanted to try the TIR. Now, the shorty 26350 version is my most used light. It just feels right in the hand. Even ordered a couple more.

IF22A

Bought 1, was impressed. Bought 2 more to gift them.

I did, i did see a putty tat.

Updated till here: #101

DQG Slim AAA

I replaced the very cold green XP-G emitter with a 219b sw30 and now it’s an amazing AAA sized light. A couple of days runtime on low and decent output on high, and its absolutely tiny.

I like tiny but for me the Zebralight SC64c LE is the best size/performance combo I have seen.

Head Diameter: 0.96 inch (24.5 mm)
Length: 3.64 inch (92.5 mm)

It supports lumen levels of 900, 579, 341, 183, 90, 40, 16.6, 6.2, 2.1, 0.67, 0.19, or 0.05 that can be programmed in the order you want. I think typically only the 900lm mode needs to step down.

I know that some people love getting by with the minimum number of lumens possible for the smallest footprint possible but for my money (literally) this is the best of both worlds.

SKILHUNT E3A (High CRI). It goes with me everywhere, and I like the tint.

Wurkkos TS21

Emisar D4V2 variable tint

  • Feels great in the hand.
  • Deep-carry clip (this is a clip I modded myself).
  • Respectable battery capacity. Primarily using an 18500 Vapcell L22 (2200 mAh).
  • 2700K and 6500K SST-20
  • Aqua switch backlight and raised switch retaining ring.

It’s great having a variable tint light with good ui, good hand-feel, massive output, and small size. Looks great in light blue.

Other notable lights from 2021:

  • Acebeam TK17 Ti - expensive light, but I found one heavily discounted. Still expensive, but looks nice, has good output and feels great in the hand. The artsy silver and gold clip was useless though and needed to be replaced.
  • Zebralight SC52w - gutted and innards replaced with triple SST-20 4000K FD2 with Anduril UI.
  • DQG Tiny III and IV - Had these awhile, but redid the innards. Both now have Anduril UI and are running triple SST-20.

Imalent MS08. Got it last week and it’s a monster!