New TrustFire F25. Nice looking but ¿old led? flashlight

I weighed mine as it clearly wasn't anywhere near 158 grams - it weighs 71g. I will weigh it with the packaging when I get home. The packaging is the normal Trustfire box with closed cell foam cutouts in it - they clearly use the same inner package for several lights as there are marks for cutouts for chargers and cells. I doubt it weighs more than the light so I do wonder where 158g came from.

It tailstands nicely. The low appears to be reasonably low (At least considering I am sitting in a very brightly lit office just now.)

It'll be easy enough to take a pile of AA lights, stick an Eneloop in each of them, set them on low and leave them to get on with it. Instrumenting it would be harder, but I can stick lights on the box every so often to see how they are getting on. Some should run a day or so, quite a few won't.

Thanks Don, nothing complicated, just a visual runtime test would be nice.

So I saw on DX that there was a discussion as to whether the F25 was solid steel or just steel plated due the light weight. How does it feel compared to, say, an Ultrafire C3 Stainless?

The C3 stainless is 7g heavier at 78.8g. However, the F25 has a thinner body tube so I'd guess it probably is real stainless steel - can check if it is magnetic, which good stainless (or many other metals) is not. The tailcap is weakly magnetic, the body and head are not which implies the tailcap is made from a different grade of metal. It is very highly polished, almost like it had been chrome plated.

The head appears to be identical in diameter to the (93mm stainless) C3 head. The tailcaps are actually interchangeable as are the heads though I doubt they'd work properly because of different thread lengths.

Pics later

Don where did you buy your f23 from?

The F22 and F23 came from DX, the F25 from Lightake.

The F25 with its box does come to 157g according to my scales so the shipping weight is correct even if I was expecting the world's first lead alloy light. It is interesting that the threads and tub diameters at head and tail are the same as for the Ultrafire C3 stainless (At least the 93mm one I have)

Mine does give around 180 lumens with a quick test on a 14500 of unknown state of charge. Will write a review soon.

Thanks Don, there is a 3 mode version of the light at buyincoins. Would this be brigther?

I'd doubt it, though it might be. They probably designed both circuits to provide as much current to the LED as is safe for the design - the maximum current for an XP-E is 1 amp - but because drivers vary, and the forward voltage of LEDs in the same output bin vary, there are likely to be differences, but unless the 3 mode driver is designed for a higher current to the LED, it is unlikely that there will be much difference.

aluminum is highly polishable and non magnetic, could the light be polished aluminum? its also alot softer than stainless, I would take a scriber or something small and sharp, and try and make a very small mark inside the body tube to see if it marks easily? perhaps the tail cap is a grade of stainless while the body is aluminum. Just wondering because on buyincoins it is stated as aluminum.

Nah, it's too hard and dense for aluminium and highly polished aluminium doesn't stay that way for long. It's been in my pockets along with keys and coins all day.

I can't scratch the inside of the battery tube or the head with a cheap steel screwdriver. AFAIK all steel screwdrivers are hardened steel.

The F25 is only 7 grams lighter than the Ultrafire C3 stainless steel. The tailcap is weakly ferromagnetic so contains iron or other metals that I ought to remember. I can scratch the inside of the tailcap so it is presumably a lesser grade of stainless steel.

The F25 will take the head from the Aurora SH-035 but not the tailcap. It works with the Aurora head. The F25 head doesn't really fit on the Aurora body though - it stops before it makes good contact,

The F25 head fits and works in single mode (strange that) on the Ultrafire C3 stainless steel body. The F25 tailcap also fits and works on the Ultrafire body. It looks odd though.

The Ultrafire head fits the F25 body better than the F25 head does IMO. The tailcap also fits and works though the F25 tailcap fits better on the F25 body - which should not be a surprise.

Time to take some pictures.

As it arrived

Package with cutouts for accessories

The light

Alongside an Ultrafire C3 SS

Head to head, the heads are the same diameter though the C3 head is a millimetre or so longer

Standing up

Beside some 14500 cells

Tailcap

Inside tailcap

Major assemblies

Inside the body tube

LED end - note the smooth reflector which is unusual. Beam is good though.

Effect of that green GITD O ring at the front.

F25 and C3 heads

F25 with C3 head lego

F25 body with C3 head and tailcap

More C3 and F25 Lego. Each one has the other's head and tailcaps. Both work.

Trustfire on the left, Ultrafire C3 on the right

For someone used to XR-E LEDs the beam is incredible for a smooth reflector.

Awesome pics as usual Don. I'm starting to really like the TrustFire F25 even more so when I see pictures of it. It's a very sharp and shiny (I really like shiny :bigsmile: ) looking light. Maybe it can ease the pain of me losing my F23.....maybe. Wink

That does look mighty nice. I wish the runtime were better on low, though.

Where did you order your F25 from Don? I wouldn't expect the light to be shipped with that packaging from many sites.

Lightake

The numbers that were here were wrong. they will be redone properly in the review thread. Operator's assistant error was responsible followed by operator not paying enough attention to what the assistant had trodden on.

The assistant

The throw is respectable and the beam isn't bad at all.

Don have you got the NiMH and 14500 mixed up?

Trustfire F25 High AA NiMH 82 71 65 6870

Trustfire F25 High 14500 141 128 119 3530

I don't have a lightbox to mesure that correctly, but I compared it with my other lights. I believe the Trusfire F25 does a little more than this 141 lm on a 14500. My guess is around 200 lumens. Ok, there is no proof it is a real R2, but even if it is a Q5, it still (over) drives it at 1300 mA . So, the out put cannot be that low.

I've deleted a few of my comments on the measurements as they were wrong. See the review thread here for correct numbers