Ultrafire C12 XM-L T6 Review Flashlight

Rating: 5/5 stars

Price Payed: $16.90 USD with free shipping

Date Ordered/Received: 29th of September 2012, received 9th of October, 2012

Link: Ultrafire C12 XM-L T6

After my initial purchase at Lightmalls.com, I was planning to purchase more from them. And I did. This flashlight outperforms the Ultrafire C8 that I had also purchased from Lightmalls, both of which are very good lights. Please note that there are other flashlights and batteries in the background of these photos, and they are NOT included. The Trustfire Flames are for size comparison and are not included.

To kick this review off, I would like to state some obvious facts. The C12’s design is rather similar to the C8, with the same body section and similar head style. Obviously, most of the “anti roll” bumps have indeed been turned into heatsink fins, but the style is still visible. The tailcap is similar to the C8, except that it has a more sensitive reverse clicky switch that engages a lot easier than the C8.

Heat fins on the C12's head

Design and Machining Overview

When I first picked up this light, I decided that I was a bit lighter than the Ultrafire C8, which would make sense, as the parts cut out for the heatsink would have reduced weight. It is about 195 Grams without a 18650 and 250 grams with. Obviously, this flashlight has a nice heatsink on the head section, and a very large pill for a light that size, which makes heat transfer rather efficient. This makes this flashlight good for high current mods.

The pill itself is has a nice cosy fit for the 20mm star, which seems to be press fitted into the pill.

The pill

There is some thermal paste below the star, but personally I would replace it with my own. The pill is also quite wide, with at least 5mm of aluminium around the star. It is also a screw in pill, which is another pro.

The driver is a 5 mode driver with the useful type of mode memory, like in the C8. The flashlight turns on on your last used mode. If you always use medium, you will not have to cycle through all of the modes to get there. You can just use medium, turn it off at medium and it will turn on on medium mode. I think that every flashlight should have that type of mode memory. It is lot easier than no memory or the memory that makes the flashlight go into the next mode when you turn it on. The driver does not have a label or anything, so I cannot say for sure what it is.

The reflector is exactly the same as the C8, so like the C8, this reflector is very deep and is great at catching all of the light from the XM-L T6. The reflector itself is made out of aluminium, and has a nicely polished finish on the actual reflecting surface. There are no scratches or any defects on the reflector. The glass is ordinary, uncoated glass which sits upon a silicone o-ring on the bezel. There is nothing special about it, no chips, no scratches, just what you would expect from a flashlight like this.

The tailcap is very similar to the C8 tailcap, except for the fact that the switch and tailcap cover is different. The C8 tailcap seems a little stiffer than this one, the tailcap that comes with this flashlight has a nice feel to it. Due to personal taste, I have changed the tailcap from boring black to a neon tailcap. I just think black flashlights look better with either an orange or blue tailcap.

The tailcap is also a bit longer than the C8s, with a spring forced solid copper plunger for maximum current transfer. I quite like the solid copper plungers, they are a lot better than the old spring ones. Like most Ultrafire flashlights, this too is a lego flashlight, I can swap any of the parts of the C12 and the C8 around without any trouble.

The body tube is very well milled, and has a nice knurling finish to it. 18650 rattle is minimal, especially when using double shrink wrapped batteries. On one side it has the usual Ultrafire trademark logo, with C12 engraved in the bottom right hand corner, and on the other side it has “Cree XM-LT6” with the cree emitter logo. All engraving is nicely done and is not wonky at all. Some might have thought that the anodisation on this flashlight may be dodgy, but it is perfectly fine. There are no chips in the anodisation, and there are also no missed areas or marks. The heatsink would have been a hard part to anodise, but it was done very well. As far as I can see, there are no patches of un-anodised aluminium in the heatsink, and there are no bubbles or anything. Also this flashlight has very nice threads, they are triangular. They came lubed as well!

And that wraps up the design and machining part of this review.

Current and Brightness

I do all current tests with a 18650 Trustfire Flames charged full and a “Digitech” multimeter with custom 30A leads. These are the results

High: 3.12A

Med: 1.1A

Low: 120mA

The Trustfire Flames are also from Lightmalls, and judging by the runtime and the hologram sticker, they are real. I do not have a hobby charger yet, so I do not know the actual capacity of these batteries. So this flashlight should be giving out a luminous flux of about 850-950 Lumens, which is great for a flashlight for that price. I did a ceiling bounce test, and the results were very good. The room was lit very decently, almost better than what my 11W Energy Saver bulb could do!

Here are the beamshots. My digital camera is a piece of s*** and does no allow me to change the shutter speed and half the other settings. So I am using the camera on my phone to deliver these unsightly photos. All beamshots were taken with a fully charged 18650 Trustfire Flames in the flashlight.

Trees are 50m away, ISO800, +3 EXP.

Yeah it is pretty grainy. 

Same target, same camera settings

Fence is 9m away, ISO800, 0 EXP

And that wraps up the beamshots. (you can uncover your eyes now; the worst is over)

Website Specs:

UltraFire C12 CREE XM-L T6 1200-Lumen 5-Mode LED Flashlight (1x18650)

• Model: UltraFireC12

• LED: Cree XM-L

• Brightness: Max Output 1200 Lumens (manufacturer rated)

• Color BIN: White (Looks like Neutral White)

• Total Emitters: 1

• Battery Configurations: 1*18650 rechargeable batteries (not included)

• Switch Type: Slight-contact (Actually Reverse Clicky)

• Switch Location: Side-way (Actually Tail switch)

• Modes: 5

• Mode Arrangement: Hi >Mid> Lo > Strobe >SOS

• Lens: Coated Glass Lens (Actually Uncoated)

• Reflector: Aluminum Smooth/SMO Reflector

It looks like they did not include current draw for some reason, usually the XM-L flashlights on most websites just have a very generic: “2300mAh Regulated Current”.

Lightmalls is not a bad site, they had the reputation of giving out scratched/fake flashlights before, and all of the flashlights that I have ordered came without scratches and if they are fake then they are very, very good fakes, and they might be better than the real thing.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, this flashlight is just stunning in every way. It is cheap, well made, has a good reflector and has a high current draw. What more could you want?