Thorfire S70S mini review - 100 lumens/$ flashlight

Yesterday I received the upgraded version of S70, the S70S. It was bought after an offer alert a fellow member posted here. I am owner of Convoy L6 too, so a comparison between them is inevitable.
Pictures first:













I am a guy who will not pick a flashlight just measuring output. Comparing S70S with L6, I believe they have almost the same performance.
I was impressed by Thorfire’s build quality, illuminated front switch, extra lens & shoulder strap and low price of course.
I was disappointed by the operation of tailcap’s forward switch. The flashlight will not turn on by pressing the tailcap’s switch, If previously you turned it off that way. You are obliged to turn on flashlight using front switch only, this odd behaviour destroys any tactical usage of the flashlight and there is really not use of that forward clicky switch in tailcap.
Pill design seems it’s not unibody build. There are some threads shown in last pic, I will dissasembly soon and tell you more details about that.
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After using S70S for a few days, I think it has some issues, such as UI (rear forward switch has use just to prevent battery drain) and medium & high mode are too close.
BUT, for the price (40:money_mouth_face:, you could forget all that.
It has a GREAT lumens/price ratio (100 lumens/:money_mouth_face: and very good quality. I would expect something better from Thorfire, since it is their revised model and they have presence in our community, so they could use our feedback to make a better product.
For now, this flashlight deserves a spot in BLF banner.

very nice photos , thanks for the review! :+1:

oh nice
greece is EU too, hope mine will arive soon

Thanks for posting your observations.

Subscribed.

Thanks for your presentation ! :+1:

Led board (mcpcb) is Copper or Aluminum ?

The head is still a two piece design, bummer about the tail cap switch, makes it useless to me, unless I put a LD-2 driver in it!

All versions, new and old, use copper. I’m pretty sure DTP copper as well.

Do these use a 29mm driver?
Would a 30mm Convoy L6 driver squeeze in there?

So what is the “easy” mod on this one? same as last one? solder blob or extra resistor?

Solder blob might work or might smoke it, depends.
Best option is adding an R075-R120 resistor. Just like Convoy L6 driver.

Bypassing springs might help as well.

There was another thread which mentioned the size of these R082 resistors are much bigger than in the previous driver, which makes people trying to mod a bit more weary.

Would you just go building the solder blobs from both sides of one of the R082 resistors and put the R100 right in the middle of it?

I wonder why Thorfire increased the size of the of the R082 resistor for this driver?

A larger size resistor would only be required if it was dissipating more heat (ie higher current), but what is the usual design range of the sense current in drivers? ie Is it µA, mA, or A range?

I’ve never modded before so this would be very informative.

The original resistors where 1/4 watt 1206 (English size) or 3216 Metric) size. (3.2mm by 1.6mm)

I’m not sure what this new size is, but probably at least 1/2 watt rated.

I imagine that the smaller, original resistors will work just fine since your decreasing the resistance.

I would think the smaller R100 would work too.

The only thing that may happen is that the R100 resistor will burn out because of a higher sense current/ greater heat dissipation, but if it does blow out then you’re simply back to a stock light (ie R082//R082, or R041 equivalent).

Another thing would be that the solder blobs that you’ll have to create now are going to be much larger than in previous mods.

That’s why I said from R075 to R120.

The 075 and 082 will give the most increase while the 120 is a smaller increase. Once you go above 120 or so there is not much difference.

Video added

The new user interface completely changes how you use the light.

Does the button stay lit for as long as the rear switch is on?

The button stays lit while the rear switch is on. Also the rear switch has a very thin soft boot.
After using S70S for a few days, I think it has some issues, such as UI (rear forward switch has use just to prevent battery drain) and medium & high mode are too close.
BUT, for the price (40:money_mouth_face:, you could forget all that.
It has a GREAT lumens/price ratio (100 lumens/:money_mouth_face: and very good quality. I would expect something better from Thorfire, since it is their revised model and they have presence in our community, so they could use our feedback to make a better product.
For now, this flashlight deserves a spot in BLF banner.

Got mine today, nice light for $40.00!

Do not like the UI, why is it sooo difficult to make a dual function button UI driver, heck the Uranusfire818 has it $23.00 light? Ah the mushy tail cap, because they cut the actuator nub off, so I installed the green boot and cut about 2.5-3mm off leaving a bit just to make contact with the switch actuator, works nicely now.

Thinking about just re-flowing one of my 4000k XHP70 emitters, and make it a hunting/storm/power outage purpose light, having that lighted locator e-switch and the hidden moon level of light, seems to serve this purpose. To me the mode spacing is alright too! All in all the light is really not my cup of tea so to speak, because of the UI, I’ll still take the Jax X6 (tail cap only) or One of my modded ConvoyL6 with the LD-2 driver in them because of the (dual function) buttons, over this light because that’s what I’m use to and it’s what I like.

But this is still a nice light for the $$$$$! :+1:

Med and high modes are spaced apart just right in my opinion.

Lighted side button is a good feature. You don’t need to fumble for the button in the dark.

Mode spacing is not crap but L6’s is better.
I insist in mode spacing improvement because is something that doesn’t cost extra money to the manufacturer. Also, wouldn’t be great to turn on the light from the forward (forward switch is useless in s70s), directly to the last used mode?
Small things which sometimes make the difference.