Review: Ultrafire SG-R13, cheap 18650 light

I write this short review because I was pleasantly surprised in many ways. Meet the Ultrafire SG-R13:

$9,88 shipped from banggood.com. Ordered feb27, delivered march6 (yes, that is 7 days!)

It is a very cheap, humble, small and lightweight 18650 light with xpe emitter. Size is 13,5 x 3,7 cm, it weighs 101 grams without battery, other specs, see the banggood website.

Other pictures:

Guts:

One beamshot 1.5 meter from wall, under-exposed to show the hotspot well:

some rings in the spill, but what a nice hotspot!

So what do I like?

-the price!!

-the looks, and the finish is near perfect

-the small size and weight

-although lightweight, it seems sturdy enough for normal use and beefy where it matters: the pill is thick aluminium and so is the body part where the pill is screwed in, with even some discrete fins.

-o-rings where they are needed.

-deep reflector, throws well (led is centered well and right in focus!).

-rubber grip ring.

-clicky is screwed in (nothing is press-fit in this light )

-xpe emitter, 17mm driver

-PWM is unusually high (about 10 times the Trustfire Z2's horrible pwm, but not as high as a NANJG-driver, so 800Hz?)

-only 3 modes (high, low, strobe), no memory

-pill fits a 16mm board exactly, and there is a very good thermal path to the body (that is: if they had put thermal grease under the led board )

-draws 1.32A at the tail at the high setting

-it throws 25K-lux at 1 meter (with just a 30mm reflector)

I don't like

- the plastic reflector (but that is an emotional thing: it works fine)

- no thermal grease between led board and pill (and a xpe at 1.32A really needs that)

- the strobe should be replaced with a low low

- no tailstanding

What will I change

-add thermal grease

-perhaps sometime find a aluminium reflector and a hardened and coated glass cover

-wait for the 16mm nitro-sinkpads, reflow a xpe2 and put in a 2.4A driver) ">

Conclusion: I bought this light as a host, and a nice host it is, with everything servicable! But the stock light is well done as it comes, cheap, the xpe is driven well and combines very nicely with the reflector to give a small, lightweight and for its size a very good throwing light.

Thanks for this! I may have to order one!

Interesting light. Thanks for the review.

Yep, ya did it. For that price, i ordered two. Some new lights to toy with.

If it could tailstand and had a clip it would be perfect for the price.

I like to hear your impression of the light. Whenever a 18650 light comes out it is always with an xml nowadays, I think this light is a refreshing diversion from that, and very useful too.

Shipped already! That was quick.

if it’s a next mode memory driver you could add a resistor (probably 200k-1M) over the cap to have it starting in high every time.
it looks nice, but i don’t know why i would need one of these, so i’ll pass.

thanks for the review anyway!

Thanks very much for the review! Sticky’d.