Overall product Rating: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
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On the menu: UltraFire T80
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Pros:
Cons:
Intro
For some reason I am very fond of Crelant’s design so immediately after I saw UltraFire C20 (aka Crelant 7G3CS) I was drawn to it and then, when JackCY published his excellent review I felt no guilt (like: "oh, I am spending too much on flashlights" etc.) in getting one and I was not disappointed at all, that one is a keeper. Obviously, next in line was UltraFire T80, and about 40 days later (and couple of screw-ups by HK post office chimps) here it is, nice and “shiny” (not really shiny with that black anodisation) “my precious” :D LOL Touchdown again. I really can't imagine what is the story behind this flashlights (C20, T80) and how exactly happened that UltraFire and Crelant share this excellent hardware but I really hope that this trend will carry on in future.
Package: (thumbs up)
Arrived in nice, big bubblewrap envelope, usual thing for almost all shipment from China, but wait, there's more, this time I didn't have to worry what will happen if my package gets squashed under the loads of other stuff because this flashlight is packaged in a nice and steady plastic suitcase. It's not something too special but it's a nice touch and it's nicely made to protect insides. There is a foam at the top side and also thick foam insert but no foam at the bottom! (I think it's the case just with this particular sample), anyway, flashlight come out perfect, not a scratch.
So, here is what you get inside of the suitcase:
Design and build quality: :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:
If you ever had or you have one of the Crelant's models, then you know exactly what you will get, C20, T80, 7G5CS … have identical design and build quality philosophy, even the feel to touch and how tailcap and electronic switch sounds are identical. Everything is assembled nicely, anodisation is absolutely flawless and the knurling gives a nice feel to touch, It is not too pronounced and not too “slippery”, I like it more than knurling on Nitecore P25 that I used to compare with. Interesting, but even laser engraving is done better than on P25, edges of letters are sharper and color is more uniform.
There's just one thing that kinda "disappointed" me, front glass lense is not AR coated, although it is advertised as AR coated I wasn't able to confirm this since it doesn't have purple-blue-ish reflection/glare usually present at AR coated surfaces.
I usually don't devote much time to holsters (and accessories like lanyard’s) but this one deserves a sentence or two. It's nicely made, compared to Nitecore holster for P25 I would say that it's even better, quality is identical from outside and inside but the stitching is better, more precisely done and it's just the right size for T80 (while the holster for P25 is a bit smaller than it should be).
Tailcap has anodised threads, threads on the battery tube to which tailcap screws in are also anodised so you can lock-out the light if you desire so but the threads on the other side of battery tube are not anodised. Tailcap switch has a slightly longer stroke, it's a forward clicky so you do get momentary on function.
Emitter, driver and mode (electronic side switch) assembly has a nice and clean design. Plastic spacers cover all important parts which is good, but if you want to poke around and see if some upgrading could be done then you are not going to have fun disassembling this part, I doubt that white plastic around emitter could be easily removed, at least not without drilling some holes to it. I am not quite sure if the emitter is slightly off center or I am just trippin, if it is off center, that must be 1/3 of millimeter or less.
The remaining parts are known story and not much to tell about, everything is machined well, fits snug together, no sharp edges on the front bezel either. It's pity that the glass lense is not AR coated as with C20, that would be nice touch. There is just one annoying thing about this flashlight and it's called the CLIP. It's made of 0,8mm thick stainless steel but it feels like it's from titanium! I don't use clips and don't like them too much so I tend to remove them, but this one is so unbelievably stiff that you have to use at least two fingers just to pry it a bit and no way you could remove it just by using fingers.
(right click -> View Image)
UIAlthough LightsCastle's website says "Mode Arrangement: High > Mid > Low > Fast Strobe > SOS" I was really really hoping that this is not true and that I will get standard Crelant UI with two constant output level modes, two hidden blinky modes (strobe and SOS) and infinitely variable brightness system and NO disappointment here :D so if you ever had a contact with one of the Crelant's models (for example from 7G series) that feature side electronic switch, you can skip this part of the story. As you already know this flashlight features 2 switches, tailcap forward clicky that is only used to power on/off the flashlight and side electronic switch for mode selection. Operating tailcap switch will get you straight to “high” mode, every time, if you want to change mode click the side switch once to go from “high” to “low” and then once again to get to standby mode. Double clicking the side switch (from any constant output mode or from standby mode) will get you to strobe and another double click progress to SOS mode, single click and you are in standby again. Factory set high and low mod are not actually highest and lowest that you can get from this flashlight and for that you have to go to one of the constant output modes that you want to change, press and hold side switch and the light will start to ramp up and down, when you find suitable mode just let go the button and that’s it. When you reach the maximum, light will blink three times to let you know, also if you ramp down and reach minimum, light will stall a bit (1-2 seconds) and them go up again.
This way you can set both constant output levels to a level you prefer, just remember, if you power off via tail switch or lock-out the light this seting will be lost and the flashlight will revert to it's factory setings.
Consumption data
This chart reveals good modding potential :P
Couple of beamshots
I apologize for not paying attention that I lit up only a half of the moon :P
Overall impressionsI really like this flashlight, it features excellent design and finish (machining and anodisation are flawless) accompanied with UI that is based on good ideas, a bit tweaking and it would be even better. It is about the closest thing to perfect flashlight for me and I really hope that UltraFire continues with their genetical experiments and keep cloning more of Crelant's models :D
Potential upgrades:
I hope you like this review and find it interesting, it is my first one :P Sorry for all errors, english is not my native language.
P.S. UltraFire, if you can hear me, there is one flashlight called 7G10… :D
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