Brinyte S68 (FLD-170317)
Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
Summary:
| Battery: | 2 or 3 x 18650 |
| Switch: | Reverse Tailcap Clicky |
| Modes: | 5: Low, Medium, High, Strobe, SOS |
| Memory: | Yes (Instaneous) |
| LED Type: | 3 x XM-L (Cool White) |
| Lens: | Glass |
| Reflector: | Aluminum (Smooth) [BEEFY] |
| Tailstands: | No |
| Price: | $64.26 |
| Provided By: | Tinydeal.com |
Product Link: |
http://www.tinydeal.com/brinyte-s68-02-cree-u2-1800-lumens-5-modes-powerful-flashlight-px2e29c-p-87786.html |
Pros:
Well balanced center of mass on the knurled portion of the battery tube
Machining is very good
- Smooth edges
- All threads are square (and lubed)
- no 'play' in any threaded connections
- knurling provides grip, but not overly aggressive
Annodization is matte black and is flawless.
Good thermal management.
Instantaneous mode memory.
Very long protected cells (NCR18650B) fit decently, as do shorter protected cells.
Cons:
5 Mode driver (Have to cycle through Blinkies).
Some artifacts in the beam while white wall hunting.
- Flower pedals in the beam at closer range, typical of multi-emitter reflectors with overlapping reflector wells.
- Noticeable Ring around corona at close range
The 2 battery tubes do not match aesthetically, and the shorter of the two is slightly larger in outer diameter.
Function/UI:
Tailcap current (Amps):
| Cells | High | Medium | Low |
| 3 | 2.20 | .800 | .179 |
| 2 | 2.60 | .940 | .210 |
(3/2x Protected NCR18650B 3400mAh)
30500cd @ 30sec 1 meter (3x 18650)
23000cd @ 30sec 1 meter (2x 18650)
19000cd @ 30sec 1 meter (stock SRK 3 xml, 4x 18650)
Standard reverse tailcap clicky switch operation.
Click on. Half press for mode change. L-M-H-Strobe-SOS
Strobe is a medium-speed strobe.
Pictures:
The light arrived in the standard bubble mailer, a sturdy cardboard box, and soft foam caressing the flashlight inside.
It came with a very long lanyard with a very sturdy attachment clip.
Mouse over 2x 18650 : Mouse out 3x 18650.
A few close-ups of the anno. It's a very nice matte black, slightly shinier than a true matte black. The knurling is very similar to the knurling on my Solarforce L2. In the 2nd pic you can see the size differential between the shorter battery tube (the tube without the knurling) and the longer tube.
The tailcap is a firm reverse tailcap clicky. 3 machined slots in the tailcap for the included lanyard. I dislike the type of clip on mechanism the lanyard has; with little use the clip will likely scrape off the anno.
The triple well reflector is fairly typical in design. The wells are notably wider and deeper than a standard SRK or the SkyRay 3xT6 (2x 18650) that I compare the Brinyte S68 to later in the review.
Threads... Threads everywhere! They're all square, lubed, and extremely well machined. The O-rings engage perfectly, and no noises are heard whilst tightening.
The short battery tube is annodized, which allows lockout with about 30 degrees of rotation in the tailcap.
Extremely plentiful, square threads for the bezel to attach to the head. The whole threaded emitter/driver assembly threads into the finned portion of the head. The threads are very well machined and allow good heat transfer through the threads and the underside of the pill portion that tightens down onto the finned portion of the head.
There is a minor blemish on the leftmost reflector well. Apart from that the wells are very well polished and smooth.
The disassembled reflector/pill. The reflector is MASSIVE. Very little aluminum was machined off and this adds quite a bit of mass. The reflector well openings are machined slightly uneven (it doesn't have any effect on centering, just looks a bit cheap). The clean, CW xml emitters on 16mm aluminum stars are glued down onto the.
Underneath the emitters is a varying thickness (from about 8mm to 2mm). Directly in the center is about 2mm thick, through the central hole is the driver which is potted into the pill. It looks to have a large vertical board attached to the contact plate.
Comparison & Beamshots:
Convoy C8, Sky Ray 3xT6, Brinyte S68, Trustfire TR-J18, Maglite 3D, DST
Brinyte S68
All beamshots are taken on manual mode with the same settings.
50yards to the center tree trunk.
Low - Medium - High
3 triple emitter flashlights. All are stock with XM-L, with varying amounts of 18650 cells. Both of the Sky Ray flashlights have nearly identical reflectors, but the 3xT6 is rather underdriven.
The Brinyte S68 reflector has wider and deeper wells, and is driven a little harder than the SRK.
The following mouse out:mouse over picture shows the differences in beam pattern very well.
Mouse Out - Brinyte S68 : Mouse Over - SRK
The Brinyte has a brighter hotspot+corona (more throw) and a tighter spill.
Conclusion:
The Brinyte S68 reminds me a lot of the good ol' Trustfire TR-3T6 with it's similar 5 mode driver, 2/3x 18650 options, triple emitter form factor. The primary difference is a massive step up in quality, which definitely does show up in the price.
All my 'con' observations are fairly minor, but do add up. The most disconcerting of them is the ring around the corona at close range. It is caused by the lip on the reflector. This lip is far shorter on my other triple emitter reflectors and they lack this unsightly ring.
The positive features of this flashlight do outshine the negatives though. The machining, fit and finish are among the top in my collection. The output exceeds a fairly well driven SRK. It's a very well balanced flashlight.
Overall I rate the Brinyte S68 a 4 out of 5.
