This review is of the Astrolux FT03 Pro, kindly provided by @Banggood. Aside from the light itself, I receive no compensation for the review.
This is a side-switch thrower in the Convoy L21B size class, running 1x26650 and achieving ~1290m throw at ~3000lm output. Click on the sections below to read more!
Basic observations
The light comes in a nice box. Aside from the light, also included are a manual, a lanyard and 2 spare O-rings (originally in a bag), and a pack of desiccant. Note the absence of a charging cable, which is a win in my book because almost everyone already has a high-quality cable from a phone or some other device, and therefore no use for an additional, lower-quality cable.
The light is well-built, with a nice green anodizing that is even and has a chalky, stone-like feel, which indicates good thickness.
Here are the parts of the light disassembled. The battery tube is quite thick and hefty, contributing to the heatsinking. The tailcap has a very thick and stiff spring whose tip has been bent backwards to avoid scratching the battery–good attention to detail! The driver side has a brass post contact; I would prefer a spring to avoid denting the cell during impacts.
Emitters, beam, and performance
The FT03 Pro features a “HI50” emitter in a large smooth reflector, behind an AR-coated glass. It’s unclear what the emitter really is, but the appearance and performance is very suggestive of the LMP W7070ST1, essentially a 7070 version of the SFT42R. This is a good choice of emitter, having just the right balance between throw and output in a host of this size.
The reflector is of very high quality: there are no bad spots, machining marks, or any visible deviation from a paraboloid. This is the best, smoothest reflector I’ve seen in a very long time. The glass lens is AR coated and measures 60.7mm diameter by 2.0mm thick.
Unfortunately, the emitter itself appears to be from a bad batch, because the circular die is visibly off-center. Interestingly, Astrolux has switched to a larger circular-opening gasket with a lot of tolerance (compared to the sample 1Lumen received), no doubt to address this off-center LED batch. Amazingly, the beam itself was quite well-centered, suggesting that the centering has been tuned before being sent out.
The beam itself is well-focused and completely free of artifacts, thanks to the excellent reflector. The beam profile is similar to that of a focus-tuned C8 SFT25R: nice round hotspot and a clearly delineated, well-sized corona fading into spill. But much cleaner with a slightly tighter hotspot, thanks to the quality reflector.
I’ve seen multiple reviews mention a very green tint, but I did not observe it with my sample, which produces a clean cool white. Perhaps my eyes are more tolerant of green in high CCTs, since high CCT sunlight is naturally on the green side.
I measured throw at 1290m, which exceeds the stated 1280m by a hair. I have no reliable way to measure output, but ceiling bounce comparisons with other lights suggests that around 3000lm is a good estimate.
Opening the head is possible, but there is little reason to do so as the stock emitter is optimal for this light.
Interestingly, existing reviews mention hearing a “pling” when the light heats and cools; I also observed this. After disassembling the head, I believe this is due to the difference in thermal expansion between the glass and reflector, which are in contact but not allowed to slide past each other due to friction introduced by the AR coating. A bit peculiar, but nothing to worry about.
User interface
The light is controlled entirely by a side e-switch:
The 3-notched retaining ring is strange and makes opening more difficult than usual; however, I was still able to get in with long-nose pliers and perform a switch dampening mod I do to all of my e-switch lights.
Aside from special modes like strobe, voltage readout (which consistently reports 0.1V lower than actual), and lockout, the basic UI is as follows:
Off: hold to ramp up from bottom, stopped mode is memorized.
Off/on: double click to turbo.
On: hold to ramp up, pause and hold again to ramp down. Single click to turn off.
Notice that there is no access to an un-memorized moonlight, which is inconvenient as it leaves only 2 modes (memory and turbo) immediately accessible, which are not enough for a light spanning 3000lm of output.
Also, the ramping is not as smooth as similar e-switch lights I’ve tried; in particular, it is way too fast on the low end, so the only way to access moonlight (which is very low, possibly sub-lumen) is to ramp down until the bottom is reached.
Additionally, there is a very slight pause between a button press and its response. Not long enough to be annoying, but definitely noticeable and occasionally confusing.
Given that its predecessor, the FT03 SST40, used a Narsil UI, I don’t understand why the UI was downgraded for this light, which is supposed to be an upgrade over the FT03. Given that this is a high-power thrower to be used mostly in high/turbo modes, I find this UI tolerable.
Battery and charging
The light runs on a single 26650 battery, and has a type-C charging port protected by a rubber cover.
The cover forms a very tight seal good for waterproofing; however, the pull tab feels too thin and flimsy, requiring a lot of force to open the cover and could be prone to breaking off over time.
The light has a powerbank function, and both charging and discharging happens at around 4.8V 1.6A. I find this charge rate a bit slow for such a large cell, but perfectly acceptable.
Charging terminates around 4.16V, which I am happy about. Always happy to sacrifice barely a few % of capacity for better cycle life.
The switch has 3 built-in green indicator LEDs to indicate charging status; during charging, 2 of them stays on while a third one weakly blinks until the charge is complete, when it turns solid. I find the blinking hard to see. Strangely, the switch also has blue LEDs that turn on only when the light is on, which is quite a useless feature. It would be much better to use them as part of charge indication.
Concluding remarks
I have mixed feelings about this light. In performance, it is absolutely at the top of its size class; in other ways, it feels like a downgrade compared to its predecessor, having a slightly smaller reflector and much worse UI.
If you are not a modder and not picky about UI, this is a great light. If you are a modder, grabbing the original FT03 and reflowing a SFT42R would be a better option.
What I like:
- Great build and anodizing quality
- Best reflector I’ve seen in a long time
- Very high output and throw
- Completely artifact-free beam
What I think can improve:
- Original Narsil UI is much better!
- Use a non-lopsided batch of emitters and the original square-opening centering ring for better consistency
- Better use of switch lights: make the charging indication more clear, and make constant-on available to find the light in the dark
- More robust USB port cover pull tab
Thank you for reading!