2024.08.07 Updated
| Product | Link | Price | Coupon | Warehouse |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Astrolux® FT03 Pro HI50 LED 3050LM High Lumen Flashlight | 42.99$ | BGFT03Pro | CN |
That’s all you got?
It doesnt appear to be a Cree emitter, but a Chinese knock-off with overstated lumens. At this price level, I will avoid this one. I got burned with a similar light and its performance sucks compared to an identical light with real Cree XHP50.
Don’t write it off so fast.
The LED isn’t bad at all. Decent CW cct and very high luminance…blows away the original for throw and no tint shift the xhp50.2 had. Less green than the sst40.
Also output isn’t bad either. No, not like the xhp50.2, but nearly the same as the Thrunite Catapult Pro with the sft70.
Only downsides: The UI is very simple. It won’t take 21700s anymore, and of course, a FET driver.
The FT03 was legendary. Are you saying this is better? Thats a tall order. Its gonna take more than throw to do that.
Cree usually mops up the competition with its high lumen per watt efficiencies in the same categories.
I have 2x Astrolux EA01S rated at 11k lumens. Each light came factory equipped with 4 emitters.
The one equipped with the Cree XHP50’s completely destroyed the one with the Chinesium crap50 counterfeits. I also read several similar complaints from others noting the same disappointments. Swapping out the emitters for Cree brought them back to life.
Agreed. The FT03 pro is a money saving blunder that attempted to save a few dollars over the FT03 in all the wrong places. Smaller reflector, far less mass for heat sinking and heat dissipation, no 26800 support that I can find, and now a less efficient/less expensive emitter.
I own at least 8 FT03’s, my fav being the copper FT03S with SBT90.2 + FT03 SST40 reflector swap.
And all have 26800 support, including the EA01S.
Not saying that at all. I’m saying that given the current Mateminco ecosystem (moving away from Anduril/complex UIs, axing Cree LEDs and using Luminus/San’an products), the Pro is a decent, low-cost thrower. It has way more throw than any of the prior-gen FT03s while being a smaller form factor (which I like). The led only uses 12.8 amps at start (tested with a 21700HP) and a good 26650 is totally fine and would give good runtimes. The FET driver doesn’t take advantage of a high Lumen/watt anyways, and I doubt Mateminco will ever offer this (or any FT, EA, MT light) with a boost or buck driver. I never tested a FT03 personally, but lots of others have.
We will see after my testing if this Pro is any good though.