I would say that 95% - 99% of my flashlights are budget lights Convoy, wurkkos, Wuben and Sofirn. I have some Nitecore and Thrunite lights but I don’t know if they are considered budget or not.
So far my experience with the budget flashlights, has been great. They do the job for me and I don’t have any complaints.
Now there are some LEP lights that I would like to have but the price keeps them on my wish list, instead of in my pocket.
Can someone please tell me what makes a flashlight top end versus budget? From my perspective I don’t see what others are talking about.
Build quality, used materials , driver.
For example: Surefire U2 I own. Thick aluminium, built like a tank. You feel that quality when you hold it.
Mike
I put out a call for a few brands, can’t remember which ones, but no one ever responded. It was Facebook and so I was limited to people who are on Facebook. I would have thought that I would get 1 reply but I didn’t.
Then I think you need to define what you’re describing as “top end”.
When I first read the title I already had questions about what you meant.
Clearly, price is some part of it.
The game has changed significantly in the last 10 years and even more so in the last 5 years. Some companies have a lot more overhead with offices in various countries. Distribution through private retailers. Some companies throw a lot of products out to see what sticks to the wall. Some are much more conservative and deliberate. Some have jumped on the anduril bandwagon while others have dabbled and abandoned it. Some will never go there.
So I don’t know what you mean by top end and I don’t think any body here has the same definition.
I think people should choose flashlights based on what they like about them not necessarily the price. However unless and until you experience different brands you don’t always know exactly what you like and why.
Important to note that LEPs are fairly new tech and prices are still high due to the technology rather than necessarily “high quality”.
There’s a natural law of diminishing returns where spendibg more gets you progressively less.
Finally, many opinions on lights are subjective and vary by individual, I’m not going to tell you what to feel, you have to decide yourself whether you consider a (e.g Surefire) light for $200 is 10x “better” Vs a e.g) convoy S2+ for $20…
You are right, defining what is high end is subjective. I always used the brand to describe high end and I guess is what my definition is. Money would be secondary because $200 doesn’t mean that you are getting high quality.
The only way I can refine what I’m asking is to let others describe a flashlight that they consider not a budget light and why. I’m really just looking for opinions, since I can’t touch the lights.
I will add that I’m happy with every light that I have purchased but I kept reading about brands that you can’t find on Amazon and I was curious about them.
Budget (lower-cost, value for money):
Convoy
Sofirn
Wurkkos
Kaidomain lights (KD Litker or whatever it is)
Some Lumintop
Etc
Premium Chinese (generally slightly higher fit & finish, often fewer small issues/niggles, sometimes better customer service/warranty etc):
Fenix
Armytek
Zebralight
Nitecore
Thrunite
Acebeam
Emisar
Olight
FourSevens
Eagtac
Manker
Some Lumintop
Skilhunt
Premium… Uh.. premium? (Often USA made/assembled, generally good customer service/warranty, high quality materials and finish etc)
Surefire
Malkoff
Cloud Defense
HDS
Coolfall
Overready
Darksucks/Prometheus
This is not to say you can’t get a lemon from one of the manufacturers outside of the “budget” group.
The flip side is also more premium the light, the higher the likelihood they’ve used threadlock on it so it’s hard to mod.
If you like andruil user interface you could try a “Hank light” (emisar) from intl-outdoor.com. The 4 I have are older but all feel nicely finished, have good performance and are available in many different options.
Another definition of “premium” I haven’t seen mentioned in this thread is the craftsmanship of the light itself. Some folks collect flashlights as piece of art, and those are often custom-produced with very intricate designs and exotic materials.
There are a number of factors out there, but if I had to distill it to a single word it would be design.
How does the totality of the product come across to the user across the range of expected use cases?
Does it perform well?
Is usage intuitive?
Appropriately durable?
Is it right?
These questions mix quantitative with qualitative. Along the way I’ve paid top dollar for what turned out to be crap, and discovered that some low-dollar choices were excellent.
These definitions change over time person to person as well. CR123A used to be the shizz; today I’ve little use for the formfactor. Side switches used to be the gateway to multiple modes; now I expect a well-tuned single-button UI. Etc.
Also that they’re very specific lights, hopeless at more things than they’re good at and occupy a small, niche market. This isn’t going to help with the higher numbers in production = cheaper equation.
High end production light for me is Fireflies, the quality over any Wurkkos, Sofirn, Emisar is obvious immediately.
We can’t forget about the big box stores and what they move in North America.
Husky, Coast, Energizer, Kobalt, Milwaukee, Police Security, Ozark trail, Braun, and the list goes on.
I have no idea what brands are sold across Europe, China and the rest of the world.
Many of the brands listed earlier probably don’t even come close to the numbers of these lights sold. Then you have all of those lights on Amazon with no real name.
I’ve never met anybody in person that has ordered a light directly from China. We are a small minority.
TLDR: Budget LEP Trustfire T30R (six months ago)
Best LEP a Thor 3 as far as I’ve seen.
I got a budget LEP in the Trustfire T30R LEP. I got it in spring of this year for about $80-90. I am really impressed, the beam is very tight even at distance. It’s very powerful at close range because of the tightness even though its only 400 lumens max.
I’m not sure that it completely converts the hazardous laser into white light. The beam causes nearly any surface to fluoresce very brightly in the color of the material. Actual fluorescent fabrics are extremely bright, much brighter than 400 lumens. I don’t own any other LEPs to know if this is completely normal. It seems to behave like a great UV light and white laser especially at high output.
For the price I paid (90) I would absolutely recommend it but checking now it’s like 120-160 so I would probably just get a Thor. They relisted the item so camelcamelcamel doesn’t work for price history.
