Flashlight Reviews Positive/Negative Ratio

LED Flashlights – General Info
8

Maybe because there just too many parts to review. Kinda like a car you know. Something like…

“ Okay I love the curves of the body. It flows in unison together. But I don’t like the front as it looks too cartoonish. The handling is great over small bumbs and it rides quite smooth even though it’s got stiffer shocks but I wish they would of used less stiffer shocks. I hate the cvt tranny as it seems to sound like a lawnmower. The seats really hug you but that steering wheel just feels too biggish. The fuel economy is great but merging into highways really winds the engine out. Oh, the visibility is good all around but that b- pillar sure blocks a large portion in your blind spot. Damm lots of trunk room but that back seat is best left for smaller kids.”

9

Great post!!
Thanks for the entertainment!

10

I’ve seen plenty of reviews where someone is given a flashlight for free, no strings attached. They are never scathing reviews, but try to tastefully document what they believe to be a drawback. And in kind, there should never be emotions expressed in negative aspects. This should be meant for constructive criticism so that the light maker can rectify it in the next release (or interim).

But I have to admit, there’s one brand that I took a strong liking to, because I had some good communication with the owner. I gave a very good objective review, on a light that I purchased (wasn’t free)… and the one real negative that stuck in my craw was the noticeable PWM in most modes (except highest). Frankly, for the flashlight price and the standards set at this time, there was no good excuse for PWM to be present. I tried to frame it with no emotion, and I think I was fair. But after that? The guy won’t even respond to me.

So yeah… I think there’s positive bias out there, because people want to keep reviewing flashlights. The trick is to spot the negatives in “carefully worded language.” And if there’s a doubt, have a PM chat with the reviewer who might be a little more forthcoming off-line.

But frankly, from all I’ve seen, most people try to avoid reviewing flashlights they already have a “feeling” won’t end up with an overall positive finish. I know of a couple flashlights that are pretty pricey, but for what you get they fall short in a critical area… like for instance, absence of good current regulation (relative to the price). You know what? You don’t see many reviews of flashlights like this. One review that points out a fault that many in the flashlight community would consider a taboo, and no one wants to review it. So, that’s why you wouldn’t see it come up.

11

Personally, if I was the reviewing type, why would I waste my life writing/scripting/filming a video about something I hated? Some people get off on that I guess, or find it humorous, but I dunno - to me it seems like a large waste of time and I’ve got better things to do. I guess maybe if it was my job to review lights and I was really disappointed or flabbergasted by how bad a product was - then I’d try to salvage it by making a hate review, which I guess some youtubers do. I can sort of see the side of wanting to warn other consumers about the shortcomings of a product, I guess.

For me though, if I think a light looks like it sucks - then I just won’t buy it. Simple.

12

I was into reviewing lights for about 2 years, until the decision was made to stick with native speakers, to ‘professionalize the website’ so i recently got out of that business.

The thing about reviews is, they are never 100% accurate, personal experience may differ from one to another.
Another important aspect is the political correctness. Since most lights are provided free, the only investment is time and effort (and the instruments for measuring output, runtime, etc.)

Writing a very negative review, usually means the manufacturer is not keen on sending you new flashlights. That’s why all reviews with ratings from 0-5 stars will NEVER have a rating below 3 stars.
Read between the lines and make and your own decision.

13

Some of the review sites have affiliate sales links for the lights under review, which means they have a financial incentive to sell the lights. That has to affect the reviews too.

I’ve so far only reviewed self-purchased lights and have been negative towards a few, including at least one from a brand that I like. Conversely there’s a brand that I don’t like, that makes a light that a lot of BLF’ers advised me against buying, but when it went on sale cheap enough I couldn’t resist and it turns out I rather like it. The main criticism was that the light is unreliable though, so I guess I’ll only like it until it stops working. (Review is here in case you wanted to know).

14

When someone gives you a free light for review it’s nearly impossible psychologically to be as negative about it as if you had bought it.

If a light has a 10 percent failure rate then there’s a 90 percent chance the reviewer gets a good one but there’s an 80 percent chance I’ll get a bad one. Dont ask me to explain the math because I can’t, I just know it works that way.

I’ve had a few failures, but non of them were right after I bought the light. All of them would have gotten good reviews right after I bought them. I remember when my imalent dx80 was the greatest light ever. Before the smoke came out of it.

Some problems don’t get noticed for a long time. My imalent dt70 is one of my favorite lights but the thermal regulation doesn’t work on strobe mode. I never noticed until I set it up to shine on the ceiling and let the kids run around in the strobe light for half an hour. Went to turn off the light and it was too hot to hold. I still like that light though.

15

16

“We don’t do any 5 star reviews”

-Well the turbo lasts för 10 sec and then it’s stuck in 100 lumen for 4 hours until it fades

–4/5 stars! Great light Buy at our links below

/// 2Candela.com

17

Exactly this :wink:

18

The most egregious example of “soft” reviewing I’ve seen is this “review” right here: Acebeam X50 Review - 40.000 lm of pure bliss with amazing sustainable outputs - YouTube

  • Wastes time displaying the box and praising the packaging!
  • Mentions multiple times that Acebeam has the BEST fit and finish on the market (highly debatable methinks)
  • They sent him the light with the wrong emitters but he just took it so as not to rock the boat
  • He demonstrates that the temperature control is BROKEN on one mode and that the light can reach temperatures that are out of spec for 18650 batteries and FAR outside the range of what the community considers ideal (90 degrees celcius I think?!)
  • He acts as though the buggy temperature control is basically a feature on his light and speculates that other models won’t have this issue (you expect me to believe Acebeam can’t get the right model without defects to a reviewer but it will be different for me?)

To be fair to the reviewer:

  • They were honest about having received a reviewer discount.
  • They did mention the flaws despite the spin
  • They do offer useful runtime graphs.

I get that they are trying not to anger Acebeam but I feel like casual viewers are being thrown under the bus because they won’t read between the lines. Even as someone “in the know” I am frustrated in a very Type-A way that this video is labeled as a review when it feels more like a commercial.

19

selfbuilt was one of the best flashlight reviewers around. He didn’t have a rating system. But he was so incredibly thorough. You’d have to read his conclusions section to get a feel for his impressions, the negatives, etc. And he was pretty much spot on, from what I could see. He was in such demand to review, he’d have to turn away requests. And as such, he was selective with the flashlights he’d review, which helped ensure he’d not end up with lemons most of the time. This is why he interviewed dozens upon dozens of lights. He did sell off some of the older ones to fund his efforts on the newer ones. And he had an open PayPal donation link.

Anyway, he burned himself out… which was understandable. Sold off most of his flashlights, except for his top favorites. I hope one day he comes back to it. He sure left at the wrong time, as the LED game has changed so immensely and such an impressive array of makers out there now.

20

I read that there are legions of fake/paid-for reviews on Amazon. And that there is a stable of shills ready to dance to whatever tune the maker is willing to promote.
It’s hard to believe that tens of thousands of users have never compared a POS zoomie to something even part way decent and find it worthy of a 5 star rating.

Many are easy to spot when the language is right out of the makers propaganda. Or the words or phrasing is so odd as to be comical.
“What is the color temperature?”
“Yes dear, the glare is opportune to the lens irradiation” W hisky T ango F oxtrot?

I really don’t bother with the 5 star reviews unless it is clear that someone has actually put the device to the test.

Yet there are clearly reviewers that have a great deal of integrity.
Project Farm on YouTube comes to mind. There are affiliate links, but even though some question his testing methods, I would submit that he clearly shows poor performance whenever it is encountered.

All the Best,
Jeff

21

When I see a product on Amazon with mostly positive reviews, I make a point of going to the negative reviews first. See what they say and how they say it. If there’s a really intelligent thorough negative review, I’m more apt to trust that than the most glowingly positive review. A well written positive review? I’ll check the reviewer to see their history. Sometimes you find some with nothing but positive reviews—suspicious. Padding? Absolutely. Amazon tried to mitigate this with a verified purchase indicator. But sellers can get around this, especially if the item isn’t very expensive.

But you’re right—always good to fan out and read reviews from multiple sources before buying.

22

when I got into flashlights I did some research before buying my first 18650 and ended up with the Zebralight SC64c LE.

I never heard someone pointing out the poor finish and sharp edges under the pocket clip which I ended up filing down. Surely was mentioned somewhere but not in the 5+ reviews and opinions on this model I came across. You’d think it would be worth mentioning but it would probably shatter some people’s phantasies about the “perfect” edc light.

Getting stuff for free is another factor. That’s why I usually take such reviews with a grain of salt.

23

Well, I haven’t reviewed that light but I have one. I’ve never noticed any sharp edges but I don’t use the pocket clip and I haven’t removed it either. I guess a thorough reviewer should probably be looking for that stuff though.

24

Nearly all non-commercial reviews (those pure text reviews on e.g. BLF) are honest. It is easy to see why most reviews are positive: No matter if you bought it or accepted a sample for a review - you pay with money or lots of time, i.e. you’d do this only if there’s a good chance the light is ok.

Now what if you got a review sample that’s not good? This is a rare case, but it can happen the reviewer lie about it. Hm, most of us would know, and the reputation of the reviewer would be gone for good I guess. OTOH, if he tell us the truth, he’ll never again get a review sample from that manufacturer, preventing further bad reviews about his bad lights (happened to me).

I have had two attacks on my reviews, and that was quite sad. Not that anyone could point out where I (or others) were wrong; in one case it was just stated that all users doing reviews for samples are commercial reviewers. Really sad. The other attacker was just throwing dirt, and he was successful - no further review samples for me from this manufacturer allthough the light was good and the review was positive.

I digress, but the point is: Doing reviews is a hard job for more than one reason. It would be nice if that could be acknowledged.

25

It’s the corners on the mating surface between flashlight and clip. I removed mine since I never clip it either. Its not sharp like a burr but IMO unpleasant to touch.

26

Lets be honest here, if you do reviews and slam the products regularly no one in their right mind is going to continue sending free review lights - it is obviously not in their interest.
I find some reviewers do give their honest opinion and appreciate it, but they are careful not to ‘over do’ the slamming - maybe if they had bought that light with their own cash they may have not been quite so forgiving……
Can we expect them to do that over and over - no of course not.
I appreciate their work , although for some it’s become more of an income stream rather than a hobby review, that is perhaps where the honesty starts to water down and it’s more about getting as many lights as possible to sell on rather than to give an honest review and risking the free supply of lights.
There has to be a balance obviously.

27

I can’t speak for anyone else, so I’m just gonna put my stank on the situation and that’s it.

I “pre-screen” lights, or, well, anything I review. It’s got to be something I’d normally want anyway but maybe didn’t go out of my way to get. First, I don’t want to review crap, waste the time, and have said crap as “payment”. And yeah, there were a few lights I was hesitant to review, but turned out to be quite good. Eg, I thought the WK30 was a “gimmick” light, but turned out to be and still is one of my favorites. The E3A? Liked the freebie so much I bought a few more.

I was offered to review one of those wifi lightbulbs that go r/g/b and variable brightness, and was told that I’d get reimbursed on them seeing my 5-star review. When I asked what if it’s not so great, or if I couldn’t get it working with my phone, etc., then what?, and never got a reply back, so I obviously passed on that.

Most times I’m asked to review something, no one even waits for the review to be posted, and I either get the light comped or just have it shipped to me directly, so it seems implied that I can be honest about it, ’though in reality, yeah, a negative review would probably mean the end of most or maybe even all future reviews. But thankfully, I never got a lemon, and all the lights were top notch in quality, etc.

But if a beam is fried-eggy, I’ll say so. One recent light had the dreaded next-mode memory, and I even bolded “NMM” to highlight it, knowing that for lots of people, that’d be an instant pass. But for The Muggle, it probably wouldn’t be a big deal.

That said, I try to really put a light through its paces, in practical use. I don’t have a light sphere, don’t log light output ’til the cell crokes, none of the hardcore stuff people do in way way way more detailed reviews. So I’ll use it as a nightstand light, around the house, in the yard, around the block, etc., and it’s definitely my impressions as far as usability, etc.

I’ll test any included cells to see if they hit the mark, go over the ano looking for any dings, chips, voids, etc., check the glass and reflector for prints and/or dust, etc., and so on. Unless it’s really bad, I tend to not notice pwm, and normally don’t even think to check if a light has it, but if anyone asks, I’ll definitely check. And I’ll intentionally screw with the UI to see if any odd combinations does anything… weird. I found the “police mode” on the WK30 that way, and I don’t think the original manual/sheet listed it.

So for me, it’s definitely first impressions of the build quality, the UI, the beam, overall ergonomics, etc. For lots of lights/brands, frankly, I have to find something to hate on, even if it’s a nitpick, because it otherwise looks like a glowing shill-review from a fanboy or light-whore. Like, oh yeah, the clip is chromey instead of a matching matte-black.

Or maybe I’m just easily impressed. :laughing:

That said, too, there are some brands which I won’t touch as far as a review, like Wubens. Aside from the dream TO46R and the quite-nice keychain twisties, all Wubens in my experience have awesome hardware but the most braindead UIs. I’d sing the praises of the hardware, but really hate on the UI to the point of recommending not to buy one, which I doubt would go over very well. But hey, some people like ’em anyway. Also, even solid brands like Sofirn, I loved the original SP10s, A and B, got a bunch, but don’t want an S precisely because of the UI.

So… do what youse want and feel comfortable with. For a free light, a thorough review, even without spheres and runtimes, etc., is a pain in the ass and a lot of work to do. So you gotta be willing to take the time, use the light (none of this unboxing and then clicking a few times crap), take notes, even of subtle quirks, collect your thoughts, write it out, reread, edit, lather, rinse, repeat, ’til you’re happy with the final product. And even then, of course you’ll forget something that you wanted to mention.