On BLF and I noticed thorfire had come out with a new light, The c8S They were interested in having members review this light. I contacted them, and they let me purchase this light at a discounted price, In turn for a 100% honest review. I told them I will carry this light daily for a bit, and get a good feel for the light, and the lights features before I do the review . I personally can not have my name next a review pointing others one way or another simply based on an unboxing!
The light was ordered Friday night , april 1st , The light was delivered Monday april 4th. Very impressive shipping time. I have ordered lights from overseas that have taken well over a month to come in, so the quick shipping was a treat.
When I got home from work on Monday, I quickly grabbed the package from my mail box, and went inside to open it. It was in a nice little box, that was inside of a larger box with plenty of padding.
The smaller flashlight box Was nicely made, not too fancy. It had a layer of foam, 
under that layer, was the flashlight wrapped in bubble wrap.
Under that, was a small zip-lock baggy with the lanyard, and two extra 0-rings.
Under the baggy, was another sleeve of that foam. It was packaged very securely. 
The first thing I noticed when I held the flashlight was the finish. It has an extremely smooth, matte like finish. It is non-reflective, It is smooth to the touch, but very sure in grip. If you were to slide your fingernail across it, it would leave a small line of dust, the same if you slid your nail across a fine diamond dust file. It reminds me of one other manufacture, that has lights that cost over 4X as much money. This finish seems very durable, and will be good in all conditions, wet or dry. Unlike many of the smooth anodized flashlights out there that get slippery way too easily unless conditions are just right. I personally use my lights daily. Inside, and outside. Rain, snow, frigid, cold, in hot boiler rooms, and on hot summer nights. I have no doubts that this finish will be better than the smooth shiny anodized lights. I looked very closely for blemishes, dings, un even anodize. It all looked great. The c8S is also noticeably shorter than my previous XinTD c8. 
I like this, it is easier to carry.
The reflector is smooth, and it did not have a speck of dust inside. My LED was centered perfectly. The reflector looks great. I opened it up to put battery in it, and the tail cap felt much better than my other c8 lights from other manufactures… This one has knurling on it and seems less bulky. It also has a nice cut-out on the top around the switch. That makes it much easier to turn on/off especially if wearing gloves. When I looked inside, I saw that this light has no “pill” it has a machined out section for the led star to sit. This allows better heat dissipation, you want the heat to flow away from the led star. I was pleased to see a nice stiff spring on the tail end, and on the head end. I feel this allows the slightly different sized batteries to fit, and also helps absorb shock and prevents mode changes if light is bumped ( I did hit it front, and back with my hand pretty hard) It only changed modes when my palm sunk in enough to hit the switch so I bumped the head, and tail down on a table hard a few times it did not change modes. I would say it is fair to presume it can handle some real use without fear of mode changing from impact.
The Driver is updated it is a 4 mode, that can draw around 3 amps from a good cell. It has a soft mode change, This c8S has a moonlight mode stock. On a lot of lights, that is something you do not get. Modes are moon, low, med, and high. A quick double half press will put you into a bright strobe on any mode. If you turn the light off in any mode, including strobe and wait about 3 seconds and turn it back on it will be on the last mode you turned it off on, it has last mode memory. Which is a good feature. You may want that light to be set to turn on blazing bright, or strobe for a possible emergency type situation, or you may be in a situation where you want moonlight mode to save night vision, or avoid disturbing others. Either way you choose your mode, and it will remember.
The beam has a very obvious hot spot, and it throws very well ( it is a c8.). The spill is useable, just not really for up close . this is not going to be my preference to do up close work, or reading a book (unless it is from ceiling bounce.) The tint is very white, with a hint of blue. Left side light xintd c8, Middle light is thorfire c8s last light Convoy c8 with xlm2 t63b led 
I have been carrying it for a week now in my back left pocket, with the head up. I have not noticed any issues, just the regular scratches from scraping pavement, or brick. I have a hallway at work it is just about 300 feet ( 100 yards), and before I turn on the lights I have my flashlight out to see the key switches. I can stand on one end of the hall, and shine it clear to the other side 100 yards, and it lights up the entire hall, floor, ceiling, and walls . If someone was on the other end, I would have no problem seeing them. I have used it in the rain, and snow ( new England weather gives us that luxury in april. =) The white light seems to throw far, but I personally prefer warm tints, they cut through fog, and seem to show details of wet surfaces, especially the road better. Warmer tints would also give better CRI, and in my opinion would be better in the woods, with all of the different colors of browns, greens, and greys. I wish thorfire offered multiple tint options.
On high mode I got right around an hour and a half on a 2200 MAH cell I had it tail standing The light does not have a full regulated output, it will dim on high as your cell weakens. The new tail cap has no issues tail-standing . The body did get warm, but it did not get uncomfortably hot. The light began to flash quickly, This means that your battery is nearly depleted, and you should recharge/ replace, if you are on high mode, and switch to a lower mode it will continue to run, until the cells voltage drops. My cell measured about 3.16 V when I took it out. The light does have low voltage warning, and according to the manufacturer, it has a cut-off voltage set at 2.6 volts. This will avoid permanently damaging the battery by running below 2.5 volts. ( I did not run my cell this low, I charged when it began to flash.)
So far I like the body of this version of c8 the best. The anodized finish is better than my XinTD c8, and also better than my convoy C8. The tailcap design is leaps and bounds better than the other two c8 lights, with the slimmer profile, Thumb cut-out, and knurling. It has a reverse clicky, I prefer forward clicky. I do like this driver, it offers the modes the average person would need. But I would prefer a programmable driver personally. I personally like a good sturdy deep carry pocket clip, no clip is included with this light. I was able to put a convoy clip on it, it works pretty well. I also would really like to see other LED tints offered. It is not all about how many lumens, it is also the quality of the light that matters. High CRI is very important to some people myself included… A remote tail switch option would also be great. For the price, I do not expect remote switch, but led tint option would be great I have a list of beams close to a wall to compare, First from left is an XinTD c8, second ThorFire c8S, third, Convoy c8 with xml2 t6 3B emitter, fourth convoy m2 with nichia 219C emitter, fifth BLF A6, sixth is Convoy s2+ 
To conclude this review, I feel this C8s is a very worthy light ,it is a perfect light to get people into new high powered lithium ion flashlights, and a great light to loan a friend while outdoors, camping hiking fishing etc… Link to amazon store I purchased Amazon.com(link is external)