This is the Manker Striker Mini, a pocket sized 14500 thrower flashlight featuring the Osram KW CSLNM1 TG LED in 6500K, Buck/Boost efficient drivers, Multi fuel feature, tactical ring, stainless steel strike bezel glow in the dark tubes and more!
• Price
The Striker Mini is currently priced at $49.95 on Manker official website.
This link is an affiliate link. I have to pay high taxes on most products I review due to my country importing laws, You can support me by using these links. Thanks.
• My opinion
This flashlight has a pretty narrow and throwy beam, still it manages to be very versatile, obviously it’s not the most suitable light for close tasks, but this “little guy” shines light far for it’s size. The Osram NM1 LED has a pretty good throw and a decent tint, the efficient constant current drivers make this light pretty efficient, the included Glow in the dark tubes can be glued on grooves in the flashlight body to help find it in the dark, and the striking bezel is pretty cool.
The things that bothered me the most on this light were the absence of a mode lower than 50 Lumens with 14500 cells, 50 lumens can be too bright for some situations, and I get the point of this light is to be very simple to use and to be ready at all times, but I think the absence of other brightness levels can hurt the versatility of this light.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Buck and Boost efficient drivers | No moonlight |
| Multi fuel feature | *Only 2 brightness levels to select |
| IPX8 Water resistance | |
| Type III hard anodizing (Black color only) |
• Box contents
- Striker Mini
- Manker 14500
- 6x Glow in the dark tubes
- Lanyard
- USB-C to A charging cable
- O-ring
- Instructions manual
• Body and build quality
Package: The flashlight comes in a compact cardboard box with protective foam on the inside. The space inside the box is very tight and with almost no extra space when the accessories are inside.
Anodizing Colors/Material Options: The Striker Mini is only available in Aluminum, it has 2 anodizing color options: Black (with type III hard anodizing) and Army Green (featured on this review).
Main body/Grip: The main has knurling, grooves and a tactical ring that improve grip, making you get a good grip on it even if it’s wet.
Material: The main body is fully made of 6061-T6 Aluminum alloy.
Threads: It has squared threads on the battery tube and external bezel (The strike bezel) and trapezoidal threads on the internal bezel (the one that holds the glass lens)
Clip: This flashlight comes pre-installed with a 304 stainless steel with a black coating (I belive it’s PVD coating).
Tail stand and rolling: The flashlight can easily head stand, but tail stand can be unstable due to the metal button being directly in contact with the surface. The flashlight has grooves that prevent rolling on the tactical ring and tail cap, also the clip helps to prevent rolling.
Magnet: This flashlight doesn’t have a magnet by default.
AUX lights: This flashlight doesn’t feature AUX lights by default, but Glow in the dark tubes are included on the package and they can be glued on specific spots, like around the tail cap and on the center of the tail switch. Red glows the dimmest and holds the glow for only some minutes, green and blue glow a lot more and seem to hold glow for more than an hour.
Buttons: The button of the Striker Mini is similar to the E05 II, it feels very nice when clicking and while pressing, it’s a forward click so you can hold it before fully clicking to use momentary mode or changing the brightness level/accessing strobe. The button has a pretty nice sandblasted 304 stainless steel boot.
Battery contact: Contact is made with the battery by a gold-plated button contact on the driver and a gold-plated phosphor-bronze spring on the tail cap.
Bezel: One of the best features of this flashlight is it’s striker bezel, it’s fully made of 304 stainless steel with a clear anti-fingerprint coating on the black anoziding version (natural color clip) and black PVD coating on the army green anodizing version (Black clip). It can be screwed on both directions, meaning you can leave the bezel on “striking” mode by leaving the striking ends pointed towards the light beam and also on “concealed” mode with the smooth part towards the light beam.
Water Resistance: The Striker mini features IP68 protection, being rated for 2m submersion in water for 30 minutes.
Size comparison:
From left to right:
Convoy T6 TiCu (14500) - Manker Striker Mini (14500) - Convoy S2+ (18650)
• Weight and size
Weight:
- With battery (Manker 14500): 104.7g
- Without battery: 84.0g
- Battery (Manker 14500): 20.8g
Size: 101.0mm x 35.0mm x 31.0mm - (Height x Head diamter x Tail diameter)
*Using the bezel on the Agressive position adds about 11mm height
• Battery, runtime, and charging
Battery: The Striker Mini is powered by a single 14500 Li-ion cell or AA battery as it has multi fuel feature, making this flashlight more versatile in case of emergencies. It comes with a USB-C rechargeable Manker branded 14500 with 920mAh and 4A of CDR.
Battery Indicator: This flashlight doesn’t have a battery indicator by default.
Powerbank/Reverse charging: This flashlight doesn’t have powerbank feature by default.
Charging: It doesn’t have USB-C charging on body, instead the included 14500 cell has a USB-C port on it, so you need to remove the battery for recharging the flashlight.
• Modes, Runtimes, Throw, Candela
Modes: The Striker Mini focuses on a pretty simple and straight forward UI, with only 2 brightness levels: High (635 Lumens) and Low (50 Lumens), to cycle between modes you have to half-click the main button or press it twice quickly. This UI design is not bad, but I think having a dimmer mode like 5 or 1 lumens and a mode between low and high, like 200 lumens, would make this light more versatile.
Specs (14500):
| Level | Advertised Brightness - 14500 (Lumens) | Measured Current at tail cap (Manker 14500 - 4.13V) | Advertised Throw (Meters) | Advertised Runtime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 50 | 154.6mAh | 130m | 6h30min |
| High | 635 - 260 - 8 | 1.49A | 430m | 3min - 1h15min - 40min |
Specs (AA):
| Level | Advertised Brightness - AA (Lumens) | Measured Current at tail cap (Panasonic Alkaline - 1.46V) | Advertised Throw (Meters) | Advertised Runtime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 8 | 128.4mAh | 60m | 26h |
| High | 220 - 80 - 8 | 1.42A | 250m | 1min - 36min - 12h30min |
Turbo: This flashlight brightest mode is “High” with 635 Lumens initially, with a step down to 260 lumens after around 3 minutes and another step down to 8 lumens after 1h15min. The maximum brightness is not much surprising af first, but it’s sufficient for most everyday tasks and medium-long range tasks due to it’s pretty focused hotspot for a light so tiny. With AAs the highest brightness is 220 lumens.
Moonlight: The Striker Mini doesn’t feature a good moonlight mode, with the dimmest mode being 50 lumens with 14500 batteries and 8 Lumens with AA.
Blinkies: It features Tactical Strobe by half pressing the main button 2 times quickly, it can be used momentarily or fully pressed for sustained.
Lockout: This light only features mechanical lockout by unscrewing the tail cap a little. The mechanical button is the main accidental activation feature of this flashlight.
Throw (Measurements):
| Level | Lux (2m distance - 30s) | Candela | Throw (ANSI NEMA FL1) | Throw (Conservative usable throw estimate - 50% of the ANSI NEMA throw) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 1626 | 6.504 cd | 161m | 80m |
| High | 14341 | 57.364 cd | 479m | 239m |
• Emitter, reflector and CRI
Emitter: The Striker Mini features a Osram KY CSLNM1 TG emitter in 6500K, this is a 3030 footprint emitter being famous for throwing light very far and achieving a pretty concentrated beam - even on small hosts like this.
Lens: An AR-coated glass lens is featured in front of the reflector to protect it.
Reflector/TIR: It uses a smooth reflector with 23.5mm diameter and 18mm of depth.
Beam profile: Using the bezel with the smooth side outwards, the beam profile is clean overall, the only artifacts I noticed were a “flower” shaped bloom around the hotspot, giving it a slightly smooth transition from the spill. When using the bezel on the “Striking” position, the beam loses it’s perfectly round beam shape and gets the reflector shape on the spill, making the beam uglier in my opinion, but I think this doesn’t make it unusable and is a understandable tradeoff if you need to use the striking bezel.
PWM: I didn’t get any meaningfull PWM readings on any levels, this flashlight is free of PWM.
Measurements made with Opple LM4 on a dark environment.
CRI/CCT/DUV: CRI is standard ~70 with very low to negative CRI. CCT is very close to advertised on low with ~6200K, on High it hits the advertised CCT. Duv is kind of nice, I got this measurements on the center of the hotspot with a pretty close to BBL Duv, there is a visible ring with a slightly green/yellow tint around the hotspot, but the rest of the spill has a pretty clean color.
Readings made on “Low” mode of 50 lumens.
• Driver and UI
Driver: The drivers used are a efficient buck constant current for 14500 and a boost driver for AAs, pretty nice to have efficient drivers on this flashlight.
UI: The UI very minimalistic, a full click turns it ON/OFF, with fast full clicks cycling brightness levels, it can also cycle by giving a half click on the tail switch. It features a “hidden” strobe mode by half clicking fast two times, you can use it momentarily or fully press it. This flashlight doesn’t feature mode memory, it will always turn ON at “High” if left OFF for more than 2 seconds.
Low Voltage Protection/Warning: The flashlight turns OFF when the battery voltage is too low, though that seems to occur because the included battery is protected.
Reverse Polarity Protection: It features electronic reverse polarity protection and also mechanical by having components that sit above the battery contact and prevent the flat side (wrong polarity) from touching the driver. (Only works with button top cells)
Temperature Control: The Striker Mini features Temperature control, so when the driver gets too hot the flashlight will begin to decrease slowly it’s brightness, until reaching the determined step down of 635 Lumens to 260 Lumens then 8 Lumens.
Thank you for reading my review <3
A special thanks to Alan and Manker for sending this flashlight for me to review!
*I am not being paid to do this review, everything here is my honest opinion.
**Some links may be affiliate links, this doesn’t impact on my opinion for the reviews. You can support me by using the links to buy flashlights you like.