Disclaimer: Banggood provided me with this flashlight free of charge. This had no influence on the review.
All measurements were done with hobby equipment and inaccuracies and deviations are therefore possible.
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Introduction
At this point, first of all, a thank you and great praise to Banggood. We had a small misunderstanding regarding the flashlight, and Banggood handled it perfectly.
I like large flashlights and interesting battery formats. I also had not owned an Astrolux until now. These are very good prerequisites for a review. Therefore, I approached this with a lot of anticipation but also a healthy skepticism, as I had read very mixed things about Astrolux.
Specifications according to Banggood / Astrolux
You can find all information about the flashlight here:
Coupon code until March 31, 2026: BGCMP1250
Package Contents and Impressions
The flashlight arrives in a brown cardboard box with white cushioning material. In addition to the flashlight and battery, the package includes instructions in english, two o-rings, two steel cable rings, an eyelet for the tripod thread, and a carrying strap.
The first impression of the flashlight is quite impressive. It is large, heavy, and long. Nevertheless, it fits well in the hand.
The anodization is flawless and surprisingly robust. The heavy flashlight tipped over once during measurement and scraped across the metal edge of my vice without leaving a trace. The entire flashlight is relatively smooth, but the “dimples” in the design provide sufficient grip for the fingers.
The thumb lands on the switch almost by itself, and the balance of the flashlight is harmonious.
The bezel is silver and appears to be made of stainless steel, while the glass has a purple coating. The reflector is flawless and quite deep, with a perfectly centered SFT-90X at its base.
The switch has a good pressure point and is easy to operate even with gloves. A status and charging indicator is integrated, showing blue for full and red for charging. The status indicator is blue, dimmed to a good level, and can be deactivated. When the battery charge nears its end, the indicator flashes red.
Status indicator vs. Charging indicator, the brightness difference is clearly visible:
The USB-C port is located on the other side of the flashlight head. It can be cleanly sealed with a nicely fitting rubber cover, is generously cut out and accepted all cables I tested without any problems. The tripod thread is located next to it.
There is no reverse charging or power bank function. The flashlight is protected against excessive discharge.
The battery is huge and heavy. It weighs 290g on my scales.
Here it is compared to the one used in the Wurkkos TS27 and an unprotected 21700:
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Size
Convoy 3x21D (with 46950), Fireflylite E90, Fireflylite T9R, Astrolux TM01, Wurkkos TS27, Acebeam L35 v2
My scale attributed 760g to the flashlight including the battery and 813g including the battery and carrying strap.
My caliper was too small for the length of the flashlight, so I had to use a folding ruler, so please forgive a certain degree of inaccuracy. The flashlight is 30cm long, the bezel has a diameter of 6.4cm, and the tailcap measures 4.3cm.
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Carrying and Attachment Options
Lanyard: Calling the carrying strap a lanyard would be somewhat presumptuous, but it can be used as such. The whole thing works really well.
Additional to the mounting ring for the shoulder strap there is a lanyard eyelet:
There is no clip or magnet, which would not make sense given the size.
As long as the flashlight fits in a bag, it carries quite well. Yes, it is large and heavy, but relatively slim for its size. In any case, it is better than I had expected.
UI (Operation)
First of all, the UI is not a strength of this flashlight. It works for this type of flashlight because Turbo is not in the memory, which is acceptable to me. My taste would have been better met with fixed levels.
One click turns the flashlight on and off in the last used light level except for Turbo, and a double-click leads to Turbo.
When the flashlight is on, the brightness can be changed via ramping by holding the button down. In doing so, the flashlight takes a moment and brightness changes quite fast, especially at low levels. Getting to a specific brightness is quite difficult as a result. From the lowest brightness, the next one that is easy to catch is between 400 and 600 lumens.
I handled it by setting a light level that was pleasant for me. This allowed me to “switch back and forth” between a fixed level and Turbo. However, you can only get back to the memory level by turning it off.
There are a few more shortcuts:
- Click 3x for strobe
- Click 4x for battery status (similar to Anduril2, the flashlight flashes 1-4x slowly, then 3-9x faster for x.xV, for example 3 times slow and 9 times fast for 3.9V)
- Click 5x for lock
- Click 6x to turn the switch illumination on or off
Beam Profile and Measurements
The beam consists of a concentrated spot, a corona, and a spill that is sharply delimited from the unlit area. The corona has a really pretty, flower-like pattern, which does not interfere with outdoor use, and very few people will use the flashlight indoors.
But pictures tell more than words, so let’s start with beamshots. The power line tower is ~275m away.
All shots were done on the same camera settings.
The runtime graphs look as good as the beamshots do:
In turbo, I measured 4800 lumens at startup, and in high 3400. This is below the factory specifications but lies in the same range as similar flashlights. The sustained brightness was measured with 1800 lumen, so well within measurement tolerance and quite impressive as it lasts for over 4 hours!
If you wonder why there is no measurement for low: I measured 25 Lumen, specified are 10 - with a runtime of 15 days!
The range was determined by a measurement at 6m. The values were rounded to the nearest 100 Lux.
| Model | Lumens | Range in m |
|---|---|---|
| Astrolux TM01 | 4800 | 1375 |
| Convoy M21K SFT90 | 4700 | 1091 |
| Convoy 3x21D | 4000 | 2000 |
| Fireflies E90 Blaze SBT90.2 | 4000 | 1118 |
| Fireflies T9R 909MX | 5500 | 1449 |
| Wurkkos TS27 | 3200 | 922 |
CCT ranges from 5600K in Low to 5900K in Turbo.
CRI is 68.
DUV is 0.003, and the tint is pure white.
Flicker looks similar over all brightness levels, here a midrange example:
I couldn’t detect PWM with the eye or the camera.
After the flashlight switched itself off, the battery was discharged to 3.05V. Fully charged, it is 4.15V. This is designed to be rather gentle on the battery but remains within a good range.
Summary
Anyone looking for a thrower with a long runtime that can certainly compete with the Convoy 3x21D but is slimmer and lasts longer will find it here. The UI is not perfect, but apart from that, the flashlight is quite potent.
The fact that factory specifications for large throwers are often a bit high can be forgiven here as well, because in reality, the TM01 is in a similar range to the competition. The range is really good, especially compared to the reflector size and Astrolux didn’t overstate .
With the fat battery, the output is well-regulated over a long period. The shoulder strap is a great addition and works excellently. And with the flashlight in your hand, you certainly feel save, if you know what I mean.
What I did not expect: The flashlight slung over the shoulder is significantly more practical than, for example, the T9R in a pocket. While you first have to get other throwers with large heads out of your pocket, you have the slung flashlight directly in your hand.
For everyone in the market for a good thrower with high endurance, this is a great option.
If you are now interested in the flashlight, you can buy it at Banggood. Fortunately, I received not only the flashlight but also a discount code:
Coupon code until March 31, 2026: BGCMP1250