Intro
Convoy has been in the flashlight space for a long time and is regarded as being high quality for the price and pretty customizable, especially by the end-user. Convoy is what got me into the whole modding & building scene many years ago. I’d buy hosts, hand-build drivers, reflow the desired emitters, etc. Kuddos to Simon at Convoy for making that so accessible to us mortals at BLF. Convoy also makes a seemingly endless lineup of flashlights in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Today I’m reviewing the S21D. It’s a tail-clicky light that takes 21700 batteries and has some pretty dapper styling. It’s a quad-LED model and is available in several different driver, emitter, and optic combinations.
FlashlightBrand approached me about reviewing the Convoy S21D, of course I had to say yes - I can’t deny getting my hands on a new Convoy light. A big shout out to FlashlightBrand for providing the light for the review. Note: aside from providing the light, no other compensation has been provided, nor have they put any other stipulations on the review (eg, giving it so many “stars” or saying particular things about it… nothing of the sort).
Packaging
In typical Convoy fashion, the S21D arrived in a plain white box and protected with a little bit of bubble wrap. The only other thing in the package was the usual lanyard strap. Simple, to the point, no nonsense.
Build Quality & Usage
Pretty much every Convoy flashlight I’ve ever picked up just makes me feel like it’s a sturdy light. It may not be the fanciest thing ever, but the threads are beefy, clean cut, and smooth. The edges are nice and smooth, no sharp points. The machining is good, and the anodizing is thick and even. And this model has a beautiful stainless steel bezel which looks great and adds some extra protection against accidental drops. There does seem to be a little gap between the bezel and the body of the light.
LED & Beam
In pulling up FlashlightBrand’s Convoy S21D listing, there are a lot of choices to be made. Nichia 219B or 519A? Or which of the 8 CCT offerings would you like? Or which driver (12A FET or 8A CC) and optic (10° flat, 10° bead, 30° bead, or 60° bead) would you like? Wowsers. Unless you’re going for absolute maximum output, I think the 8A constant-current driver is a no-brainer. As far as the optic goes, I went with a 10° flat (smooth) optic. And the LED? There’s almost too many choices. I ended up going for the Nichia 519A 4500K.
I’m quite pleased with my selections. Usually I find triple and quad emitter lights to be a bit too floody for my tastes. But with the 10° optic, the beam is nice and smooth and very useful. I’m glad I chose that one. The CCT choice is very much personal preference. The 4500K is going to feel really warm during the daytime, however, it is extremely pleasing after the sun goes down.
User Interface
Before Anduril took the flashlight enthusiast world by storm, we had more basic UI’s like guppydrv, STAR, Biscotti, Bistro, or my own Babka firmware. These were oriented towards tail-clicky lights like the S21D. While the S21D doesn’t use any of the aforementioned firmware, Convoy’s 12 mode group firmware harkens back to those roots.
The default mode group certainly isn’t my favorite as it includes strobe, biking, and battery check in the main rotation. Thankfully, it’s easy to put it in group 2 which drops those functions and retains the spacing 0.1%, 1%, 10%, 35%, 100%. There are 12 such mode groups, and there’s sure to be one that fits your needs: low to high, high to low, with or without blinkies, etc. You can also select whether or not you want mode memory enabled. All in all, it’s very nice firmware for not being a typical “enthusiast” firmware.
Batteries & Charging
The Convoy S21D takes 21700 batteries. There’s a spring at both ends, so flat tops are no problem and it’s not very sensitive to length. I’ve been using non-protected cells for this review (Molicel P42A and Samsung 50S), but it should be able to handle a protected cell as long as it isn’t too terribly long.
Charging? Well, you’re on your own for that. There’s no charging here, so it’s the traditional “take the battery out and charge it yourself”. I don’t mind that, but if you’re gifting a flashlight to someone that isn’t very familiar with such things, I generally recommend something with built-in charging. But I’ve got my trusty Vapcell S4+ handy, so no problems here.
Performance
Even with the high-CRI LEDs, the Convoy S21D can put out quick a few lumens… and a lotta heat. In fact, I stopped the 100% runtime test at 5 minutes because the light was already over 80°C and that’s about the extent of my comfort zone. Even the 35% test ended up getting to 75°C. Toasty! I’ll let the graphs do most of the talking, but I’ll say that the 100% mode hit 1734 lumens and 4800 cd.
Verdict
The Convoy S21D is one of the “Burger King” of flashlights - have it your way! There are so many options to chose from, you’re sure to find something to your liking. It’s really well built, looks great, and puts out a good amount of very high quality light (you don’t get much better than an R9080 Nichia!). Sure, some people want built-in charging and can’t handle the heat. The S21D might not be for those people. But if you’re looking for an affordable light that’s well built, the Convoy S21D is worth a look.
Links (non-aff)
Footnote: my light seems to have a bit of a driver issue. I had trouble getting into 100% mode. For the purpose of testing, I put the light in the “100% only” mode group and after enough button presses you can get 100% mode to engage. With a little bit of internet sleuthing, it sounds like I am not the only person to encounter this. I consulted with FlashlightBrand regarding this issue, and they acknowledged it and said to go ahead with the review and all of my findings (hooray for honesty!). For me, this was a review light so I’m not all that concerned. And it sounds like Convoy has addressed this issue. That’s what a warranty is for. If you have trouble with your flashlight, please work through the proper channels to have the issue corrected under the warranty terms.
