Review: LighTake Small Sun ZY-T621 Grey Flashlight

LighTake Small Sun ZY-T621

Reviewer's Overall Rating:

★★

Summary:

Battery: 2 x 18650 Unprotected
Switch: Reverse Clicky
Modes: 5
LED Type: XM-LT6
Lens: 3mm Glass
Tailstands: Yes
Price Payed: Supplied Free For Review. $50.69
From: LighTake
Date Ordered: 30.11.12

Pros:

  • Very nice color
  • Attractive styling
  • Crisp easy to push reverse clicky switch
  • Large reflector
  • 3mm lens
  • Plastic lens retainer

Cons:

  • Hollow pill
  • Battery tube to short for protected batteries
  • Torn o'ring on the lens

Features / Value:

★★

Up front this light was supplied free of charge by LighTake. For this I thank them.

This is a 2 x 18650 battery light. The light itself is a really attractive grey unlike any other light that I have. It offers 5 modes 2 off which are flashy modes. The driver modes are the same as the HD-2010 in which after being left off for a few seconds will switch on high mode irrelevant of what mode the light was switched off. Styling wise I found it to be very attractive with just enough grooves, scallaps and cutouts to add to the good looks. The lens is a very thick 3mm which should be able to take a fair amount of abuse. The reflector is interchangeable with the HD-2010. They are almost identical.

There were two main problems with this flashlight. The first being the hollow pill. Even though it is mildly driven it deserves a solid pill. Secondly the battery tube is about 8mm to short for protected batteries.

3mm thick lens.

Hollow pill. Edit, LED PCB measures 24.81mm in diameter and is 2.08mm in thickness. It is very meaty.

The LED is centrally located and insulated from the reflector by a large plastic ring.

If this was solid it would be impressive.

The driver was pressed in and was not removed.

As mentioned I love the styling.

The cigar grip with the short extension retainer. If this was 8mm longer protected batteries would fit no problems. I know, I made one.

Design / Build Quality:

★★★

Build quality was your usual cheap flashlight quality. The threads were average without being to bad. All o'rings were ok with the exception of the lens o'ring which had been assembled incorrectly causing it to break on disassembling the light. Anodizing as mentioned was a very attractive grey with a good finish. The tailcap had a silver band on the very end. The cigar grip worked as expected with no problems. The rubber switch button was a bright green operating a very smooth acting switch. It would be one of the smoothest switches that I have used with very positive clicks. The lens has a very sturdy hard plastic retainer that I have not seen before. The tailcap spring has a plunger over the spring. With this removed protected batteries would still not fit.

Notice the plastic lens locator and broken o'ring.

The battery tube, cigar grip and short ext to retain the cigar grip.

Battery Life:

★★★★★

Battery life is excellent due to the low current that the driver operates at. High is 2.15 amps, medium 1.1 amps and low is .3 amps. With extended running on high the light got warm without being overly hot. The cooling fins are 2.5mm in depth and 2mm thick. I don't believe the driver has low voltage protection.

Light Output:

★★★★

For a light just running at just over 2 amps the light output is very good. Testing alongside a stock HD-2010 throw was only a little less.

Summary:

★★

This flashlight promises a lot but is sadly let down by a couple of bad design points as mentioned above. After reading other reviews on Small Sun flashlights I was looking forward to reviewing this light. It appears that this light is along the same lines as other models in that they are a very good light let down by silly design issues. If it were not for the hollow pill and short battery tube this would be an excellent light.

Again I would like to thank LighTake for supplying the flashlight for review.

Just a quick update.

The LED PCB is a lot larger than usual. Its measurements are, diameter 24.81 mm and the thickness is 2.08mm thick. This should help cool the LED and wick the heat away to the aluminium housing.


Nice review, the pill issue looks comparable to the ultraok tactical light we all got excited about - thick Ali star mounting the led…

Personally I’d prefer to press a piece of Ali/copper in there and see it driven upwards of 3a, the handsome beast deserves no less. Thanks for sharing.

Nice review! The design/styling is very similar to a TrustFire X9, but the X9 is 1 cell. Also the X9 has the hollow pill issue but what compensates for it is a massive 30mm star, twice as thick as most, so the star itself probably has as much mass as typcial stars plus a pill top.

I assume the star on this one is pretty much a standard one?

With that star setup, if you don't press fit in some backing, thermal grease on the edges should help but it looks like there was none there?

Nice review and thank you for the information.

Now do some super mod like you do and make this baby scream!!!

Thanks for the review!

As long as the led mcpcb is nice and thick (as this one looks like) the heatsinking is not neccesarily worse than a thin mcpcb on a pill that is not hollow because that layer of aluminium in the pill usually is very thin anyway. If the thin mcpcb/solid pill thickness combined has the same thickness as the thick mcpcb/hollow pill, the heatsinking is even be better with the hollow pill/thick mcpcb, because there is no thermal paste layer to overcome close the led. Further towards the edge the heat is already much spread out, with plenty contact area anyway for the heat to be easily transfered to the pill.

It is silly though that this light does not support protected cells, moreover because two cells are in series.

Interesting, thanks for the info. I re-measured the mcpcb in the X9 and it's actually 32mm by 2.1mm. Also what's nice it mounts flat on the surface of the thick aluminum tube of the light, so nice size surface area making contact on the edge, and the mpcpb is screwed down with 2 screws. For this Small Sun, I'm not sure - that mpcpb looks standard, but magnified in the photo. Totally agree about the battery size support - that's unacceptable.

I will measure the LED base tonight. There was no thermal compound under the star. Once the testing is finished I will fix the hollow pill and as mentioned an adaptor extension has been made to suit protected batteries. I finished the testing with a couple of old unprotected batteries last night and the driver does not have low voltage protection.

Very fair review.

May we please see some pics of your "upgrade?"

I will post a picture tonight. I did not want to put it in the main post. as the review was about the flashlight and not any mods. Thanks and cheers.

An ok looking light. Thanks for posting. :)

What are the bezel and reflector dimensions? Is it as large as the ZY-T13?

I'm at work at the moment. The web site has it at 63mm which would be pretty close. The reflector itself is that close to being identical to the HD-2010, if you mixed them up you would be hard pressed to tell which reflector came from which flashlight. I dont have a ZY-T13 to compare it with. Going of the MF web site the ZY-T13 measures just over 63mm. Cheers.

The measurements of the LED PCB has been added to the first post. Measurements are 24.81mm in diameter and 2.08mm thick. I dont know how hot the LED got but the housing did get warm under extended operation on high.

Here is a picture of the new ext against the standard ext.

The bezel measures 63.1mm and the maximum working diameter of the reflector is 53mm.

Thanks very much! Frontpage’d and Sticky’d.