[Review] ROFIS R2 ( XM-L2, AA/14500) ~ A new rotational head flashlight

bilakos10 · 2018-03-24T19:02:52.000Z

The flashlight was sent to me by ROFIS for review.
Here's the product's link: ROFIS R2

The R2 arrived in a matte textured cardboard box.

Rofis tends to always include some nice accessories with its lights and the R2 is no exception.
In total you get a couple of spare o-rings, an adjustable hand strap, a headband and the proprietary USB charging cable.

The all-black color scheme gives the R2 a very appealing look.
The flashlight is operated exclusively by a side mounted electronic switch that's outlined by a metal ring.

Opposite the e-switch, there is the metal contact for the charging of the light.
The charging interface of the light is consisted out of two concentric metal discs that seem to be gold plated.

Here's a look at the shallow, smooth reflector of the R2 that houses the NW tinted XM-L2 U3 emitter.
You can also see that the e-switch is almost flush with the rest of body.

As you might have noticed, the flashlight comes with a removable, reverse mounted pocket clip.
The clip is anodized and provides the perfect amount of retention force for attaching the light in your jeans or on your baseball hat.

The only piece that unscrews from the R2's body is the tail cap.
The tail's threads are anodized so the light can be mechanically locked out by a slight twist.

The tail houses a quite thick, brass spring.

The manufacturer has attached a strong magnet in the tail, which allows the R2 to be mounted on metal surfaces.

And then we come to the feature that makes the R-Series lights special: The rotational head.
The R2 can be transformed to a headlamp simply by twisting its head.

The rotational mechanism is very smooth and robust, while the rotation itself requires a moderate amount of force.
Despite all the different moving parts, the head is rock solid and it doesn't wobble at all.

There's a little .gif I created to demostrate the smooth rotation of the head.

And here's the R2 mounted into the elastic, adjustable headband.

Thanks to Rofis' excellent design choices, both the e-switch and the charging interface is fully accessible while the R2 is strapped
onto the headband.

The charging interface that Rofis has included is another great feature of the R2.
The proprietary charging cable is magnetic. As a result, once it's placed near the two metal plates of the light
it's automatically attached to them - following pretty much the philosophy of Apple's MagSafe charging plug.

Once charging, the indicator LED that's infused into the switch's rubber boot lights up to inform the user regarding the battery's charge level (Red: Charging, Green: Fully charged).
The indicator LED also lights up once the battery is first installed in the body (Red: < %40, Green: > %40)

The R2 is delivered with an 14500 cell included.
The cell is 'Rofis' branded and its rated capacity is 800mAh.
After a full charge/discharge cycle (@500mA, cutoff at 3.2V) I measured 744mAh of actual capacity.
Provided that my cutoff voltage is quite high, the actual capacity should match the rated one.

From left to right: Klarus Mi1C, Klarus Mi7 Ti, Wuben TO10R, ROFIS R2, Convoy S2+

User Interface

The R2 is using an identical UI with the Rofis MR70 - if you have read my review for the MR70 you know that I loved its interface.
Here's all the available actions of the R2's UI.

Power on/off: Single press.
Mode switch: Long press while powered on. The flashlight will cycle though Low -> Mid -> High -> Low. The cycle occurs in ~0.75 second intervals.
Turbo: Double press from anywhere.
Moonlight: Long press from off.
Lock Engage: Long press for 4+ seconds while off. Once engaged the light will flash two times.
Lock Disengage: Long press for 3 seconds. Once disengaged the light will power on in Low mode.

Performance and Beamshots

In order to get my measurements, I used both a DMM and the ROFIS branded 14500 cell that was included with the light.
Here's my ceiling bounce measurements along with the current draw for each power level.

Here's Turbo mode compared to my other lights.

I also went ahead and measured the standby current drain, which ended up being 96μA
The standby drain would empty the included 14500 battery around in a year's time.

For the last part, here's some wall beamshots of the different brightness modes.
Moon - Low - Mid - High - Turbo

All in all, the R2 is a great choice if you a looking for a compact hybrid headlight.
Its actual output is around 650Lumens and it's UI is wonderful.

AlexGT · 2018-03-24T19:26:16.000Z

Thank you for your review

I have a question about the magnetic plate, can it short out with loose coins or keys inside the pocket? Does the plate have live voltage when not charging?

bilakos10 · 2018-03-24T19:48:07.000Z

AlexGT:

Thank you for your review

I have a question about the magnetic plate, can it short out with loose coins or keys inside the pocket? Does the plate have live voltage when not charging?

That’s a really neat question that I never thought of
I just checked out the voltage between the two contact plates and I got around 0.6 Volts.
As soon as my DMM was connected (in parallel), the voltage starting going down and in a few seconds it reached 0V without rebouncing back after any while.
That leads me to believe that the only component that’s holding a charge is capacitor.
I then put the R2 back into charging so that the voltage would increase back up and tried connecting my DMM in series with the two plates to simulate a short circuit. I measured 0.005A current draw for a split second and then nothing.

TLDR: No live voltage between pads & no potential short-circuit issues.

beam0 · 2018-03-25T05:52:02.000Z

Thanks. great review as usual. The R1 (16340 version) looks good too.

I’m awaiting with much anticipation the R3, (18650 version) it’s suppose be available on amazon next week, and most other sources after April 1st.

Once it hit Banggood, Gearbest etc. I’m hoping for a aff link coupon from someone.

Rofis R3 coming very soon! 18650 Flashlights

I’ve gotten word the Rofis R3 will be available soon! (Amazon next week 3/28, other sales platforms April 1st) And….NW will be available! “R3 has a color temperature value of 5000K NW and 6500 CW for users to choose” . PLEASE NOTE: I’m not affiliated with Rofis in any way… I’m just very excited for the release of this so thought I’d start a discussion thread! [image] [image] Max output: 1250 lumens Max runtime: 63 days Max beam distance: 194m Max Beam Intensity: 9410 …

I might also get the R1 or R2.
Amazon and Banggood have the R2.