[Review] Sofirn IF25A flashlight: $34 (discount code available) with 21700 cell, 3800lm, USB-C, Anduril [pic heavy]

LED Flashlights – General Info 21700 Flashlights
41

Why would my expectations be high while they used to offer the same exact product, only more complex and obviously more expensive to produce at the same price to begin with ?

They have already set the standard expectations, fair or not for either party, with their own product. Now it's only fair for the new product to be judged compared to its original counterpart.

IF25: € 25,79 - 30,16 (price/s with/out battery)

IF25A: € 26,74 - 29,42 (price/s with/out battery)

You can observe that not only the IF25A is the cheaper one of the two to produce, but it is even more expensive, even if only by 1€..

Why ? Because it has Anduril ?? Well, that is even cheaper for them, because they don't even have to come up with their own code from scratch.. (which is the case for the original IF25.. )

I'm sorry to disagree, (not really.. ) but I would say that it would be only fair for one to not be surprised of it containing the same quality driver as before, not the other way around.

Of course I knew Anduril on a proper buck or boost driver would imply design changes and most likely code change/adaptation, hence the reason I was afraid this might not be the case.

The only thing that I had done wrong was to not do my research first and press the buy button second.. But that wasn't a big deal, as the light has not yet been shipped anyways..

I would say that making excuses for any company, while in the customers detriment is the least said.. counter-productive.

Btw, Suez Canal is now blocked since two days ago, the 26th by a Japanese company "Evergreen" cargo ship "Ever Given", thus shipping from China to EU is now paralyzed for who knows how much longer..

So for anyone in the EU waiting for their just purchased China orders, you might want to prepare yourself for the waiting game.. Or consider not placing new orders for a while.

Cheers!

42

I didn’t know the original had a buck driver. It seems many manufacturers are just chasing lumen numbers and using FETs these days.

That said, both Sofirn and Convoy do seem to be releasing a few more lights with buck drivers now.

43

I’m sure it’s irrelevant now… But the lens bezel was indeed glued on mine… I had to put it in a soft jaw of ice wrap the bezel in tape to protect it from being scratched and I had to use a pair of pliers/vice grips to get that sucker off lol was a real pain.

44

No glue on my IF25A bezel. It was just really tight and required vice grip locking pliers and rubber to unscrew.

45

I brought one of these last year. The anduril version was a little bit old. Have they updated it?

On the old version of anduril I got, the light turns on the moment the button is pressed down. By contrast, the more updated version of anduril turns on after the button pops back up. I thought that small UI change made hold for low a lot easier to use. It lets you know when you’ve held down long enough. With the old anduril version, I sometimes don’t hold down long enough. It’s kinda annoying.

46

Early versions of IF25A have the old Anduril (similar to the old SP36 BLF Anduril).

Seems like the later batches of Anduril-based flashlights (includes SP36 BLF Anduril, IF25A, LT1 lantern) now use the latest Anduril 1 versions (2020-03-18 for Anduril flashlights, LT1 uses 2020-06-02)

47

I like this light, got the 4000K CRI 95 version so some loss of brightness but still enough to be fun to play with. Haven’t flashed the version but I know I got a new version of Andruil so they are updating these.

One thing I didn’t know when ordering is that there’s a clip available now:

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005002870376003.html?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_home.productList_2692165.pic_0

Would have ordered it with the light as I’d have known, now it will have to wait for a next order because of high shipping on a separate order.

48

That’s good to hear. Do you know which version?

(You can check with this guide ANDURIL USER MANUAL & LIST OF LIGHTS - #114 by d_t_a )

49

It flashes 2020-03-18.

50

Ordered the clip:

51

Great light. Clip is a nice add-on

52

Same as my SP36 BLF. I have a IF25A on the way and am glad to know it has new firmware.

53

I want to mod it.Different leds for lumen race.Are the xplhi the brightest leds in this size for this optic?Iam bit lost in this new leds…thanks

54

Is it true that the button light of the IF25A doubles as a low-battery indicator, like this review seems to suggest?
https://youtu.be/INptFRO2gts?t=269

Do you guys have a pdf version of the instruction manual? I cannot find it anywhere…

55

Yes, the switch is an SOC indicator (although I’ve never tested it on my sample). As Anduril (both 1&2) offers a battery check option (3C from off), LED status indicator is moot to me as I rarely run a battery under 3.5V. YMMV. I’d suggest sending an email directly to Sofirn for a manual copy.
Great light!

56

Thanks for the reply. Just to clarify what I meant: I know that the button light in the IF25A shows the charging status while it is plugged into a power source (red light = charging, green light = fully charged).
I am also familiar with the battery voltage check feature of Anduril.
What I am unsure of is whether the button light also glows red when the battery is running low. The YT review I linked says it does (although does not show it). On the other hand I found a reddit post saying it does not.

57

I don’t know of any Anduril lights with that feature. Aux. lights can be configured to indicate battery voltage.

58

With RGB style aux-LED and a fairly newer version of Anduril 1, the RGB aux-LED can be configured to “battery voltage”…

Taking a step further, the Noctigon K1’s RGB aux-LED is the button-LED, so I suppose the K1 button-LED (aux-LED) can be used to reflect battery voltage.
(I haven’t tried some newer Emisar/Noctigon flashlights recently, so probably some recent models may also have the same feature)

59

Sorry…maybe just a little difference in interpretation of SoC, as I was referring to the level of charge (0–100) vs. capacity of the cell while in use. No matter, it seems the switch LED on the IF25A does not perform the ‘red light’ function as noted in that r:// post. In my manual it does not even make mention of battery status indication by the switch LED. The website product description page is very vague, only stating the switch is supposed to provide some kind of indication of battery status, but not what it does to alert low cell voltage. All it states in the manual is that LVP kicks in at 2.8V to initiate step-down, and if the light is already at the lowest level it will shut off. Not sure if that helps your decision, but there it is.

60

Thanks. I did not know that about the K1. Nice feature.