This is the Sofirn SE1, a new tiny flashlight made by Sofirn. It has 300 lumens, 395nm, a little RGB ring light, magnet on the bottom and charging with a USB-C potted port.
• My opinion:
The SE1 is not a bad flashlight, I think it had a lot of wasted potential. The white light could be brighter and have more options of tint/CRI, the UV should be 365nm as the 395m UV it has is almost useless for most people. The battery should have a higher capacity and the RGB modes more mode options, as I said in the review, it could have a feature where it’s always ON in a very dim setting to help you find the flashlight in the dark. I wished it worked like the Anduril AUX lights, on which you can almost fully control them. The USB-C being potted and water resistant without a rubber cover is a great improvement I hope more Sofirn flashlights receive, also the accessories it comes with are kind of cool, but really only the plastic clip and the keychain ring are useful for me, the other ones are just gimmicks. The SE1 is not a bad light, I think the general public may like it, but from an enthusiast point of view it could be MUCH better.
Also, I disapprove a flashlight brand not stating which LEDs and components they use, this can be used to make a flashlight with bad components and hope the consumers don’t notice it.
• Pros:
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Potted USB-C port
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Tiny and light
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Magnetic bottom
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Useful plastic clip
• Cons:
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PWM on the “moonlight” mode
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The RGB ring light is very limited
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Unknown LEDs
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Non replaceable battery
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low-capacity battery
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No other CCT or CRI options
• Box contents
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SE1
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Magnetic plastic clip
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Wristband
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Charging cable
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Keychain ring
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Beaded chain
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Instructions manual
• Price
AliExpress coupon: SE1NEW1
The standard kit (shown in this review) is currently priced at $19.77 and only the flashlight $22.36 on Sofirn AliExpress official store. On the Sofirn official website the standard kit is $16.99 and only the flashlight is $12.99.
• Body and build quality
Colors/Material Options: Sofirn SE1 is available in Aluminum with 3 colors: Blue (shown in this review), orange and silver gray. A copper SE1 was also available for limited time.
Material: The SE1 is made of 6061 aluminum and has a slightly matte anodizing. The magnetic clip is made of plastic and has rubber ends to have a better grip when clipped on, wristband is made of an elastic material.
Main body: The main body is pretty simple and compact, a magnet is located on the opposite side of where the button is, a potted USB-C port is located on one of the sides and the lens and LEDs are located by its side.
Tail stand and rolling: The flashlight can stand on all sides, and does not roll as it has a box-like shape.
AUX lights (RGB mode): The main button has a light ring around it. There are only 4 modes to choose from: The “rainbow” mode; solid red; “breathing” in which the colors alternate by dimming down and a police red and blue flashing. It would be so much better if it was possible to choose a color to be lit very dim when not using the flashlight, just like Anduril AUX lights, because the way it is on the SE1 makes it not be practical, maybe you can have fun with it, but I don’t see it being much useful. The ring light also serves a battery indicator every time the light is turned ON, this is a good feature to have on any flashlight!
Buttons: There is a single button on the flashlight, it is an e-switch, it can be easily clicked by accident so it’s recommended to lock the flashlight when not using it.
Magnet: The magnet is strong to hold the flashlight easily on metal surfaces.
Water Resistance: The flashlight has IPX5 water ingress rating! The USB-C has no rubber cap, the USB-C is internally potted to prevent water ingress, a very low water ingress protection rating.
Here is a size comparison with the Convoy S2+ on the left and the Manker E02 III on the right.
Accessories: Plastic magnetic clip, it feels kinda solid and has rubber on the ends to grip better
wristband with plastic clip
• Weight and size
Weight: 21.2g
Size: 30mm x 30mm x 14mm
• Battery, runtime, and charging
Battery: The battery is not replaceable and is only 140mAh, the capacity could be better, 140mAh is a very small capacity, especially when lights of a similar size and cost have double or triple this capacity. Usually, the batteries on these non-replaceable tiny flashlights are not Li-ion, to extend the battery life, but Sofirn has not stated which type of battery the SE1 uses.
Battery Indicator: The SE1 has a battery indicator light around the main button! The battery indicator will flash every time the flashlight is turned ON, it works as it follows:
| RGB ring color | Battery level |
|---|---|
| Solid green | 75-100% |
| Blinking green | 50-75% |
| Solid red | 25-50% |
| Blinking red | <25% |
Charging: This flashlight features USB-C charging on the main body, as I stated before, the USB-C port is potted and there is no rubber cover on the USB-C, so be careful with dust. It charges really fast, but this is due to the battery being low capacity. When the flashlight is charging the RGB light around the button will be lit red, when charging is over it will light up green.
• Modes, Runtimes, Throw, Candela:
Modes: The SE1 features 3 types of light, the main white light, UV 395nm and the RGB ring light. The white light has 4 brightness levels: moonlight (2 lumens), low (15 lumens), medium (75 lumens) and high (300-75 lumens). The UV light has a single brightness level with 120mW. The RGB ring light has 4 modes, but the power is not stated; the ring light is not super bright.
Throw: The white light is advertised to reach at high mode 76m. There is a defined hotspot on the white light, so it can manage to throw light at small distances.
• Emitter, reflector and CRI:
Emitter: So… Sofirn does not state which LEDs the SE1 uses, that’s a very bad move in my opinion, as it could have any LED. The main white light is cool white and I can confidently say it’s low CRI because some colors look odd with this light. The UV is not stated too, but they say it’s 395nm, so it’s not “real UV”, it will not make fluorescent things glow nearly as good as 365nm and I think there is no use for it other than curing resin. The RGB ring light is also not stated which LED it is, but it’s RGB and seems alright, no complaints with this one other than the lighting modes being very limited.
Lens: There seems to be no glass in front of the TIR, it seems like the TIR plastic to me.
Reflector/TIR: The white and UV lights are under a tiny TIR lens; the white light has a throwy TIR and makes a defined hotspot; the UV light has a totally floody beaded TIR.
Beam profile: The white light is floody but still has a slightly defined hotspot. The UV light is totally floody.
CRI: The flashlight seems to have low CRI.
• Beamshots Camera settings:
- 24mm lens 2" F8 ISO400 WB: daylight (5200K)
SE1 (high) 300lumens
The tress at the back are around 50m away - It is kind of bright for a tiny flashlight, but this is due to it having a tiny hotspot.
I always try to match what my eyes can see on the beamshots, so camera settings may vary.
• Driver and UI
Driver: The driver is also not stated, so I assume it to be a FET. Also, I noticed PWM on the “moonlight” mode with my camera, I didn’t notice PWM on other modes.
UI: The UI is very simple, from OFF:
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one click turns ON the white light, another click turns it OFF, holding the button will cycle between the modes.
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double click turns ON UV, another click to turn OFF.
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holding the button will turn on the RGB ring light, another click turns it OFF, double click cycles between the 4 RGB modes: “Rainbow”, solid red, “breathing” and police flashing.
Low Voltage Warning: The flashlight will blink and turn off when the battery voltage is too low.
Reverse Polarity Protection: -
Thermal Regulation: The flashlight dims down ON turbo after it gets hot, this is to prevent driver and LED damage.
Lockout: One of the most important features of these tiny flashlights is the lockout feature. This flashlight has lockout and it’s very easy to access it: triple click goes to lockout, the white light will blink 2 times to indicate it’s locked, triple click again to unlock it.
Turbo: The flashlight “Turbo” is actually the high mode with 300 lumens, it does not have a shortcut to access it, so you have to cycle through all the modes to get to it.
Moonlight: This flashlight features moonlight mode with 2 lumens, but I think it’s too bright, in my opinion moonlight modes should be 1 lumen or less. It also has PWM on the moonlight mode.
Blinkies: The only blinking mode on this flashlight are the RGB ring “breathing” and the police flashing.
A special thanks to Sofirn for sending this flashlight for me to review!
*I am not being paid to do this review, everything here is my honest opinion.
Thank you for reading my review <3