My review of the wallet friendly ASTROLUX ED01 flashlight with front and rear AUX RGB LEDS. Interchangeable18650/18350 body.
1287 lumens, 451m and hidden Type-C charging
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Thank you for the review.
I quite don’t understand what is wrong with this light.
It’s around $20 on banggood, offers the whole bunch of fancy additives, performs better than most 18650 lights, but somehow it did not became super popular…
What do you think are the downsides of this light?
I had the same thought. They look great.
if the AUX would light up with the flashlight off, like the D4 V2, then it would be interesting.
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I wrote up an overview here after getting one with the discount code. I wouldn’t buy one even at $15. Maybe $10, and even then I would still gut the driver.
TL;DR
- The button is horrendous. I’ve owned over 70 flashlights in the last 4 years and I am not exaggerating it was is by far the worst I’ve ever used. Squishy beyond all understanding, probably due to Astrolux building the Aux lights into the tailcap.
- The UI and mode spacing is infuriating. I’ll copy and paste it from my post:
The UI itself:
- Standard mechanical reverse clicky, click for on, tap to advance modes. Once again, I have to repeat, due to the squishyness of the switch, it is very easy to misclick.
- Modes are Low-Med-High-AUX. Yes, that’s right - AUX lights are part of the main mode rotation. And they cannot be enabled as actual auxiliary lights like on Anduril lights. The rainbow disco mode is literally just a blinky mode. (Also they’re damn bright)
- 2-second mode memory is on by default and cannot be disabled.
- If you switch off the light before 2 seconds mode memory, next switch on will advance to the next mode e.g if you turn off on low, it will come back on on medium.
- Mode spacing between medium and high is terrible. 600 vs 1200 lumens you can barely tell the difference. Medium is way too high, should be at most 200-300 lumens.
The only good thing is that the driver is a standard driver, not an e-switch, so you can ostensibly swap out an actual decent driver, like a cheap Convoy or something. I never ended up doing it because I couldn’t get over how bad the switch was. I gave it away.
I didn’t think the button was bad at all. The ui and mode spacing is a negative point but not the button.
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I will have to very strongly disagree with you there. Maybe you got a better unit, but from my experience 4 years in the flashlight hobby and owning over 70 models - it was by far the worst button I’ve ever used by quite a far margin. It may sound like I’m being overly dramatic but it was hilariously bad. And if astrolux’s QC was so terrible to let a bad unit like this through - then it’s not a company worth my time imo.
Once again, it’s possibly due to bad QC and maybe you got a functioning switch. But I want to be quite emphatic when I say it absolutely was the worst switch I’ve ever tried.
Okay maybe it’s qc…? just a difference between your light and mine…? possibly a difference of opinion in the mix as well…?
Either way you’re dead against the switch and i am not 
Possible. I actually like the concept of the light.
I’m not going to make a big deal out of something I don’t really feel strongly about. It was such a bad experience for me - that is how strongly I feel about it that I feel the need to he emphatic. If not, what purpose do I have in giving a shit about a bad flashlight and making any sort of noise about it online. I’ve bought plenty of shit lights before and I never bothered to review or post about them because what would be the point. I’ll just throw them away or mod them or give them to someone else.
But my copy of the ed01s switch was really, really bad. If I were a professional reviewer I would definitely make it a point to point out this fault.
I hope by me typing out this short essay it communicates how strongly I feel about the switch. If others got decent copies - fine. But this is something QC should have never let through.
I feel like you’re trying to downplay my experience. Fine, I’m one guy. Maybe others will take a gamble and get a good copy. For me personally, I’m over astrolux. There’s plenty of other good budget brands I can spend my money on.
I wasn’t trying to downplay your experience at all. Rather i was offering my own experience which happened to be different from yours. We’re all here to enjoy lights so if my experience is different from yours please don’t take it as an offence.
I do agree with you that the concept of the light should’a could’a would’a been a great light but well… it’s not.
Yes. I do agree, I really liked the concept. The light in 18350 tube mode is just so nice in shape and fit. The fact that it uses a regular driver and has that unique charging port solution was what really attracted me to it. The TIR was a bit weird, but not a dealbreaker.
However the switch, the UI, the mode spacing - maybe in another circumstance they might have been acceptable on their own. But altogether in one - not even a question for me, they’re absolutely a dealbreaker as a package.
I don’t have a vendetta against Astrolux. I really liked some of their earlier models. But the design choices they’ve been making recently and the QC issues… There are so many other good flashlight makers now, especially in the budget market. Banggood customer support and attempt to do returns - that’s a whole 'nother topic altogether.
Agreed. I guess I’d consider it average.
I wonder if darosk got a bad one, or just different preferences. It’s a little bit mushier on the tap than on the actual click on/off, but it’s far from the worst I’ve used, and the actual click has a very nice action to me.
In terms of the aux, unfortunately that’s the only practical way to implement them on a reverse clicky, Maeerxu lights are the same there.
One thing I’ve wasted to look into for a while but not got round to yet is that there are flashing pads on the driver. It would definitely be interesting if we could put better firmware on it.
Yeah maybe I was just unlucky. My copy of the switch was dealbreaker levels of bad. It was actually unusable for me, and I’m not just trying to be dramatic. I usually can put up with a lot but this one was really, really bad. Like I said - I’ve owned dozens and dozens of lights over the years - this was easily the worst I’ve ever tried of the flashlights I’ve knowingly bought. I would definitely not put it in the class of just average or close to average. At least not for the copy I received.