[Review] wallet friendly ASTROLUX ED01 flashlight with front and rear AUX RGB LEDS. Interchangeable18650/18350 body. 1287 lumens, 451m and hidden Type-C charging

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.