Review of the Wurkkos TS23 tactical/outdoors flashlight
In A Nutshell.
I was asked to review the new TS23 in classic green. It’s a 21700-based tactical light with 2 main modegroups, “outdoor” and “tactical”. Outdoor modegroup is simple and useful for everyday carry, or for use outdoors as a utility light. Tactical modegroup is more limited or specialised for tactical use. So it’s essentially 2-in-1 light.
[image from the Wurkkos website for the black, not green, TS23]
Packaging And Contents.
The box is a pretty nice presentation box with magnetic latch, inside a cardboard sleeve. Open the box and of course you see the light (with 21700 cell inside, though not visible), the manual, the charging cable, and goodie-bag with lanyard and O-rings.
As usual, you need to open the light and remove the insulating disc before using the light. The cell is a nice Wurkkos-branded 5000mAH flat-top 21700.
First Impressions.
The light is a really nice “army green”, in a semigloss ano. There’s a crenellated metal bezel with little nubbins ostensibly for breaking glass. My neighbors don’t like when I break their glass, so I can’t quite test it out, but I’ll take it on faith.
As usual, anodisation is flawless, with no nicks, chips, voids, etc. I would be really surprised if I saw any, at this point, as Wurkkos lights have consistently been flawless in this regard for what seems like ages. Machining is precise, with no sharp edges or corners to be found, too.
The tailswitch is beautifully precise, and must be an e-switch for reasons I’ll go into shortly. Zero play, no wiggle, an extra light touch to click with crisp detente. It’s only slightly recessed and almost flush with the guard-ring around the switch. And (THANK YOU!!!) no goofball thumb-cutouts which dig into your fingers unless you twirl the light like a fidget spinner to get your thumb aligned with the cutouts. The switch is reminscent of the TS10’s tailswitch, only bigger! Frankly, if it weren’t for the click, you might think it’s just one solid piece with no switch.
There’s USB-C charging also in the tail and not by the head This confirms that it’s a “smart” tailcap that handles the switching, charging, and possibly also driving the emitter, all in the single-unit tailcap. Also, try as I might, I can only unscrew the battery tube from the head, and not the tailcap only.
Speaking of first impressions, my only grex is the thin flap on the rubber charging-port cover. The cover itself is fine and fits securely into the recess, but that little flap might catch on things and pull the cover open. I might shave it with a razor to reduce that possibility. But that grex is so unbelievably minor I almost feel guilty about mentioning it.
Hand-feel is also excellent, nicely balanced, and I can flick the switch with either thumb or forefinger because the switch is so easy to activate. COnventional rubber-boot plungers require much more force, and almost always require a solid grip and activation with your thumb, but you can hold the light so easily and tap the switch from behind with your forefinger as well, almost like clicking a pen.
Finally, there’s an indicator right above the Wurkkos name which shows the battery level for a few seconds when turned on.
The Beam.
The light boasts a XHP70D-HI domeless emitter behind an orange-peel reflector. That shrinks the effective die area and increases throw. It’s supposed to be 6000K-6500K, but certainly doesn’t look it. It doesn’t look nearly as cold as 6500K implies, and seems nicely neutral, more like 5500K or so. It trends towards cooler at increasing brightness, but even at “turbo” the hotspot might touch 6000K but there’s some yellowing in the spill, though nothing at all objectionable. Compared to lots of lights with hideously yellow coronas around the hotspot (especially with XHPs), this beam is downright beautiful.
It’s not a sharply defined hotspot, as the orange-peel diffuses the beam somewhat, and that’s a good thing to take out some of that harshness. I only really like “crisp” hotspots in pencil-beam lights with teenytiny hotspots that are dedicated throwers. In fact, the light is perfectly usable at medium distances, like across the room or in a backyard. It does have an EDC mode, so I’d certainly hope this would be the case, vs just trying to be a thrower only. Were it not for a very visible spill, I’d be tempted to think the light had a TIR lens, given the gentle fade-out of the hotspot.
The UI.
The TS23 has two modegroups, “outdoor” and “tactical”. I confess that I don’t have much use for “tactical” so haven’t used it except to familiarise myself with it.
Its main and almost only levels are medium and turbo. So it’s bright no matter what. Click on, click off, as usual. When on, holding the button just toggles between medium and turbo. So, bright and brighter. That might be great when working security or something, but to me, well, I don’t work security, so as mentioned, I personally wouldn’t have much use for it. But it’s marketed as a tactical light, and if that’s your intended use, it’s perfect.
You can also press and hold from off to get into moonlight (which is still incredibly bright), what might be low in many other lights. Doubleclick gets you into blinkies, namely, strobe, SOS, and beacon.
Quadclick in either modegroup switches/toggles modegroups, outdoor to tactical, or tactical to outdoor.
Outdoor is much more usable and flexible. Make no mistake, this is a bright light, so even moonlight is quite a bit of light. I’ve used it extensively to become really familiar with it, and generally keep it set to low, which is more than enough for most uses for me. Holding the button while on cycles through 4 levels, “eco” through high. Doubleclicking gets to turbo.
Basically, beyond low, my reaction with each increasing level has been “Holy crap, it’s even brighter than before!”. Turbo is 5000 lumens, ie, on par with my 4-cell 4-emitter Q8 on turbo! And this from a 1-cell 1-emitter light! So yeah, unless you want ginormous mode-spacing, or 8 or more levels, each level is going to be bright.
From off, holding the button gets you moonlight, again, pretty bright in and of itself. Doubleclick for turbo (bring sunglasses!), and apparently (I missed this and only caught it when checking the manual) doubleclicking repeatedly toggles moonlight and turbo. Tripleclicking gets you the blinkies, and quadclicking again toggles modegroups.
In both modegroups, quadclicking from on toggles modegroups, and from off locks the light.
Once locked, any click just gets you 2 quick flashes. Holding the button gets you moonlight, no need to unlock. Handy!
Here’s a graphic with the “flowchart” of each modegroup.
[user-interface “flowchart”]
Takeaway.
All in all, the TS23 is a bruiser of a light. It’s got great handfeel, it’s substantial, it’s got a crisp feel, and it’s powerful. Moonlight here is more like low on other lights, and each succeeding brightness level impresses more than the last. And getting the brightness of a quad-cell quad-emitter Q8 into a single-cell single emitter light is most impressive of all.
Having two separate modegroups splits that “tactical” part from the everyday use part, making it more versatile than just trying to stuff “tactical” modes into an everyday light. I don’t work security or anything, so don’t see myself using the “tactical” modegroup at all, but I can see the utility in having it. But the “outdoor” modegroup makes for a great everyday light.
Even the quality of the beam doesn’t suffer from being a powerhouse. I’ve seen super-bright lights with the beefiest emitter(s) being used, that have crap beams. The TS23 doesn’t suffer from any of that. No fried-egg beam, no hideous yellow corona, none of that. Just a really good beam profile with no major drawbacks at all.
It’s just an overall really good light. It does have some brute-force throw just by virtue of its super-bright output, but that throw doesn’t come at the cost of a pencil-beam with tight hotspot which would make it all but useless at close range. If I want or need a super-thrower, I’ll carry a super-thrower. This is a great light at almost any range: wide enough spot to see things up close, and bright enough for some “reach” farther out.
Definitely a winner!