My first Armytek review is up, the 1x18650 Nichia 144AR equipped:
I’m really impressed the performance and features of this light - this is the closest I’ve come to giving 5 stars under my new reviewing format. But the interface is a bit complex, with some inconsistencies between UI/mode sets.
Here’s a teaser of what the Turbo modes are like, blown-over for the first few mins:
I’ll be reviewing the higher output 1x21700 Max version of this light soon, just wrapping up the testing results.
Nice to see no flickering! Mine had some on lower modes but disappeared. 
Reading about the advanced UI sounds way over complicated. And that’s why I resisted for a long time before buying my first armytek wizard pro with the advanced UI. That was 5 years ago and I would not change a thing about that UI. Is there any other light out there where you have a choice to turn on in one of four different modes, no matter where you turned it off? Firefly or a medium setting or turbo or a blinky flashing mode. I never use the Blinky stuff but it’s there and way out of the way if you want it. I turn it off in the lowest Firefly mode always now because I have had some “burn” issues. I keep the clip flush with the bottom and it’s clipped in a cargo pocket everyday. My current one is the C2 pro nichia 3000k, only available in the US from killzoneflashlights.com . They do not ship out of the US. When used as a headlight the simple UI is probably more than sufficient because you can do 90% of everything just in the 3 medium ,main mode. If you play with it everyday you can understand the advanced UI within a few days easily. It does help to watch a YouTube video with someone who didn’t just learn the UI the day before they made the video. Your description covered it very well but for somebody that has not ever used it, it is going to seem very complicated. As for getting out of the flashing mode, it’s just like getting out of the main mode or the turbo mode, you have to pick another mode to go to with either two clicks or three clicks. Four clicks to get out would not be a good choice because where would you go? Once you understand the advanced UI there’s no good reason to be switching back and forth between the general and advanced UI. I would say give that half a star back.
Thanks for your comments Oli, you make some very good points.
As complicated as the UI it appears, it is not that bad - and you will quickly get used to it. And you are right that four clicks to get back out of strobe wouldn’t help much - my preferred approach with this light is to turn off and turn back on in Firefly. Much as you discovered, it is advantageous to always start in Firefly (hence my recommendation to think of this light as a press-hold interface primarily).
Your point also reminds me of why I started doing videos in the first place - I found them the easiest way to demonstrate the UI. The problem was they took a lot of extra time to prepare, and were a problem to correct after the fact if I realized something new or had explained something wrong. And personally, I don’t watch videos much - I prefer to read explanations when I have time (I’m a fan of video captions - but that’s even more work). I must say though that this is a light that would benefit from a video UI overview.
As for my new star scoring, I think I’ll leave it where it is for now. I’m still calibrating myself to the lights out there, and I still think this light could be improved (i.e., some tweaks to the UI, the charging dock not initiating above 4V, etc.). But we’ll see how things go - I reserve the right to revise my scores after the fact, if I don’t encounter anything better. But I plan to use a wider range of scoring than most reviewers (i.e., 1 and 2 stars are a distinct possibility).
Upon further consideration, I have decide to up my rating to 5 stars for this light.
Nothing is perfect, but I think this light has done a lot to try and reach the top-of-class.
I wish it could be about a half an inch shorter. But I don’t see how they reasonably could do that. Without that mass in the head area they would not be able to sustain the lumens and light output that it is capable of.
As for the charging strategy of only charging when below 4.0 volts, I don’t view that as a negative. When the new charger first came out I did a bit of experimenting to understand what was going on. I think the old one was similar but maybe not quite as low. I quickly found that you can trick it by using voltage sag to your advantage. I haven’t measured exactly but even up to probably 4.1 volts. Put the charger on the tail and turn the light on the highest turbo setting for 15 or 20 seconds. Voltage in the battery is going to sag way below 4 volts at that point. Turn the light off and immediately unscrew that tail cap a quarter turn or simply unscrew the tail cap a quarter turn without turning the light off. The charger will check and confirm that voltage is below 4.0 before the battery recovers above that level.
I prefer to stop charging somewhere around 4.0 maybe 4.05v. I always use a USB tester and when I see the amperage drop down to 0.5 or 0.39 amps I stop charging. That usually puts me right at 4.0 or a fraction over. I don’t always catch it and sometimes it will end up charging to full.
For new users, armytek could do better with the instructions. But that does not detract from the light itself in actual use.
I think they should make the 3000k high cri available on more models everywhere .
