Sofirn HS21 Headlamp Gesture Sensor Review

[TimMc]

The Sofirn HS21 is a T-shaped headlamp with a gesture sensor, one spotlight LED, six floodlight LEDs and three red LEDs. It features an infrared sensor on the right side so that the headlamp may operated by waving a hand.

There are three ways of controlling the Sofirn HS21:

1. A button to turn the headlamp on, off or to select the brightness.
2. A rotary switch to select: Spotlight, Floodlight, Spotlight + Floodlight (S + F) and Red light.
3. An infrared gesture sensor to select the brightness or turn the headlamp off (it can be activated with three clicks while the headlamp is turned on).

It looks like Sofirn has lifted their game when it comes to drivers. The output is well regulated.

Sofirn kindly provided this headlamp for review.

Here is my full review:

Sofirn HS21 Headlamp Gesture Sensor Review

[mcjtom]

As always, an informative review. Thank you.

I respectfully and emphatically take an issue with the suggestion that individual memories for each of the 4 emitter modes is a bad thing. Quite the opposite, and you can always reset them all to Low with a twist of the wrist.

And there is more of us :⁠-⁠)

【New Sofirn HS21 announcement】The first Sofirn headlamp with gesture control function

I find this even on some Olight headlamps that cost much more, the popular Cyansky HS6R also has no glass. At this price point it doesn’t really bother me, just don’t throw it in the pocket with your keys. I find mode memory for all would take away what I enjoy so much about this headlamp. I understand that no headlamp will fit every user’s use. I wanted this too, until I started to use it more and found I absolutely love it as is. If you want to be certain it turns on in low level, just unsc…

[TimMc]

Thank you. I’ve updated my review to remove it as a con and instead leave it as a personal preference in the UI section.

[PiercingTheDarkness]

Lol

Heard it from me and now this.

[mcjtom]

In the review there is the tested runtimes table. For Spot on Med, Flood on Med and S+F on High, Med, and Low there seem to be no ‘reserve’ at the and of the run. Is that correct?

I thought from the runtime graphs and my single test on Turbo S+F that as the battery becomes empty the light always steps down to lower levels and keeps running at Mid then Low for some 10 to 30 min giving a margin of safety regardless of the mode used?

[TimMc]

Medium is sustained for hours and then it drops to a lower mode when the voltage gets low. After another 40 minutes it will turn off. I think I was able to turn the headlamp back on in a Moonlight mode.

[Quadrupel]

@TimMc

when the voltage gets low

When the voltage gets low? All modes stepdown at same voltage?

[TimMc]

Around 2.9V

[mcjtom]

@TimMc

Around 2.9V

Under load, not open-circuit?

[mcjtom]

I tested the runtime on Flood High with Vapcell N40 (so far once, but still).

It went constant (at some 1.2 A draw, probably around 500 lm) for 2 hours and 18 minutes, stepped down to Mid (some 150 lm) for another 26 min, then stepped down again to Low (~30 lm) which lasted for 4 h 15 min.

That’s some 1350 lm•h total in this mode and with this battery.

[mcjtom]

I’m not sure if it makes sense, but I was thinking that longer runtime, especially on reserve when stepped down, may be due to lower sag under moderate load of the Vapcell battery when compared to Sofirn battery runtimes reported by other testers?

[TimMc]

Open circuit. I tested one mode on a bench power supply but I didn’t record every mode for each emitter type.

The step down and LVP voltage varies slightly between modes.