Sofirn HS21 headlamp!

Introduction.

After becoming the proud owner of the HS42 headlamp, I was asked to try and review the HS21 headlamp as well, and I jumped at the chance. I confess, I rarely use the HS42 as a headlamp, but as a truly wonderful right-angle flashlight. So having an actual T-shaped headlamp would almost force me to use it as intended. :smiley:

It might be of use to compare and contrast the HS42 and HS21 to illustrate features of both.

The Packaging And Contents.

I was pleasantly surprised by the light coming in a rather nice presentation box. This might be a bonus if you plan on giving one as a gift. A nice cardboard box with magnetic closure, inside the decorative sleeve holding it all together. Inside was the light itself with included cell, the headband, some O-rings, and USB charging cable. So youā€™re all set right from the start. Just take out the protective insulating tab from inside where the cell is.

The Headband.

The headband is a pretty solid 3-strap design, ie, one loop and one over-the-head stabilising strap. Surprise time, too! I normally hate C-clip style mounts for headlamps, and prefer the rubber-loop type, as the C-clips are usually pretty flimsy. If even one prong breaks off, or gets bent and stretched out of shape, the entire mount is useless, and your headlamp will just slip downwards and only light up your feet. And without much pressure, just jiggling your head can also jiggle loose the light and again, you light up your feet.

This mount, though, is about as solid as Iā€™ve seen. The prongs have almost no ā€œgiveā€ when I squeeze them. The light snaps in decisively. And the prongs grip the light tightly and with just the right amount of detente, the clamp lets the light click in place to just the right angle you want. I think I still prefer thick rubber loops (think stepless aiming vs stepped), but this mount is just done so well I might be convinced otherwise.

The Included Cell.

I tested the cell in my trusty Opus, and while I misplaced my notes, it came pretty close to the rated 3000mAH at 1A charging/discharging, like 2900mAH and change. No big surprise, as Iā€™ve always had good luck with Sofirn-branded cells.

Now on to the light itselfā€¦

The Light Itself!

The HS21 is a T-shaped headlamp, where the emitter is in the center of the body, unlike the HS42, an L-shaped headlamp, where the emitter is at one end, similar to a right-angle flashlight. The HS42 has a single switch to control all functions, whereas the HS21 has a centrally-mounted on/off/brightness pushbutton switch, and a rotary emitter-selector switch around the emitter cluster.

Itā€™s hard for me to get all jazzed about variations-on-a-theme lights, like Yet Another Tubelight or Yet Another Compact Thrower, but the HS42 was a game-changer in my book, and the HS21 followed its lead and pushed it even more.

Three types of emitters (white spot, white flood, and red) and four combinations (each individually, plus spot+flood) make for an incredibly versatile light. The HS21 carried this over to a unique T-shaped headlamp.

The HS42 and HS21 seem to share the emitters:
ā€“ a cooler lower-CRI white spot light
ā€“ a warmer high-CRI white flood light
ā€“ a floody red light
but the HS42 has 3 brightness levels and the HS21 has 4. Well, 5 if you include moonlight. You can start at moonlight by holding down the power switch for moonlight, and then cycle through the other 4 brightnesses, but need to turn off the light and restart to get back to moonlight again.

Maximum brightness for each level is 100lm red, 2000lm white spot, 1200lm white flood, 2200lm spot+flood. This is according to the manual, as I donā€™t have a lumenometer handy. :smiley:

The HS21 also includes a battery-status light in the main switch, as well as USB charging.

The USB-C charging port is on an endcap and is covered with a pretty secure rubber flap. The indicator light is red when charging, and green when fully charged.

The battery-status is green from 60% to 100%, red from 20% to 60%, and blinking red from 20% to 0%. This is a good ballpark, green is comfortable to use, red suggests charging as soon as is practical, and blinking red is to charge immediately.

Fit And Finish.

As usual, fit and finish is the usual Sofirn excellence. No dings or nicks anywhere in the ano. Corners and edges are angular without being sharp. Everything feelsā€¦ crisp. Finish is a semigloss black that leans towards matte. Itā€™s got good grip without feeling rough or gritty.

What struck me as being such a minor detail but still kind of blew me away is the rubber charge-port cover. Itā€™s perfectly flush with the end-cap. Thereā€™s a bit of a nick where you can pry out the end, but no annoying tab that catches on everything. But the cover fits into the recess so perfectly flat and flush that it looks as if the end-cap just has a design for a would-be cover etched into it. Even the color and ā€œmatte-nessā€ of the cover PERFECTLY matches the finish of the end-cap. Itā€™s so easy to ā€œglossā€ over (ha! see what I did there?), but thatā€™s something I donā€™t ever recall seeing before on any lights.

The ring switch is decisive and clicks into place firmly. There seems to be a little ā€œfrictionā€ that might be subdued with thread-lube or something, but thatā€™s reeeeeeeeally nitpicking.

The power switch is hard rubber, has no wiggle, plus has a good firm switch-feel. The rubber feel is a good contrast to the smooth ano and helps you find the switch by just feeling around. Hey, itā€™s dark, you need light, so how else are you going to turn it on in the dark? :smiley:

All in all, Iā€™m just putting together all these ā€œlittle detailsā€ into one overarching conclusion, and am pretty impressed that Sofirnā€™s really on the top of its game. Everything seems so well thought-out.

The User-Interface (UI).

The main rotary switch around the emitter cluster simply selects which of the emitters is active: red, white flood, white spot, white flood+spot. Simplicity itself!

The pushbutton switch controls the on/off and brightness levels. Click on, click off. Boom, done. Press and hold while on to cycle through the 4 brightness levels in the main cycle. Press and hold from off to get to moonlight. Once you release the switch, you can then press and hold to cycle through the 4 levels in the main cycle.

You can doubleclick from off to get into ā€œred blinkingā€, soā€¦ lockout? Any press and then release of the switch will give 2 brief red blinks. Another doubleclick will release it into regular ā€œonā€ mode of the light in whichever setting itā€™s in. Pretty neat!

Doubleclick from on jumps right into its highest (ā€œturboā€) setting.

All in all, itā€™s a nice, simple, and immensely functional UI that doesnā€™t require you to learn Morse code to use the light. Click, clickā€™nā€™hold, doubleclick, thatā€™s all you need.

Motion-Control.

Like they say on teevee, ā€œBut waitā€¦ thereā€™s more!ā€. :smiley: Thereā€™s also the motion-control feature that lets you control the light via hand-waves, if you donā€™t want to grubble around finding/pushing the button.

When the light is on, give the button 3 quick presses, and it will blink in comfirmation. From there, moving your hand to the right-side end of the light will act as a button-press, cycling through the brightness levels. Holding your hand near the sensor for a few seconds will shut off the light and reset it back to manual control. Thatā€™s a nifty feature if you turn on the light to start working on something dirty (car engine, camping, etc.) and donā€™t want to smear dirt on the button to change the brightness or turn off the light. Once itā€™s off, go wash your hands. :smiley:

Itā€™s pretty nifty for a headlamp, especially if youā€™re doing what headlamps let you do, ie, work hands-free vs having to hold a light. Itā€™s much easier to give a quick wave than to grab for a button.

Memory!

There is indeed mode memory with the light, so that if you get into medium mode, the next time you turn it on, itā€™ll be in medium mode. Donā€™t want to chance getting blasted with a faceful of turbo brightness in a dark room? Pressā€™nā€™hold to get to moonlight, then cycle up from there.

But hereā€™s the best partā€¦ thereā€™s memory mode FOR EACH OF THE FOUR EMITTER SETTINGS!!! So you can ā€œpresetā€ your light to medium in red, ā€œturboā€ in flood, low in spot, and bright in spot+flood, and as you dial backā€™nā€™forth, the light will remember each of those individual modes! Thatā€™s an edge that the HS21 has over the HS42, even though I love the HS42 as well. I discovered the individual memories by accident, and I donā€™t recall explicit mention in the manual, but itā€™s there! I was kind of blown away by that. :smiley:

The Beam(s).

Nice, just nice!

Both red and flood-white are nicely diffused, essentially being behind pebbled lenses. They yield a nice even blanket of light.

Spot-white is behind a small TIR lens and is fairly throwy. It can easily reach across my yard and then some without having to crank it up to super-mega-turbo. Itā€™s a bit of a bullseye beam, so also has, ironically enough, ā€œuseful spillā€ to light up an area around the hotspot, much like a conventional reflector. Thereā€™s a faint hint of chromatic aberration, with a faint bluish outline around the hotspot, but itā€™s not even close to being ā€œfried eggyā€ or anything.

Flood-white is high-CRI and warmer, while spot-white is lower-CRI and cooler. The difference on skin-tones is stark, with my skin looking paler and yellower under spot while looking nice rosy pink under flood. Flood is excellent for looking at stuff close-up and under good lighting, while spot puts light where you need it, even if not color-true.

Red is, well, red. Gotta love it. I use red light all the time outdoors in summer to not make myself a bug-buffet.

So having spot, flood, spot+flood, and redā€¦ man, that covers pretty much everything but the UV spectrum.

Charging.

Charging works as expected, via USB-C. Red while charging, green when done. Simple.

The snug-fitting flap over the charging port sits perfectly flush with the endcap, which to me is perfectly fine, as Iā€™d rather have that then a little tab catching on everything and pulling the flap open, or worse, letting an open flap get torn off. Even with almost no fingernails, I can still pry it open on the first try thanks to the little divot which Just Works. It also pushes back into place perfectly snug and flush again.

Summary/Conclusions.

Thatā€™s pretty much it. All these little details add up to a killer light. So many things just seem well thought-out and come together perfectly. The different emitters and thu beams, the ring switch, the hands-free control, the independent memoriesā€¦ this light does and has pretty much everything!

So? Yeah, Iā€™m thrilled with the little beastie. :smiley:

9 Thanks

Iā€™ve been thinking about the Sofirn HS21 ever since I first heard about it.
My favorite headlight is the Sofirn HS20ā€“probably because I donā€™t own the HS21.
I just cannot justify purchasing the HS21 because the HS20 is so similar. :man_shrugging:

EDIT1:

Oh, I didnā€™t realize that the HS21 has a TIR lens.
Well, that makes things easier (for me) because Iā€™m not a fan of TIR lenses.

Thanks for the review! :+1:

EDIT2:
By the way, I have the Sofirn HS42 as well, but I prefer the HS20. :grin:

2 Thanks

Despite having a TIR lens for spot, it still has that ā€œuseful spillā€ people go on and on about. In fact, I had to double-check to make sure it wasnā€™t a reflector given the beam pattern.

I keep hearing about the HS20 but am drawing a blank. Will have to go lookā€¦

3 Thanks

Good news! Got a discount code for youseā€¦

15XONBI4

https://www.amazon.com/promocode/AL98W096GLZ4P

  • 20% off clicky on the page
  • 15% off code 15XONBI4

so the final price should be ~35bux.

Enjoy!

1 Thank

Thatā€™s odd. Just tried it, and it works for meā€¦

Best budget headlamp in my noob opinion. Smart LED layout, and smart UI.

Thanks for the code. Just received the light and itā€™s a great product!

Yep. I reeeeally like the '42, but the separate individual memory for each of the 4 ā€œchannelsā€ on the '21 is a keeper! I donā€™t recall any other light that has that.

2 Thanks

No worriesā€¦ enjoy!

Sounds like a winner for sure, and your review was thorough, as well as a great, fun read!

Tnx!

Ironic, but this time I actually had pix of the little beasties but my old laptopā€™s drive crapped the bed even worse than Amber Heard, and while I could recover my text review courtesy of an Ubunto live-ceedee, my pix were all corrupt.

Linking pix from gpix or gdrive or whatever that goggle thing is, was problematic, but now that I could upload 'em directly, figured Iā€™d restart with pix.

Fate would say otherwise, though. Of courseā€¦

1 Thank

Probably a good flashlight (the controls are simple and clear, it shines well).
What about the heat distribution (why did Sofirn make it on a tablet)?