Sofirn IF23 Review, The Tradies Flashlight
Hey folks, Today we are reviewing the Sofirn IF23. If you work in the trades this flashlight may become your best friend.
This Sofirn IF23 was sent to me by Sofirn for review so i gots to shill out a link with a code. As I always say, if you find one cheaper, well you know what to do…
F23 on Amazon: Amazon.com Page Not Found
Discount code: 10B68IIR
IF23 on Sofirnlight: https://www.sofirnlight.com/products/sofirn-if23-mini-flashlight-4000lm
I have been linking the IF23 in my deals thread for a while now; the IF23 can be had for around 32 USD on sale, maybe even cheaper. I thought the IF23 was interesting but i didn’t have a specific use for it but now i have one in my hands i am impressed and i would definitely buy one with my own money.
Design
The Sofirn IF23 is a fairly unique looking flashlight but yet all too familiar. The design is simple enough in the sense that it’s still a cylindrical flashlight that just has the bottom flattened.
It kind of reminds me of the older style fluorescent flashlight that had the long tubes on the underside.
Overall the design is good and works well for its intended purpose. A few areas could be improved. Sofirn could change the grip design on the IF23 and use conventional knurling; it might work better for this light as it’s a working flashlight.
I would have preferred the button to be flat and no lockout mode but if it’s used as a work light and you wear gloves while working this way makes sense. Can’t win them all.
Build
Build quality of the Sofirn IF23 is great and everything functions well as a whole, the IF23 is made from the usual aluminium alloy and has hard anodizing type 3. The anodizing is a nice colour but it does appear to be on the thinner side. The IF23 did get a few marks on it when I had it in my pocket with my folding knife.
The front lens is glass and is recessed back behind what appears to be a stainless steel bezel.
The floodlight on the other hand is using a plastic diffuser. It does bend and flex when pushing on it, not sure how it will hold up over time. Both lights are really floodlights as the XHP50 is a big LED and the IF23 is using an OP reflector up front. The USB C port has a rubber cover on it and it works well. It can not be mistakenly pulled out. The IF23 is IPX68 rated and impact resistant to 1 metre.
Not sure if this is a driver issue but the switch is a bit hit and miss when it comes to registering commands. The actual switch boot feels like plastic and it does have a bit of play/ wobble in it that could be part of the issue.
- IPX68
- Drop resistant 1 metre
Size
The Sofirn IF23 fits in an odd place, not many lights do what it does, not many other flashlights offer what the IF23 does. It’s bigger than the S2+ and about twice as heavy but it’s not a big flashlight overall, maybe 1.5 times the size of the S2+.
Where you feel the IF23 is the weight it is a heavy flashlight for its size coming in at 125 grams without the battery.
Besides the weight the IF23 is features packed and those features come at a cost making the IF23 more bulky than a normal 21700 EDC flashlight.
It’s hard to explain as the IF23 is so different, if the IF23 only incorporated one LED, say the XHP50 or the floodlight it would be much smaller and lighter and you could just carry 2 flashlights. Does the IF23 properly fulfil the role of 2 or even 3 lights? I think it does.
- Weight:125 grams without the battery
- Length:120.5mm
- widths : 27.5/ 30.5mm
UI
The UI is just okay, it is what it is, the UI is kind of easy to use and figure out if you know flashlights well enough. Give the Sofirn IF23 to a normal person and it might not be the same case.
With the added colour LEDs it makes the UI more complex than it needs to be. I would sell the IF23 without the colour LEDs and simplify the UI. Auto lockout only complicates things further and sometimes the light doesn’t do what you think it will, side switch issue?. This could be user error or the light doesn’t register the clicks properly. How fast are 2 fast clicks?
First thing to do when you get the IF23, turn it on, click the side switch 4 times fast and it should switch to stepless ramping it will confirm that it worked by blinking twice.
In ramping mode Moonlight and the blinkes are still hidden away. It appears in stepless ramp mode the turbo modes are part of the ramping mode, this makes the UI a bit more simple.
You can still double click to get to turbo from bottom of the ramp mode. While using the stepless ramp, ramp up to turbo mode and double click this activates the blinkes and works with either the XHP50 or the floodlight depending on whichLED set you are using.
In any mode ramp or stepped dimming double click to unlock auto lockout. 4 click from off deactivate the lockout mode. If in stepped modes If auto lockout is off, single click to activate the XHP50 Then push and hold to cycle modes. Push and hold from off activates moonlight mode.
When the XHP50 is on double click to activate turbo mode. When the lockout is off, double click to activate the floodlight. To activate the coloured LEDs its 3 clicks when the light is off or when the flood light is already on. Push and hold side switch to change the coloured LEDs.
You can also activate both the XHP50 and floodlight by triple clicking the side switch fast when the light is on, it’s a bit hit and miss if it works.
UI features overview
- Memory mode
- Instant turbo
- Instant moonlight ( Instant moonlight only work with last used LED set XHP50 or floodlight)
- Automatic Lock out (can be deactivated)
- Manual Lockout
- Stepped modes or Ramping
Output And Modes
The Output of the Sofirn IF23 is great you get 4000 claimed lumens upfront from the Cree XHP50B the B means it should be around a 5500k tint, I bought a bunch of these LEDs bare from Sofirn the tint is decent you can see the detail in the pictures below from the Opple light master 4. The floodlight output is great, giving you 500 Lumens of light on turbo. The flood light is using CSP1313 LED and they are high CRI. I will attach some pics here. The colour LEDs are JF-378F-Y and they work by mixing the LED colours and making other colors just like painting.
Cree XHP50B
Floodlight JF-378-F-Y
Here are the numbers as tested by me, the IF23 is crazy bright i measure 4800 lumens at startup this would have to be the best performing XHP50 light on the market. The output does drop down fairly quickly all the way down to medium mode.
Modes Front XHP50 3v LED
- Moonlight = 1 Lumen
- Low = 100 Lumen
- Medium = 500 Lumens
- High = 1500 Lumens
- Turbo = 4000 Lumens
- Strobe = 4000 Lumens
- Beacon = 2000 Lumens
- SOS = 500 Lumens
Peak Candela: 15275
Output Measured By Me XHP50
- Low Mode: 83 Lumens
- Medium Mode: 581 Lumens
- High Mode: 1726 Lumens
- Turbo: 4648 @ startup, 3552 Lumens @ 30 seconds, 547 Lumens @ 60 seconds
Peak Candela @ 2 metres : 16680
XHP50B
Modes Floodlight CSP LEDs
- Moonlight = 1 Lumen
- Low = 10 Lumens
- Medium = 50 Lumens
- High = 150 Lumens
- Turbo = 500 Lumens
Floodlight
I cannot measure the floodlight output accurately.
Driver
The driver in the Sofirn IF23 is great and offers a lot of features, some of the driver features are as follows.
- ATR (advanced temperature regulation)
- Reverse polarity protection
- Automatic lockout (can be deactivated)
- Hidden Turbo/ Blinkies
- Low standby current draw of 150u
- Inbuilt USB charging (3 amps feels a bit high)
- Reverse charging through the USB C
- Memory mode for all the LED sets
- Battery voltage indicator
The Sofirn IF23 is a complex flashlight that is marketed at normal people and it seems to cover most bases for that purpose. You should be okay to hand the IF23 off to any one and let them use it daily without too much of a worry.
I checked the internal charger and it charged the included cell to 4.22 volts which is fine, although I am not too keen on the 3amp charging. The included cells seem decent and perform well in this light but charging it all the time at 3 amps might be a bit much.
The Sofirn IF23 driver is capable of some crazy lumens, it’s the best performing 3v XHP50 flashlight I have tested including lights built by me. The IF23 is pulling some decent amps with the stock cell. I measured 13+ amps on my clamp metre with half my wire not fitting inside so it should be doing around 16+amps. My clamp metre has no max/min setting so it’s hard to get a photo accurately.
With all those lumens and heat ATR comes in and kills the fun fairly quickly the step down on the IF23 is aggressive and the light does drop down very quickly yet the light barely even feels hot on the outside.
Other driver features are a battery indicator which is important for don’t take the cells out to charge.
- Green indicator on switch = 70-100% Battery
- Red indicator on switch = 30- 69% Battery
- Red indicator flashing= 30% Battery
Overall
Overall the Sofirn IF23 is a great flashlight that offers many features. The build quality is good and the lighting options are even better. The IF23 does have a few quirks and can be a bit complex to use sometimes but for the price it’s hard to pass up.
Beam shots i focused more on the XHP50 here, ISO400, exposure 0.5s
Low Mode
High Mode
Turbo Mode
Turbo Mode 50m To Tree
Custom F11 i think they are called lol with a Convoy 8amp boost driver and XHP70.2 on the left and the Sofirn IF23 on the right
The Floodlight on turbo mode
I still have a few thing to update , Thanks for taking the time to read.
Regards Chris