Sofirn IF23 Pro Impressions review

Disclaimer: This light was provided by Sofirn free of charge for review purposes


Wurkkos FC11, Sofirn IF23 Pro, Convoy S21A, Convoy M3C

This is an interesting light that is different than most of my collection in that it has a side light in addition to the forward facing XHP-70 (.2?) emitter. The front emitter appears to be around 6000K and is a decent tint, not much character to the tint but quite utilitarian and decent. It comes with an attached clip and a lanyard attachment point is present.

The included 5000mAh 21700 battery arrived with 3.74V and took a few hours to charge to full in the built in USB C charger. Being impatient i was playing with the light while it was charging, it will run while charging but won’t go into maximum brightness on the XHP-70 emitter. I also neglected to catalogue the charging time, though i am sure someone who does a technical review will measure the charging time/current.

The light is not circular, its a 3/4 circle with flat top which has the switch and side light. An interesting form factor, its fairly ergonomic. The anodizing is matte and dry feeling (not polished). This helps grip.

The tailcap is not the traditional threads on the body variety, it has the threads on the tailcap instead. I found it a bit tricky to use when i opened and recapped it to remove the shipping disc used to prevent activation while in transit. However your likely going to use onboard charging so its not an issue.

It has a built in rotary switch which allows you to choose modes, going clockwise: [Lockout], [Front XHP-70], [Side White], [Side Red/Green/Blue]. You can spin it infinitely so back to [Lockout].

The other two modes are Side White and Side RGB. You can choose the Side White brightness by ramping and change RGB colour by ramping. RGB colour brightness appears to be fixed.

The tailcap has a built in magnet which is not strong enough to hold the light up on most vertical surfaces but will add grip on ferrous horizontal surfaces. I tried putting it on the fridge and it would just fall off. I found one vertical surface it would barely work on, but a fly landing on the light would make it fall off. It worked a bit better upside down on one perfectly flat under the metal table test.

The UI is pretty traditional, hold from off to moonlight, 3 stepping modes (i keep expecting 4 since most other lights with stepped modes have 4 or 5) and double click for turbo. The UI is similar for the side lights. Blinky modes are hidden.

Voltage check is done on startup which is standard Sofirn/Wurkkos, though this light will tell you 0%-10%, 10%-40%, 40%-70% and 70%-100%. To figure out the full UI i had to check the product listing or the manual.

The electronic Lockout is interesting, you can use moonlight as a forward clicky as long as your holding the light switch down. Release it and moonlight turns off. And if you lock out while in other modes it will keep that mode but let you turn off and stay locked off. However if you use moonlight in XHP-70 mode then lockout you can still turn the light off and lockout stops working, the light acts like its not locked out. Hopefully Sofirn can fix this UI glitch.

The light seems to match or maybe exceed my 4000ish lumen Convoy M3C, but of course has less throw being a smaller reflector. It heats up quickly, also as expected. One issue i have noticed is that if you forgot to leave the rotary on XHP-70 or intentionally use the side light it will blast you in the face with light when you hit the switch. I ended up having to make sure each time that i had the selector on forward light (though i had to double check which icon that was) and if i want to use the side light to turn the light around when turning it on so i don’t blast my eyes and see stars for a while. Sofirn should consider putting the side light on the opposite side from the switch.
I hope the quirks mentioned above can be upgraded for future versions of this light.

In conclusion this is an interesting and very bright flashlight (being my first Side and first RGB light). Its floody for the main XHP-70 emitter and the Side Light is a unique feature.

I am off to test the XHP70 outdoors tonight!

Feel free to ask any questions and i will answer.

I will come back in a few days and add more thoughts from longer usage

Sofirn provided this Amazon link to purchase the light:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJQR645S

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Some more observations, outdoors its a great light with the flood, in fact more useful than other hotspot lights. Close up i’d take it over the FC11!

Turbo quickly throttles within minutes, down to about the high level. And stays there. IR temp reader reads the light at about 53ºC peak. I don’t have the equipment to test whether the brightness goes back up if you actively cool the light.

High gets to about 44ºC and stays there. This level seems to be designed to be sustainable till battery depletion and does not seem to appreciably throttle though i did not run a full depletion test on this.

On my short list.

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