I’ve been posting here and surfing the different vendors and my head is spinning.
I want to get an inexpensive, small, bright flashlight that runs on one 18650 battery. And looking for ‘wow’ factor from people that don’t know that much light can come from such a small package : )
I’ve been looking at all the S2+ that are out there. They sell for around $11 - $12 - $14 so that fits the low price.
seems like they aren’t much bigger than the battery itself. Hits another point I’m looking for.
bright? That’s where I get stuck. Different S2+ come with different amounts of 7135s - from reading here, those deal with / control the current flow? Am I wrong to think that 8 of them is better than 6? 8 gets 2.8A vs. 2.1 for 6 (and I guess less for the ones with 3 or 4 chips)
More current = more light? That meets the wow factor.
Yes, more current draw = shorter amount of time before the battery needs to be charged. But these get hot / can’t run long at one time anyway.
With all that said, I want to make sure the light I get has 8 of the 7135? But looking at Gearbest at least, the S2+ versions with 6 of those chips has much higher number of ratings (so more people are buying them?)
Yeah, loads of talk here about tint. I’d like a ‘nice’ tint, but not want to pay much more for that and it’s low on my list of what I want.
That’s a Convoy… great light!. Convoy is the number one recommended light for quality. Well built with solid parts. You best get it before the price goes up. If I didn’t have a herd of lights, I’d buy several.
For brightest, you need the 8x. You don’t have to worry about heat. You have low and medium also. Anyways, these lights were designed to handle the heat.
Barrel color? Who cares? Gray looks good/exotic. I have several gray myself. Everybody has black. Go for it !
A bad tint can be very annoying once you’ve been spoiled by the better ones. If harsh headlights don’t bother you then you’re probably safe. Each 7135 adds an incremental amount of current to the maximum total and even just one will give you a hundred lumens.
Efficiency suffers a little with more 7135s.
I.m.o. 3x 7135 is enough for normal use.
Next step is to double it = 6x 7153, but the thing will run quite hot on high mode because it’s a small light.
Most of us freaks here would go for 8x 7135 though…
Definitely true !!
Cree’s 3A tint is quite okay though.
But i see the cheaper Convoys at Gearbest have a 1B tint. (cold and to the green side)
It would run pretty long with just one 7135, that’s just 350mA = 1 Watt (approximately) and the LED will be significantly more efficient too.
It’ll probably do about 140LM.
Ad yeah, I realize tint can be important. We bought a whole bunch of different LED recessed lights for the bathrooom remodel. my wife had me put each one in to see about colors : )
You mean you would.
I recently put together a modest general purpose light with 3x 7135 and it’s perhaps not exciting, but it’s perfect for normal use.
It’s not pulsing 3 Amperes through the LED but just a modest 1.05 Amperes.
Better efficiency = better runtime, it’s never blinding and still lights up a room.
My headlamp, which i use daily for hobby and soldering etc. is also just 3x 7135.
And i hardly ever use high mode.
Cree 3A or 3D tint is really good, they look like daylight
If you do an emitter swap get a DTP board as they keep the emitter cool even if you cant touch the flshlight because its too hot, also gets more brightness
I received this one a couple of days ago and it’s brilliant. I got the 6x 7135 and am surprised by how bright it is. It’s my new favourite. I don’t think you would be disappointed with it at all.
Includes extra switch, o-rings, lens. You can replace the driver and l.e.d. very easily if you ever need too. Is it a top of the line premium flashlight? “No”. Is it a very well made good flashlight for the price? “Yes” You can spend more than twice the price and not get a flashlight as nice as VG10. I own a few of these light.
Take a look at this nice light also:
Last I checked the code still works. Model has an XML-U2 emitter. Not an xpl. Very nice flashlight.
I think the best choices from the above group are the Eagle eye flashlights. I own the Ultrafire 950LM CREE U2 18650 LED Flashlight from Gearbest. It is not a flooder like the tube flashlights. It is nice but not as nice as the Lumintop TD16 or Thorfire VG10 just a bit cheaper. The Yunmai and Meco flashlights are very inexpensive. Not to be considered any sort of investment.
