I won this light in this giveaway recently, so as usual i’m doing an impressions review
Shipping was quick, less than a week to Canada, decent Wurkkos box with magnetic closing, light was inside, with the usual accoutrements.
The box had a big orange insert saying remove the paper battery lockout. I assume this is a common customer issue which is why its the first and largest thing you see when opening the box.
The accoutrements are better than usual, a nice storage bag, a short USB C to USB C cable (a first for me, i usually get USB A to USB C), the usual spare o-rings and the two lanyards are fancy though the smaller one is less useful imo.
First impressions: the size is good, its a handheld lantern that does not need a lot of real estate. It comes with a standard removable 5000mAh Wurkkos 21700 (which is nice since i don’t have to buy a battery for it and this makes it simple to replace/upgrade the battery). Also having a large capacity 21700 means long battery life. I have seen lanterns with built in low mAh batteries, this setup is far superior. There is a glow in the dark ring on the inside bottom of the reflector, which i notice responds more strongly to 6000K vs 3000K. The tints are decent. This is the first light i like mode memory on.
When run for several hours the top of the light and the battery gets lukewarm. I wish the battery was better thermally isolated but this is not bad, leagues better than a hotrod light.
Battery arrived at 3.8V which is perfect, though the charge indicator LEDs read as fully charged. Apparently it just needed first charge calibration, after charging and used down to half a charge removing the battery and putting it back in did not display this behaviour. The battery life is excellent, many hours even on high.
The light works while it is being charged which is useful, though you can’t get Turbo brightness while charging.
There is some strange high/turbo behaviour when the light has been operating for a while, might be temperature regulation related. Its not a usability issue, you would only notice it if you go looking for it.
The exposed ring magnet works well, it can hold the light sideways (except on very smooth surfaces) or upside down (which is a nice change from my Sofirm IF23 Pro which cannot hold the light sideways). If i were Wurkkos i’d add a piece of plastic over the magnet so it doesn’t scratch surfaces and would add some grip.
It also seems to be tripod mountable though i don’t have a tripod to test this with.
Ideas for improvement:
The rotary controls the colour temperature, but its not a full rotation for colour temp toggling from 3000-6000K. I would make it exactly one rotation. Also some visual stops at say every 500K or 1000K to indicate what you are at would be nice, like there already is for 3000 and 6000K. Also for big hands the knob is a bit hard to use, i’d make the top flatter or otherwise make it easier to use. In addition being able to adjust colour brightness would be nice when you are using colour modes.
The o-ring on the battery tube seems to wander, it does not have a groove to fit in. If you use built in charging this may not matter much to you.
One additional thing, this light is great for hanging but as a navigation light its a bit lacking, for example my XTar Moon RC2 works better at navigation in the dark since its a lantern type throw but only forward. A white plastic cowl that could be attached to make this a 160-180º light instead of 360º would add utility.
Let me know if you have any questions and i will add further impressions in the future.
