Wurkkos T1. Tactical? Practical?
My first ever enthusiast level light was a Wurkkos. The TS10, followed shortly by the TS10 MAX. I spent hours with them on my person, and even more hours lost in the sauce learning Anduril 2 and burning a hole in our bed spread. All this to say, I am a Wurkkos fan. I currently own about 10, and that’s after gifting some here and there. I had high hopes for the T1. I really like when lights have a rotary selector switch and side lights, and the styling and specs of the T1 are intriguing. But I’m not sure it hit the mark.
Full disclosure up top. Wurkkos sent me this to review. This is just my opinion. I don’t have an affiliate link.
What’s in the box?
- Wurkkos T1
- 21700 5000mAh battery cell (already inside the light)
- Two spare O-rings
- Lanyard
- USB-C charging cord
- User manual
Build quality
As with all of the Wurkkos products I’ve come in contact with, it feels well made. The anodized aluminum body has a solid, comfortable satin finish. The cutouts in the body give it enormous grip. The pocket clip is sturdy and works well. The rotary switch clicks into place with an audible and haptic click, but while I find it smooth in feel it is pretty difficult to move around, especially one handed. And even though it clicks audibly into place, I often find myself overshooting the desired mode. I’ve used better rotary dials on other lights, and I think Wurkkos can improve here. The rubber electronic two stage tail switch sticks out far past the tail of the light, so there’s no tail standing. The switch itself has a long action and is easy to accidentally half press, which changes the lighting mode. I’m not a fan of it and I’ve accidentally cycled brightness just be resting my thumb on the switch.
Design
I’m of two minds here. Design wise, I love this thing. It looks so cool. The cutouts in the main part of the body reveal a black inner aluminum tube with a very interesting honeycomb pattern. The contrasting colors catch your eye and just look interesting. The white lettering pops against the body. There are a few things I’d change, though. The placement of the secondary side light leads to the user shining it at themselves. I’d swap that light’s position with the charging indicator light, so the secondary light shines just past your knuckles, away from the user.
I’d also change the order of the modes on the rotary switch. It would make much more sense, going left to right, to have lock, main emitter, side emitter, tactical mode. Cycling past the side emitter just to get to the main emitter adds time and room for error. Isn’t this supposed to be a tactical light‽
And one more thing, maybe this belongs in the UI section, but the sequence for the side light is odd. A full press automatically activates flashing red and blue instead of another mode, which is a puzzling choice to me. The one thing I like about the side light is the small TIR lens, this likely really helps focus the light it makes.
UI
The UI is simple. A rotary switch selects one of four modes, and a tail switch turns it on and off and changes brightness. As I mentioned above, there are some changes I’d make. The order of the modes is an odd choice. Why have a step in between locked and on? And for the side light (this might be my American showing) why start with flashing red and blue? That’s a feature I’ve honestly never used on any light, and one that could even land me in trouble in a worst case scenario. The one part I do really like is that a single hard press, while in main emitter mode, puts the light at 100%, which lines up with the tactical lean of this light. It also offers moonlight mode with a half press, which is always useful.
Usability
I believe the original use case was as a tactical security guard light, and while the main emitter works great for that, the UI choices and side light placement make it miss the mark, in my opinion.
Performance
This is where the T1 regains some ground. Light from the main emitter (Cree XFLSNA) is impressive. The claimed 5500 lumens comes with a good amount of useful spill and a noticeable hot spot in the center. I can see myself keeping it unlocked in main emitter mode on a nighttime dog walk. It easily lights up something across a field with its claimed 415m of throw. The side lights are useful for up-close illumination, especially in white light mode.
Summary
Build quality and styling are great. It’s a super interesting, cool, and physically well made light. It’s a powerhouse thrower with good useful spill. The claimed runtimes of 5500lm for 1 minute and 2249lm for 17 minutes are genuinely useful for nighttime adventures outdoors. The placement of the side light isn’t ideal, the rotary mode selector is a bit tough to use, and the switch could be cleaned up. Rearranging the mode order would be a big improvement, and so would rethinking what mode engages when using the side light.
