I've always been a collector, even when I was very little. Whether I was collecting Matchbox cars or Batman action figures or stones and minerals, I've always collected something. But I've always had a peculiar way of going about it. When I run into something new that I want to attain ridiculous quantities of, I always end up with the good, the bad, and the "oh God why did I buy that?" items.
This odd little light fits in none of those categories. It's one of the new breed of hit-or-miss, straight-from-China flashlights that use old LED bins, promise too much in their performance numbers, and offer decent actual performance.
It's a Chinese wonder-light.
And by that I mean it's for sale on DealExtreme.com (SKU# 44705), has a severely inflated lumens count, uses a "Cree" LED, and only costs $3.30 shipped.
Advertised as having 30 lumens, I've eyeballed that it probably puts 8-12 OTF (about the same as the Fenix E01, but more diffused). It features an anodized aluminum body (type II), a plastic reflector and lens, a plastic rear reverse clicky switch, and is powered by a single AAA battery (not compatible with 10440 rechargeables, but NiMH are okay).
*When the light arrived, it had a plastic shaving inside the reflector housing. It was easy to get out, but was very indicative of the type of quality you get with these lights.*
It's very small when taken alone, but if sitting next to other AAA flashlights, such as the Fenix E01 and Maglite Solitaire, you realize quite quickly that it's on the big side for a single AAA light, both in terms of width and length.
The rear clicky actuates quite nicely for how cheap it is. It's never failed to come on (and like the E01 it can fire up from a nearly dead cell), but once every ten on/off cycles or so it exhibits its strange quirk: sometimes it doesn't want to turn off. Call it eagerness to work I guess. When it happens all you need to do is click the switch back to the "on" position and then turn it off again. My record for getting it to turn off is three on/off cycles.
The beam is a cool (has a blue hue) and most definitely a floody one. There are artifacts caused by the cheap plastic reflector and the LED's particular construction (see below). Because of this the hotspot is slightly elongated, though not to the extent of the Fenix E01's.
Output is similar to the E01, which is rated at 10 lumens, but this light's hotspot is much more spread out. And unlike the E01 this light uses an LED and reflector to create the beam, not a prefocused LED.
If you'll look back to the E01's review you'll see the section on its unique LED. It's unique because the prefocused LED actually has two dies sitting side by side, which creates a rectangular pattern in the beam. Well this LED (advertised as a Cree, but I'm not buying it...) has a similar setup.
As you can see in the above picture, the LED has what looks to be three dies lined up in a row. Interestingly enough, this setup creates less of a shape aberration in the beam pattern than the E01's two-die setup. I suspect this is because the E01's LED is prefocused and this one is not.
I haven't done a runtime test, but I wouldn't be surprised if it lasted upwards of ten hours. World around the internet is that it's very thrifty with its battery supply.
All in all I would recommend this light, so long as you know what you receive if a budget light.
I know, I know. It's cheaply made, cheaply sold, and probably won't withstand the day to day needs of being on a keychain, but for $3.30 you get a semi-solid light that you can stick a lithium battery in and keep it in a drawer for 10 years until you need it.
â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"
A note about DealExtreme.
It is a Chinese-based business selling cheap products. Don't expect to be wowed by performance and don't be wooed by performance promises. And if something goes wrong with your purchase don't expect returns to be easy.
You just have to buy from them hoping that the product you receive is in good working order.
This odd little light fits in none of those categories. It's one of the new breed of hit-or-miss, straight-from-China flashlights that use old LED bins, promise too much in their performance numbers, and offer decent actual performance.
It's a Chinese wonder-light.
And by that I mean it's for sale on DealExtreme.com (SKU# 44705), has a severely inflated lumens count, uses a "Cree" LED, and only costs $3.30 shipped.
Advertised as having 30 lumens, I've eyeballed that it probably puts 8-12 OTF (about the same as the Fenix E01, but more diffused). It features an anodized aluminum body (type II), a plastic reflector and lens, a plastic rear reverse clicky switch, and is powered by a single AAA battery (not compatible with 10440 rechargeables, but NiMH are okay).
*When the light arrived, it had a plastic shaving inside the reflector housing. It was easy to get out, but was very indicative of the type of quality you get with these lights.*
It's very small when taken alone, but if sitting next to other AAA flashlights, such as the Fenix E01 and Maglite Solitaire, you realize quite quickly that it's on the big side for a single AAA light, both in terms of width and length.
The rear clicky actuates quite nicely for how cheap it is. It's never failed to come on (and like the E01 it can fire up from a nearly dead cell), but once every ten on/off cycles or so it exhibits its strange quirk: sometimes it doesn't want to turn off. Call it eagerness to work I guess. When it happens all you need to do is click the switch back to the "on" position and then turn it off again. My record for getting it to turn off is three on/off cycles.
The beam is a cool (has a blue hue) and most definitely a floody one. There are artifacts caused by the cheap plastic reflector and the LED's particular construction (see below). Because of this the hotspot is slightly elongated, though not to the extent of the Fenix E01's.
Output is similar to the E01, which is rated at 10 lumens, but this light's hotspot is much more spread out. And unlike the E01 this light uses an LED and reflector to create the beam, not a prefocused LED.
If you'll look back to the E01's review you'll see the section on its unique LED. It's unique because the prefocused LED actually has two dies sitting side by side, which creates a rectangular pattern in the beam. Well this LED (advertised as a Cree, but I'm not buying it...) has a similar setup.
As you can see in the above picture, the LED has what looks to be three dies lined up in a row. Interestingly enough, this setup creates less of a shape aberration in the beam pattern than the E01's two-die setup. I suspect this is because the E01's LED is prefocused and this one is not.
I haven't done a runtime test, but I wouldn't be surprised if it lasted upwards of ten hours. World around the internet is that it's very thrifty with its battery supply.
All in all I would recommend this light, so long as you know what you receive if a budget light.
I know, I know. It's cheaply made, cheaply sold, and probably won't withstand the day to day needs of being on a keychain, but for $3.30 you get a semi-solid light that you can stick a lithium battery in and keep it in a drawer for 10 years until you need it.
â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"
A note about DealExtreme.
It is a Chinese-based business selling cheap products. Don't expect to be wowed by performance and don't be wooed by performance promises. And if something goes wrong with your purchase don't expect returns to be easy.
You just have to buy from them hoping that the product you receive is in good working order.
