Light is an important part of life.

Small Alonefire#

AliExpress listing name: USA EU Hot SK68 CREE XPE Q5 LED Mini Flashlight Portable Zoomable CREE Q5 led torch flashlight lamp Lighting For AA or 14500

My goto flashlight. Small, fits in a bag pocket and in your mouth if you need both hands free. Takes an AA battery or its 3-volt equivalent 14500. Basic functions — shine, shine dimmer, blink. Has zoom.

Big Alonefire#

AliExpress listing name: Powerful G700 Flashlight XML T6 L2 led Aluminum Waterproof Zoom Camping Torch Tactical light AAA 18650 Rechargeable Battery

Bought this one several times too, and the order I found wasn’t even the most recent one. Big and quite bright, at $10 with an 18650 battery and charger — but I haven’t found much use for it. Fine when you need to light something up brightly, usually when retrieving something from a dark corner or from under the couch. Wasn’t very useful at camping, and it’s too large to carry around. The first one eventually lost an unequal battle with a curious child, the second is still alive, but where it is now — unclear…

Energizer Green#

Bought for camping and turned out to be a superb headlamp:

• red light doesn’t harm “night” vision — didn’t know about that
• 3 AAA batteries — no charging needed
• wide headband — doesn’t press on your head
• three modes: focused, wide-angle, both + red separately
• bright enough and drains batteries extremely slowly
• has brightness adjustment
• with a simple life hack turns a water bottle into a table lamp

Liked it so much that I bought another one, a red one — and it turned out to have no red LED. How does that even happen?

Nitecore NU25 400 UL#

Wanted a flashlight from a premium brand. Charges via USB-C, has a red LED and several light modes (two LEDs, spotlight and floodlight). Hits quite bright, but isn’t adjustable. To turn on — you have to press and hold the button (annoying). IP66 water resistant. Attaches to the head with a thin elastic band that presses a bit uncomfortably. Bottom line — more expensive and worse than the Energizer…

Wuben X4#

Bought on Kickstarter, arrived six months after purchase. Damn, it’s $50 on Amazon now.

It’s a really cool fidget. Clicks beautifully and feels so satisfying. A slider for switching between 4 modes (lock, spot, flood, moon), a power button, a brightness adjustment wheel, an additional press&hold button on the tail (lights up while held) — the whole thing makes a simply wonderful impression.

• 18650 battery, 3400 mAh
• magnetic tail
• pocket clip
• compact
• bike mount
• IP68 waterproof

Wuben C60#

Together with the X4, the good people from Kickstarter also sent an extra flashlight and the same 18650 battery at 3400 mAh. Now it doesn’t sting as much that I paid $65 for everything together.

The flashlight itself — not much to say. Very similar to the big Alonefire from AliExpress: zoom, three brightness levels, that’s it. As a freebie it’s fine, but at $40 — you probably don’t need it.

Sofirn IF23#

This thing is some kind of incredible wonder-weapon:

• claimed 4000 lumens
• 21700 battery at 5000 mAh
• IPX8 waterproof
• magnetic tail
• can act as a power bank
• a bajillion operating modes

In fact, this flashlight is the main reason this article was written at all, and everything written before it was just a small lead-up to the climax of our apotheosis.

This was the first flashlight in my life for which I needed a manual — and moreover, one I have to re-read.

It has just one button, and yet:

• main spotlight
• floodlight
• RGB light

and all of them can operate at multiple power levels, with several blinking modes (strobe, SOS, beacon). It’s a damn state machine with a ton of transitions between states! Single click, double click, press&hold from ON, press&hold from OFF, 3 clicks, 4 (FOUR!) clicks… Here’s the usage diagram from Amazon:

And it also comes with a manual, in which the curious reader will find this entry:

COLOR RESET: When the flashlight is off and on stepped ramping mode, fast six clicks on the switch to reset color mode to red light.

SIX.FUCKING.CLICKS.

Think you can handle it?

To be continued…#