Thetasigma
Flashlight Enthusiast
As a fan of SxS format lights I was intrigued when I saw Manker was producing one in a 2xAA size and with 14500 capability. I purchased this for myself and thought I would share my thoughts on it for anyone else interested.
Edit: Updated thoughts added to end of the review.
First Glance
As previously stated, this is a 2xAA SxS format life with 2x14500 capability for higher turbo and high modes. The light has a smooth matte black finish with a stainless steel bezel ring, battery position indicator markings and a split construction with the battery tube screwed to the head. The light is comfortable in the hand in overhand, flat, and sideways handholds. The e-switch has a fairly positive click and indicator lights under the switch boot. The light has a fairly stiff screwed-on clip but it results in a fairly shallow carry with over an inch of the head exposed above the pocket line.
Beam Profile
The LED used in this light is an XHP-35 available in "cool", and "neutral" at what appears to be 5000K. My sample is relatively clean tinted with a slight greenish tint hotspot and very slight purple spill when white walled, but is overall clean in actual use, especially for a Cree emitter. The LED is well centered behind what appears to be a nice SMO reflector. The only real problem I have here is the beam from further than 5 feet has a brown or darker spot in the center, reminiscent of an eye floater, it is most notable when moving the light. Relative to the AA format this light is throwier than most with a larger reflector and higher output.
The dark spot in the center of the beam, a bit more distinct in person.
Battery Cap
This is a bit of a tricky point on side by side lights and there are various solutions with the Spy 005/007 solution being my favorite. In this case it is the same functionally as the Nitecore EC4S series with a threaded male component exposed in the sides of the center of the cap that mates into partial female threads in the battery tube. Given the smaller diameter of the threads I would like to see an extra thread or two of engagement if Manker ever upgrades this design, for better long-term reliability. An alternate solution would be a cam-lock system similar to the Sunwayman D20A's implementation with two steel hooks in the battery pack and a cammed latch in the cap. The plus side of using this threaded style is the cap is snuggly seated against the body. The stiff springs on the cap and driver make installing the cap a bit tricky since they engage before the cap is in-place, so two fingers help to align and pull the cap in position to be threaded.
User-Interface
The light is controlled via the side mounted e-switch and is overall straight forward. 1 click turns the light on in moonlight, further single clicks advance the modes to high, and then back down to moon. Turbo and flashy modes are hidden behind a double click with Turbo being the first in that mode grouping and double clicking after brings the light back into the main sequence. What I suspect will be the main problem one might have with the UI is that to turn the light off it requires a "long press" of about a second which may be unintuitive, in my experience so far with this light it is an acceptable trade off for simple clicks controlling the modes while on. For those who like mode memory, the last used mode can be accessed from off with a long-press.
Conclusion
On the whole I like the light since I'm an avid fan of the SxS format, though it would be nice to see a revised design with a stronger battery cap. The UI is a bit different but nothing that can't be quickly adjusted to, and loads simpler than some e-switched setups. The dark spot in the center is my biggest complaint with the light, I'm not sure if it is a common situation with this model or just my sample.
Updated
Having carried this for about a month now I can safely say that I can't honestly recommend this light to anyone, the concern about the limited thread engagement of the tailcap remains, and while switching to a HI version of the emitter makes far better use of the reflector, the light is too difficult and unreliable to carry. The primary carry concerns are that the clip is utterly useless for pocket carry, which leaves jacket carry as the next best role, however the switch is too sensitive to be reliably carried with just the fabric of the jacket moving being enough to trigger the light on occasion resulting in dead batteries when the light is needed. Compounding this problem is the lack of a simple and effective lock-out solution since there is no hard lock with this tailcap design, and the electronic lock-out is so f**king useless due to being unnecessarily convoluted and requiring such precise timing that even if you remember the sequence, you'll spend 10 minutes trying to enter it to even unlock the light.
In short, if you want this light to carry either in a pocket or a jacket DO NOT BUY. If you don't mind using this light as a nightstand or a backup light around the house where it will not be stored such that the button has any chance of being pressed, it might have some value.
Edit: Updated thoughts added to end of the review.
First Glance
As previously stated, this is a 2xAA SxS format life with 2x14500 capability for higher turbo and high modes. The light has a smooth matte black finish with a stainless steel bezel ring, battery position indicator markings and a split construction with the battery tube screwed to the head. The light is comfortable in the hand in overhand, flat, and sideways handholds. The e-switch has a fairly positive click and indicator lights under the switch boot. The light has a fairly stiff screwed-on clip but it results in a fairly shallow carry with over an inch of the head exposed above the pocket line.
Beam Profile
The LED used in this light is an XHP-35 available in "cool", and "neutral" at what appears to be 5000K. My sample is relatively clean tinted with a slight greenish tint hotspot and very slight purple spill when white walled, but is overall clean in actual use, especially for a Cree emitter. The LED is well centered behind what appears to be a nice SMO reflector. The only real problem I have here is the beam from further than 5 feet has a brown or darker spot in the center, reminiscent of an eye floater, it is most notable when moving the light. Relative to the AA format this light is throwier than most with a larger reflector and higher output.
The dark spot in the center of the beam, a bit more distinct in person.
Battery Cap
This is a bit of a tricky point on side by side lights and there are various solutions with the Spy 005/007 solution being my favorite. In this case it is the same functionally as the Nitecore EC4S series with a threaded male component exposed in the sides of the center of the cap that mates into partial female threads in the battery tube. Given the smaller diameter of the threads I would like to see an extra thread or two of engagement if Manker ever upgrades this design, for better long-term reliability. An alternate solution would be a cam-lock system similar to the Sunwayman D20A's implementation with two steel hooks in the battery pack and a cammed latch in the cap. The plus side of using this threaded style is the cap is snuggly seated against the body. The stiff springs on the cap and driver make installing the cap a bit tricky since they engage before the cap is in-place, so two fingers help to align and pull the cap in position to be threaded.
User-Interface
The light is controlled via the side mounted e-switch and is overall straight forward. 1 click turns the light on in moonlight, further single clicks advance the modes to high, and then back down to moon. Turbo and flashy modes are hidden behind a double click with Turbo being the first in that mode grouping and double clicking after brings the light back into the main sequence. What I suspect will be the main problem one might have with the UI is that to turn the light off it requires a "long press" of about a second which may be unintuitive, in my experience so far with this light it is an acceptable trade off for simple clicks controlling the modes while on. For those who like mode memory, the last used mode can be accessed from off with a long-press.
Conclusion
On the whole I like the light since I'm an avid fan of the SxS format, though it would be nice to see a revised design with a stronger battery cap. The UI is a bit different but nothing that can't be quickly adjusted to, and loads simpler than some e-switched setups. The dark spot in the center is my biggest complaint with the light, I'm not sure if it is a common situation with this model or just my sample.
Updated
Having carried this for about a month now I can safely say that I can't honestly recommend this light to anyone, the concern about the limited thread engagement of the tailcap remains, and while switching to a HI version of the emitter makes far better use of the reflector, the light is too difficult and unreliable to carry. The primary carry concerns are that the clip is utterly useless for pocket carry, which leaves jacket carry as the next best role, however the switch is too sensitive to be reliably carried with just the fabric of the jacket moving being enough to trigger the light on occasion resulting in dead batteries when the light is needed. Compounding this problem is the lack of a simple and effective lock-out solution since there is no hard lock with this tailcap design, and the electronic lock-out is so f**king useless due to being unnecessarily convoluted and requiring such precise timing that even if you remember the sequence, you'll spend 10 minutes trying to enter it to even unlock the light.
In short, if you want this light to carry either in a pocket or a jacket DO NOT BUY. If you don't mind using this light as a nightstand or a backup light around the house where it will not be stored such that the button has any chance of being pressed, it might have some value.
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