# [Review] THRUNITE Ti4 Ti (XP-L V4 CW, 1x AAA)



## _UPz (Jan 28, 2015)

*THRUNITE Ti4 Ti*
*LED:* CREE XP-L V4 CW
*Battery:* 1x AAA
*Modes:* 4 (Moonlight-Low-High-Strobe)
*Switch:* Twisty
*Date:* January 2015

*INTRODUCTION:*
One of the novelties that past holidays have given us, not counting those two extra kilos on the scale display, is undoubtedly the new Thrunite Ti4 Ti. It is a small flashlight that comes to compete among the many alternatives in the segment of keychain flashlights for AAA batteries made in Titanium. The big attraction, besides being the first AAA titanium light of this brand is undoubtedly the more than reasonable price, around $30 at the time of purchase, and employ of powerful XP-L asLED emitter, never seen to date in this format.







The product presentation makes it clear from the outset that we have a special Christmas edition, finding a metal box inside a carton sleeve whose impression wish us happy holidays, accompanied by some Christmas decorations.




Inside, besides the flashlight perfectly protected by foam we found a removable pocket clip, an user manual and a small plastic bag containing a pair of o-rings and claw (not too compact nor attractive) for the keychain.
*
EXTERIOR FINISH:*
Outwardly the flashlight features a classic finish, where the knurling takes center stage in the design of the flashlight. The material used is TC4 Titanium, and highly polished. My unit does not show any machining marks or any other irregularity, with a polished almost “mirror” grade.








On the head we found a couple of engravings on the smooth area, brand logo on one side and the initials “Ti” on the other.




The optics of this tiny light has one of the undeniable attractions of the flashlight. This is the LED emitter, instead of the classic XP-G or XP-E to which we are accustomed to deal in this format, Thrunite has opted for the new Cree XP-L, which combines efficiency and performance to match the XM -L2 in the size of an XP-G2 (although the light-emitting surface and the angle are identical to the XM-L2).







After a glass lens we have a rough reflector, with the XP-L perfectly centered.




The threads are standard triangular cut, with classic titanium gritty feel present, although thanks to the generous head area knurled this flashlight can operate one handed without any problems.














The design allows you to use the flashlight tailstanding, either with or without the keychain attachment.

*USER INTERFACE:*
The Thrunite Ti4 Ti has a unique user interface as it is equipped with a couple of details that draw attention to defer against popular alternatives in this segment. Three main modes in ascending order, with a hidden strobe mode.






*On and off:* The Ti4 Ti is turned on by completely threading the the head, and off reversing the operation.



*Changing Modes:* As in most twisty lights, modes will alternate by performing on-off-on within two seconds. The order of the modes is ascending, Moonlight-Low-High.



*Memory:* As a peculiarity, this Thrunite is equipped with a memory function in a curious ways, remembering the last mode used to turn on in it if the next activation is equal to or less than 10 seconds.



*Hidden Strobe Mode:* The fourth mode is a 13Hz strobe, hidden at the end of the modes sequence and to access it we must make six interruptions, or what is the same, switch between the entire three modes sequence twice.





_(All measurements are taken following the procedure ANSI NEMA FL1, taking highest reading of between 30 and 120 seconds after activation.)

_
The modes are perhaps somewhat unevenly distributed, especially considering the peculiar memory mode. The Moonlight mode with 0.5LM according to manufacturer goes unnoticed in the read range of the integrating sphere, as their actual performance may be below 0.1LM. The low mode with theoretical 12LM is the most versatile mode, because the next step will lead to amazing 162LM, 150LM according to the sphere with a worldly Eneloop AAA.


*PERFORMANCE:*
As expected, Ti4 Ti more than 150LM high mode pass this bill at the runtime of the flashlight, especially seeing that Thrunite has not added a stepdown.




Regulation as a result of the tremendous “effort” to which the battery is subjected, is clearly “direct-drive” type with a clear and rapid drop in the curve after 30 minutes.




Compared to other format reference flashlights, Ti4 Ti is without doubt the most powerful of all, totally understandable by the LED emitter, which plays “in another league”.
Finally, and recklessly (since manual specifies that the voltage range for this Thrunite is 0.9-3V), I made a mini-test with a 10440, obtaining some interesting data. Of course I have to indicate that the use of Li-Ion batteries is not covered by the manufacturer, so please do it under your own responsibility.




The high mode happens to have a peak of 550LM on startup and 365LM at 30 seconds after activation. The “low” mode obtains 230LM at startup, falling to 200 in half a minute, and so far Moonlight gets a value 0.2LM stable during the first 30 seconds. After the barely 30 seconds that this High mode test has led me with li-ion, the flashlight head was literally too hot to hold by hand.

*BEAM PROFILE:*
The XP-L, with its emitting surface equal to XM-L2 in size, and inside such a small reflector, offers an ultra-floody beam with a huge central hotspot and abundant light spill.














The tint has a tendency toward neutral, with some yellow hues especially in the area surrounding the hotspot.




Interestingly, if approached in excess to a white wall we will be able to distinguish as the hotspot has a square shape, a direct result of the huge light emitting area of the XP-L and the small reflector.














*
PERSONAL CONCLUSION:*
Aesthetically, the design of this Ti4 Ti seems really nice for its classic lines and especially by the great role that knurling has on the exterior finish. While I expected a less polished piece, guided by the images he had seen on the net, “mirror” finishing adds a touch of luxury to this small flashlight, so its use on a keychain will surely leave its mark sooner than later.








_AAA • DQG Ti II •DQG Ti • Ultrafire UF-T1 • Fenix E99Ti • Olight A3T • Thrunite Ti4 Ti • Klarus MiX6Ti_
*
Negatives:* The main drawback I find with this Thrunite is certainly its unique user interface: On one hand modes are not too well distributed, with a huge gap between the 12LM low and 162LM high. In addition, the first mode of the sequence is too low for everyday use, and the strange way in which memory is implemented makes memory feature almost impracticable. The XP-L, although gives high power (not seen in this format), has a major drawback as far as beam beauty is concerned, far from the balanced beam profile to which we are accustomed with the XP-G. Although not present in my unit, I read about problems with excessive play in the threads, so I guess there might be some differences between different batches manufactured.
*
Positives:* As I mentioned, appearance and overall design of this small light seem the most successful aspect. I must admit that when I first read the specifications for this Ti4 did not give them much credibility, but after checking myself performance in the field, I must admit that it has a surprisingly high performance. The more than reasonable price with this model entered the market is, of course, another of the great attractions and successes. Although many very improvable aspects, my think is Thrunite has been successful with this model, and I’ll look forward to future updates.



_Thrunite Ti4 Ti ordered from HKequipment.net_​


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## earthman (Jan 28, 2015)

I didn't know that this had been named 'Ti4' ?....I thought that it were just the titanium version of a Ti3.

I bought two of the black versions first then a titanium version, for the money they are great,....I do use the lowest low mode too,mainly when in bed or going to the toilet,It's just enough light in those situations.


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## gunga (Jan 28, 2015)

Great review, great pix! I like the moon mode thought would prefer 4 modes to space them out better.


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## kreisl (Jan 28, 2015)

Great review, thanks so much!

The High-mode appears to be not regulated. The curve looks like a constant-current discharge curve from a battery test. Maybe the light is in direct drive! The efficiency is still good, only beaten by your Maratac Copper.

Now i am more interested in a comparison with the new Thrunite Ti3 SS, please could you review it too?


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## gearmonky (Jan 29, 2015)

I just received this light yesterday and really find it almost perfect.


But that darn firefly mode. It's not that I don't want a firefly mode on a keychain light; quite the contrary, I enjoy having a low-low for extended runtime as well as keeping dark-adapted vision, well, dark-adapted. But this firefly mode is so low that it's practically useless unless you've just woke up in a pitch black room (what I'll call "sleep-adapted" vision). If you have normal, dark-adapted vision, and you're trying to use the light, you can't see anything past 3 feet using firefly mode. The end result is that you kick it into lo-medium, and blind yourself. I'd rather have it just a little brighter, so that one is able to keep dark-adapted vision intact, and make the concession that sleep-adapted vision will become 'merely' dark-adapted once one uses the light upon waking up. :shrug:


The solution, if Thrunite is listening, is to simply bump firefly mode up a bit. I've done A LOT of data crunching over the years, graphing and plotting outputs from different lights and different modes and how they relate to each other. My conclusion is that it's never about lumens. It's about lux and the ratio between lux and lumens (i.e., the beam profile). A useful firefly mode should be around 1 lux at 1 meter, in my opinion (coincidentally, this is roughly equal to the light from a full moon). The Ti4/Ti-Ti firefly mode is well under that (maybe .25 lux or less). My particular HDS is around 2 lux at its lowest, and that's just a hair brighter than I'd like, but still far more useful than the mode on the Thrunite.


One thing I'd like to stress is that I've personally found the spacing between lo/med and high to be perfect. I've found that for modes to be usefully distinct in output, they should be roughly 8-15 times brighter or dimmer than their neighbors. This is because your eyes perceive brightness logarithmically, so you want the modes space roughly an order of magnitude apart. On this light, high is rated around 13 times brighter, and shown as around 15 times per the results above. I really think that works well. Lo/med is a great multi-use brightness, and high is, well, high. If only it weren't for that firefly mode being so.... literal.


Ah, well. The TiS is due out any day now, and that has an XP-G2, which should offer a tighter beam, and therefore more lux in firefly. The search continues... :sigh:


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## F. Premens (Feb 1, 2015)

Great review!


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## Dubois (Feb 2, 2015)

Great review of an interesting, and good value light. Unfortunately I found the green tint to be pretty awful, but I'd like another if the tint was better - I guess I just had from a bad batch. I also agree with you, UPz, that the UI isn't ideal. Although I do like ThruNite's moonlight modes on their other lights, for me just two modes would be sufficient on an AAA twisty.


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## _UPz (Feb 2, 2015)

Thank you very much for the replies!


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## kreisl (Feb 6, 2015)

The Thrunite TiS is now available from amazon and HKE. Stainless steel XP-G2. Would love to learn about its performance and tint!

Please could you review it already?


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## reppans (Feb 6, 2015)

gearmonky said:


> I just received this light yesterday and really find it almost perfect.
> 
> 
> But that darn firefly mode. It's not that I don't want a firefly mode on a keychain light; quite the contrary, I enjoy having a low-low for extended runtime as well as keeping dark-adapted vision, well, dark-adapted. But this firefly mode is so low that it's practically useless unless you've just woke up in a pitch black room (what I'll call "sleep-adapted" vision). If you have normal, dark-adapted vision, and you're trying to use the light, you can't see anything past 3 feet using firefly mode. The end result is that you kick it into lo-medium, and blind yourself. I'd rather have it just a little brighter, so that one is able to keep dark-adapted vision intact, and make the concession that sleep-adapted vision will become 'merely' dark-adapted once one uses the light upon waking up. :shrug:
> ...



+1! 

I'm a camper and sub-/low- lumen enthusiast and buy sub-lumen lights nearly exclusively, but I can't buy TN's anymore for the reasons you mention - TN's typical 100x mode spacing between firefly and low is just too low or too high for 90% of my usage. Agree that TN's dim dim fireflies are great for total dark adaptation (ie, when waking from sleep) but I believe that represents such a small percentage of most folks usage that it's not worth wasting a full mode slot for, especially on a 3-mode light. I use "brighter" true moonlights (comfortable for extended book reading and most close task work) about 45% of the time and love the virtually "free" runtime. I just bury the bezel in my fist (using a pinky as an aperture control) for those few moments moonlight is too bright for middle of the night bathroom runs. 

Also disappointed to see an advertise 0.5 lm spec, yet actually performance off by a factor of 5X (I would have gone for a half-lumen low low). Zebralight does the same and wasted my money.... thank goodness for these reviews.

EDIT: BTW, I hope TN has improved its marketing integrity with runtimes too (didn't see any runtime specs above). I have an original T10 twisty and Neutron 2A V2 claiming 39 and 72 hrs, respectively, on ~10 lm modes, on 1x NiMh (~400-800 lm-hrs!)... I didn't get half the claimed runtime, and 2400mah vs 2000mah doesn't come close to making up the difference. Actual performance ~200 lumen-hours was perfectly respectable for the class., however, but the exaggeration....


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## Hwy115 (Feb 8, 2015)

Seems like a nice light. I popped in UltraFires (Blue) and TrustFire 10440's and it wont work twith them. Any suggestions? I use both of my other batteries on my LD01 and they work fine.
Thanks,
Steve


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## RipD (Feb 16, 2015)

Hwy115 said:


> Seems like a nice light. I popped in UltraFires (Blue) and TrustFire 10440's and it wont work twith them. Any suggestions? I use both of my other batteries on my LD01 and they work fine.


Same here. 

I have a stupid question: would it not be possible to put a voltage regulator or resistor in the circuit to keep the voltage below the threshold for light? The excess voltage would have to be converted to heat which could complicate the design, perhaps. My limited experience says a regulator would better, but I'm not an electrical engineer. It seems there has to be an inexpensive way to allow higher voltage batteries to safely power these lights. And I get that you quickly get into diminishing returns as you get less power to LED and more power converted to head to shed the excess voltage.


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## mikeylab (Feb 21, 2015)

Hwy115 said:


> Seems like a nice light. I popped in UltraFires (Blue) and TrustFire 10440's and it wont work twith them. Any suggestions? I use both of my other batteries on my LD01 and they work fine.
> Thanks,
> Steve


i am curious abut this as well. This is a nice tiny light for the $. It is currently the only AAA or Chinese light that I own.


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## Dutcheee (Feb 21, 2015)

RipD, why would you go through all that hassle. I use an Efest 10440 (4.2 Vmax) every day and it works fine. Grey ultrafire only works when I screw the head very tight. Maybe use a blob of solder on the batterytop?


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## RipD (Mar 7, 2015)

Dutcheee said:


> RipD, why would you go through all that hassle. I use an Efest 10440 (4.2 Vmax) every day and it works fine. Grey ultrafire only works when I screw the head very tight. Maybe use a blob of solder on the batterytop?


Thanks. Efest works great in this light. This may become my edc light replacing the smaller DQG tail clicky (aka tail scratchy) light. Interestingly my TFs don't work in the Ti4 but the Efest does. It's just the opposite in my DQG: only the TF works in that light.


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## Jay R (Mar 7, 2015)

Seconding earthman, this is not called the Ti4. It is the Ti, Limited Christmas Edition. At this time, Thrunite do not make a light they call the Ti4.


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## Jay R (Mar 19, 2015)

and....

After using mine on high for 5 minutes last night, I now have low, medium, another medium.

Looks like the heat sinking isn't up to scratch.


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## jon_slider (Apr 7, 2015)

Thanks for the review.





kreisl said:


> The Thrunite TiS is now available from amazon and HKE. Stainless steel XP-G2. Would love to learn about its performance and tint!




see this thread for comments comparing the Ti SS to the Ti Ti
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?394106-New-Thrunite-Ti/page9



Trevilux said:


> Thrunite ti in "ss or titanium"...
> 
> GIF, Ti ss Vs Ti Ti







reppans said:


> disappointed to see an advertise 0.5 lm spec




agreed, I believe it is a typo. The Ti Stainless has a 0.04 spec, which I think is correct for the Ti Titanium as well, discussed in more detail in the linked thread above

The Thrunite Ti SS and Ti Ti have very low firefly modes, that come on first, and quite dim medium modes. Emphasis on dark adapted use.


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## mercurialpissings (Jun 4, 2015)

_UPz said:


> Thank you very much for the replies!


This might be my next AAA EDC. Thanks for the awesome test run and review. Can you confirm if your Maratac's diffuser cap can fit on this Thrunite?


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## jon_slider (Jun 5, 2015)

mercurialpissings said:


> Can you confirm if your Maratac's diffuser cap can fit on this Thrunite?


Yes the diffuser fits, but I dont recommend the Titanium because the threads are really gritty, and the tint is really green. And I dont recommend the diffuser because it is blinding unless you avoid looking at the glowing head. I much prefer the Olight i3s for thread smoothness. For tint and firefly mode I prefer the L3 Illumination L08 with N219 led.





Here is the XP-L on the Titanium:





and here is the N219B on the L08


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## mercurialpissings (Jun 5, 2015)

Cool. Thanks for the info. Yeah that green tint is a little off but I hope I'll get accustomed to it. I just want an AAA EDC that's outside the norm of generic black body, brighter than my Maratac Copper Rev 3 when running on an Eneloop and can take a diffuser cap for candlelight uses in camp. 



jon_slider said:


> Yes the diffuser fits, but I dont recommend the Titanium because the threads are really gritty, and the tint is really green. And I dont recommend the diffuser because it is blinding unless you avoid looking at the glowing head. I much prefer the Olight i3s for thread smoothness. For tint and firefly mode I prefer the L3 Illumination L08 with N219 led.
> Here is the XP-L on the Titanium:
> and here is the N219B on the L08


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## jon_slider (Jun 5, 2015)

mercurialpissings said:


> I just want an AAA EDC that's outside the norm of generic black body, brighter than my Maratac Copper Rev 3 when running on an Eneloop and can take a diffuser cap for candlelight uses in camp.



always good to have choices, and enjoy a variety of different features.. I hope you will post some impressions when your Titanium arrives. Enjoy!


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## mercurialpissings (Jun 5, 2015)

Thanks for the kind reply. I was actually contemplating of posting my comparison between the Copper Peak Eiger and the Maratac Copper Rev 3. Got both of them a couple weeks ago. But being a total noob here, I was kinda intimidated posting my newbie thoughts especially seeing the very detailed reviews you experts post. But nevertheless, I'm enjoying every minute of this newfound hobby. And very friendly folks here in CandlePower. 



jon_slider said:


> always good to have choices, and enjoy a variety of different features.. I hope you will post some impressions when your Titanium arrives. Enjoy!


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