Review of Manker Quinlan T01: pics, test and beamshots.

Budda

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
590
Location
Italy
I received the Manker Quinlan T01 for the review from GearBest.


Manker's spec
CREE XPL-HI LED.
-Max Lumen Output: 500LM (drive byEneloop Pro NI-MH battery).
-Max Lumen Output: 900LM (drive by Lithium Battery 14500).
-Peak beam intensity: 10,000 cd (drive by Eneloop Pro NI-MH battery).
-Peak beam intensity: 20,000 cd (drive by Lithium Battery 14500).
-Beam distance: 925ft/ 282m.
-Size:Length 84mm Head Diameter 29MM Tail Diameter 20mm
-Machine from aerospace grade solid aluminum bar.
-HA III MIL-Standard hard anodized,original color.
-IPX-8 waterproof standard of up to 2 meters/6.6 feet.
-Impact resist up to 2 meters/6.6 feet

The T01 comes in a cardboard box, inside there is the light (the clip is pre installed), spare o-ring, lanyard and manual. Everything is in place by white foam.





The T01 (1xAA, 1x14500), the little brother of the Quinlan U11 (1x18650, 2xCR123).




If you have a machine that is capable of size reduction and you use it on the body of the U11, you will get the T01. Even the led is "smaller": from an XP-L to XP-L Hi, but the size of the heads are comparable.





Head differences


The T01 doesn't have the micro usb for charging the battery, feature that the U11 has; the same for the blue led under the switch.



I got the black T01 version, there is another version with a "natural" anodization colour, that I've seen in person and looks great.

The light is smaller but the switch can be found easily in the dark, and you can't turn on by mistake.


The light is well built. As the U11, body is made of a single piece of aluminium, and has the same design for the pocket clip (which I like a lot). On the T01 the clip is stronger and require more pressure to be clipped all the way on thick clothes like jeans.


The smooth reflector can make the T01 (left) still throw a lot with the XP-L Hi intensity emitter.


The U11 has a matte finish anodization, while the T01 has a more shiny one, like the MH27.


At the tailcap, golden spring and anodized threads (so you can lock out the light).

I have a MH20, I think it many members own one.





The UI is identical to the one of the U11, the difference is the lack of dragon breath mode (since you have not blue led under the switch). I described in depth the UI of the U11 here
So, here you still have 4 levels (low, med, hi, turbo), that you can program. As with the U11, you can choose between an advanced (where you can access to these modes and all the strobe/blinking/battery indicating/programming features) and a simple mode (4 levels + 3 strobe modes).

The T01 is one of the few single AA, capable of getting a lot of lumens from a single AA nimh battery. You always have the choice of running it with a 14500 IMR, almost doubling the output.
Currently, I don't own any 14500 battery, and the only AA Nimh I have are some Duracell Stay Charged 2000mAh, that were rebranded eneloop when I bought them few years ago.
Thus said, I am really impressed by how much light can the T01 produce from a simple (and old) nimh battery: in other review they measured around 500 lumens with a eneloop pro battery. You'll need an IMR 14500 to get the 900 lumens turbo mode, but even with a regular 14500 you should have a good increment in output.

These are Manker's specs:

On my sample I got a preflash at L1.

Finally I managed to measure the output with decent accuracy.


So, now I can use the lumen in the Y scale of the graph, instead of the usual %.


Beamshots
Smooth reflector and a XP-L Hi makes the little T01 a great thrower, but the beam is still good at closer distance (no relevant imperfections) and very usable: I measured lux/m with my luxmeter, and I got 13360 Cd at T3.
Beamshot taken at 1 m from the wall.



Runtime


Very good regulation for all tested levels.

My thoughts
I carried the T01 for some days and used it many times.
For most EDC uses (at least, for mine), brightness of 2-300 lumens are enough, especially if you have a throwy beam (wide beams may require 5-10 times the light of a throwy beam to illuminate not so close distances). With the manker T01 you have 500 lumen at turbo, more than enough imho, and still have plenty runtime and level spacing for all the situations.
I like the small size (keep in mind that I am used to carry 18650 cell based lights) and the throwy beam.

Talking about 18650: here is one in the pic under, with the small BIC lighter.


The UI, compared to the one of the U11, is a bit simpler because of the lack of dragon breath. Still, you have to be careful to not make a double click, or you'll end up in strobe mode; you can't directly access to turbo mode, only to low.
The switch I similar to the one of the U11, but with shorter run. I prefer the one of the T01.

Apart from the UI, which some may like, the only downside I can find in this light is the pre-flash at the lower level, L1.





If you are looking for a compact thrower with great output for a nimh AA battery, with programmable modes and flat regulation this is the only light I know.

Sample for the review was provided by GearBest.
Thanks to AntoLed for lending me the camera and the luxmeter.
Thanks for reading.
 
Last edited:

Skeeterg

Enlightened
Joined
Jan 1, 2016
Messages
325
Excellent review and pics Budda, I have been eyeing those 2 manker lights for sometime,and not sure if I should go for the smaller T01.
 

Budda

Enlightened
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
590
Location
Italy
Thanks for the feedback.
It depends: if you need runtime and lumen, the U11. If you can trade some output and runtime for a smaller and lighter light, go for the T01.
Keep in mind that if you don't use the light a lot, the difference in runtime may only be recharging/swapping the cell once a week instead of once a month.
 
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