Time to share, sharing is fun!
My geman dealer has the
revised version in stock, it's in black ano, and early owners of the black version can check if their unit coincides with my new unit. Mine came with the Manker lanyard but i prefer a low profile generic wrist strap:
The black finish is as matt as the natural anodization of selfbuilt's unit and similarly matt as the original SC52 silver-grey finish before the Zebralight ano got glossier.
I like the black pseudo-matt finish bely much:
Can you tell that the bezel is in a glossier finish? Production batches from different days eventually result in such minimal differences between flashlight parts, oh well no big deal.
It's actually quite hard to capture the nature of the finish on photo. Very noticeable in RL but not so visible in my photos. How about a direct comparison to Eagtac anodization? All black Eagtac anos are super shiny, super glossy, yeah one can tell on the following pic:
Check out my old
TX25C2 review for more Eagtac photos. Even though i never use the TX25C2, it doesn't feel very robust tbh, it's a keeper in my modest collection of flashlights.
I would say that Fenix ano isn't as glossy as Eagtac. And Manker ano isn't as matt as Armytac. Btw i am no fan of Eagtac or Fenix glossy finishes, they look/feel cheap imho. Hence we have the relation,
Armytek(=matt) < Manker (=matt/glossy) < Fenix (=glossy) < Eagtac (=super glossy),
check the reflection of the shininess on the four surfaces to verify the relation:
So what's new with this version? The UI, short click from OFF to Low (L1/L2/L3) was already mentioned in other recent reviews; disadvantage, possible accidental activation in the pocket. Wouldn't be too bad, it's the Low mode only. Or do a tailcap lockout.
The clip is new. Its ring is now seated 100% flush in the ring groove. The face side of the clip has now 2 cute holes at which i attach my wrist strap in a symmetrical way. The flashlight body has 3 longitudinal grooves, their width matches the width of the clip:
I positioned the clip 180° opposite to the switch so that the clip rides in the longitudinal groove. In the following pic, part of the clip profile can't be seen because it is covered by the depth of the very groove. Also note that the tip of the clip does not touch the flashlight head or else. Hehe i actually had to bend the tip with my Vinox Spirit X a little, otherwise the tip would have touched the anodization. The clip is a deep-carry clip. In practice however the deep-clipping opening is too narrow to accept the brim of a jeans pocket, especially with the wrist strap attachment in da way, and with the bulky T01 head shape it'd be plain awkward to use the clip for actual clipping purposes anyway imo:
The most important change about the new clip is its thickness. All early clips were 0.80mm thick and felt too flexible because of the long clip length: the longer a clip is, the more flexible
it is. This new clip is extremely strong with its 1.00mm thickness, as thick and sturdy as Armytac Tiara stainless steel pocket clips. Even if nobody uses T01 clips for actual clipping purposes (because of the T01 head shape), now nobody can criticize anymore that the clip feels flimsy or too flexible:
On the above pics, why were there arrows pointing to the cooling fins? It's new on this version! Here i am detailing, the edges are chamfered/bevelled, not sharp anymore hooray:
The bevelling is on both edges of 1 cooling fin, of course:
What's also new, the reflector room is free from dust, particles, or whatsoever. Dusty reflectors were the standard in early production units. The maker did some cleaning since:
In all fairness one can still see something itsy-bitsy on the following pic. Well, that's dust on the glass lens (not the reflector!). I don't live very clean lol:
The battery compartment hasn't changed much. The inner diameter of the reverse polarity protection (RPP) ring is wider, okay. But the rest is the same. By measuring different depths of the T01 body, the distance to the disc center, the distance to the RPP ring, i found out that the battery (+)nub needs to be longer than 1.00mm. No problem with AAA w/ AA adapter, Sanyo Eneloop, or Ni-Zn battery, from left to right:
The button top of my 5pcs protected TF flames 14500 has horrible tolerances but their average nub length is 1.1mm. All 5 samples are ≤51.00mm long and make contact with the driver disc; the distance to the center of the driver disc is 52.5mm, which means that the longest supported battery (without copper washer as spacer in the tailcap) is 52.5mm, as long as that battery does have a nub longer than 1.00mm. From left to right: unprotected Sanyo UR14500P (no connection!), unprotected Sanyo UR14500P w/
neodymium, protected Trustfire flames 14500:
To reiterate the conditions of 14500 fitment:
The battery must have a protruding nipple
longer than 1.00mm
AND the total length of the battery must be
below 52.5mm. Since there needs to be some clearance for the thickness of the double spring, probably the max acceptable total battery length is somewhere between 51.0…51.5mm. Clearly, if your battery (with a 1.1mm nub) has a total length of exactly 52.5mm, then it won't run in the T01 because of the missing clearance for the compressed tailcap spring!
The tailcap has a double spring for low resistance. When i measure tailcap current draw with UT61E, then the total resistance of my measurement system (probes, probe cables, shunt) will be higher than the original double spring resistance. Hence the following UT61E measurements are lower than the actual current (with no DMM in series):
new Sanyo UR14500P cell#1: 1.65A @4.2V t=1sec
new Sanyo UR14500P cell#2: 1.63A @4.2V t=1sec
old Trustfire flames 14500 cell#1: 1.40A @4.2V t=1sec
old Trustfire flames 14500 cell#2: 1.33A @4.2V t=1sec
old Trustfire flames 14500 cell#3: 1.36A @4.2V t=1sec
old Trustfire flames 14500 cell#4: 0.99A @4.2V t=1sec
old Trustfire flames 14500 cell#5: 1.34A @4.2V t=1sec
Some other measurements:
flashlight total length: 84.15mm
bezel diameter: 28.95mm
no comment
SC52 can clip stand, T01 cannot clip stand. At least not if a lanyard is attached to the front holes of the clip. I have arranged the clip position to match my SC52 flashlight. Look how perfect the strap attaches to clip and the hand automatically has something to hold on to:
Last but not least, what's up with that button cartoon? Looks like a troll if you ask me:
Since the light is so throwy, i wouldn't mind a
Fenix-style diffuser lens. Or a diffuser cap/cone. Anything. Needs to fit 29.0mm diameter. Olight, Fenix, Tank007 are known to make a wide range of diffusers but afaik none of them fit 29.0mm. Did anyone find a 29.0mm diffuser?
