Review of the Aurora AK-P7-5 2-mode

[randomlugia]

Packaging/First Impressions

The light came in a simple white cardboard box, that was put inside of the bubble-wrapped yellow packaging typical of DX. I'm going to say right away, this is the highest quality DX light I have ever owned, both as a first impression and thinking about it now. LINK

Compared to the Spiderfire P7 and 4D Maglite:

The light is thinner, longer, and heavier. The knurling is deep; so I can get a very good grip on it. The Spiderfire P7 had one thing that bothered me, and that was the smaller middle section. It was only long enough to grip with a few fingers, otherwise the raised ends would make it feel awkward. The Aurora has a tailcap with the exact same diameter as the middle, so you can grip the whole light from right behind the head perfectly. That, combined with the deep knurling, makes it really comfortable to hold. I'm giving it a 10/10 for design!

The textured reflector seems to be good (beamshots below), o-rings are thick and very waterproof, it uses my favorite clicky (a gold button on the inside, instead of a spring that drills holes in your battery), the LED is centered, and the threads are perfect and smooth after some lubing. The printing on both sides is also sharp.

Performance

I would call this a mid-range light. It throws better than any other P7 light I have, but P7's are never made for throw. It's not designed to be a flood light either, but the sheer amount of brightness gives it a great spill as well. What I really love about this light is the warmer tint. Not so warm that it appears yellow, but just enough tint to make it pleasing to look at and give it a higher CRI.

I measured this on the DMM, and the LED is pulling a little over 3 amps. Perfect! The light gets very warm after a few minutes on high, but nothing serious. I would not, however, recommend keeping this on high for ~40 minutes. Both for the sake of the light and the skin on your hands.

BEAMSHOT TIME!!

Spiderfire left, Aurora right:

Stepped down:

Ceiling bounce test for overall output. Maglite:

Spiderfire:

Aurora:

See a difference? The Spiderfire clearly isn't being driven near 3A, more like <2A, as are most the the DX P7's. The AK-P7-5 2-mode is apparently the most consistently correctly driven light on DX. Moving onto the great outdoors:

Location #1: Flood


These will be in order of apparent brightness.
Maglite focused for throw, then flood:

Spiderfire, low:

Aurora, low:

Spiderfire, high:

Aurora, high:

Location #2: throw
Sorry about the bush, and the blurriness on this one; it's hard to focus a camera on something that far away in pitch-black darkness.


Maglite, Flood then throw:

Spiderfire, low:

Aurora, low:

Spider, high:

Aurora, high:

Location #3: midrange
Where P7's excel


Control shot:

Sorry, no more controls. I forgot to take them while it was still day, lol. They might be up later.


Maglite, flood then throw:

Spiderfire, low:

Aurora, low:

Spiderfire, high:

Aurora, high:

Conclusion

Here's a quick summary:

Pros:
-Bright, and consistently bright
-Feels solid
-LED is centered
-Sharp printing
-I don't like flat heads, and the bezel on this one lets you know if the light is on when it's facing down
-Threads perfect after lube
-Really nice transition from hotspot to spill; no rings
-I love the general design and grip
-Protruding clicky switch
-Deep knurling
-Dunk/splash proof
-Not a single flaw in the finish upon arrival

Cons:
-LED pill won't unscrew
-The smallest bit of a donut in the beam, but you can only see it indoors well.
-Some people prefer forward clicky, others like reverse. This is reverse.
-Gets hot. This is good, because it means good thermal contact, but bad, because too much heat is obviously not good for the P7.
-There is a lot of empty space around the reflector, which could have been used for more heatsinking. But then it might get too top heavy, so I'm not sure about this.
-It can't tailstand, but the easier to access switch more than makes up for it.
-No lanyard hole

Final thoughts:

This light is amazing for the price, I would have paid a lot more for it than I did. If you've been trying to decide on a cheap P7, stop looking and buy this one now! Make sure you get the 2-mode though, because the 5-mode doesn't drive the LED nearly as well.

 

[mcnair55]

Thanks for your review and pics,nice looking light.

 

[brted]

Nice review and nice light. Thanks for writing it up!

 

[swxb12]

Quality review. Love your open-field spill shots. Excellent photography throughout. Thank you, randomlugia.

 

[randomlugia]

Thanks for the comments, I'll try to do my next reviews like this.

 

[Hellie112]

A lot of friends of my use this light in old abandoned limestone mines.
most carry 2 of these lights (1 as backup).

I am really surprised by the durabillity of the aurora, the lights have a raught life, and just keep working.

to me is the aurora a great light for edc, or just to have laying around in your car.

the only con for this light is the lack of throw for the application we use it for (walking to the forest and in the cave)

all and all has the light a real high value for money, and i am planning to buy one.

 

[rekd0514]

Awesome! Thanks for the review it looks like another must have budget light for sure. The beam shots are great as well. This light has an excellent price to lumen ratio and the only downfall I can see is runtime/heat. You usually don't run a light for that long anyways though.

If you want a cheap way into a P7 light it looks like this is it.

 

[Tally-ho]

I don't like much the 3 positions clicky that is "on - on (with resistance for low) - off". The LED is direct driven.
It was my first SSC P7 flashlight and i was very late to realize that the gommy dome was a little bit milky/depolished compared to others.

Cons:
-LED pill won't unscrew

It is quite easy to unscrew the pill from the front with tweezers or snap-ring pliers inserted in both screws.

 

[randomlugia]

It really is a must-have! I think it's the best light you can get for the money. It's a little too big for a pocket light, though. And I'm not so sure about EDC, mostly because of the lack of a low-low mode. But for the daytime and using a holster it would be great!

Tally-ho, I don't mind the UI at all, as it doesn't seem hard to have to click it twice to come on low. I've seen these "milky" emitters before, but my Aurora is fine. At least they don't seem to cause any problems except lack of throw... I've also tried that plier method, but it wasn't coming out and I didn't want to break it by pushing to hard. The Spiderfire came out no problem, so I figured it was glued.