narmattaru
Enlightened
YLP (Yarkiy Luch "Professional", that means "bright beam") is a Russian brand. So for most of you this must be the very 1st time when you meet this name.
To be honest, for a long time I treated YLP as usual uninteresting OEM brand that sells uninteresting flashlights. But this summer I red quite positive review of YLP`s zoomy F20 FALCON, and then YLP announced this keylight and very, very interested headlamp YLP "Panda". So it turned to be that YLP finally came to developing their own flashlights. And results of this decision definitely deserve to be reviewed.
So I got this keYLPight and "Ballista 3.0" longthrower.
You can order Scorpion here at EBay.
As Nitecore TIP is a closest rival of this kelight , i`ll compare them here.
Stated characteristics.
PACKAGE AND APPEARANCE
Scorpion comes into small neat cardboard box.
Inside we see keylight itself + manual.
What about retail package, it is good enough to serve as gift.
I have to mention that my keylight has forum print "fonarevka" and serial number "78"
Regular ones goes completely black without these prints.
Keylight is made from aluminium, with excellent matte anodization, that feels like soft-touch. Clip is really tight, so after some taking it on and off, i`ve seen no scratches at keylight`s surface at all.
Button is big and convenient. During several days of carring Scorpion in pocket i`ve faced no occasional turning on. That «cogwheel» around button is nothing but print. Before I took keylight in hand, I had thought that this is some kind of button, so I feel this is a necessary detail to mention.
Scorpion has regular micro-USB charging port. I measured 0.2A charging current and 372mah capacity. But after keylight turns off, I can turn it on over and over again, until battery gets completely drained.
As I didn`t it and started to charge keylight after 1st turning off, I get this less numbers. I`m sure that charging after completely draining battery will show this stated capacity.
And there is an interesting feature of keylight. It can work while being charged. So user can connect it to powerbank and use a portable source of light with good runtime. I`d recommend not to use max mode in this case, because 165 lumes is too much for such compact size (24x62x11 mm; 0.94x2.44x0.43 in) that cannot provide decent heat dissipation.
Though Scorpion has SMO reflector, light is the same which you get from OP one :blurred, with no hotspot. Exactly the kind of light that you expect to get from keylight.
After 2-3 days of playing with this stuff, I can say that YLP Scorpion has an impressive build quality which i`d expect from "big 3"`s (F.\O.\N.) products. There is no gaps, it feels like solid piece of metal.
Unlikely, Nitecore Tip surprises so much with open micro-usb charging port. Why and how did they come to this idea?!
And i`ve heard that coating of TIP is weak and gets shabby unexpectably fast. And as far as I remember there is a PWM-shimmering at low-modes. Of course, I must admit that price of TIP is also less.
UI
Basic line modes – medium and maximum output:
Short click turns on the flashlight in medium mode, repeated short click in 3 second interval turns on max mode. Press and hold when light is ON changes medium and maximummodes in circle. Short click after 3 second of working turns the light off.
Auxiliary line modes – minimum output, red and UV-light:
Press and hold when the light is OFF turns on auxiliary modes. Continue holding the button change modes in circle (min-red-UV). The chosen auxiliary mode is stored in memory. Short click turns the light off.
I got used to it in some hours.
Battery discharge indicator LED in button informs that battery is low with red light (when the flashlight is ON).
Two-color LED in button indicates the battery-charging process: red light – charging, green light – charged.
YLP SCORPION AT WORK
Stated runtime
high (165 lm) ~ 1 hour
mid mode (60 lm) 2,5 ~ hours
low mode(8 lm) 20 ~ hours
Light gets little bit dimmer after 2-3 minutes, then in next 20 minutes it gradually decreases to 100-120 lumens and keep this level right until 5 minutes before turning off, when it gets little bit brighter than mid mode. I suppose chances that you use keylight for more then 5-7 minutes are so loooow, so user can expect continuous max brightness for these reasonable 5-7 minutes
Pencil test didn`t revial PWM-shimmering at any mode.
Red light is bright enough for 1-2 meters range. When eyes are already adapted to darkness, distance can be even longer.
UV LED does what it suppose to do. But it is quite weak, so you don`t expect too much from it. I think 0.5m is maximum working distance for it.
Here is a comparing of nichia vs xp-g. I suppose you guys know this difference, so this`ll show you nothing new. I just say that colors looks natural, thanx to Hi-CRI LED and light is convenient to eyes.
Here is the same settings (ISO and so on) for both YLP Scorpion and TIP.
In reality, eye sees a way less difference, without this overexposing. Below is a pic of it, I choose setting to show real visual difference. BTW, I must admit that TIP offers these 360 lumens only for about 1 munute, then it stepdowns to the same 150lumens of YLP Scorpion in max mode (165, to be exact) .
The same "visual" difference.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
YLP made really good keylight, that will not disappoint user. Compact, bright and well-made. UI let you easily access any mode with only one button.
Brightness levels are reasonable for any occasion, HI-CRI light is convenient to eye-vision.
I know, that this positive words about product of completely unknown manufacturer (and when review example was provided with it) may seem too sweet, but I`m honest here – YLP managed to make their Scorpion really good.
To be honest, for a long time I treated YLP as usual uninteresting OEM brand that sells uninteresting flashlights. But this summer I red quite positive review of YLP`s zoomy F20 FALCON, and then YLP announced this keylight and very, very interested headlamp YLP "Panda". So it turned to be that YLP finally came to developing their own flashlights. And results of this decision definitely deserve to be reviewed.
So I got this keYLPight and "Ballista 3.0" longthrower.
You can order Scorpion here at EBay.
As Nitecore TIP is a closest rival of this kelight , i`ll compare them here.
Stated characteristics.
- Neutral white LED Nichia 219C 80CRI, 5000К
- Integrated high capacity Li-PO battery, 400mAh
- Max beam distance 35 m
- Max output 165 lm
- 3 brightness modes: 165 Lm (1 h runtime), 60 Lm (2,5 h), 8 Lm (20 h);additional red and UV-light
- Simple operations – two modes in basic line (max, med) and three modes in auxiliary line (low, red, UV)
- UV LED 385 nm
- Battery discharge indicator LED in button
- High quality body made of aircraft aluminum with hard anodizing
- Impact resistant ultra-clear glass lens with AR coating
- USB-rechargeable
- Water resistance IPX6
- Impact resistance 1 m
- Removable clip
PACKAGE AND APPEARANCE
Scorpion comes into small neat cardboard box.
Inside we see keylight itself + manual.
What about retail package, it is good enough to serve as gift.
I have to mention that my keylight has forum print "fonarevka" and serial number "78"
Regular ones goes completely black without these prints.
Keylight is made from aluminium, with excellent matte anodization, that feels like soft-touch. Clip is really tight, so after some taking it on and off, i`ve seen no scratches at keylight`s surface at all.
Button is big and convenient. During several days of carring Scorpion in pocket i`ve faced no occasional turning on. That «cogwheel» around button is nothing but print. Before I took keylight in hand, I had thought that this is some kind of button, so I feel this is a necessary detail to mention.
Scorpion has regular micro-USB charging port. I measured 0.2A charging current and 372mah capacity. But after keylight turns off, I can turn it on over and over again, until battery gets completely drained.
As I didn`t it and started to charge keylight after 1st turning off, I get this less numbers. I`m sure that charging after completely draining battery will show this stated capacity.
And there is an interesting feature of keylight. It can work while being charged. So user can connect it to powerbank and use a portable source of light with good runtime. I`d recommend not to use max mode in this case, because 165 lumes is too much for such compact size (24x62x11 mm; 0.94x2.44x0.43 in) that cannot provide decent heat dissipation.
Though Scorpion has SMO reflector, light is the same which you get from OP one :blurred, with no hotspot. Exactly the kind of light that you expect to get from keylight.
After 2-3 days of playing with this stuff, I can say that YLP Scorpion has an impressive build quality which i`d expect from "big 3"`s (F.\O.\N.) products. There is no gaps, it feels like solid piece of metal.
Unlikely, Nitecore Tip surprises so much with open micro-usb charging port. Why and how did they come to this idea?!
And i`ve heard that coating of TIP is weak and gets shabby unexpectably fast. And as far as I remember there is a PWM-shimmering at low-modes. Of course, I must admit that price of TIP is also less.
UI
Basic line modes – medium and maximum output:
Short click turns on the flashlight in medium mode, repeated short click in 3 second interval turns on max mode. Press and hold when light is ON changes medium and maximummodes in circle. Short click after 3 second of working turns the light off.
Auxiliary line modes – minimum output, red and UV-light:
Press and hold when the light is OFF turns on auxiliary modes. Continue holding the button change modes in circle (min-red-UV). The chosen auxiliary mode is stored in memory. Short click turns the light off.
I got used to it in some hours.
Battery discharge indicator LED in button informs that battery is low with red light (when the flashlight is ON).
Two-color LED in button indicates the battery-charging process: red light – charging, green light – charged.
YLP SCORPION AT WORK
Stated runtime
high (165 lm) ~ 1 hour
mid mode (60 lm) 2,5 ~ hours
low mode(8 lm) 20 ~ hours
Light gets little bit dimmer after 2-3 minutes, then in next 20 minutes it gradually decreases to 100-120 lumens and keep this level right until 5 minutes before turning off, when it gets little bit brighter than mid mode. I suppose chances that you use keylight for more then 5-7 minutes are so loooow, so user can expect continuous max brightness for these reasonable 5-7 minutes
Pencil test didn`t revial PWM-shimmering at any mode.
Red light is bright enough for 1-2 meters range. When eyes are already adapted to darkness, distance can be even longer.
UV LED does what it suppose to do. But it is quite weak, so you don`t expect too much from it. I think 0.5m is maximum working distance for it.
Here is a comparing of nichia vs xp-g. I suppose you guys know this difference, so this`ll show you nothing new. I just say that colors looks natural, thanx to Hi-CRI LED and light is convenient to eyes.
Here is the same settings (ISO and so on) for both YLP Scorpion and TIP.
In reality, eye sees a way less difference, without this overexposing. Below is a pic of it, I choose setting to show real visual difference. BTW, I must admit that TIP offers these 360 lumens only for about 1 munute, then it stepdowns to the same 150lumens of YLP Scorpion in max mode (165, to be exact) .
The same "visual" difference.
OVERALL IMPRESSION
YLP made really good keylight, that will not disappoint user. Compact, bright and well-made. UI let you easily access any mode with only one button.
Brightness levels are reasonable for any occasion, HI-CRI light is convenient to eye-vision.
I know, that this positive words about product of completely unknown manufacturer (and when review example was provided with it) may seem too sweet, but I`m honest here – YLP managed to make their Scorpion really good.
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