ThruNite Neutron 2A review - A Layman's Perspective

AardvarkSagus

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ThruNite Neutron 2A

ThruNite has just unleashed his new Neutron series to the public and many people will find them very familiar feeling. Will that familiarity develop into love of a tried and true concept or boredom with a lack of new and interesting?


ThruNite Neutron 2A

Meat and Potatoes

The ThruNite Neutron series in general immediately gives off an impression of other lights named after subatomic particles. Its UI is intensely familiar to fans of both the 4Sevens Quark line and the majority of Fenix's products. A simple 2 line interface with a total of 7 modes at your disposal will take little getting used to before you are able to easily find your desired mode.

Fit and finish of the Neutron 2A is quite superb actually. I was privy to some of the early renderings and was fortunate enough to be able to offer occasional suggestions during its development. This light has come a long way since its initial concept sketches and is now quite mature in its design. The knurling coating the vast majority of the light provide excellent grip and look fantastic in the process. The machine work is quite superb and there aren't any over sharp edges to be found. Even the stainless steel bezel ring has minute chamfers keeping it from being too great a pocket shredder.

Powered by 2 common to find AA cells, the Neutron 2A feeds that energy to the new-kid-on-the-block Cree XM-L LED. This giant LED situated in such a narrow textured reflector creates a beautifully smooth, floody beam. The hotspot on this light is almost completely undefined, with such a wide transitional corona and bright spillbeam. This light takes its 255 lumens and spreads it thickly covering a very wide area. There are hardly any artifacts to be found. The more I use lights on a daily basis, the more I find the floody ones to be to my liking for EDC purposes. Throwy lights definitely have their place, but as far as general usefulness, it's hard to beat a beam like this.


Cree XM-L

Constructive Criticism

The biggest difference in UI styles to the aforementioned torches is the inclusion of memory of your last used mode. This can be a useful option since you won't have to cycle up from the uber-low firefly mode in order to reach a mid-level lighting if that is more your preference, but it also creates a bit of a frustration forcing you to have to cycle through brighter lights and the SOS if you are only interested in using minimal output. This may be to some of your preferences so it could be less of a critique than an encouragement, but for me, I like my lights to be more predictable than that. If I haven't used a light for a couple of days, I want to be able to grab it in the middle of the night and know without a doubt what it will look like when I activate it
.
This light has one very puzzling aspect to it that I haven't yet been able to figure out. The head and tail threads are physically compatible with each other allowing you to reverse the body (and as such, reverse the pocket clip) however because one set of threads is anodized to give you lock out ability, it also prevents the light from being used in this reverse method. A light that is capable of being clipped to the brim of a ball cap is actually an incredibly useful talent. This light can do so, but can't be turned on when configured as such. I was a little disappointed to discover this.


Pocket Clip

Conclusions

The ThruNite Neutron series is a pleasant refresh of tried and true concepts. Nothing extremely new and noteworthy except the latest and greatest emitter. That beautiful beam though might just be the best reason to love it.


ThruNite Neutron 2A

Provided for review by the kind folks at ThruNite.
 

popedandy

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Mar 10, 2011
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After reading your review, I also took a look at goinggear's youtube review to get a good look at the beam pattern. I've been looking for something with a floody beam and it looks like this might be what I've been waiting for.
 

brett_kartracer

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Mar 11, 2011
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That is interesting about the anodized body threads. The quarks have anodized tail cap threads instead, which serves the same purpose yet allows reversal of the head/tailcap.
 

scot

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Thanks for the review. Did you notice any PWM on the lower settings?
 

PCS

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After reading your review, I also took a look at goinggear's youtube review to get a good look at the beam pattern. I've been looking for something with a floody beam and it looks like this might be what I've been waiting for.
If you're interested in lights with a neutral, floody beam, David/Thrunite is promising them now that Cree has announced their neutral XM-L's. I'm really looking forward to it.
 

stickx

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VERY disappointed that the disco light is still on the 1 st mode and that you have to cycle through it because of the memory. I would buy this in a second if it didn't have memory.
 

AardvarkSagus

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If you are considering the head tightened mode to be the first mode, yes, there is a strobe there. Thing is, there is only that and Max so it's not really much of an issue thanks to the memory. Having to cycle past SOS though is annoying in the general use mode.
 

Xak

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I can't wait for 4Sevens to bite on this. His will be interchangeable with his other lights and probably 1/2" shorter in general than the competing ThruNites.

The ThruNites look like fantastic lights, though. If 4Sevens doesn't bite I'll be getting a neutral, perhaps warm tint AA ThruNite someday (if they go with the newer tints that is).
 

harlequinn

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Dec 12, 2004
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Australia
I have a Neutron 2c. There is noticeable PWM on one particular middle mode (2nd dimmest). Other modes (the next two levels brighter) are less noticeable but it is still there. This should be remedied - LED torches have been around a while now, all developers should know what persistence of vision is and test their PWM accordingly (is 1kHz minimum too much to ask for?).

The battery spring is not strong enough, if you shake the light along its length it switches modes when the contact momentarily disappears. This only occurs with some battery brands. This should be fixed.

The switch is way too sensitive. It takes the lightest touch to change modes (less than 1mm depression). This is very annoying and needs to be remedied.

The beam is perfect for backyard/around the house/close to camp use. Its good for about 40 meters in the brightest mode. There is a useful selection of modes and the twist to select full brightness is nice.

So, this torch (the one I have here) has three (3) moderate defects that I have to live with. Its saving grace is the useful amount of modes, good beam profile and excellent build quality (save the switch).

From my experience with this one particular torch, I doubt I'd recommend it to anyone else in its current state.
 
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Outdoorsman5

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I don't like the memory function of this light, so I will hold off on buying it. It's a shame because I really want a 2AA light with the XM-L emitter. I love floody lights for their utility, and already have some good throwy lights like a quark turbo & an eagletac m3c4 xm-l.
 

harlequinn

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I actually think the memory function works quite well. With the head unscrewed it remembers the last mode used and with the head screwed in it always turns on in high - even if strobe was the last mode used.
 

shelm

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Dec 8, 2011
Messages
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ThruNite Neutron 2A

ThruNite has just unleashed his new Neutron series to the public and many people will find them very familiar feeling. Will that familiarity develop into love of a tried and true concept or boredom with a lack of new and interesting?

(photo) of ThruNite Neutron 2A

Meat and Potatoes

The ThruNite Neutron series in general immediately gives off an impression of other lights named after subatomic particles. Its UI is intensely familiar to fans of both the 4Sevens Quark line and the majority of Fenix's products. A simple 2 line interface with a total of 7 modes at your disposal will take little getting used to before you are able to easily find your desired mode.

Fit and finish of the Neutron 2A is quite superb actually. I was privy to some of the early renderings and was fortunate enough to be able to offer occasional suggestions during its development. This light has come a long way since its initial concept sketches and is now quite mature in its design. The knurling coating the vast majority of the light provide excellent grip and look fantastic in the process. The machine work is quite superb and there aren't any over sharp edges to be found. Even the stainless steel bezel ring has minute chamfers keeping it from being too great a pocket shredder.

Powered by 2 common to find AA cells, the Neutron 2A feeds that energy to the new-kid-on-the-block Cree XM-L LED. This giant LED situated in such a narrow textured reflector creates a beautifully smooth, floody beam. The hotspot on this light is almost completely undefined, with such a wide transitional corona and bright spillbeam. This light takes its 255 lumens and spreads it thickly covering a very wide area. There are hardly any artifacts to be found. The more I use lights on a daily basis, the more I find the floody ones to be to my liking for EDC purposes. Throwy lights definitely have their place, but as far as general usefulness, it's hard to beat a beam like this.

(photo) of Cree XM-L

Constructive Criticism

The biggest difference in UI styles to the aforementioned torches is the inclusion of memory of your last used mode. This can be a useful option since you won't have to cycle up from the uber-low firefly mode in order to reach a mid-level lighting if that is more your preference, but it also creates a bit of a frustration forcing you to have to cycle through brighter lights and the SOS if you are only interested in using minimal output. This may be to some of your preferences so it could be less of a critique than an encouragement, but for me, I like my lights to be more predictable than that. If I haven't used a light for a couple of days, I want to be able to grab it in the middle of the night and know without a doubt what it will look like when I activate it
.
This light has one very puzzling aspect to it that I haven't yet been able to figure out. The head and tail threads are physically compatible with each other allowing you to reverse the body (and as such, reverse the pocket clip) however because one set of threads is anodized to give you lock out ability, it also prevents the light from being used in this reverse method. A light that is capable of being clipped to the brim of a ball cap is actually an incredibly useful talent. This light can do so, but can't be turned on when configured as such. I was a little disappointed to discover this.

(photo) of Pocket Clip

Conclusions

The ThruNite Neutron series is a pleasant refresh of tried and true concepts. Nothing extremely new and noteworthy except the latest and greatest emitter. That beautiful beam though might just be the best reason to love it.

(photo) of ThruNite Neutron 2A

Provided for review by the kind folks at ThruNite.

Other reviewers dont stop babbling so your short reviews are very refreshing. Concise but contains the most important points of personal insight. Good job, thanks!!

The folks at ThruNite must have been very pleased with your sharp writing :thumbsup:
 
Last edited:

Bolster

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Oct 7, 2007
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Mexifornia
Do the recent Thrunite 2As still have the wobbly head? I owned one briefly but could not get used to the loose feeling head so returned it. Has that been modified or changed?
 
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