sofirnSC31T Rechargeable Flashlight 2000 Lumens, Pocket Flashlight with Powerful SST40 6500K LED, for EDC Camping Hiking Fishing Dog Walking (SC31T-Kit)

The Sofirn SP31 is my third review of their newer flashlights. This may be their finest offering for the price as of yet. This company keeps putting out great products at a cheap price (SP31 is $17.86 today plus a 5% coupon discount = you can get a nice light for only $16.10). This price includes a bunch of items and features that I'll address now.BOX SET INCLUDES:*SC31 Flashlight*Sofirn 2200mAh button-top battery*Lanyard*Stainless steel clip*USB charging cable*InstructionsQUICK OVERVIEW:The USB charging port makes this a perfect travel companion and easy to use light. Since its basttery is an 18650 rechargable, all you need is the USB cable and an iPhone adapter. That's it. This flashlight travels with you. It also has a blue light behind the switch - a nice feature to use in the night. You can set it to "breathing mode" as an indicator which helps you to find it in the dark. It has 3 levels (low = 10 lumens, med = 200 lumens, high = 610 lumens). The strobe mode is at 610 lumens as well which may be useful for scaring off dogs - I really never use strobe funtions on my flashlights (yep, I have wayyyy too many!). The light tailstands nicely and is very light in the hand. There are more powerful lights (see pictured BLF A6 for example) around the same size, but I don't know any with so many nice features built in. It is the best bundle for the money that I know of in an entry-level, nice general-purpose 18650 light.WHAT I LOVE:*Price for features is amazing*Nice feel in hand - good quality*Lighted switch - usually found on more expensive lights*Nice clip*USB rechargeability is HUGE plus - my favorite feature on light*Battery included is plus (it does work with flat-top Samsung 30Q as well)WHAT COULD BE IMPROVED:*The Cree XPGS is a little too cool white for me - I prefer more neutral tint (tints are very subjective, however)*I would love one more level between low and mediumI did find the medium setting to be perfect when walking my dog, and the low very nice indoors. The high at 610 lumens is plenty for most people (overkill in fact). The beam is a nice combo of throw and flood for general usage.RECOMMENDATION:Without hesitation I recommend this light for a variety of purposes - especially with built-in USB charging!*Travel - compact and light*Gifts (men love lights, ladies :) - they will play with it for a long time (you can get caught up on Netflix :)*Camping (can recharge with external battery while camping)*Car (every car needs a light)*Home (multiple locations: garage, bedrooms, living room)*In desk at work*Night walks*WorkbenchSofirn keeps putting out great bargain lights. See my other reviews of the high powered SP32A V2.0 and the SP10A (AA/14500 flashlight). All of these are great for the money. Sofirn also has the 4-battery Q8 out now - an amazing big and powerful light (5,000 lumens). With new ones on the horizon, this company is one of my favorites and other flashlight geeks are taking notice .Keep up the great work, SOFIRN!!!!!!-MCT

I have recently been updating/upgrading my household flashlights. I have had too many devices ruined by leaking AAs lately, so I am moving to lithium ion rechargeable batteries. I have now tried a range of flashlights from the ultra-cheap to a premium brand. The is what I have learned.Price: Sofirn is clearly trying to be a near-premium flashlight at a moderate price. The SC31T is a clear example of that. At $30ish the SC31T is 3 times the price of the cheapos, but 1/3 the price of the premium makes. Personally, I think this is a great spot.Battery: The SC31T uses a standard 18650 lithium rechargeable battery, so you get all the advantages. It won't leak, unlike AA alkaline batteries. Rechargeable, but won't run down on the shelf anywhere near as quickly as (even hybrid) NiMH rechargeable batteries.Features: The SC31T has most of what I would expect from a premium flashlight, and everything you won't find on a $10 flashlight: battery low voltage protection, overheat protection, reverse polarity protection, water proofing (IPx8). In other words, unlike the cheap flashlights, you aren't going to wreck your battery by inattentiveness or the flashlight by dropping it in water. Also, the battery can be recharged in the flashlight using a standard USB cable, unlike the cheap brands. There is no power brick, but you can use any brick you already have from a phone, or computer, or whatever. With the cheap brands, you either get a super cheap external charger (that often borders on dangerous), or you buy a decent charger. And lest I forget, the side button lights up green/flashing green/red/flashing red when you turn on the flashlight, so you know the state of the battery. That's usually missing in the cheap products.Controls: The premium brands can have an overwhelming array of modes accessed with various short, long, and hold combos of the control button. Once you figure it out, this can be really cool, and occasionally useful. The cheap brands are almost always of the "one click to cycle through the modes" interfaces which are easy to use, but ends up being annoying when you have to click through the flashing modes you never use. The SC31T hits a wonderful middle ground. The tail button turns the flashlight off and on (in the last used mode). The side button (in default mode) cycles through just the brightness settings. Yay! In other words, just what you want 98% of the time. You can use the combos on the side switch to get to flashing or ramping modes, but the 4 brightness steps of the default is still the most useful to most people. Oh, the turbo (maximum brightness) mode is a double click on the side button, so that's easy to remember. One thing to keep in mind: the SC31*PRO* has the complicated, one-button control, not the simpler 2-button controls.Build: to a non-aficionado like me, it's really hard to tell the difference between the construction of the SC31T and the premium brands. Its solid. The buttons feel good. Maybe the rubber boot on the tail button is a little oversized. This is a "tube style" flashlight, which means its really compact. Not much bigger than the battery plus the light head. In my opinion, the SC31T is small enough for a purse, pocket, or car cubby, without the limited duration and light of a keychain flashlight. Small enough to carry just about anywhere, but big enough to have something to hold. The body threads are nice, deep, and solid. The o-rings provide water proofing. You can't scuba dive with it, but dropping the SC31T in the water isn't going to kill it. Don't overlook the big head and tail springs for the contacts. That means the SC31T will take just about any 18650, button top or flat, protected or not.Brightness: For a little light, the SC31T really shines. :) That's because it has a good LED (STS40), instead of a cheap clone. The driver uses overheating protection, so the "turbo" maximum mode only lasts a few minutes (like all these flashlights) until the protection kicks in and reduces the brightness. The brightness levels nicely divide the brightness vs duration scale, and you can switch to ramped mode for even more control if you want. The SC31T uses the "hot center for distance and dimmer cone for flood" type beam like you'll find on the premium brands. The "slider focus" of the cheap brands sounds good in theory, but in reality it means you give up a whole lot of light when narrowing the beam for distance viewing. The brightness will taper off as the battery discharges, rather than keeping a strictly controlled brightness like the best flashlights. However, the tapering isn't as ugly as the dirt cheap clones, and it does have an actual cutoff (to protect the battery).If you haven't been able to tell by now, I really like the SC31T, given its reasonable price. I feel like it gives me 90% of a premium brand at 33% of the price.

I went for SC31T for three main reasons:1- Size, do not wish to have bulky flashlights2- Brightness and interface to use it (this one is complicated)3- Battery option / charging optionThe size of the flashlight vs. the brightness and battery size is excellent. It fits in most pockets easily and it is not bulky.The brightness is high, not sure I would call it 2000 Lumens, but it is up there and not like others it is NOT an over-exaggeration. A high output (Turbo) the unit gets warm fast thus it is not intended to be used for a long time. I have not tracked the battery life yet, but it seems the battery is of descent quality, but I can't confirm the indicated 3000ma to be the actual capacity of the battery (remains to be seen if you will).The interface to me is complicated thus I gave it FOUR stars, if not this is a FIVE stars flashlight. You have two buttons to manage the options/outputs (Rear and top switch). You have modes where it goes from L to M to H, to Turbo or SOS, then if you hold it seems it goes into a 'dim out' mode where it the output is lowered from High to Low in 4 seconds (gradual mode I call it). I presume they wanted to satisfy everyone with all of the possible options out there we all know you can't make everyone happy. All in all, for the money it is a great flashlight (about $35).

With many flashlights getting more and more complicated, with modes, modes, and more modes, and sometimes confusing ways to navigate through them, sometimes even turning a light on/off can be an exercise in futility for those people not familiar with user-interfaces. If you're a flashlight enthusiast, you learn, and adapt, but for people who just want something simple, it can be daunting.The SC31 is nice and simple, perfect for "muggles". A simple click-on/click-off interface is enough for most people. The SC31 is just that, a side-switch to control everything. Click it to turn it on, click it again to turn it off. Done.If you want it brighter or dimmer, just hold the button to run through simple low/medium/high settings. For 99% of the population, that'll be all you need to know.And that's the secret of the SC31, simplicity. It comes with an included 18650 cell, and has usb charging. No need to even open up the light once you remove the insulating disk (that keeps the light from being accidentally turned on when in transit). After that, everything's done.Click on, click off. Hold to change settings. You can ignore doubleclicking (from on *or* off) to get to strobe if you don't need it or want it. That's it. Battery runs low, plug it into a usb port or usb charger (with the included cable) to top it off. The lit side-switch will blink when charging, go steady when it's done.I've been carrying it around for a week, and can say this is a light you can give to someone and have it pass "the grandma test". Ie, if grandma can figure out how to use the light without instructions, it passes. :DSo... included cell, usb charging, simple UI, that's 99% of what anyone needs to know about the light. Other features are doubleclick for strobe, *if* you need/want it. And the lit side-switch has "breathing" mode in case you want to be able to find it in the dark. Hold the sideswitch when off for a few seconds, and this mode turns on. The switch will "breathe" (fade up/down in brightness) as a find-in-the-dark indicator. Click any time to turn it off. Using the light also turns it off. This way you don't even have to remember to turn it off when not needed.The beam itself is the usual neutral-white Sofirn adopted, nice and neutral, not Angry Blue as cheaper lights have. The beam itself has some minor tint-shift, a yellowish corona around the hotspot, fading to a bluer ring on the outside, but nothing too objectionable. No hideous rings or other artifacts.The light is itself fairly lightweight, easy to carry without getting "pocket fatigue". Perfect anodisation in a semigloss black, no nicks or bare spots anywhere, not even on knurling or any edges. The diamond knurling is nice and grippy without wearing holes in your skin or pockets.It's got a perfectly flat tailcap, lending itself to perfect tailstanding, no raised lip around the edges to make it wobbly. But then there's no hole for a lanyard, if you really really want one (I don't). In fact, you can Stoopit-Gloo a disk magnet to the perfectly-flat end and make it a magnetic-mount light to stick to a fridge or under the hood of a car or something.It's got 3 nicely spaced modes. Low is really low, perfect for middle-of-the-night jaunts when you don't want to ruin your night-vision. Medium is a good general-purpose light level. High is the rated 600lm, plenty bright for those tasks that need it. And while it's not 1000lm, 1200lm, 1500lm, like pricier lights (with more complicated UIs), it's still plenty bright. And there's no need to worry about overheating issues or anything.The multifunction backlit switch is nice, soft without being too mooshy, shows the charging status (blink when charging, steady when done), "breathing" for finding it at night, and battery status when turned on (blue with good battery power, blinking when low).Cons? I'm still not a fan of standard pocket-clips, and almost always immediately remove them. I prefer deep-carry clips so you don't end up with a third of the light sticking out of your pocket, and "standard chrome" just clashes with the color of the light. It's an incredibly sturdy clip (maybe even too much so), but it just *looks* cheap, even though it's not. Same material, shaped into a deep-carry clip, would be awesome, and really round out the light (and make it black to match the light).Also, the rubber flap over the usb port always seems to catch on things, opening it up. Even on a pocket when taking out the light. And once it's opened, it makes it real easy to catch on other things and possibly get torn off. I did find myself repeatedly reclosing it and smooshing it down as much as possible, to no avail. It may sound tacky, but taking a piece of tape to cover the flap would help, and keep you from losing it if it would get torn off.Even with minor cons, all around it's a great light, but for under 20bux *with* cell and all its features, it's an amazing value. And for muggles who probably don't want to pay twice or more for "just a flashlight", it's perfectly tailored for them.So... in summary, it's a nice little light, perfect for muggles who don't need to light up a whole football field when the lights go out. For keeping in a pocket, in a car, on a nightstand, it's *the* perfect light to have. The simple UI, the included cell, and built-in usb-charging, also make it a perfect gift (and just in time for Christmas!). I was half-expecting a yawner, but liked it enough to get a second one. :D

******************************************UPDATE 10/7/2019 FOR THE SC31B***************************************Since it appears that Amazon will not have separate reviews for the SC31B, I’ve edited my initial review for the SC31 with this add-on to cover it. I’ve left that initial SC31 review intact as, except for the new LED and its performance, it remains valid for the SC31B as well.The Sofirn SC31B is an upgrade to the SC31 and so has similar features and appearance. The SC31B utilizes the SST-20 LED as opposed to the XPG3 in the SC31...an increase in lumens from 610 to 1000...and an increase from 3 light modes to 4 well-spaced modes in order to better utilize the increase in power. Those modes and run times are listed in the online description.The SST-20 LED die has a relatively small footprint and is similar in size to the XPG3…so it is a good choice to maximize throw (distance viewing) in a tube light. I was impressed with the throw the SC31 was able to deliver in a 610 lumen light...but the SC31B adds nearly 50% more throw and, with 207 meters, is one of the better tube light throwers I’ve seen.That is due to its relatively small hot spot as well as the increase in lumen output. However, it has totally adequate flood to provide a broadviewing area at closer distances.The one con of the SC31B, for me personally, is the color temperature of the LED. Its a cool white at 6500 K. I considered the SC31 to be a neutral white and that’s my preference. So the SC31 wins on that score. That said, you may prefer a cool white, but in any case, if you want a compact thrower, cool white is not that big of a price to pay.In summary, the SC31B represents a significant performance boost to an already great light.*************************************************************************************************************************The SC31 is an excellent light for someone wanting a simple user interface (UI). Just like the lights of old, it is turned off and on with a single click of the switch…while still offering 3 different levels of lighting which are accessed with a hold down of the switch after turn on. Short of a single mode light, its about as simple a UI as you can get. The online description is a bit lacking so my purpose here is to provide a more comprehensive review to provide answers to questions some may have.Build quality, as on all Sofirn lights I’m familiar with, is top notch. Well anodized and solidly built. Both the head and tail cap have anodized threads to allow lock out of the light with a simple ¼ counterclockwise turn to the tail cap…a useful feature with an electronic switch. Its rated to withstand a drop of over 3 feet and over 6 feet of water submersion. It comes with spare O rings, a lanyard, and a charging cable…but no power supply. Not an issue if you have an Android Smart Phone…its charging power supply will work perfectly. Otherwise, you can use the USB port on your computer.There is no place to attach the lanyard to the tail. The only choice is attaching it to the clip. So, I don’t consider the light to be compatible with a lanyard. The flat tail does make for an easy tail stand for use during a power outage.Springs on both the tail cap and head allow use of a flat top battery.I would consider the beam to be a neutral white. However, the hotspot is on the cool side of the spectrum while the spill or flood tends to be warmer. There is a tint shift across the beam…more noticeable on a white wall than in outdoor use.The reflector is of the orange peel type to provide a smoothed out beam. The lens has no AR (Anti-Reflective) coating.The clip is reversible by simply switching the position of the tail cap and head on the battery tube. This allows the light to be clipped to a hat brim for free hand use… Few lights have this feature.I checked the voltage of a freshly charged battery…4.20 volts…so charging system works great.In a tube type light such as this, the smaller sized die of the XP-G3 LED, improves the throw over what would be provided by an XM or XP-L LED at equal lumen output. It provides plenty of light for most purposes. To put that into perspective, the 600 lumen SC31 has a listed beam throw of 154 yards as opposed to 167 yards for the 1300 lumen SP32A V2.0 with an XP-L2 LED (one of my favorite lights). The light has a well-defined hot spot which is noticeably smaller than my XP-L tube flashlights. This light does have thermal protection in that it steps down to 400 lumens after 5 minutes and then to mid and low as the battery drains.Although not listed in the online description or the manual, my light has memory. That means it remembers the light setting it was on when it was turned off. Turn it on again and you will have that setting. It also has strobe which is accessed by two quick clicks. A single click returns it to the setting that it had when strobe was activated. I would prefer it have no strobe as I have no use for it and find it really irritating when it is built into the normal mode sequence. At least the strobe on this light is hidden.I didn’t test this light for LVP (low voltage protection). LVP is not listed online or in the manual and I would take a guess in saying it doesn’t have it. However, if you use protected batteries this would not be an issue as the battery will shut down when low voltage is reached. Also, a rapidly blinking switch provides a warning when voltage becomes low…turn off the light when that happens and you’ll be fine with an unprotected battery. The light comes with a 2200 mah 18650 battery that appears to be a protected one. That is far from state of the art in capacity….which currently stands at 3500 mah and that is what SOFIRN used in determining run time. So, If you are using the 2200 mah battery, the listed run times need to be adjusted by multiplying by about 60% due to the capacity difference. The listed run times for each mode are:Lumens/Run time………..High (600)/2 hr 42 min…….Med (200)/9 hr 7 min…….Low (10)/179 hr 33 minNote that you are not going to run this light on high for nearly 3 hrs. That value represents how long the light will provide usable light on high…stepped down lumens are counted.This light is a great choice for users wanting an easy-to-use versatile flashlight. No need to remember whether to use short clicks, intermediate clicks, or long clicks and how many clicks to use for accessing features. Its ready to use right out of the box so makes an excellent gift choice.