Preface
While this is a light, it’s not really a typical flashlight. And to be honest I’ve had it on a shelf to review for a while and I’m going to put it on the “Tuesday” (aka “not a flashlight”) review day. So here are my thoughts on this little solar powered hanging light, the Zanflare SB-6039.
Official Specs and Features
Versions
There’s only one version of this tent light.
Price
Currently this light is going for $15.72 at GearBest.
Short Review
This isn’t an extremely exciting light, but it does have it’s uses. Ultimately it ends up being a bit cumbersome, and I’d probably end up using a different style tent light from this one. But when hanging and being used, it lights a tent well!
Long Review
What’s Included
- Zanflare SB-6039
- USB to micro-USB cable (not pictured)
- Manual
Package and Manual
The SB-6039 ships in a cardboard box. Nothing special, but it has a nice illustration and some printing.
Build Quality and Disassembly
This tent light is mostly plastic, which is good because that keeps down weight.
The solar panels are covered with a protective film from the factory.
The three arms fold up, so the light is fairly compact. They don’t click into place, but they aren’t just free to move around, either.
You can see the light folds up fairly compactly. There is no pouch for carrying. A pouch would have been a welcome addition, especially since the solar cells are essentially exposed all the time.
I did disassemble this light. There are 6 Philips screws, to start.
The inside is fairly uninteresting. Each of the arms connects via two thin wires to the pcb. There’s a tiny LiPo pouch battery under the pcb.
Size
Officially, closed, this is 62.7mm x 149.8mm. Fully open, that makes the max possible diameter around 300mm.
Retention
This is a hanging light, and there’s a hook built in for this purpose.
The hook collapses into the body.
The hook work well in a tent! My tent has a hook in the center for this kind of purpose, and the Zanflare lights the tent adequately after dark.
That’s it for carry. There isn’t a pouch, which is a bit of a travesty for the product.
Power
There’s a built in [basically] non-replaceable lipo battery. Of course this means there’s on-board charging. There’s a micro-USB port on the body, covered by a rubbery boot. It’s probably not the most secure cover I’ve ever handled, but in general I wouldn’t rely on this device to be waterproof anyway.
Here’s the cable. Just a regular cable.
During the teardown, I revealed the pouch cell. It’s labeled as a 102540, 680mAh cell.
There’s a LED just over the charge port. When charging, the LED is red. When charging is finished, this LED turns green.
Of course there’s the solar powered option as well. They are not large solar cells, but Zanflare claims 4 hours in sunlight will charge the 680mAh cell completely.
User Interface and Operation
There’s one tiny switch, and it’s on the body of the light. There’s not much relief on the button, which makes it a little hard to press.
The UI is easy, of course. Click for high, click again for low, click for strobe, and finally, click for off. The modes must be cycled every time in order to get the light to “off”.
LED and Beam
There are a bunch of emitters in this light – 18 for the main output (“19” since technically the charge port has one. Gotta be sure to mention that….). They are unspecified emitters, and cool white. The beam pattern is entirely flood, as you’d want for a light of this application.
On low, I can see a small amount of PWM, which is unfortunate. It’s not bad, and not even so bad as to be a little off-putting. But I notice it.
Conclusion
What I like
- Having a dedicated hanging tent light is convenient, and this one works well for that.
- On-board charging of the small cell is convenient.
What I don’t like
- Carry without a pouch is inconvenient
- PWM on low mode
- Must go through SOS to get to Off
Up Next
Tomorrow I have on tap the Rofis MR30. Later in the week, who knows what’ll happen! Probably a charger review or two. Stay tuned!
Notes
- This light was provided by GearBest for review. I was not paid to write this review.
- This content originally appeared at zeroair.wordpress.com. Please visit there for the best experience!
- Whether or not I have a coupon for this light, I do have a bunch of coupons!! Have a look at my spreadsheet for those coupons. It’s possible to subscribe and get notifications when the sheet is edited!!
