Convoy S12 Flashlight Review

The Convoy S12 Flashlight is a new 21700 light, with some pleasant eggy Luminus SST-20 emitters.  Read on for testing!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the banggood product page.

Versions

There’s only one body, but a bunch of emitter options here.  The S12 is available in:

Nichia 219C 4000K
Nichia 219C 5700K
SST20 2700K
SST20 4000K – This is my review copy.
SST20 5000k
SST20 6500k

Price

The going price is $29.99.  Buy yours at banggood!  Clicking that link helps me be able to post reviews just like this one!  Buying helps even more!

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Short Review

This is a fun light, and I really like the 4000K SST-20.  They’re very warm, and I find that very pleasant.

Long Review

The Big Table

Convoy S12
Emitter:	Luminus SST-20 (4000K)
Price in USD at publication time:	$29.99 on BangGood
Cell:	1×21700
Turbo Runtime	High Runtime
LVP?	Yes
Switch Type:	Mechanical
On-Board Charging?	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	2300
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	1353 (58.8% of claim)^
Claimed Throw (m)
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	358lux @ 5.254m = 9882cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	198.8^
All my Convoy reviews!

^ Measurement disclaimer:  Testing flashlights is my hobby. I use hobbyist-level equipment for testing, including some I made myself. Try not to get buried in the details of manufacturer specifications versus measurements recorded here; A certain amount of difference (say, 10 or 15%) is perfectly reasonable.

What’s Included

• Convoy S12 Flashlight
• Lanyard

Package and Manual

Just like the other Convoy box recently, this one was fairly abused.  The light was in perfect condition, though.  It’s in bubble wrap, inside this container.

There is no manual.

Build Quality and Disassembly

Build quality is exactly on par with other Convoy lights.  No better, no worse.  This light is only $29, so it’s well built for that price.

There is no knurling – instead, there is some line feature on the body.  The tailcap also has some unusual designs.

The head has shallow fins and a reasonable amount of mass.

The tailcap has an adequate grip area for unscrewing and swapping the cell.

There’s an easily removable stainless steel bezel.

The cell tube is different on the head and tail end.  The tail end has anodized threads, but the head has unanodized threads.  That does mean the tube is not reversible.

Both head and tail have springs (which increases the available cell-size options), and both areas are already spring bypassed.

The bezel unscrews easily, and the reflector then comes out too.

The emitters are easily accessible.

Head and tailstanding are possible.

Size and Comps

Diameter (Head/Body) 34.6 x 27.4 mm
Length 134 mm
Weight 124g

Quite a reasonably sized light, for being a triple 21700 light.

Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+.  Mine’s a custom “baked” edition Nichia 219b triple.  A very nice 18650 light.

And here’s the light beside my custom engraved TorchLAB BOSS 35, an 18350 light.  I reviewed the aluminum version of that light in both 35 and 70 formats.

Retention and Carry

The only included option for carry is the already-attached lanyard.  It’s installed a bit wrong, but that’s easy to fix.

There is no pocket clip.  There is no pouch.

Power and Runtime

The primary power for the S12 is a single 21700.  With springs on both ends, any type 21700 should fit and work just fine.  The S12 will also work with other cells like 18650 or 20700, too.

You’ll likely want a fairly high-quality cell because the S12 draws around 5A on 100% output.  Here’s a runtime on 100%.  Basically, the light starts at 100% and then tracks down just a little before settling out at around 1000 lumens.  After that output falls as cell voltage falls.  The emitter flashes to alert low voltage at around 3V.  This flash is noticeable and quite dramatic because at this point the output can still be as high as 700 lumens.  So a flash from 700 lumens to off for a second is quite noticeable.  And the light does eventually shut off, at around 2.85V.

High is pleasantly flat for almost 2 hours, with a 3750mAh cell.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
100%	100%		1353	5.00
30%	30%		537	1.55
3%	3%			0.18
0.1%	0.1%			0.03

Pulse Width Modulation

There is no PWM detected on this light.

For reference, here’s a baseline shot, with all the room lights off and almost nothing hitting the sensor.  Also, here’s the light with the worst PWM I could find.  I’m adding multiple timescales, so it’ll be easier to compare to the test light.  Unfortunately, the PWM on this light is so bad that it doesn’t even work with my normal scale, which is 50 microseconds (50us). 10ms.  5ms.  2ms.  1ms.  0.5ms.  0.2ms.  In a display faster than 0.2ms or so, the on/off cycle is more than one screen, so it’d just (very incorrectly) look like a flat line.  I wrote more about this Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight and explained a little about PWM too.

User Interface and Operation

Neither the Convoy official page nor the BangGood page describes the UI of this light.  And with no manual, I’m kind of just free-wheeling it.  That said, it’s probably mostly like other single switch Convoys – the T2 for example.  This does not seem to be Biscotti.  And it’s exactly like the M21B I just reviewed.

Here’s a UI table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	On (Mode Memory)
Off	Half Press	No Action
On	Half Press	Mode Advance (LMHT)
On	Click	Off

There does not seem to be any strobe (yay).  Also no shortcut to anything (boo).

LED and Beam

This is a triple, and my review copy has three Luminus SST-20 emitters.  These are 4000K, though other temperatures are available.  I quite like the 4000K and would recommend it.  There’s even a 2700K, which would be soooo warm.  So warm.

Each emitter has a shallow reflector.

These beamshots are always with the following settings:  f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure.

Tint vs BLF-348 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)

I compare everything to the Killzone 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!

Random Comparisons and Competitive Options….

Here’s a link to a relevantly filtered page on parametrek.com.  I use that site a lot!  You could of course drill your search down any number of ways, but I didn’t turn up any other 21700 SST-20 lights.  So this is your only option in that regard!  It’s a good choice either way.

Conclusion

What I like

• Inexpensive with good build quality
• Nice beam profile

What I don’t like

• No UI manual (and too basic UI)
• Specs are generic (and so the light “doesn’t meet it’s claim,” though I think the claim is for a different emitter option).

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Notes

• This light was provided by BangGood for review. I was not paid to write this review.
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