NLightD T90 Andúril Flashlight Review
NealsGadgets has released the NlightD T90, a Luminus SBT-90.2 flashlight with Andúril! New light, new brand! Read on for testing! It’s quite a beast!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the product page at nealsgadgets (referral link).
Versions
I believe there is just one version of the T90.
Price
These are going for $119.95 at the moment. I believe NealsGadgets is the only place to get them.
Short Review
I don’t like the unnecessary claims of “6500 lumens” (didn’t even come close) but the throw is respectable, and the SBT-90.2 beam profile is quite pleasing. Also overall the build quality is great, and mine was already calibrated to 21°C out of the box!
Long Review
The Big Table
| NLightD T90 | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Luminus SBT90.2 |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $119.95 referral link to NealsGadgets.com |
| Cell: | 1×21700 |
| Turbo Runtime | High Runtime |
| LVP? | Yes |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 6500 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 1034 (15.9% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 38.4 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 910 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 990lux @ 5.929m = 34802cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) (at 30s) | 373.1 (41% of claim)^ |
| Measured Lumens (at zero seconds) | 4342 (66.8% of claim)^ |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) (at zero seconds) | 4990lux @ 5.969m = 177789cd^ |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) (at zero seconds) | 843.3 (92.7% of claim)^ |
| All my NLightD reviews! | |
^ Measurement disclaimer: I am an amateur flashlight reviewer. I don’t have $10,000 or even $1,000 worth of testing equipment. I test output and such in PVC tubes!! Please consider claims within 10% of what I measure to be perfectly reasonable (accurate, even).
What’s Included
- NLightD T90 FLashlight
- Lanyard
- Spare o-rings (2)
- 21700 to 18650 adapter
- Manual
Package and Manual
Sorry, the manual scan’s a bit of a mess. The page was bigger than my scanner would fit, and I had to cut the page down a bit…. but you’ll get the idea.
Build Quality and Disassembly
The build quality of this completely new brand (or … new to me?) really reminds me of Lumintop. That makes sense overall since the light is very Lumintop-esque. A tailswitch e-switch light with Andúril….
This one’s well designed though because the head has such cooling fin design.
The only branding you’ll see on the light is engraved into the button. Interestingly the name NlightD is shortened to NLD…. wonder where that came from (hint: reddit.com/r/flashlight!).
The body of this light looks very similar to the recently reviewed Nightwatch NSX4, but with much thicker and deeper cooling fins. These cooling fins make a great flashlight shape!! I do wish the cooling fins had broken edges – a very tiny 45° angle on both side edges of the cooling fins would really set the build quality off. For that matter, the same thing would be nice on the tritium slots. These edges are not sharp, but they seem to be just the right … something … to be absolute dust and fuzz magnets.
Also note that there are tritium slots all over this light, three of which can be seen near the bezel here.
The body is completely smooth. I had to hold the clip in my hand in a certain way to get the body as tight as it needs to be when putting the light together.
The tailcap has both teardrops and tritium slots, too.
More teardrops on the front end.
The light is designed to come apart between the head and the body. These threads are quite long but very smooth.
They’re anodized, well lubed, and square-cut.
The head has two springs actually, one of which makes contact with the positive of the cell. The other spring connects with the inner sleeve (more on that later) and gives power to the e-switch.
That bigger spring looks like it’d come out but it seems to be captured.
An adapter is included for using 18650 cells.
The e-switch of the T90 needs power, so that’s provided with this inner sleeve.
The sleeve is not captured which is a little surprising. It’s also not the same on either end so will fit into the light in only one way. Below you can see that way – the lip goes toward the head.
Both ends have springs.
The tailcap is removable too, but as with all the other FW-type lights, I recommend removing the head for cell swaps. You are less likely to run into problems with the e-switch this way.
Below is just a fun photo. The light doesn’t work this way of course. 🙂
With the emitter on low, you can see how well the reflector is picking up all the light. Also, you can get a hint of PWM here, too.
The bezel is very finely toothed. Not a strike bezel, but it does let a bit of light escape when headstanding. I believe the bezel is stainless steel.
Size and Comps
Weight: Approximately 209.2 g without cells
Size: 50 mm Ø head x 137 mm length x 26.5mm tube
If the flashlight will headstand, I’ll show it here (usually the third photo). If the flashlight will tailstand, I’ll show that here, too (usually the fourth photo).
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
A two-way pocket clip is included and attached from the factory. This is a collar-style clip, and not necessarily the “standard” two-way clip. It’s a “good enough” clip, though.
The pocket clip has multiple holes which can serve as lanyard attachment points, too.
There’s one hole for the lanyard right on the shoulder.
The included lanyard will probably be most at home in the tailcap hole, though. The light will still tailstand with the lanyard installed here.
Power and Runtime
The NlightD T90 is powered by a single lithium-ion cell. It requires a 21700, but there’s an adapter for use with an 18650. I tested the light with the cell seen below – a Molicel P42A, which I also tested separately.
The adapter is just a plastic sleeve with an aluminum button. An 18650 can slip into this sleeve comfortably.
The cell fits into the T90 in the usual way – positive terminal toward the head.
Below you can see three runtimes. These are the highest three modes – on Andúril I’m not sure what to call “medium.” Turbo steps down hard and fast, and even still doesn’t hit the 6500-lumen claim. I checked calibration on the light, and I was reading 21°C out of it, which was an appropriate reading – as such I did not further calibrate the light. Also around 45 minutes the thermal sensor became dislodged from the light, and so that measurement is no longer relevant on this test.
With as much cooling as this light has, I would like to see the highest stepped mode to be higher than around 1100 lumens. That’s quite low, and the temperature readings support the idea that this could be much higher. I think sustained 1500 to 1800 lumens would not be too much to ask.
The second highest stepped mode (labeled generically “Medium” below) finally has relatively flat output, once it settles.
The light steps down to very low output to indicate low cell voltage. This seems to happen around 3V, which makes sense because it’s an Andúril light.
Modes and Currents
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens | Tailcap Amps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo (double click from on) | 6500 | – | 1034 | ? |
| Highest Stepped | – | – | 663 | ? |
| 7 | – | – | 501 | ? |
| 6 | – | – | 402 | ? |
| 5 | – | – | 203 | ? |
| 4 | – | – | 99 | ? |
| 3 | – | – | 40 | ? |
| Lowest Stepped | – | – | 1 | ? |
| Lowest of ramp | – | – | ~ | ? |
Pulse Width Modulation
Andúril has PWM, we know this. The highest two modes are PWM-free. Really the PWM is fast enough that it’s not really noticeable, so I wouldn’t worry too much about it.
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, with 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
The UI on the Nlightd T90 Andúril flashlight is just like many other FW series I’ve reviewed, so there’s no point rewording it.
The interface for this light is a tail clicky, but unusually, it’s an e-switch.
The button itself is metal (with that rubber cover under it), and has a very minimal amount of travel (1mm or less). Despite being a very big switch, it’s possible to actuate from anywhere on the surface – even the tiniest fingernail on the very edge will still work.
I checked the firmware revision of my review copy (15 clicks from off) and it is the 20190928 version of Andúril.
I’m dropping in ToyKeeper’s newest UI diagram, which includes some features my light does not have. The firmware reset, for example, and also the secondary emitter options – but the graphic itself as a whole is much better.
Here’s a UI table anyway!
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Hold | On (Low) |
| Off | Click | On (Mode Memory) |
| Off | Click 2x | Highest Hybrid Mode |
| Off | Click 3x | Blinkie Mode Group |
| Off | Click 4x | Lockout |
| Off | Click 5x | Momentary |
| Off | Click 6x | Muggle |
| Off | Click, Click, Hold | Strobe Group (Mode Memory Strobe) |
| Strobe Group | Click 2x | Strobe Cycle (Candle > Bike Flasher > Party Strobe > Tactical Strobe > Lightning Storm) |
| Blinkie Mode Group | Click 2x | Blinke Cycle (Sunset > Beacon > TempCheck > BattCheck) |
| On | Click 3x | Switch between Stepped and Smooth Ramp |
| On | Click 4x | Ramp Configuration |
| TempCheck | Click 4x | Thermal Configuration |
| Beacon | Click 4x | Beacon Configuration |
| Lockout | Click 4x | Off |
| Off | Click 15x | Andúril version check (blinks YYYYMMDD, zero is a very short blink) |
| Strobe Group | Click | Off |
| (Basically) On | Click | Off |
| Candle | Click 3x | 30 minute timer to off |
| Strobe Group | Hold | Heighten selected mode (Make faster or brighter) |
| Strobe Group | Click, Hold | Lessen selected mode (Make slower or dimmer) |
| On | Click 2x | FET Turbo |
| Ramp Configuration | [Wait for Single flash] Click N time for level N. | Selection of the “Low” you like best by clicking 1, 2, 3, etc. where 1, 2, 3, etc are different levels of low. |
| Ramp Configuration | [Wait for Second flash] Click N time for 1+Turbo-N. | Selection of the “Ceiling” you like best by clicking 1, 2, 3, etc. where 1, 2, 3, etc are different Ceiling levels. |
| Ramp Configuration | [Wait for Third flash] Click for how many steps you want in Stepped mode. | Sets Number of Steps. |
| Thermal Configuration | [Wait for First flash] Click for N times for N degrees C. | Displays Current Temperature. |
| Thermal Configuration | [Wait for Second flash] Click for N times for 30C + N. | Sets Temperature Limit. |
| Beacon Configuration | [Wait for First flash] Click for N times N seconds per flash | Sets Beacon Speed. |
LED and Beam
The star of the NlightD T90 is a Luminus SBT-90.2 emitter. This thing really is a beast, and it’s paired with a smooth deep, and big reflector.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
Beamshots
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 keep the test flashlight on the left, and the BLF-348 reference flashlight on the right.
I compare everything to the KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!
Conclusion
What I like
- Nice build quality
- Fun use of the Luminus SBT-90.2 emitter
- Output is really fantastic (briefly)
- Lowest output is useful
- Good clip, and decent use of two-way clip
What I don’t like
- Output drops just way too quickly
- Sustained output on highest stepped level is too low
- Cell isn’t included
Notes
- This light was provided by NealsGadgets for review. I was not paid to write this review.
- This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
- For flashlight-related patches, stickers, and gear, head over to PhotonPhreaks.com!
- Please use my amazon.com referral link to help support zeroair.org!
