Seeknite SK03 Titanium Flashlight Review

The Seeknite SK03 titanium flashlight was a light that hit Banggood not too long ago.  I think it’s been around a while under other names, but I got in at the preorder price and couldn’t say no.  So here’s a Fun Fund Friday review of it!

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Official Specs and Features of the Seeknite SK03 Titanium flashlight

Here’s a link to the sales product page.  That’s an affiliate link

Versions

There are versions: Silver and Sandstone (seen here.)

Price

I paid around $13 for this light in the preorder, but I think it’s around $25 now.

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Short Review of the Seeknite SK03 Titanium flashlight

I love the host of this light.  I don’t love the emitter, and unfortunately, it’ll take tier-2 level skill to swap it.  I like that it’s a single mode light.  Overall honestly it’s fantastic except for the 6500K emitter.  It lacks some things that it should have – namely o-rings, however.

Seeknite SK03 Titanium flashlight Long Review

The Big Table

Seeknite SK03
Emitter:	Cree XM-L2 (6500K-7000K)
Price in USD at publication time:	$24.69 on banggood (affiliate link)
Cell:	1xAAA
Turbo Runtime	High Runtime
LVP?
Switch Type:	Mechanical
On-Board Charging?	No
Claimed Lumens (lm)	–
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	37
Candela per Lumen	9.1
Claimed Throw (m)	50
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	48lux @ 2.643m = 335cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	36.6 (73.2% of claim)^
All my Seeknite 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

• Seeknite SK03 Titanium flashlight
• Plastic carry case

Package and Manual

There is no manual.

Build Quality and Disassembly

I opted for the “Sandstone” version, and I’m extremely pleased that I did.  The finish is just wonderful – probably the highest quality aspect of the whole light.

Some have wondered if this is actually titanium.  I mean for $13 (preorder) or even $25, that’s a perfectly reasonable question!  I can say with enthusiast-level certainty that this is definitely titanium.

If you have titanium lights, you know how I know this.  It’s the threads.  The threads on titanium lights are almost never as-smooth-as-you-want-them-to-be-for-what-you-paid.  But in this case, for what you paid, the threads are probably appropriately smooth.  Anyway more on that later.  Suffice to say:  this is titanium.  (It even tastes like titanium.)

The tailcap has a little bit of knurling, and to my eye, this knurling isn’t on the right axis with the body.  While that bothers me more than it should, the knurling itself is actually very well executed, and functional.

The head is completely smooth.  In fact, the body is mostly, too.  The head doesn’t have any reliefs to allow light out when headstanding.  Some flutes would be very neat!

The body has a nice slim profile, and the tapers outward for the head and tail.

Here’s some more detail on the threads.  They’re square-cut, not very long, and I don’t believe lubed at all.  You can also see here one of the few places with an o-ring.

The head guts are held in place by a brass retaining ring.  This unscrews easily.

The tailcap comes off in the same way.  The body is not the same on either end, so the cell tube is not reversible.

The tailcap (right) also has a brass retaining ring, which also is easily removed.

Here’s a little on-bench detail of the parts.

You can see the MCPCB below – the driver and emitter and battery contacts are all one board.

If you are able to reflow emitters with a hot air station, then you can probably do a swap on this.  But if you have no hot air, it’ll be much harder.  See below, the bottom of the board.  It’s full of components, not the least of which is a big brass barrel for connecting the positive of the cell.

The optic is exposed on the front of the light.  Also, there’s no o-ring.  So the front of the optic (at right below) presses against the titanium body.  I wouldn’t call that waterproof at all.

Just a quick “further proof” that this is titanium – when removing the pocket clip, I scarred the body in a “very titanium” way.

Here are the guts from the tailcap.  That’s a reverse clicky switch.

The tailcap has a nice big spring.

Size and Comps

Officially 75mm long, 17mm diameter in the head, and 15mm diameter in the tail.

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 pocket clip is included and installed from the factory.  I believe this clip to also be titanium.  It has the same finish as the body.

The friction fit pocket clip fits only on the tail end of the light, and can’t be flipped.  As such, this light won’t do as a hat light.  Really too bad, it could have been perfect in that role!  But I’d rather have no hat light capability than changing the body in such a way that the pocket clip could go either way.

Nothing else is included for carry.  I wouldn’t call the plastic box a carry case!

Power and Runtime

The Seeknite SK03 titanium flashlight is powered by a single AAA-sized cell.  It will only work with 1.5V cells – so alkaline, NiMH, or lithium (but not lithium-ion) cells.  I tested exclusively with a NiMH Eneloop AAA cell.  This cell works well in the light.

The cell goes into the light in the usual way:  Positive toward the head.  Below I’ve shown removing the head for cell installation, but it’s equally right to install the cell through the tail end.  I don’t like twisting the body against the clip, though.

The light has just one mode, and here’s the runtime on that mode.  I believe the claim is 4 hours, and while the Banggood comments saying the lumen output is “350 lumens” that’s obviously and definitely not the case.  It’s not advertised as that, though.  Just a wrong answer to a question on the sales page.  But be aware.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
On	–	–	37	1.04*

Pulse Width Modulation

There isn’t any pulse width modulation on the one mode!

Here you can see a “baseline” – a chart with almost no light hitting the sensor.

Then there’s the Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight, which has some of the worst PWM I’ve seen. It’s so bad that I used a post about it to explain PWM! Here are multiple timescales (10ms, 5ms, 2ms, 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.2ms) to make comparing this “worst” PWM light to the test light easier. That post also explains why I didn’t test the WF-602C at the usual 50us scale.

User Interface and Operation

There’s a single switch on the SK03.  It’s a reverse clicky.

The clicky has a metal cover and is very proud.

There’s quite a long action on the switch.  It’s really a very pleasant switch to click.  That said, the switch cover (the metal bit) has a good bit of wobble over the top of the plastic switch on the inside.

Here’s a user interface table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	On
On	Click	Off
Off	Quadruple half click	World Peace^

^ Just kidding, quad half click doesn’t do anything.

LED and Beam

The emitter of choice on the Seeknite SK03 titanium flashlight is a Cree XM-L2.  That emitter is under a spot version of an optic.

I wouldn’t pick Cree XM-L2, and certainly not this cool white one at 6500K-7000K.  I do like the TIR though, but this one seems to not sit over the emitter just right, so the beam has some artifacts.

Like I said about swapping the emitter: I wish, but you’ll need hot-air-reflow skills to do so.

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

Beamshots

These beamshots always have the following settings:  f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure. These photos are taken at floor level, and the beam hits the ceiling around 9 feet away.  You can see the artifacts in the beam clearly below.

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

• Inexpensive titanium host
• Simple UI
• No PWM
• Spot optic
• Very good pocket clip

What I don’t like

• Cool white outdated emitter
• Beam profile is not very smooth

Ultimately I’m not sure this is a good host, which is mainly why I bought it.  The lack of o-rings is one part, but the single MCPCB is the other.  I don’t know of any good drivers like this, and ultimately I question the waterproofness.

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Notes

• This light was provided by me for review. I was not paid to write this review.
• This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
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