Lumintop GT Nano Titanium Flashlight Review

The Lumintop GT Nano Titanium flashlight is out. And you thought the aluminum was all the rage! I was excited about it from the start, and it’s just as fun as you think it should be. Read on for some thoughts and testing!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a referral link to the Lumintop GT Nano Titanium product page

NealsGadgets.com.

Versions

Of course, there’s the aluminum version – I reviewed it already. There’s brass (which I also reviewed twice!) and copper. Lately, there is titanium (seen here), which is available in three finishes. These all have the same emitter. Mine is the “Polished” version. Also available are stonewashed and sandblasted.

Lumintop GT Nano Titanium Price

Titanium, as seen in this review, is going for $79.95. The other two finishes are a couple of dollars more. Pretty good deal! Mine came from NealsGadgets.com.

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Short Review

I already loved the aluminum. I love the brass version a ton. I don’t think this light could be more fun. It’s the least expensive “most impressive” light I own. If you’re a titanium junkie, then this light is a must-have.

Long Review

The Big Table

Lumintop GT Nano Titanium
Emitter:	Osram CSLNM1.TG Flat White (1mm)
Price in USD at publication time:	$79.95
Cell:	1×10180
Turbo Runtime Graph	High Runtime Graph
LVP?	Warning, then off
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (mA):
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	Micro-USB attachment
Charge Graph
Power off Charge Port	–
Claimed Lumens (lm)	450
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	187 (41.6% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	66.3
Claimed Throw (m)	350
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	431lux @ 5.286m = 12043cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	219.5 (62.7% of claim)^
All my Lumintop 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

• Lumintop GT Nano Titanium Flashlight
• 10180 Cell
• Lanyard
• Keyring and hook
• Micro-USB charge attachment
• Spare o-rings (2)
• Charge cable (USB to micro-USB)
• Manual

Lumintop GT Nano Titanium Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

The Lumintop GT Nano Titanium has the look of all the other GT series lights, it’s just made of titanium! So it’s perfect in this regard.

I think the labeling has been improved from the black aluminum version, but I don’t know if the serial issue has been fixed.

Those little fins on the head for cooling are super narrow! You can see it later, but this is a very slight design change from the aluminum version. In fact, these cooling fins seem even broader than the brass cooling fins!

The bezel on my copy unscrews very easily.

The body has nice knurling, as usual.

The threads display clearly the fact that this is a titanium flashlight. They’re just as gritty as titanium threads always are.

In the tail end, there’s a big tall spring. The head has only a button for contact.

I found the driver to be “not snug” but it has to be lined up so that the e-switch operates. So tightening causes the e-switch to be off and not work. I’m not sure what’s the solution here. Probably a retaining ring?

Size and Comps

Officially:

Weight: Approximately 34g without cells
Dimensions: 24mm x 52.5mm

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.

Below you can see that the brass and titanium versions are ever so slightly changed from the aluminum. They are slightly longer, and I think the difference is in the cooling fin area.

Retention and Carry

A lanyard is included for carry of the GT Nano Titanium. It attaches through a loop on the tailcap.

Also included is the key hook. With that, you’ll use the tiny split ring in the lanyard hole and then hook to the split ring.

Honestly, the split ring is probably the best bet off the top – I tried and couldn’t get the lanyard to install in this tiny hole in the tailcap.

So just plan it this way – split ring attached to the light, then either lanyard or key chain hook to the split ring. That’s likely the intended way.

There’s no pocket clip or magnet or pouch.

Power and Runtime

The Lumintop GT Nano Titanium is powered by a single lithium-ion cell. What ships and is intended for the light is a single 10180 cell – a tiny cell! These are rated at 80mAh capacity, which is a tiny capacity.

The cell is standard – slight button top.

I’ll add that Lumintop makes (and NealsGadgets.com sells) a 10440 cell extension tube for this titanium light. Just like it does for the brass, which I reviewed fully here. If you’re buying the light, you should definitely also buy the 10440 cell tube.

The 10180 fits into the GT Nano in the usual way – positive (button) end toward the head.

Here are a few runtimes. The output on this light is quite fantastic (even disregarding just the actual throw of it). You’ll note a couple of stepdowns in the runtimes – the light flashes a few times at every step down.

These runtimes are very short but, again, this is an 80mAh cell. You can’t reasonably expect extended runtimes.

I didn’t do any testing with a 10440 cell or AAA-sized body with this light. You can see my first GT Nano review for those runtimes. They’d be very similar to that testing.

Note that the manual says the GT Nano draws 2.5A on turbo. If that was the case (meaning if turbo was limited to 2.5A) then the 10440 wouldn’t have any effect on the emitter at all. But what this statement seems to mean is that a 10180 can only output 2.5A, which is what turbo is, thusly. However – and bear this in mind – the driver actually seems to be unregulated, meaning it’ll take whatever current you give it. So a 10440 cell has a higher max discharge, and you might experience some blue output. If you do, cease use of that cell. It’s “too good” for this light. There’s my disclaimer – use a 10440 at your own risk! (Read below for max current data.)

Charging

Included for charging is a “charge head.” It’s brass and has some plastic bits for protection. The plastic dome on the top (below) actually has charge indicators, too. Red for charging, and green for charging complete.

The little plastic bit seen below just unscrews – I suppose it’s just there for protection.

Here’s how the charging head fits the GT Nano. It of course can’t be used while the flashlight head is installed.

The GT Nano also has a charge adapter. Lumintop includes a cable – USB to micro-USB. It’s a very short cable.

Charging is a reasonable 0.1A or around 1C. Charge is very consistent and terminates reliably at 4.18V. Both very good things.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
Turbo	450 (100%)	–	187	>4
4	40%	–	188	1.18
3	15%	–	111	0.32
2	1.5%	–	9	0.03
Moonlight		–	0.3	0.01

Pulse Width Modulation

Narsil has PWM on moonlight (left) and 2 other intermediate modes. Turbo doesn’t have PWM though, and the 15% doesn’t either. I don’t notice the PWM on any mode, however.

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

The user interface is a single side clicky. An e-switch, with a red indicator. The switch looks huge on this tiny light, but overall, it’s still not a huge switch.

It’s also very domed and has a sort of “squishy clicky” action. With other versions, I said the following:

While I could not always count on a click to do what I expected, it did seem to be better than the “appx 70% reliability” I found for the aluminum version. (This did not diminish my opinion of the light, though, even if it should have. It’s just too much fun.)

But I think it’s just that the driver was not aligned properly. I’m not sure how to maintain alignment, but if your switch seems to be problematic, just adjust your driver with tweezers until the switch acts right.

The user interface is exactly as on the other GT lights. This will be a copy-paste of that UI. I also always set these lights to stepped for testing, since it gives specific modes for testing. But ramping is all the rage, and I like it fine too, so it’s nice to be able to switch between the two.

The user interface itself is a version of Narsil, by Tom E. The version my light shows is Narsil 1.3. (Check this by clicking 3x, then 2x, then 2x, and the version will be blinked. 1 blink, pause 3 blinks.)

The user interface is much too complex for my usual table, and I’m not going to undertake that here. This Cheat Sheet is not my work! but is very useful, and thorough.

There are two groups. One group has ramping, one group has discrete modes. It’s possible to switch between ramping and discrete easily. The default is ramping, and to switch to modes, first turn on the light, then hold the switch for 3.2s. It’ll blink twice, pause, and blink once. At that point, click once. This disables ramping. Once this is done, put the light down so you don’t change other settings (which is very easy to do.) There are other things you could do to expedite termination of programming, but just skip it and wait.

Narsil is wonderful firmware. It’s extremely versatile, and possible to change many (most? all?) of the settings about the light.

LED and Beam

The beam selected for this Nano thrower is an Osram Flat White emitter. Really the perfect choice. It’s specifically a CSLNM1.TG, the 1mm version of Flat White. This means it’s cooler (maybe 6500K), but also the emitting surface is smaller (1mm squared) so the throw is excellent.

The reflector is smooth and deep.

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. This is the stepped output.

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. This is the stepped output.

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

Conclusion

What I like

• Finally a titanium Lumintop GT Nano? And all the finishes!
• Performance (output) is excellent
• The “to scale” vs other GT’s is incredibly well done
• Very good charging

What I don’t like

• Output on Turbo claimed at 2.5A, but in fact, seems unregulated (so beware if trying to use a 10440 cell)
• Parasitic drain is massively high with the switch backlight turned on (but just turn that off! Then parasitic drain is massively low.)

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Notes

• This light was provided by NealsGadgets.com 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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