Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT Flashlight Review
The Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT flashlight is one that got lots of testing! All the CCT options… Great demonstration light though! Read on!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT Flashlight product page.
Versions
There is only one version of the Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT Flashlight.
Price
The list price for the Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT Flashlight without a cell is $59.95. The cell adds another $10 or so.
Short Review
I figured this light would be “eh” but it’s actually a quite interesting experiment. It’s also exceptionally useful to be able to demonstrate specifically what CCT is to your friends. Or just random people, if you don’t have any friends. Random people around me certainly got the lesson!
Long Review
The Big Table
| Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Cree XP-L HI (6500K) (x2), Nichia 219c (3000K) (x2) 3000K Setting |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $59.95 |
| Cell: | 1×18650 |
| Turbo Runtime Graph | High Runtime Graph |
| LVP? | Yes |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 1700 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 1291 (75.9% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 2.3 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 250 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 222lux @ 3.724m = 3079cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 111.0 (44.4% of claim)^ |
| All my Lumintop reviews! | |
| Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Cree XP-L HI (6500K) (x2), Nichia 219c (3000K) (x2) 4000K Setting |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $59.95 |
| Cell: | 1×18650 |
| Turbo Runtime Graph | High Runtime Graph |
| LVP? | Yes |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 3150 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 2254 (71.6% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 2.2 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 250 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 217lux @ 3.688m = 2951cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 108.7 (43.5% of claim)^ |
| All my Lumintop reviews! | |
| Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Cree XP-L HI (6500K) (x2), Nichia 219c (3000K) (x2)
4500K Setting |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $59.95 |
| Cell: | 1×18650 |
| Turbo Runtime Graph | High Runtime Graph |
| LVP? | Yes |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 3150 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 2264 (71.9% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 2.4 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 250 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 426lux @ 3.585m = 5475cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 148.0 (59.2% of claim)^ |
| All my Lumintop reviews! | |
| Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Cree XP-L HI (6500K) (x2), Nichia 219c (3000K) (x2)
5000K Setting |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $59.95 |
| Cell: | 1×18650 |
| Turbo Runtime Graph | High Runtime Graph |
| LVP? | Yes |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 3150 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 2276 (72.3% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 2.5 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 250 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 372lux @ 3.918m = 5710cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 151.1 (60.4% of claim)^ |
| All my Lumintop reviews! | |
| Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Cree XP-L HI (6500K) (x2), Nichia 219c (3000K) (x2) 6500K Setting |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $59.95 |
| Cell: | 1×18650 |
| Turbo Runtime Graph | High Runtime Graph |
| LVP? | Yes |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 2250 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 2264 (100.6% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 2.5 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 250 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 265lux @ 3.931m = 4095cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 128.0 (51.2% 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 FW4X Variable CCT Flashlight
- Spare o-rings (2)
- Glow diffuser top
- Manual
Package and Manual
Build Quality and Disassembly
You’ll immediately recognize the Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT flashlight as being very much part of the “FW” series of lights. Aside from the larger head, it looks essentially the same as a Lumintop FW3A, which I’ve reviewed in many formats.
As with other FW lights, there’s knurling on the tailcap (where you don’t really need it).
And there’s knurling on the head (exactly where you do need it.)
Inside you can see both head and tail have springs.
Typical build setup here with the Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT Flashlight. There’s an inner sleeve, which allows the tail-e-switch to function properly. Threads on the tail are unanodized.
Here’s the kicker about this FW4X. I’ll talk about it more later, but while this is a quad emitter flashlight, there are two sets of two emitters!
I believe this is a standard Carclo quad optic.
Size and Comps
Size: 92.5mm x 28.7mm x 21.8mm
Net weight: Approximately 65g without cell
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
The only way included for carrying the Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT flashlight is the pocket clip.
It’s a collar-type clip, and the collar has a slightly larger diameter than the body. The clip is steel, and not incredibly thick; thick enough to be useful, but thin enough to be springy.
There’s also a hole in the top and bottom of the clip, on to which a lanyard might be connected.
Power and Runtime
The Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT flashlight is powered by a single 18650 cell. Springs on both ends means any type 18650 can be used, but the max length is 66mm (which by definition rules out many protected cells, many button top cells, and probably all protected button top cells.)
I tested this light with a Samsung 30Q 18650.
Below you can find ten runtime graphs. I tested both Turbo and High for every CCT. I thought it’d be…. interesting? Telling? In some way. Most of the stuff you can see below you could also guess. For example, the Nichia 219c will have a lower total output vs the Cree XP-L HI. Past that I’m not sure you can say just all that much about the differences, because of the way the light is being driven. It certainly pushes the emitters hard initially but after a minute or so, both high and turbo step down dramatically. Then it’s just rinse-and-repeat until the low voltage protection kicks in around 3.0V. In every one of these 10 tests, the light did not shut off, but was on an output level that my sensor can’t see.
Modes and Currents
Instead of rewriting the modes table, I’m just going to paste what Lumintop wrote. It’s comprehensive.
Very important note about that table: The rightmost column is listed only as “Strobe” but it’s also the “Turbo” column.
Pulse Width Modulation
Many of the lower modes have PWM. There are a couple of High modes without, but more interestingly we can see that the PWM when the emitters are being mixed for the “middle” CCTs are on different schedules (or whatever you’d like to call it.) This doesn’t matter, but it’s just an interesting tidbit of PWM information.
Notably from here on out, the photos are always in the order as follows:
3000K
4000K
4500K
5000K
6500K
And from lowest mode to highest 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
The interface for this light is a tail clicky but is 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.
You’ll note that this switch has a laser engraved Lumintop Bunny logo.
Despite being a pretty typical build of the FW series light, the Lumintop FW4X Variable CCT flashlight does not get Anduril. This has a Lumintop’s-own non-ramping user interface, which allows easy access to switching the CCT.
Lumintop provides a couple of great graphics for the user interface, too.
Here’s a user interface table! I’ll mention how to pick the desired CCT first because after that the user interface is the same no matter what CCT you’re in.
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Double Click | “Tints Config” Stepped Section (CCT selection) |
| On in “Tints Config” Stepped Section (CCT selection) | Click | CCT Advance (3000K>4000K>4500K>5000K>6500K) |
| On in “Tints Config” Stepped Section (CCT selection) | Double Click | Tint selected |
| On in “Tints Config” Stepped Section (CCT selection) | Hold | Ramp up CCTs |
| Top of CCT Ramp | Press and Hold | Ramp down CCTs |
| Anywhere in CCT Ramp | Double Click | Tint selected |
| Anywhere in CCT Ramp | Click | “Tints Config” Stepped Section (CCT selection) |
| Off | Click | On (Mode Memory) |
| On | Double Click | Turbo |
| Turbo | Click | On (Mode Memory) |
| Off | Hold (1s) | Eco |
| Eco | Click | On (Mode Memory) |
| Off | Click 3x | Battery checkª |
| Off | Click 4x | Lockout |
| Lockout | Click 4x | Unlock |
| On | Hold (1s) | Off |
| On | Click | Mode cycle (LMH only) |
ª Battery check works like this: Big blinks are for the “ones” voltage, and small blinks are for “tenths” voltage. The CCT of voltage blink is somewhere in the middle, and also a middle-ish mode. It’s quite bright. The voltage blink cycles three times, then the light goes off.
LED and Beam
The FW4X is a quad emitter flashlight. Lumintop has used two Cree XP-L HI emitters (at 6500K) and two Nichia 219c emitters (at 3000K). 
Lumintop does not state this, but it seems like a standard Carclo quad optic to me. And this one’s frosted, which should help even out the beam being mixed.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
Beamshots
These beamshots are always with 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.
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
- It’s a very fun light!
- Good CCT gamut from 3000K to 6500K
- User interface is pretty simple and easy to get accustomed to
- Good build quality
- Really possible to pick any CCT between 3000K and 6500K in the ramping section of the selection mode
- Great size for a quad (shorter and around 11g lighter than the D4V2!)
What I don’t like
- Cost is probably a downside here
- Not sure the light is driven in such a way that demonstrates the difference in emitter efficiency (but really, that’d just be a fun experiment more than anything)
Notes
- This light was provided by Lumintop for review. I was not paid to write this review.
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