Lumintop Frog Keychain Flashlight Review
Lumintop has expanded its 10180 keychain flashlight lineup with the Lumintop Frog. This little light packs a punch, offering 4000K output!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the Lumintop Frog Keychain flashlight product page.
Versions
There’s really only one version available, but it has options. First of all, there are two emitter CCT options: 4000K (seen here) and 6500K. There’s also an additional body offered that supports a single 10440 cell. I have that option shown in this review, too. As of yet, there are no other metal versions, but since Lumintop did that with the GT Nano (brass, titanium, copper), maybe we can expect it here too.
Price
The 10180 version of the light is around $36, with the cell (which you need to add) adding around $3. If you want to add the 10440 tube and a 10440 cell, you’ll need to pony up another $11 or so (and you definitely should do that.)
Short Review
I am so pleased that a 4000K version of the Lumintop Frog Keychain flashlight is available! This tiny light is much more useful than I would have guessed and makes a great compliment to your GT Nano. It still rocks Narsil, so if you have comfort with that user interface, then this is a good choice for you.
Long Review
The Big Table
| Lumintop Frog Keychain Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Luminus SST-20 (4000K) |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $35.95 |
| Cell: | 1×10180 |
| Turbo Runtime Graph | High Runtime Graph |
| LVP? | Warning, Yes |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | USB-C |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 570 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 136 (23.9% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 7.4 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 135 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 103lux @ 3.197m = 1053cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 64.9 (48.1% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | 4000 |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 4200 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | Lumintop |
| All my Lumintop reviews! | |
| Lumintop Frog Keychain Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Luminus SST-20 (4000K) |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $35.95 |
| Cell: | 1×10440 |
| Turbo Runtime Graph | High Runtime Graph |
| LVP? | Warning, Yes |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | USB-C |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | No |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 750 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 368 (49.1% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 7.4 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 150 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 232lux @ 3.249m = 2449cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 99.0 (66% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | 4000 |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 4000-4200 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | Lumintop |
| All my Lumintop 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
- Lumintop Frog Keychain flashlight
- USB-C Charging cap
- Lumintop USB to USB-C charging cable
- Key ring attachment
- Manual
- 10180 cell (additional purchase, shown here)
- 10440 cell tube (additional purchase, shown here)
Package and Manual
Build Quality and Disassembly
The build quality of the Lumintop Frog Keychain flashlight is exactly what you’ve experienced from your other Nano lights. It’s solid, and reasonable at the purchase price. I don’t think you’ll experience any surprises.
Noteworthy though is that this light is tiny. I mean tiny tiny.
With the 10440 cell tube, it’s much more manageable. The runtimes are better with this longer tube too, so I recommend grabbing this with your purchase.
The rounded keychain connection tailcap prevents tailstanding. No huge surprise there.
Inside you can see the button for contact with the positive end of cells. The threads are fairly short, too.
The inside of the cell tube does sport a spring.
Size and Comps
Dimensions: 15.6 mm Ø head x 45mm length
Weight: Approximately 11g without cells
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
As stated above, the tailcap has a loop for attaching a split ring or the included metal clip.
This clip is great for keyring attachment.
Both 10440 and 10180 bodies have this loop.
There is no pocket clip.
Power and Runtime
Power is provided to the Lumintop Frog Keychain flashlight by a single lithium-ion cell. The default is a tiny 10180 cell, but if you opt for the accessory tube, you can use a single 10440 cell too.
The cell goes into the light in the usual way – positive terminal toward the head.
The initial output is reasonable but drops off very fast. So at 30 seconds, we’re seeing fairly low output, but also fairly reasonable for a low-mass keychain flashlight.
Even on the lower output (which is the fourth highest stepped output), output isn’t held very strongly – there’s a fairly quick drop off.
But here, on the middle stepped output, we finally do see some steady output. Granted it’s only 100 lumens, but for actual keychain use 100 lumens is probably plenty.
Output is higher when using a 10440 cell, but the durations aren’t changed all that much.
The claims Lumintop makes are probably for the 6500K emitter option, as the 4000K option was added much after when the Frog was initially released. So while I wouldn’t really expect to get “manual levels” out of the light, it’s a little disappointing to see such heavy stepdowns. That said, Narsil allows some level of configuration which could allow higher maintained output for at least some short amount of time.
Charging
The Lumintop Frog Keychain flashlight offers charging, but not strictly “on-board” 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. One big update here is that the charge port is USB-C!
The charge port works on both cell tubes, too.
Another good reason to buy both cell tubes is that you can store the charge head on one body while using the other on the light!
Lumintop also includes a neat USB to USB-C cable. I have one other light using this cable (review upcoming!) but I have to say, I love this cable. The heads are magnetic so stick together and stay compact. The USB end is very low profile too, which just makes for a great cable.
Here are a few charge tests. I tested both USB and USB-C power. As you can see, USB power works fine for charging.
Charging from USB-C works but I’m not sure it’s really meant to. The initial charge rate is nearly 1A, which is WAY too much for these tiny cells (either 10440 or 10180). So I really recommend against using USB-C to USB-C power.
Unfortunately USB powered charging is not really all that quick…
While charging, the charge head is lit very red. When charging is complete, the plastic charge cap turns green.
Modes and Currents
10180:
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens | Tailcap Amps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 369 | 5.52 | |||
| 189 | 1.74 | |||
| 101 | 0.34 | |||
| 7.6 | 0.02 | |||
| 0.3 | ~0.00 |
10440:
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens | Tailcap Amps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 555 | 5.52 | |||
| 263 | 1.74 | |||
| 103 | 0.34 | |||
| 7.8 | 0.02 | |||
| 0.3 | ~0.00 |
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. PWM is the same for either cell tube.
10180:
10440:
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 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.
The switch does have an indicating feature, which I recommend you turn off. These tiny cells can’t handle the drain of even that tiny red switch emitter, and will drain fairly quickly.
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 UI 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 UI 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 UI 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 the 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
This little keychain light offers a Luminus SST-20 emitter. Mine is 4000K (claimed) but a 6500K is also available. The cooler (6500K) will almost certainly have higher output.
The bezel is smooth, so when headstanding no light escapes.
The bezel is removable.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
Luminus SST-20 emitters are really great. They have high (actually “very high”) CRI and this 4000K version has great CCT (from 4000K to around 4200K). I couldn’t get a reading on the 5th mode with the 10180 – I think it just drops out of turbo too quickly.
10180:
10440:
Beamshots
These beamshots are always with the following settings: f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure.
10180:
10440:
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.
10180:
10440:
I compare everything to the KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!
Conclusion
What I like
- Fun tiny size!
- Narsil is great if you like high levels of programmability.
- Matches the GT Nano very nicely
- A 10440 cell tube is available right out of the gates
- Emitter seems very able to handle 10440 current capabilities.
What I don’t like
- Stepdown from Turbo is quick
- Indicating switch is fairly pointless (since you should turn it off right away)
Notes
- 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!
- Use my amazon.com referral link if you’re willing to help support making more reviews like this one!
- Please support me on Patreon! Feeding flashlights is expensive! And funding Fun Fund Friday even more so. I deeply appreciate your support!
