Superfire T35 Rechargeable Camping Lantern Review
Another light in the arsenal of Superfire is the T35, a rechargeable camping lantern. It offers variable CCT and dual fuel support. Read on!
This post was sponsored by the manufacturer.
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the Superfire T35 rechargeable camping lantern product page.
Versions
Two body colors of the Superfire T35 rechargeable camping lantern are available – green (seen in this post) and cream (or white).
Price
The Superfire website doesn’t list a price for the Superfire T35 rechargeable camping lantern. SuperfireStore.com is an official site, and the price listed there is $27.99.
Short Review
I like the feature list of the Superfire T35 rechargeable camping lantern. It offers USB-C charging as well as a powerbank feature. In addition, it has can run off an internal battery as well as three AA cells. The variable CCT is a great feature – the ability to go from warm to cool is a great option for certain scenarios. Implementation is probably right around what you’d expect in the $20 range for a light with all these features. While it works fine, I’m not certain it’ll last too long, and I would not consider it a hard-use item.
Long Review
What’s Included
- Superfire T35 rechargeable camping lantern
- Charging cable (USB to USB-C)
Package and Manual
No manual was included.
Build Quality and Disassembly
As already intoned above, the build quality of the Superfire T35 rechargeable camping lantern is only “okay.” There’s a good bit of flex in the plastic parts, for example. There’s no o-ring sealing the bottom (black) base to the green body. The dial rotates much too freely and makes the user interface less than ideal.
Still, the feature set is nice!
Interestingly, the Superfire T35 rechargeable camping lantern does not require three (or any) AA cells to operate. There’s an internal battery!
The T35 is branded, but I can’t actually find the model name (T35) anywhere on it.
Size and Comps
Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. Mine’s a custom “baked” edition Nichia 219b triple. A very nice 18650 light.
Also above on the left is a new feature light!! Laulima Metal Craft sent this Todai in tumbled aluminum for some size comparison photos like the ones above. Laulima has a bunch of incredible items. I’ve tested one (the Laulima Metal Craft Hoku) (the official site for Hoku is here) that was a Friend Fund Friday review. I was impressed enough by that Hoku that I bought a Laulima Metal Craft Diamond Slim (also in tumbled aluminum) (review is upcoming!) These lights by Laulima have impeccable build quality and not only that, they’re quite configurable. There are some (great, actually) default configurations, but Joshua Dawson (of Laulima Metal Craft) is open to ideas and emitter options and the like. I haven’t reviewed this Todai, but I have to say, it feels absolutely fantastic and I love it thus far. (Notably, I love how warm and eggy those emitters look through the TIR.)
Retention and Carry
This camping lantern has a built-in loop. This serves a few purposes, including use as a carry handle and a hanging handle.
The handle can swivel all the way from a “closed” position (against the body) to the other side. There are no detents, but the tension does hold the handle in place.
That’s it! There aren’t any magnets or anything else (nor should there really be, as the handle covers most use cases for the T35). I’ll add that the base is very flat and should hold the T35 on a level surface just fine, but it’s not the least bit grippy.
Power and Runtime
A couple of power options exist for the Superfire T35 rechargeable camping lantern. First, there’s a built-in battery. It’s a 2000mAh 18650. It’s not accessible as far as I can tell, so swapping it isn’t really possible.
The buit-in 2000mAh is fairly low, unfortunately, but at least there’s a second option: three AA cells.
These AA cells go into the base. Actually, with the cells installed here, the balance of the Superfire T35 rechargeable camping lantern is much more grounded.
But as I said, the T35 works with or without AA cells.
Charging
Charging of the internal 2000mAh 18650 is done by way of a USB-C charging port. This port is protected by a press-in cover. It’s ok.
Superfire includes a USB to USB-C charging cable.
Powerbank
Using that USB-A port as a powerbank is possible. This runs from the internal 18650, and capacity of that cell is only 2000mAh. So it’d be useful in an emergency, but not much past that.
User Interface and Operation
The T35 is controlled by a dial atop the device. This dial is smooth and sloped, and has grooves on the side, allowing a fairly good grip.
Twisting the dial is very smooth, and there’s a very good click when going from off to on or vice versa. The dial can be rotated completely without ever reaching an endpoint, but it does click off. One of my problems with one of the Olight lanterns was that there’s no detent when going between output levels. On the Superfire T35 rechargeable camping lantern, there is (sort of) but it’s only at the very end when only the cooler white emitters are on. It’s also not a clean spot – sometimes you might get fully bright white light (with no warm white at all) but you might also end up just a little further and hit the beginning, where only warm white is on. So it’s ideal that there’s a definition in the dial, but it’s the worst implementation, I’m afraid.
As far as the actual user interface – rotate the dial clockwise to go from off to on and then from on warm white to on cool white. Rotate more to turn it off, or you could rotate counter-clockwise, back over the click, to turn the T35 off.
LED and Beam
As far as I see, Superfire doesn’t state what emitters are in the T35. There are two types. First, there’s the more typical LED square emitter, which is cooler white. There are also warm white “wire” emitters. The warm white wire-style emitters give the T35 a nice, classic lantern feel.
Included above the charging port and powerbank is a charge indicator. Below it’s indicating with three blue LEDs.
The mix of warm to cool white is fairly specific. From on, warm white comes on low. As you ramp up, warm white gets brighter, up to a point. When they’ve reached their max, the cool white turns on and the warm white turns off. There’s really no mixing the two, except at max brightness, where both sets are on at full brightness.
Conclusion
What I like
- Good mix of classic lantern feel with warm white and bright output and cooler white LEDs.
- Powerbank feature
- USB-C charging
- Dual-fuel support
- Very simple user interface
What I don’t like
- Built-in 18650 is only 2000mAh
- Build quality is a bit suspect
Notes
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