Lumintop Thanos 23 Flashlight Review
Lumintop Thanos 23 is a dual LED flashlight that offers a single emitter for throw and multiple emitters for flood. Read on for testing!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the Lumintop Thanos 23 flashlight product page.
Versions
I believe there’s only one version of the Lumintop Thanos 23 flashlight. The body style is a mature product line though; Lumintop has used it elsewhere. A light like the Thor Pro, for example, uses a very similar body.
Price
With a Lumintop cell, the Thanos 23 flashlight comes in at $289.95. Since I can’t see the Thanos 23 on the Lumintop site, here’s an affiliate link to Neals Gadgets, which appears to have stock.
I do have a coupon though, which will take 25% off!
TPJS3
for use at lumintolighting.com, when the Lumintop Thanos 23 flashlight comes available on that site. This brings the with-cell version down (after shipping) to $50.56. Very reasonable!
Short Review
Build quality and output and generally everything about the Lumintop Thanos 23 flashlight is great. I like the dual LED emitter setup, as well as size and shape. Output is fantastic, even if it doesn’t seem to match up with what the manual projects. The user interface is ok, with one asterisk.
It seems natural to compare the Lumintop Thanos 23 flashlight and Thor Pro – the body styles are nearly identical. That makes me want to pick between them – I have to say I probably like the Thanos 23 better.
Long Review
The Big Table
This is really three tables, and I don’t know a better way to break it down than to just have a bit of repetitive information in this section. Please forgive.
| Lumintop Thanos 23 Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | 1 X Luminus SFT40 + 8 X Cree XHP50.2 (Both) |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $289.95 at Neals Gadgets. |
| Cell: | 3×21700 |
| Runtime Graphs | |
| LVP? | Sort of |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | USB-C |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | with cells: all modes |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 27000 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 17107 (63.4% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 11.84 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 700 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 772lux @ 5.974m = 27552cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 332.0 (47.4% of claim)^ |
| Item provided for review by: | Lumintop |
| All my Lumintop reviews! | |
| Lumintop Thanos 23 Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | 8 X Cree XHP50.2 (Flood) |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $289.95 at Neals Gadgets. |
| Cell: | 3×21700 |
| Runtime Graphs | |
| LVP? | Sort of |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | USB-C |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | with cells: all modes |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 26000 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 7555 (29.1% of claim)^ (the light had stepped down by 30s, so this might be misleading) |
| Candela per Lumen | 2.87 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 500 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 1802lux @ 5.869m = 62070cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 498.3 (99.7% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | – |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 5600-7500 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | Lumintop |
| All my Lumintop reviews! | |
| Lumintop Thanos 23 Flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | 1 X Luminus SFT40 (Throw) |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $289.95 at Neals Gadgets. |
| Cell: | 3×21700 |
| Runtime Graphs | |
| LVP? | Sort of |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | USB-C |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | with cells: all modes |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 1800 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 558 (31% of claim)^ (the light had stepped down by 30s, so this might be misleading) |
| Candela per Lumen | 58.09 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 600 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 684lux @ 5.84m = 23328cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 305.5 (50.9% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | – |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 6000-8200 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | Lumintop |
| 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 Thanos 23 flashlight
- Lumintop 5000mAh 21700 (3)
- Charging cable (USB to USB-C)
- Spare o-rings (2)
- Tripod screw lanyard attachment
- Manual
Package and Manual
Build Quality and Disassembly
Build quality is great. I particularly like the softened corners and rounded edges. Seems like a small thing, but it makes a nice finished-feeling light. Compared to the Thor Pro, there’s (much needed?) added grip in the cell tube area. This really aids in accessing the cells.
The head has a number of contact points, as well as unanodized threading between the head and cell tube.
Unlike the Thor Pro, where the tailcap has multiple contact points which are brass, the tailcap on the Lumintop Thanos 23 flashlight is just a dumb cap – no contacts or anything.
That tailcap covers the USB-C charging port and also the USB-A powerbank port.
Size and Comps
Size 68 X 51 X 153mm (Head Ø X Tube Ø X Length)
Net Weight ~550g (Aluminum, battery excluded)
If the flashlight will headstand, I’ll show it here (usually the third photo). If the flashlight will tailstand, I’ll also show that (usually in 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.
Also above on the left is a new feature light!! Laulima Metal Craft sent this titanium Todai 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
The body has a hole for attachment of a(n included) threaded loop. No lanyard is provided. This is another change from the Thor Pro – it had this threaded hole as well as a loop for lanyard attachment.
The hole is a tripod mounting screw hole. This hole comes fitted with another lanyard attachment point.
Nothing else is included for carry – namely, there’s no pouch.
Power and Runtime
Fortunately, the Lumintop Thanos 23 flashlight comes with (or is available with) cells. The light runs three 21700 cells, and the Lumintop branded cells are button top 5000mAh cells.
The cells fit all in one direction, as seen below. This means the configuration is 1S3P, and the light should be able to run from just one (or two) cells. I wouldn’t expect the light to be able to run Turbo with Flood, though. That’s too much for one cell.
Below are a whole bunch of runtime tests. Output does seem to fall short of the claim, and there’s a fairly large stepdown with both Turbo and High. Also noteworthy is that Flood seems to be higher than Both; I can’t really explain that. (To be honest, I’m not really sure what the use case is for using BOTH flood and spot at the same time, anyway.)
The light does get hot on Turbo with flood going! Output steps down very low when the cells get low, too, but I didn’t observe the light shutting off, specifically.
Charging
Charging on the Lumintop Thanos 23 flashlight is by way of a USB-C charging port on the tail end. The tailcap must be removed to access this charging port.
It’s not really possible to see it above, but there’s a display that shows the percentage capacity of the cells installed as well as voltage and current measurements. This is a nice feature, too!
A USB to USB-C charging cable is included.
Charging works at 9V! So it’s pretty quick.
I don’t know what that dip is around 80 minutes in every test. It’s oddly specific, and I can say it’s unlikely to be the testing equipment. (I test USB and USB-C on completely different setups!) The dip isn’t a problem, obviously, just curious.
Powerbank
That USB-A port you can see below will allow you to use the cells inside for powerbank purposes. It’s a great feature! But not just that; the USB-C port used for charging can also be used for discharging!
I tested the USB-C port below, so that’s what these two graphs are. First is a bit of stress testing – ramping up the output current until the light responds by shutting off (or whatever). In this case, something weird happened – the output voltage also changed upwards. It went up to around 5.8V when the output current was above 2.6A the first time. After that (a few tests, seen below), the output voltage stayed sane. I don’t know why it was higher the first time. I am not sure if that will be a problem for devices (I doubt it!) or if it’s just an artifact of me stress testing.
Here’s the whole window. The light runs at 3A or so until it shuts off cleanly, and then won’t attempt to powerbank again. Shut off voltage below is around 3.12V.
Modes and Currents
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo – Both | 27,000 | 20s+3h30m | 21177 (0s) 17107 (30s) |
| High – Both | 10,000 | 60s+3h30m | 8139 (0s) 7609 (30s) |
| Medium – Both | 2,000 | 3h45m | 1742 |
| Low – Both | 500 | 20h | 489 |
| Moonlight – Both | 2 | 30d | 3.3 |
| Turbo – Flood | 26,000 | 20s+4h | 21808 (0s) 7555 (30s) |
| High – Flood | 9,000 | 60s+4h | 8177 (0s) 7600 (30s) |
| Medium – Flood | 1,800 | 4h20m | 1804 |
| Low – Flood | 450 | 24h | 511 |
| Moonlight – Flood | 1 | 60d | 1.7 |
| Turbo – Spot | 1,800 | 20s+12h | 1694 (0s) 558 (30s) |
| High – Spot | 1,200 | 60s+12h | 1188 (0s) 1104 (30s) |
| Medium – Spot | 400 | 12h30m | 390 |
| Low – Spot | 100 | 48h | 111 |
| Moonlight – Spot | 1 | 60d | 1.7 |
Pulse Width Modulation
All moonlights (leftmost) do not use PWM. All the middle modes do use PWM. One of the highest modes uses PWM. In all cases, it’s fast, so probably not something you should fret over.
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
Control of the Lumintop Thanos 23 flashlight is through a single e-switch. This switch is on the side of the head, and can indicate in blue and green both.
The switch is great!
The color of the indication depends on which output (Spot/Flood/Both) is being used. Green means flood. Blue means spot. Blue and Green both mean Combo.
Here’s a user interface table! I think this user interface is very similar to that of the Thor Pro. There are a couple of changes, though, which I think make this a better user interface.
Here’s a user interface table! I believe the user interface for any lighting combination is the same, so one table will cover it all, and I won’t specify which lighting source it applies to. It applies to whichever lighting source you have active!
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Click | On (Mode memory) |
| Off | Hold | Moonlight |
| Off | Click then Click/hold | Momentary Turbo |
| On | Click | Off |
| Off | Double Click | High |
| Any | Click 3x | Advance lighting source |
| Moonlight, High, or On | Hold | Mode advance (LMH or HML, depending on previous direction^) |
| On | Double Click | Turbo |
| Turbo | Double Click | On (mode memory) |
| Off | Double Click | High |
| Off | Click 4x | Battery Check^^ |
| Off | Click 5x | Lockout |
| Lockout | Click 5x | Unlock |
| Lockout | Hold | Momentary On |
| Off | Click 7x | Iterate switch lighting |
| Moonlight | Click 2x | Strobe |
| Strobe | Click 2x | Strobe group advance (SOS > Beacon > Strobe) |
^ This is very, very annoying.
^^ Battery check works by blinking out the actual battery voltage (battery voltage, not “cell” voltage – the cells are in parallel, so have a total voltage of ~3.7V (nominal) but the capacity is added together). Three blinks then pause then 7 blinks, for example, means 3.7V.
LED and Beam
There are two sets of emitters in the Lumintop Thanos 23 flashlight. One is a spot emitter, which is a Luminus SFT-40-W. The other is an array of Cree XHP50.3 emitters. Each of the flood has a tiny orange peel reflector, but the spot emitter has a much deeper smooth reflector.
Flood is very floody. Spot is equally spotty.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
The Lumintop Thanos 23 flashlight offers a lot in the way of output options. A very floody flood and a very tight spot – both are cool white. Both have fairly low CRI.
I didn’t test the combo CCT/CRI because the spot emitter would dominate the test and the results would be a bit deceiving.
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.
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
- Flood is very floody
- Spot is very tight
- Complete package
- User interface consistent with other similar Lumintop lights
- Not a LEP for throw
- USB-C charging works very well
- Powerbank function seems to work well
What I don’t like
- Very cool white
- Low CRI
- Output selection direction changing every cycle is very, very annoying
Notes
- This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
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