RovyVon Search S21 EDC Searchlight Review
RovyVon has released the Search S21, an EDC searchlight featuring a Luminus SFT-70 as well as USB-C charging and a replaceable 21700 cell. Read on!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the RovyVon Search S21 EDC searchlight product page.
Versions
There’s just one RovyVon Search S21 flashlight, but it’s available in two colors. There’s black and Gunmetal (seen here), which is a gray color.
Price
MSRP for the RovyVon Search S21 EDC searchlight is $109.95, regardless of the body color you pick. This does include a Samsung 50E 21700 cell (which you can see here in this review.) You can buy the RovyVon Search S21 searchlight on amazon.com (referral link) right now. (And it’s actually a prime-day deal for $76.99!)
Short Review
The RovyVon Search S21 EDC searchlight is an incredible and interesting light, packed with features and outstanding at most of them. The claim of 3000 lumens is spectacular but reached only in the momentary mode of Turbo. Even the lower modes are exceptional, and the rotary (ish) interface works well, making the light very predictable.
Long Review
The Big Table
| RovyVon Search S21 EDC Searchlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Luminus SFT-70 |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $109.95 or the Prime Day deal on Amazon at $76.99!! |
| Cell: | 1×21700 |
| Runtime Graphs | |
| LVP? | Yes, with a warning |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | USB-C |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 3000 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 1709 (This is the output on high since Turbo is momentary only and lasts seconds before stepping down.) |
| Candela per Lumen | 21.38 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 400 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 723lux @ 5.367m = 20826cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 288.6 (72.2% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | – |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 6100-7400 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | Rovyvon |
| All my RovyVon 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
- RovyVon Search S21 EDC searchlight
- Samsung 50E flat-top 21700
- Spare o-ring
- Charging cable (USB to USB-C)
- Lanyard
- Spare charging port cover
- Manual etc
Package and Manual
Build Quality and Disassembly
There’s a lot going on with the RovyVon Search S21 EDC searchlight. I’d say most features you could think of that this light might have, it seems to have. That’s not a slam on build quality, of course – build quality is great.
The S21 is really very similar (or exactly like, basically) to the Search S23, which I’ve also tested. They differ in the emitter, though.
RovyVon has another 21700-cell light, the S3 Pro. Broadly speaking the lights are similar but the S21 has a much better build. That’s nothing specific, though. It just is a clearly better-made light. If I had to point to one thing, it’d probably be that the cell tube walls feel thicker.
Inside the light is a spring for contact on the positive end of the cell.
Threads on the tail end are very nice and beefy. The threads on the head (above) are much finer but still seem robust.
The tailcap has a big beefy spring, that’s actually nested spring. I think this offers more cell contact.
Size and Comps
143.5mm (L) x 29.7mm (Head Diameter) x 25.4mm (Body diameter)
Weight: 116g (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 is 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. I also reviewed that specific edition, the “Oveready BOSS FT Collector Vintage Brass” 35. I love it!
Retention and Carry
There are a few ways to carry the RovyVon Search S21 EDC searchlight. First is the pocket clip. It’s a fairly standard friction-fit pocket clip, with a mouth that hits right in the middle of the cell tube – very easy to use.
The pocket clip is fine and sufficient.
The tailcap offers a couple of holes for attaching the included lanyard.
Because there are two holes, the S21 will tailstand nicely while the lanyard is installed.
There’s also a magnet in the tailcap. This magnet is surprisingly sufficient to hold the S21 in a horizontal or hanging position.
There is no carry pouch.
Power and Runtime
The RovyVon Search S21 flashlight is powered by a single lithium-ion cell. RovyVon provides the cell: a Samsung 50E 21700. The provided cell is a flat top and unprotected cell.
It’s installed into the RovyVon Search S21 in the usual way – positive terminal toward the head.
Below are a number of runtime tests. Turbo isn’t a mode that can be turned and left on. It’s more of a “momentary” type Turbo. I have no complaints about that, really. A light this size would (and did) get so hot if it tried to stay at 4000 lumens that it’d be untouchable after a very brief time. So making this a momentary-only mode is fine with me. But that does make testing harder, so what I did is just keep putting the light back into Turbo almost immediately after it stepped down.
What you can see in this shorter view is that the light does output very high for quite some time while being reset this way. So if you desperately needed high output (higher than the 800 or so lumens of high), this would be a reasonable way to achieve it. The light absolutely gets hot when being run in the manner seen above!
Above the switch is a set of four LEDs that are used to tell the battery status. If the rotary switch is in the center position (as seen below) and you click the switch, the LEDs will indicate, as seen below. The indications are as follows:
Four solid blue: 60%-100%
Three solid blue: 40%-59%
Two solid blue: 20%-39%
One solid blue: 5%-19%
Red: <5%
The light does seem to exhibit low voltage protection.
Charging
A nice feature that RovyVon has kept (as many of their other lights have it, too) is charging. There’s a USB-C port on the head (opposite to the switch), and it has a press-in rubber cover. There’s a spare cover, too.
An appropriate cable is included. It’s USB to USB-C.
USB to USB-C works great and is sufficient.
While charging, this little LED beside the charging port is blue and “breathing.” When charging is complete, this switches to green.
Modes and Currents
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens | Tailcap Amps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo | 3000 | – | 4586 (0s) 1426 (30s) |
8.00 |
| High | 1600 | 4m+2h | 1709 | 5.08 |
| Medium | 800 | 2.5h | 917 | 1.92 |
| Low | 200 | 13.5h | 230 | 0.38 |
| Eco | 30 | 65h | 37 | 0.06 |
Pulse Width Modulation
The modes don’t really seem to have PWM. Nothing noticeable in action, though.
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
There are two parts to using the RovyVon Search S21 EDC searchlight. First, there’s a sort of rotary, or “toggle” switch. That’s seen at the left in the photo below. Normal state is in the center, where there’s no light output.
Push that to the left and you get into the strobe group. Push that to the right and you enter the steady group.
Next is the e-switch, and it’s very much a RovyVon e-switch. There’s a nice big metal cover and a nice bezel around the switch that is also metal.
The e-switch action is great, too. It’s shallow and nearly inaudible.
Here’s a UI table!
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Rotary Dial Center position | Click Switch | Battery indicator (as described earlier) |
| Strobe (Rotary Dial Left position) | Click Switch | Iterate Strobe and SOS |
| On (any on state) | Hold Switch | Momentary Turbo |
| On (Rotary Dial Right position) | Click | Mode advance (Eco>Low>Medium>High) |
| Off (Rotary Dial Center position) | Move rotary to right position | On in mode memory |
| On (any on state) | Move rotary to center position | Off |
LED and Beam
RovyVon doesn’t state what this emitter is it looks to me to be a Luminus SFT-70. There’s just one, which is a big difference from the S23, of course (it has four emitters!)
The reflector is smooth and fairly deep.
The bezel has a shape and appears to be stainless steel.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
CCT starts at over 6000K and drifts up to around 7300K by the time the light is in Turbo. That’s very cool white. The CRI is low, at around 70.
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
- Feature-packed light!
- USB-C charging works great
- Uses standard flat top 21700
- Includes standard 21700
- Great e-switch
- Very strong magnet
- Neat rotary interface makes it possible to use this as a “one mode light” if desired
- Momentary (only) Turbo (yes, I am saying I like this.)
What I don’t like
- Very cool white output
- It’s not possible to change the output level before turning the light on, so it’s not possible to start in Eco unless you turned the light off in Eco.
- The light is sort of big. More than just “big for the feature set” – it seems bigger than the feature set.
Notes
- This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
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