Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder Flashlight Review
The Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight not only features a two-emitter white LED output but also has a red laser used for range finding! A first! Read on!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a referral link to the Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight product page.
Versions
There are three body colors of the Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight but they all have the same specifications.
Price
The Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight is listed at $79.99 and I have a 21% discount if you use the coupon below:
KL20
Here’s a referral link to the Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight.
What’s Included
- Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight
- Charging cable
- Cloth carrying pouch
- Cleaning cloth
- Manual
Package and Manual
The manual is a gigantic thing with a bunch of languages!
Build Quality and Disassembly
I don’t believe I’ve had a Trustfire light before, and so the quality was unknown to me. The quality is great. The light is also very unusual – never before have I seen a flashlight with a laser rangefinder built in. It’s quite something.
The body is sealed with four screws – they look like TORX but I couldn’t find the right-sized bit in my selection of TORX (which includes something like T2-t12 or something).
Size and Comps
Net weight 164.2 grams (including battery)
Dimensions: 121 (length) x 38 (width) x 33.5 (height) mm
If the flashlight will headstand, I’ll show it here. If the flashlight will tailstand, I’ll also show that here too!
Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. The version below is a custom laser-engraved Convoy S2+ host by GadgetConnections.com. I did a full post on an engraved orange host right here! Or go straight to GadgetConnections.com to buy your Convoy S2+ now!
In the photo above, you may note that the SRM (standard reference material) flashlight for comparison has changed! I used a TorchLAB BOSS 35 for ages. Now what you can see as the 18350 SRM is the Hanko Machine Works Trident. While I have not reviewed or tested the Gunner Grip version seen here, I have tested a Hanko Machine Works Trident Total Tesseract in brass. I love the Trident, and it’s a striking contrast next to the inexpensive Convoy S2+, which also makes a great standard reference material.
Retention and Carry
The Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight ships with a screw-in pocket clip. It’s a two-way clip and there’s a hole in the shoulder to attach a lanyard.
Built into the tail is a magnet, too. It’s plenty strong for holding the Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight.
And don’t forget this cloth pouch. Normally I’d say this is superfluous but the rangefinder aspect seems to make the cloth bag a nice thing to have.
Power and Runtime
The Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight has a built-in 3000mAh cell. Trustfire doesn’t say what this cell is, but it’s probably a 21700. Since the screws seem a bit unusual, I don’t think I’d buy the Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight with the intention of ever swapping the cell.
I’m pleased to say that the Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight doesn’t claim some outstanding level of output. The highest level claimed is 750 lumens, and the light falls a bit short of that. Once this mode steps down, the output holds stable at around 250 lumens.
I can’t say for certain whether the light shuts down because of low voltage protection but the runtime is characteristic of a light with low voltage protection. The switch also shows what the cell voltage is approximately, in this way:
Green: 80-100% power
Yellow: 30-80%
Red: 5-30%
Red flashing: 0-5%
Charging
The Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight features USB-C charging. The charge port is in the head.
Trustfire includes a USB to USB-C charging cable.
Charging proceeds at over 2.5A with C to C or around 2A on A to C. At this rate, charging completes in around 2 hours.
Modes and Currents
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Extreme bright | 750 | 4h | 661 (0s) 595 (30s) |
| High | 200 | 7h | 179 (0s) 177 (30s) |
| Middle | 50 | 24h | 45 |
| Low | 2.5 | 105h | 1.8 |
Pulse Width Modulation
None of the modes use PWM.
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 really two switches for operating the Trustfire Mini X7 Rangefinder flashlight. First is this slider switch on the head – this is on the opposite side from the USB-C charging port.
In the position seen below, the light is off. In the middle position, the LED output is on (not just “available” but specifically in an on state.) The most forward position it the laser used for rangefinding.
This display shows what LED output level is active. Soon after the e-switch has been actuated, the display is backlit. But after about 5 seconds, the backlight turns off. The numbers are still available for viewing, though.
Here’s what the rangefinder display looks like – the bottom and biggest number is the current measurement. These roll off toward the top. This means that your four most recent measurements are available. That’s a nice feature!
I didn’t do any specific testing of the rangefinder aspect, but I did test it compared to the one I usually use. The numbers were similar enough that I’m comfortable with the measurements.
Here’s a user interface table!
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Mechanical switch off | Any e-switch action | Switch indicates battery level |
| Mechanical switch middle position | Click | LED Memory |
| Mechanical switch middle position | Long Hold | Strobe |
| Mechanical switch middle position – Strobe | Click | LED Mode advance |
| Mechanical switch middle position | Medium Hold | Laser on with LED |
| Mechanical switch Laser position | Click | Rangefinder action |
LED and Beam
Trustfire does not say what these emitters are and I didn’t disassemble the light to find out.
Each emitter has a little TIR. The other parts you can see there are for rangefinding and the laser output.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
The CCT is cool to very cool white and the CRI is low.
CCT (Correlated Color Temperature) refers to the measurement of the color appearance of light, expressed in Kelvins (K), which indicates whether the light is warm (yellowish) or cool (bluish). A lower CCT (below 3000K) is considered warm light, while a higher CCT (above 5000K) gives cooler, bluish light.
CRI (Color Rendering Index) is a measure of how accurately a light source renders colors in comparison to natural sunlight. Scored on a scale from 0 to 100, higher CRI values indicate that colors appear more true to life and vibrant, similar to how they would look under the sun.
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. These photos are taken around 18 inches from the door.
I compare everything to the KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!
Summary and Conclusion
I am very impressed with this combination of LED and laser rangefinder output. It’s quite useful – I use this type of thing in reviewing often, and maybe it’d be equally useful for you too. It would be nice for the battery to be accessible, but at least the USB-C charging works well.
The Big Table
| Trustfire Minix7 | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Unstated white (2) |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $79.99 |
| Cell: | Internal |
| Runtime Graphs | |
| LVP? | |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | ? |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | USB-C |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | all modes |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 750 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 595 (79.3% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 5.54 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 115 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 138lux @ 5.152m = 3663cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 121.0 (105.2% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | – |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 6000-7000 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | Trustfire |
| All my Trustfire 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 I like
- The rangefinder is very useful
- Continually displaying most recent 4 measurements is even more useful
- Output isn’t outrageously claimed
- User interface is very simple
What I don’t like
- Cool white output
- Mode selection requires two actions (mechanical slider switch and then e-switch clicking)
Notes
- This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
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