Cyansky Ark II EDC Flat Flashlight Review
The Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight uses a 1000mAh LiPO battery to run a spot and emitter in front and one side COB that has warm white and red! Read on!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight product page at flashlightgo.com.
Versions
As far as I can tell, there’s just one version of the Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight.
Price
The going price for the Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight is a remarkable $34.99. It’s available at Flashlightgo.com.
What’s Included
- Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight
- Charging cable
- Manual
Package and Manual
Build Quality and Disassembly
The Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight is another flat light! Maybe the first one by Cyansky, and it offers some nice diversions from the other flat lights on the market. I’ll mention most of those later, but to summarise: no Laser, no UV. But lots of white LED!
The build quality is good, but the light is not intended to be disassembled. There are a couple of screws (TORX) on the tail, but you wouldn’t use those to swap a battery in the field.
Size and Comps
4.41″D x 0.67″W x 1.06″H, 16oz.
If the flashlight can headstand, I’ll show it here. If it can tailstand, I’ll also show that here!
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!
Also in the photo above, my Standard Reference Material (SRM) flashlight is the Hanko Machine Works Trident, an 18350 light. 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 to the inexpensive Convoy S2+, another great SRM.
Retention and Carry
The Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight has a two-scre pocket clip along the COB side (aka the “back”). I quite like the clip.
It’s properly deep carry, but the screws and clip do sit off the light body just a bit.
In the tailcap there’s a magnet, which is sufficiently strong for holding the Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight.
Power and Runtime
The Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight runs on a built-in 1000mAh LiPO battery. I can’t say anything more about it than that; the battery isn’t accessible at all.
Below you can see a bunch of runtimes – mostly the highest modes, but for all the white LED options. That’s a bunch of runtime tests.
The Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight does shut off, in a way that seems to be low voltage protection. It also has four indicator LEDs under the rotary controller. You can see those below (three green, one unlit.)
The temperature lines in these charts are included as general context, not precise measurements. The values represent the range (min to max) during testing, but should not be taken as exact readings. Temperature sensors are attached however feasible and not always on the bezel or hottest spot (assuming that can even be clearly defined). Even with ideal placement, too many variables affect temperature to definitively state a specific max value.
Charging
USB-C is used for charging the Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight. There’s a press-in silicone cover. It’s sufficient, and I have no complaints about it.
The charging port does seem to have just a bit of wiggle inside the body. It works fine, but I would not abuse it.
A USB to USB-C charging cable is included.
Both A to C and C to C work fine and have very similar profiles. Charging is sort of slow, at around 0.5A, and takes almost 3 hours.
While charging, the four indicator LEDs under the rotary blink as the charge increases. When charging is complete, all four LEDs are solid green.
Modes and Currents
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo – Both | 1500 | 10s+2.5h | 1825 (0s) 196 (30s) |
| High – Both | 900 | 1.2h | 1192 (0s) 1011 (30s) |
| Medium – Both | 300 | 2h | 320 |
| Low – Both | 50 | 6h | 61 |
| Eco – Both | 5 | 45h | 11.4 |
| High – Flood | 600 | 1.5h | 785 (0s) 709 (30s) |
| Medium – Flood | 150 | 3h | 205 |
| Low – Flood | 30 | 11h | 41 |
| Eco – Flood | 3 | 35h | 5.9 |
| High – Spot | 500 | 2.5h | 663 (0s) 587 (30s) |
| Medium – Spot | 150 | 3h | 174 |
| Low – Spot | 30 | 12h | 30 |
| Eco – Spot | 3 | 35h | 5.2 |
| Medium – COB White | 260 | 2.5h | 233 (0s) 215 (30s) |
| Low – COB White | 50 | 8h | 53 |
| Eco – COB White | 3 | 40h | 6.9 |
| Red | 5 | 3h | – |
Pulse Width Modulation
Almost every mode of the Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight uses PWM. Just turbo (top row, rightmost) for “both” (the only actual turbo mode), and the highest COB white (4th row, 3rd column) and steady COB red (4th row, 4th column) do not use PWM.
Click here to 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
The Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight has a rotary control and an e-switch. The rotary has very aggressive edges, and much to my surprise, I quite like this. It’s possible to turn this rotary from the side (as seen below) with the rotary in any position. Because there are bumpouts on the top (such as where the lock icon is), it’s also possible to turn this from the top side, too. It’s quite nice.
The rotary control order is a bit unusual, though. With the rotary in COB position, the order is as follows (twisting in the clockwise direction). COB, both front, lock, spot front, flood front. I suppose having lock in the middle is the best choice, even if we are used to it being off on one side or the other.
After making your output selection, you can change the modes of that output with the e-switch.
Here’s a user interface table! The user interface is largely the same for each rotary selection, but some selections have fewer modes. One thing that I think the manual really fails at is describing turbo. There’s only one turbo – that’s the highest output for both front emitters. In the table, it looks like spot and flood front emitters both have a fifth mode. They do not. They each have only four modes. (That’s not a problem, but the table should be clearer.)
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Lock | Any action on e-switch | Both front LEDs and green indicator LEDs blink to indicate lockout |
| Rotary in any position other than lock, in any state | Double click | Turbo |
| On | Click | Off |
| On | Hold | Mode advance for selected output (excludes ECO, even on COB white) |
| Off | Hold | ECO mode for selected output |
| Off | Click | On – mode memory |
LED and Beam
Cyansky does not say that the emitters are. The flood emitter (left below) has an interesting design on the TIR. This probably aids in dispersing the output. The throw emitter (right) has an optic designed for throw.
Here you can see the COB output in white and red.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
Output is cool white. CRI is low.
Only the side white COB isn’t cool white. Unfortunately, it’s low CRI like the other white outputs.
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 know flat lights are popular, and it’s nice to see Cyansky get in the game with the Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight. It’s likely the least costly flat flashlight available in this size, so that’s great. I also like that it doesn’t have a laser, and I love that it doesn’t have UV. Those are both wins for me. Charging could be a good bit faster (1A would be reasonable), and I dislike how dramatic and quick the stepdowns are. For $35, the build quality makes the light worth considering. Maybe it would be possible to put a better selection of emitters in the front slots!
The Big Table
| Cyansky Ark II EDC flat flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Various |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $34.99 |
| 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) | Front Both: 1500 Front Flood: 600 Front Spot: 500 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | Front Both: 196 (13.1% of claim)^ Front Flood: 709 (118.2% of claim)^ Front Spot: 587 (117.4% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | Front Both: 4.7 Front Flood: 1.6 Front Spot: 7.9 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | Front Both: 147 Front Flood: 68 Front Spot: 117 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | Front Both: 37lux @ 4.742m = 832cd Front Flood: – Front Spot: – |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | Front Both: 57.7 Front Flood: – Front Spot: – |
| Claimed CCT | Front Both: – Front Flood: – Front Spot: – |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | Front Both: 6400-7300 Kelvin Front Flood: 6400-7700 Kelvin Front Spot: 6400-7500 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | Cyansky |
| All my Cyansky 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
- Low cost
- No UV
- No Laser
- Aggressive rotary control edges
What I don’t like
- Dramatic stepdown on turbo
- High CCT
- Low CRI
Notes
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