Speras EST SE Flashlight Review

The Speras EST SE flashlight offers 1500 lumens and 326m of throw in a compact design, with a dual-stage tactical tail switch and a USB-C rechargeable battery.

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Speras EST SE flashlight product page.

Versions

There’s just one version of the Speras EST SE flashlight. The whole “EST” line has many lights, though!

Price

The Speras EST SE flashlight is listed at $47.99.

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What’s Included

• Speras EST SE flashlight
• Speras 14500 cell
• Charging cable
• Lanyard
• Spare O-rings (2)
• Manual

Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

The Speras EST SE flashlight has a great build quality and looks to be a fairly standard 14500 flashlight. But the switch is unusual in general, and very unusual on a 14500 light.

Both the head and tail have beefy springs.

Size and Comps

Dimensions: 93.4 (Length) x 19 (Head) x 19 (Tube) mm
Weight: 40 g (excluding the battery)

Here’s the light in hand:

Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. This is a brass version, which is a good bit heavier than aluminum, but has the same dimensions: 24mm in diameter by 117.5mm in length.

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 Speras EST SE flashlight includes a friction-fit two-way pocket clip.

The clip attaches only to the tail end (but it’s a two-way clip).

A lanyard is included, too. It attaches (only) to the shoulder of the pocket clip.

Power and Runtime

The Speras EST SE flashlight runs on an included 14500 cell. It can not use AA cells.

The cell goes into the Speras EST SE flashlight in the usual way: positive end toward the head.

Below you can see a couple of runtime tests. The output drops pretty quickly on both high and medium.

I double-checked this (by running the Medium output a second time), and yes, High and Medium are about the same, aside from their initial output.

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. A temperature sensor is not always attached to the bezel (or even the hottest spot, assuming that could be defined). Even with ideal placement, too many variables affect temperature to definitively state a specific max value.

Charging

The Speras EST SE flashlight itself does not have built-in charging, but the included cell does. There’s a USB-C charging port on the positive end.

A charging cable is included.

Charging via A to C and C to C both work just fine for this cell.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens
High	1500	2.3h	1030 (0s) 921 (30s)
Medium	800	3.5h	638 (0s) 570 (30s)
Low	100	6.8h	107
Eco	10	115h	27

Pulse Width Modulation

This light really uses PWM. All four modes use PWM. And it’s slow PWM. So slow that I’ve included the normal time scale and a longer time scale so you can see the full peak-to-peak.

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 Speras EST SE flashlight has a very interesting two-stage tail switch. That does mean it’s an e-switch.

It’s one of the most clicky two-stage e-switches I have ever used.

I forgot to get a photo of it, but the switch also has a green indicator. I really like this feature!

Here’s a user interface table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Half press (note that it does click on a half press!) and hold	Momentary High
Off	Half press	High
On	Half (or whole) click	Off
On	Half press and hold	Mode advance (LMH only)
Off	Double half click	ECO
Any	Any full click action	Momentary Strobe (there is no steady strobe)

This is honestly a simple user interface, but unusual. Double-clicking for ECO is a surprise. No steady strobe is a bit of a surprise.

LED and Beam

The Speras EST SE flashlight uses a Luminus SFT42R emitter and a smooth reflector.

The beam profile is very good – a nice hotspot and a bit of spill. It’s about what I want in a light!

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

The CCT is high, and the CRI is low. I wish for better out of a small non-tactical light (even if this one does have tactical characteristics).

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

The Speras EST SE flashlight is a nicely built little 14500 light with a surprisingly interesting switch. I really like the beam profile, and the measured throw actually exceeds the claim. Build quality is great, the price is reasonable, and including a rechargeable cell is a nice touch. Unfortunately, the user interface has some quirks (double-click to get to ECO??), output drops pretty quickly, and the slow PWM is hard to overlook. The cool white, low-CRI output doesn’t help, either. It’s a good light with some good characteristics, but I wish Speras had developed the user interface and made a (warmer) LED choice.

The Big Table

Speras EST SE Flashlight
Emitter:	Luminus SFT42R (Cool white)
Price in USD at publication time:	$47.99
Cell:	1×14500
Runtime Graphs
LVP?	Questionable
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (mA):	?
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	USB-C (on cell)
Charge Graph
Power off Charge Port	–
Claimed Lumens (lm)	1500
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	921 (61.4% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	29.8
Claimed Throw (m)	326
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	1294lux @ 4.602m = 27405cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	331.1 (101.6% of claim)^
Claimed CCT	Cool white –
Measured CCT Range (K)	Cool white 6800-6900 Kelvin
Item provided for review by:	Speras
All my Speras 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

• Great build quality
• Reasonable cost
• Includes cell

What I don’t like

• Always starts in High (except weird access to ECO)
• Double-click to ECO
• High CCT and low CRI
• Noticeable PWM

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Notes

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