Trustfire T25R Tactical Flashlight Review

The Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight features a cool white Luminus SST-40, dual switch interface (quite tactical), and USB-C charging. Read on!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight product page.

Versions

There’s just one version of the Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight.

Price

The Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight is available now at trustfire.com for $62.99. Check out the Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight here!

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What’s Included

• Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight
• Trustfire 3000mAh 218650
• Charging cable
• Lanyard
• Spare o-ring
• Manual

Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

As with most Trustfire lights, the build quality is good. This isn’t a pricey light, and the build quality is in line with the price.

 

Specifically, the build quality is good, but the design makes this light bigger than I really want it to be for just being a 18650 light.

The threads are unanodized. Note that inner sleeve – because the light works in this (inner sleeve) way, it is possible to lock the light out by loosening the tailcap, even though the threads are unanodized.

Both the head and tail have beefy springs.

Size and Comps

153mm x 25.5mm x 35mm and 197.5g (with 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

A pocket clip is included and installed on the Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight. It’s a two-way friction fit clip in Trustfire’s blue accent color.

A lanyard is included too, and it attaches through these two holes in the tailcap.

Attach the lanyard however you want – the light will not tailstand anyway.

Power and Runtime

The Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight runs a single lithium-ion battery. Trustfire includes this standard (button-top) 3000mAh 18650.

The cell goes into the Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight in the usual direction – positive end toward the head.

Below are runtime tests for the three highest modes. Output is stated at 2000 lumens. I measured well below that at around 1500 during the initial minute of runtime.

The Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight may not exactly have low voltage protection, but the emitter does blink when cell voltage is low. So you’ll be aware that it’s time to charge!

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

Built into the head of the Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight is a USB-C charging port.

Trustfire includes a USB-A to USB-C charging cable.

Charging is generally fine and requires around two and a half hours.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens
Turbo	2000	1h50m	1606 (0s) 1488 (30s)
High	400	5h	332 (0s) 331 (30s)
Middle	100	15h	90
Low	7	410h	6

Pulse Width Modulation

None of the modes have PWM. Low and Middle have a bit of ripple, though.

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 Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight uses two tail switches for control. The higher one (on the left below) is called the Power Switch, and the other is the Function Switch. They are both possibly e-switches, but the power switch could be mechanical

Here’s a user interface table! The power indicator is active when the power switch has been used to turn on the light.

State	Action	Result
Off	Click power switch	On (mode memory)
Off	Hold power switch	On (momentary memory)
On	Click power switch	Off
Any	Hold function switch	Strobe (disorienting)
On	Click function switch	Mode advance (ascending)
Strobe	Click function switch (manual erroneously calls this the “Neck” switch in this section)	Previous on state

LED and Beam

The manual or product literature doesn’t state it, but this looks like a Luminus SST-40. It is coupled with a deep and smooth reflector.

The beam is nice and tight!

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

This is a cool white, low CRI light. You’d expect that out of a tactical light, and so we more or less accept it for this application.

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 Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight is a reasonably priced, mostly tactical flashlight with dual switches. The output is good, even though it doesn’t hit the 2000 lumen claim. It’s very cool white, particularly on the higher modes. I’m pleased that it uses a standard 18650, and that charging is via USB-C. The dual spring setup makes the T25R reasonable for tactical use, and as long as you have memory set to turbo (as you probably want for tactical), the user interface is good. Strobe being accessible from off is probably a good choice, too.

The Big Table

Trustfire T25R tactical flashlight
Emitter:	Luminus SST-40 (probably)
Price in USD at publication time:	$62.99
Cell:	1×18650
Runtime Graphs
LVP?	Warning
Switch Type:	Both
Quiescent Current (mA):	?
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	USB-C
Charge Graph
Power off Charge Port	“with cell: yes without cell: no”
Claimed Lumens (lm)	2000
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	1488 (74.4% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen
Claimed Throw (m)	350
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	929lux @ 5.813m = 31392cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	354.4 (101.3% of claim)^
Claimed CCT	–
Measured CCT Range (K)	6800-8200 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

• Reasonable price
• Includes cell
• Cell is standard
• User interface is reasonable and easy to remember

What I don’t like

• Very cool white
• Big for being an 18650 light

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Notes

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