Sofirn IF22A V2 Flashlight Review

The Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight uses a single 21700 cell, a reflector, and a Luminus SFT42R emitter. This combo really makes the light throw! Read on!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight product page.

Versions

Technically, there is only one version of the Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight. It’s a new version of the IF22A. I just tested the IF22A (and have tested it before). The Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight is minimally changed from the regular IF22A. I am not going to do a side-by-side comparison of the two lights in one post, but with the standardized data shown here, it should be trivial to compare these two lights.

Price

The Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight set comes in at $46.99 with a 21700.

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What’s Included

• Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight
• Sofirn 5000mAh 21700 Cell
• Charge cable (USB to USB-C)
• 21700 to 18650 adapter
• Spare o-rings (2)
• Lanyard

Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

For the price, this Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight has superb build quality. Nothing is notably bad regarding the build. In fact, there are many things to really like here! The build is essentially (or “exactly”) like that of the regular IF22A. There are some technical differences which will really only show up later in this post. Because of the physical similarities between these lights, the review text is going to be largely the same.

The head has a nice bit of knurling. Maybe this is a weird place for knurling since you won’t really need to unscrew the bezel. But it’ll help with removing the cell tube (or tailcap).

Both head and tail are removable, freeing the cell tube entirely. The threads are square-cut on both ends, anodized, properly lubed, and very smooth.

There’s a little cell orientation icon printed on the cell tube. I think this was one of my complaints on the original IF22A review, and it still is. The cell tube is reversible, so it’s possible to assemble the light and cause this cell icon to be wrong.

Size and Comps

Dimensions: 127.1 mm (length) × 42mm (head diameter)
Weight: 185 grams

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.

Here’s V1 (left) beside V2 of the IF22A. They are essentially the same, other than the reflector/TIR.

Retention and Carry

A pocket clip is included. This clip is designed to attach in only one place, and that’s on the tailcap end of the cell tube. It’s a “pretty deep” carry clip, especially with the overall size of the light.

Only one side has a lanyard hole. It’s just one hole, too, and so when tailstanding, the lanyard will get in the way just a little bit. It’s very thin, though, so that’s not the biggest problem.

The light (surprisingly?) does not have a magnet in the tailcap.

Power and Runtime

The Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight is a single lithium-ion cell light. The cell tube is 21700-sized, and that’s the cell that ships in the package.

The cell is installed into the Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight in the usual way – positive end toward the head.

Sofirn includes this plastic sleeve, which allows flawless use of a single 18650 cell, too.

Generally, the runtime (profile) looks like the previous versions of IF22A. But either there’s no ATR (advanced temperature regulation) or the aggressiveness of the ATR has been fully managed.

Based on the temperature profile of these tests, it seems like V2 does not have ATR.

These lower modes have a bit of a disappointing fade from their initial output level.

I observed the switch providing a warning of low voltage in all three tests.

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 Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight is USB-C charging.

The charge port is in the head, just opposite the switch. These two items (switch and charge port cover) are different enough that you’ll not confuse them.

Sofirn includes a charging cable – USB-C to USB-C. It’s a surprisingly high-quality cable. I tested operation with USB-C to USB-C, and that works (but looks to just be at 5V). Still, it works, which is good.

Charging looks fine and is quick from C to C – at around 3A from the USB source.

Powerbank

The Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight makes mention of being able to “reverse charge” or powerbank. I’ll have to get back to testing that feature!

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens	Tailcap Amps
Turbo	2100	1h51m	2759 (0s) 2477 (30s)	7.80
High	1100	2h17m	1155 (0s) 1104 (30s)	3.07
Medium	320	5h36m	400	1.46
Low	30	41h22m	32	108mA
Moon	1	>400h	0.42	4mA

Pulse Width Modulation

We can see PWM on all but the lowest and highest modes. It’s fast enough to be invisible, though. In previous versions, Turbo also used 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 Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight is controlled by a single switch. It’s an e-switch on the side of the head.

This switch also has indicating features – below it’s seen indicating red for low voltage. Notably, the switch will indicate for 5 seconds after the light is turned on, as follows:

Green: remaining battery power is good
Red: remaining battery power is poor (less than 30%)
Red Flashing: recharge or swap cell immediately.

There’s a surprising amount of travel on this switch. It’s also quite proud

Here’s a user interface table! Note that this user interface is just like the Sofirn SP35 and Sofirn SC21, which I reviewed previously. Whether Ramping is group 1 or 2 doesn’t really matter, so I’m leaving the user interface table as it was for the SP35 and SC21. Switching between the two is the same, and the indication that groups were switched is the same, too.

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	On (Mode Memory)
Off	Hold	Moonlight
On	Hold	Group 1: Mode cycle (Low, Medium, High only)Group 2: Ramp up
Any (except Turbo)	Double Click	Turbo
Turbo or Strobe	Click	Previous state
On	Click	Off
Turbo	Double Click	Moonlight
On	Click 4x	Switch between Group 1 and Group 2
Any	Click 3x	Strobe
Off	Click 4x	Lockout (blinks twice to confirm)
Lockout	Click 4x	Unlock (to mode memory)
Lockout	Click	Main emitter blinks 2x to indicate lockout
Lockout	Hold	Momentary Moonlight

Why you’d want to double click from Turbo to get to Moonlight, I have no idea.

Group 2 (Ramping) is very similar to the above Group 1, except holding the switch will cause the light to ramp up. Loosening, then holding the switch again within 1.5s will cause the ramp to switch directions. So it’s possible to ramp up or down. Double-click still gets Turbo.

LED and Beam

The big deal on the Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight is the Luminus SFT42R emitter coupled with a smooth reflector. It offers both great output and great throw.

The reflector helps with throw, but provides a slightly different beam profile than the IF22A TIR.

In practice, it’s honestly fairly hard to tell a difference in beam profile. This emitter is brighter, of course.

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

CRI here is low, and the CCT ranges from cool white to very cool white.

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 Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight is a great light for throw. The output is fine as long as you aren’t just running steady, but if you do, you’ll probably run into the stepdown. This reflector version does have a slightly different beam profile (maybe better, that’s up to you), but in practice, it’s very hard to tell the difference. And this reflector version is much more pricey! But it does seem to drop the annoying ATR for temperature regulation, and doesn’t have PWM on turbo, so those are both improvements. It also has higher output across the board, which might also be good for your use case.

The Big Table

Sofirn IF22A V2 flashlight
Emitter:	Luminus SFT-42R (Cool white)
Price in USD at publication time:	$46.99
Cell:	1×21700
Runtime Graphs
LVP?	Yes
Switch Type:	E-switch
Quiescent Current (mA):	?
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	USB-C
Charge Graph
Power off Charge Port	“with cell: all modes without cell and/or without body: lowest three modes”
Claimed Lumens (lm)	3200
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	2477 (77.4% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	51.1
Claimed Throw (m)	700
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	3250lux @ 6.243m = 126669cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	711.8 (101.7% of claim)^
Claimed CCT	Cool white 6000-6500
Measured CCT Range (K)	Cool white 6100-7000 Kelvin
Item provided for review by:	Sofirn
All my Sofirn 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

• Very throwy beam profile
• Ramping option if you want it
• But the stepped group is very smart, too.
• USB-C charging works great
• PWM is fast enough to be a non-issue
• Includes cell

What I don’t like

• 6500K
• Ramp speeds make ramping a little bit awkward

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Notes

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