Flashlight Fiesta
Police 3W Mini Torch
Price: 37p - 60p winning bids free shipping
manufacturer: Unknown
Model: Police 3W
Power: 3W Cree™ Q3? Not sure
Run By: 1x AA
Focus Type: Fixed
Vendor: various sellers on ebay
Description: Police 3W Tactical Flashlight
Shipped From: Hong Kong
What's in the Packet?: Just the torch + lanyard in some cases
Some are these Police are uniformed, some are undercover
Whilst ebay surfing for torches I noticed a few of these pop up among the lots starting out at 1p and free shipping.
I managed to bag a few for myself at prices between £0.37p and £0.60p. At these low prices it isn't a big loss if they turn out to be crap.
All four Police Mini's arrived at different times and in different packaging. Out of the four there isn't two that are the same! They are all different.
Two of the torches have Police logo on the body but the fonts are different. They both have a keyring lanyard which is quite well made and includes a break away fastener.
The remaining two torches (red and plain black) do not have any identifying logo or lanyard.
The build quality varies between all four surprisingly. Both the branded torches are reasonably well made with good screw threads which are easy to turn.
The unmarked torches on the other hand are poorly made. The screw threads on the end cap are poorly machined and squeak when you attempt to shut the battery in. The plain red and plain black are crap basically.
Not much to take apart here... end cap and a nifty one-piece
All four LED diodes kinda looked the same....sort of
Which one is the real Police 3W?
More Counterfeit Torches?
Have the Counterfeiters got to these torches too? I can't think why they would bother to be honest but it does appear that amongst these four we have at least three clones. But of what? My money is on the branded torch with the thinner police type face. It Has the best quality and feel out of them all.
Testing:
Just before testing the fake fatter font police torch died! Yes, so now we only have three to test. Strongly worded email on its way to the seller.
Who said these were 3W? Really? hmmm..
Below are some brickwall shots of each torch. There isnt much to separate them but the branded (small font) police torch wins hands down.
#1 The real Police 3W torch. Nice and bright
This has to be the best beam and brightness overall. A good torch
#2 The Red unbranded 3W clone. Not as good
Still a good torch but a little dimmer
#3 The Black unbranded 3W clone. No still not as good
In fact I'm quite impressed with torch #1. It's throws a decent amount of light for something so small. The others are less impressive.
Rating: ✅✅✅✅ 4 out of 5
Out of the four Police 3W's I currently own only one exceeded my expectations. One died completely and the other two are poor replicas. Based on the best one then I would say these are pretty good pocket torches. Very cheap and OK passable quality.
I would definitely buy another Police 3W - it's just a lottery as to wether you recieve a good one.
