Ultrafire XM-L T6 Gold Crown
Price: £2.00 free shipping
Manufacturer: Ultrafire
Model: ???
Power: Cree XM-L diode. 7W-10W estimated
Run By: 1x18650 Lithium (no AAA option)
Focus Type: Zoom
Modes: 5
Vendor: Seller via ebay
Shipped From: Hong Kong
This torch is only 5in long...
A fancy Golden crown
First Impressions
I think I was quite lucky bagging one of these rarities for £2. They don't seem to come around very often and when they do they can often end up selling at £5+ in the auctions.
Quite why this is the case is yet to be revealed as this torch is basically a standard Cree XM-L T6 in a standard 18650 torch body. - with a gold coloured strike Bezel. It must be the gold that everyone is clamouring over?
Bit Is it as simple as that? or is there something special inside which makes it so desirable and cost more than something comparable?
It took a while for this torch to arrive from Kowloon. When it did arrive it was well packaged surprisingly and the box hadn't been deformed in the post.
Build quality is very good. The aluminium body is well machined and finished. The level of anodising seems tough enough to be scratch proof.
Despite how it may look in pictures it's only five inches long. Tiny really - this is also reflected in the small head and lens.
I'm not expecting any super throwing capabilities with this one.
The torch body has many similarities with the Ultrafire C8 and the WF-502B. - not a groundbreaking design by any means.
The end cap is well made with a decent contact spring. There seems to be no connection issues or rattling batteries which is always good news.
The business end is solid in construction. The head moves freely when zooming the beam in and out. Sandwiched between the gold bezel and the convex lens is a strong rubber o-ring to aid waterproofing.
The LED bed is not the best it has to be said. The Cree XM-L chip is mounted wrongly and offset with the center of the lens which is annoying.
Testing:
This torch displays all the power of a Xlamp T6 but in the restricted confines of its small form factor host resulting in a wide zoom beam that isn't that wide afterall. Things are worse when you screw the head all the way into narrow spot mode. I can live with the T6 shaped projection on everything but the dirty artifacts within the spill area are unforgivable. Two horrible marks can be seen in the periphery of the outer circle which is hard to ignore. The reason for these imperfections is down to the poor offset mounting of the LED and the crap quality lens.
High Power Flood
This is as wide as the flood beam gets. And this is one example of how bad the optics are - it's not even a full circle. It's horribly distorted. I don't like it.
Narrow Spot Beam
This setting really shows how bad the optics are. The dreadful circular scratch marks on the outer circle are plain to see and look at where the LED is positioned. That's not right!
Another thing that does annoy is the way the zoom works. It isn't the easy one handed slide forward or back but a fumbling screw type arrangement which is time consuming. Winding the lens in and out is not something I generally like but it could be of some use to the Tactical user. Strapping this to a high powered gun would at least ensure that the focus can't accidentally move due to the kick off the rifle. - something that can happen over time with the standard push zoomers.
It's a bit crap to be honest
Rating: ✅✅✅✅✅ 3 out of 5
Yeah, this is an OK torch if you can get it for a couple of quid. Not sure I would pay over a fiver for it. Afterall it just has a gold bezel and nothing new underneath. The poor quality lens and led mounting is enough to put off buying another one anyway.
Still unsure what all the hype is about?
Put your money away and head for the much better SupFire J1