This is my first truly boujee “designer” light. Overall, my opinions are quite mixed but it mostly comes down to the battery and likely the driver as far as true negatives go. If they at least come out with an extension tube, I’d say this would be a truly spectacular light. As is, it’s like they made this profoundly luxurious Bugatti, engineered with precision and beauty – inherently capable of absurd 0-60 times… but gave it a 2 gallon gas tank and fuel pump lifted out of a 1950’s car.
[Misc beam shots](https://imgur.com/a/Ml0E2T7)
[Size comparison](https://imgur.com/a/IXhfDy3)
1. Physical design
Durability: At least with the aluminum, it’ll take some damage from concrete should you drop it (whoopsie). As I believe 1lumen pointed out, there wasn’t a protective glass so you’ll have to be careful; however, the lens is fairly recessed. I personally think it’d be perfectly fine for pocket carry as long as you have nothing else in there. The titanium should be far more durable (and heavier), but it commands quite the immense price tag.
– Fidgets: All these fidgety elements actually integrate themselves quite practically and ergonomically, and it completely blows my mind. The central spinner lends itself so well to hand movements and tactile feedback for the focus adjustment above. The slide acts as a mechanical lockout and allows it to tailstand. The tactical ring being able to spin, in conjunction with the central spinner, allows for some of the most ergonomic grip transitions I’ve felt. What’s even better is that with the exception of the central spinner, all of these components can be easily serviced by the end user or even removed entirely. The tactical ring is mounted on a weaver/pitcanny style rail resulting in something quite adjustable for the specific user. Unfortunately it was too narrow to mount my scope on for the memes, but it does open up some opportunities later on for loop to come out with different attachments. The mechanical lockout compression springs could also be swapped out should one want something weaker or stronger. They’d truly knock it all out of the park if the main spinner was easily user serviceable.
The negatives( and they’re hardly significant in my opinion):
– The latch for the mechanical lockout isn’t completely ambidextrous. Yes you can use both hands, but it’s far more streamlined in the right hand. Additionally, they could’ve done similarly to the Acebeam RX and made that a pocket clip.
– The mechanical lockout slide can and likely will pinch you.
– Said mechanism for the latch does not synergize with using the light defensively/ for intended purpose via the tactical ring unless you use it only with the ring finger. Some experimentation is required to find the ideal position in the hand. Did I lightly punch some wood with this? Of course! Light fisting to take care of your wood is a cornerstone of any well fleshed out scientific process. On that note…
– This ring is quite aggressive and I certainly feel there’d be some grey area legality applied to it as a result if used defensively. If I remember correctly, I believe only the early/prototype Acebeam P15s had a tactical ring with glass breaker on it. That being said, this definitely answers the “can I use a flashlight for self defense” debate in a way beyond the Wurkkos murder bezel or the maglight baton does not.
Other design elements:
Tactic00l ring and bezel all have glass breakers, giving 5 total. The bezel appears to have some threading above the lens and I’m unsure of this was simply cosmetic, will serve a purpose later on or is a carryover from previous design. The tail button is truly stunning and similar to the timeback 3 but features different lights and modes. The button does spin, which may be a minor issue for some people. There’s a whopping 21 trit slots on this thing, so if you want to single handedly consume the global tritium supply and your life savings in one go, that’s an option! For some reason, not a single slot exists on the spinner ring which is a odd choice
As Star Wars nerd, I can’t help but notice either intentional or unintentional references to Anakin Skywalker. Spinning shitposts aside, the aux taillight does blue, red and purple, with red and blue each providing a revolving or breathing animation. Anakin’s saber was blue, Vader’s is red, and the combination of the two is purple which could either be a reference to him being both Jedi and Sith, or Mace Windu being the moment he turned to the dark side. Maybe the red breathing aux could’ve been more in sync with Vader’s breathing but I digress. Alright I’ll unnerd about that for a bit.
2. Build quality & QC:
For the most part, it’s what one would expect from a light at this price point. Threads feel great, lube is great if not possibly a bit excessive at some points. The action on the Zoomie is smooth. Two minor issues is that the zoomie lens itself appeared to have some particulates on it. It doesn’t noticably affect performance or the beam fortunately. I did have some issues with the mechanical lockout latch getting a bit crunchy/sticky from what I believe was the black paint and lube. Fortunately as that mechanism can be easily disassembled, I was quickly able to resolve the issue.
UI: 1lumen and flashaholic_mining on YouTube cover it pretty thoroughly, but I’d like to add/ remark about couple things.
1. Button lockout pretty is annoying given you have to wait for the tail animations; it’s been covered but it’s annoying enough for the redundancy.
2. There’s actually more than just strobe mode. After triple clicking for strobe, 1H will cycle it to a slow beacon or an SOS mode.
3. The tail button’s various modes have a bit of a visible delay between cycles. Be it breathing or cycling or using both red and blue lights, it will do so for however many set breaths or revolutions at even intervals, then have a slightly longer delay before restarting. I’ve tinkered with arduinos long enough to know that this could be a relatively easy fix on Loop’s end.
Performance/ Batteries:
This is where the actual issues come into place with this light. Loop, Manker, whomever, listen up: The lights you make like this are inherently thick, and you completely do your lights a **massive** disservice by opting for an 18350. They’re perfectly fine for small, lower performance flashlights and that’s not what you have. Of the available and appropriately rated and featured stubby batteries, the 26350 would’ve been the best choice. With a bezel diameter of 43mm, the larger body wouldn’t look remotely out of place. In fact, if it weren’t for the inner sleeve, it appears a 21700 battery could even fit in there. For now, the easiest solution Loop could implement is an 18650 extension tube.
With a full battery, the SK01 is truly an amazing sight. The beam be it focused or wide, is beautiful. It definitely outperforms my Mateminco FW2 with an 18650 while in it’s short lived turbo, and is slightly dimmer in their respective high & low modes. The eco mode is actually quite usable for reading while being downright amusing how far it throws at such a low setting. It can light things on fire from the beam itself if zoomed out and an object is placed in the right spot of it’s beam! It’s a stunning beam as well, and drastically improves the usability of an LEP via being a zoomie. Its amazing… for a bit. Between the paltry battery and I’m assuming a fairly inefficient driver, my FW2 will overtake it. At a whopping 50-60% SOC, ± a bit, it will basically **lose** turbo abilities. That’s right, turbo becomes so negligibly brighter than high mode to the point where I can hardly tell the difference. Photos don’t do it justice, but for perspective it’s almost like taking an Anduril light in stepless ramping mode, and ramping it up the smallest possible amount – but I’d say that’s even more noticable a difference.
I haven’t tested the battery yet in case of defects. While 1lumen tested with an unprotected cell with success, this was not the case with me as a tap or sudden movement caused flickering or shut off with my Vapcell M11 which was quite unfortunate; I’m uncertain if that’s an issue with my light in particular or if my battery was slightly shorter than what the reviewer tested with, but it was very disappointing nonetheless. Now I knew going into this this is a first generation flashlight from a new company, and that it wouldn’t sport long runtimes due to the battery choice. But simply **not having anything resembling turbo** for a majority of the light’s runtime is pretty bogus.
Everything said, I sincerely hope this company takes off. This light has almost everything needed to be a highly functional work of art, but it needs a bit of work to get to that point. Moving forward, I’d like for them to not only implement driver and battery upgrades on newer units, but provide a program where existing owners can ship the head or unit to them for an upgrade at a reasonable cost. There’s also a lot of opportunity for fidget/functional mods due to the design. And yet again, extension tubes please.
by Ferdydurkeeee
