Pocketable and affordable 1800m throw LEP flashlight.

You can buy the Lumintop Thor II LEP flashlight at NealsGadgets or BangGood (affiliate link).

Introduction

My first LEP flashlight! What’s that you might be wondering? LEP stands for Laser Excited Phosphor, sometimes known as a White Laser. These are best explained as a hybrid between a normal LED flashlight and a laser. White LEDs work by current through a semiconductor hitting a layer of phosphor. In a LEP, a blue laser is shined on the phosphor instead and the output is a very focused white beam that shines a long way.

LEPs like this are only useful for long distance lighting. They don’t provide any spill, so can’t be used to light up by your feet. Instead, they’re more like a light sabre that extends to whatever you point at it.

Most LEP flashlights on the market today are either small or large. The smaller ones like the Acebeam W10 have a head size around 30mm with a beam distance around 1200m. Larger ones like the Weltool W4 are around 60mm and over 2km throw. The Lumintop Thor II LEP is a Goldilocks size at 41.5mm with around 1800m throw. It’s also one of the few LEPs that can take a smaller 18350 battery or a 18650 battery. This makes it possibly the longest distance pocketable flashlight in existence today.

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Normally the LEP sells the Thor II for around $210 (NealsGadgets, BangGood) but if you’re quick there’s a group buy price on BLF for $140. This competes in price with cheaper LEPs, like the NealsGadgets LEP.

I have the sand coloured Thor II but it’s also available in black, grey and raw aluminium. There’s also a titanium version for around twice the cost (NealsGadgets, BangGood).

Lumintop Thor II LEP specs

These are the official specs from Lumintop. Read on to see how my measurements compare.

Output	500 lumens
Throw	1800m / 769,500 cd
Impact resistance	1m
Waterproof	IPX8 2m underwater
Material	Aluminium alloy with type III HA finish
Power	9W max
Runtime (18650)	Low: 4h40m. Medium: 3h5m. High: 5m then 2h55m
Runtime (18350)	Low: 2h20m. Medium: 58m. High: 5m then 45m

Thor II LEP throw and lumen measurements

A note on measurements: I’m an ameteur flashlight reviewer and don’t have professional equipment, so these numbers may be around 10% out. All lux and lumen measurements are from my home made integrating sphere, calibrated with a S2+ measured by Maukka. Measurements are done with a UNI-T UT383S lux meter and Adafruit TSL2591 connected to a Raspberry Pi (using RuTiTe by bmengineer). Expect them to be within +/-10%. Current readings were taken with a Precision Gold PG10B DMM for low currents and a Mustool X1 clamp meter for high currents, all with the cells fully charged.

Lumintop LEP throw measurements

1767m is the important number here. Not far off the 1800m specification. Interestingly the official specs also mention 769500 cd, which equates to 1754m. This was measured indoors (low humidity) at 10m with a Sony VTC5A cell. Freeme on BLF measured 1733m (750,800 cd) at 20m outdoors in high humidity, which is within 2% of my numbers.

Mode	Throw (m)	Intensity (candela)
Low	594m	88,200 cd
Medium	1116m	311,600 cd
High (0s)	1790m	801,400 cd
High (30s)	1767m	781,000 cd

Even low and medium modes are impressive here, especially when you consider their runtime.

Lumintop LEP lumens

LEPs aren’t built for lumens, so this isn’t especially useful. I measured 353 lm after 30 seconds, which is around 70% of the specs. I’ve calibrated my sphere with a normal flashlight (S2+), so it’s probably less accurate for LEPs anyway.

There’s pretty much no difference in output between the 18350 and 18650 cells. There’s not much output difference when the cell is at 3.62V, other than the LEP dropping from high to medium after 8 seconds.

Mode	Spec	18650 @ 4.2V	18350 @ 4.2V	18350 @ 3.62V
Low	30 lm	39 lm	36 lm	35 lm
Med	180 lm	141 lm	141 lm	136 lm
High (0s)	500 lm	360 lm	364 lm	336 lm
High (30s)	500 lm	353 lm	353 lm	134 lm

Current measurements

With a 18650 VTC5A cell, I measured:

• Low 0.56A
• Medium 1.06A
• High 2.56A

The RGB tail switch current was a challenge to measure! It draws between 0.4mA and 0.6mA, depending on the colour. This would last a bit over 2 months with a small 18350 cell or 9 months with a high capacity 18650 cell.

Thor II Runtime

Lumintop used a 3500mAh Samsung INR 18650 35E for their run times. I’ve used a 2600mAh Sony VTC5A, so you should be able to get a bit more.

The light has a timed step down from 5 minutes but you can easily cycle back to high. You can see the nice regulated output on medium, even when the cell voltage drops.

Remember that even medium throws 1116m (311,600 cd).

Box and accessories

You don’t get much in the box. Just the flashlight, a manual and the extension tube that lets you use 18650 cells. There’s no pocket clip or lanyard supplied.

Note: the extension tube is not always included and sometimes sold as an added extra.

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Handling, size and weight

The Thor II with its short 18350 tube is almost identical in size to the Manker MC13 with its 18650 long tube. This is because the Thor II’s LEP module takes up quite a bit of space.

With the longer 18650 tube, the Thor II is about the same length as a normal C8 flashlight. It’s about 4mm narrower at the head than a C8 though, so slightly more pocketable. For comparison, the Acebeam W10 is about the same length as the Thor II in 18650 mode but has a head diameter of 31.5mm.

Size

• Head diameter 41.5mm
• Body diameter: 25.5 to 28.0mm
• Length (without extension tube) 116.8mm
• Length (with 18650 extension tube) 148.0mm

Weight

Size	With cell	Without cell
Short 18350 tube	194g	170g
Long 18650 tube	234g	187g

Lumintop Thor II size comparison

You can see the Thor II LEP is very compact. It’s similar size to the generic X800 cheap zoomie but throws 7 times as far.

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Build quality

No complaints here. There’s O-rings in the right places and the threads are anodised. There’s a couple of areas of square knurling for grip.

The flashlight also has RGB LEDs in the tail switch and glow in the dark inside the bezel and around the head. Some people may be put off by these but I’m not too bothered.

Some of these photos were taken after a few trips outdoors and after being carried in a pocket.

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LEP light output

There’s no LED in this flashlight. Instead there’s a laser that you can’t see and a mirror. This results in a shadow in the centre beam at less than about 1.5m. Beyond that, the beam looks normal.

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At a guess I’d say the light was just under 6000K, so a cool white but not too cool.

User interface

The Thor II has a physical tail switch. It’s very simple to use:

• Click on
• Click off
• Tap while on to change modes

The light cycles through low-medium-high then back to low.

It has mode memory, so will turn back on in the mode you left it. Mode memory only works after 6 or 7 seconds, otherwise it will go into the next mode. I’d rather mode memory was a bit quicker here.

There’s no strobe or SOS modes.

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Batteries and charging

The Thor II will take pretty much any 18650 or 18350 cell you can throw at it. Thanks to having springs at both ends, it can adapt to flat top or button top protected cells. The light has low voltage protection, so you don’t need protected cells but at less than 3A it’s fine to use them. Nearly all cells should be fine with 5A continuous draw, so I’d recommend going for the highest capacity cells you can find.

The Thor II has no built-in charging, so you’ll need your own charger.

Beamshots

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Summary

Pros

• Incredible throw of over 1.7km for a pocketable light
• Still throws over 1km on medium, which lasts for around 3 hours
• Looks cool

Cons

• Takes a bit too long to forget mode memory
• Still quite long, even in 18350 mode
• No clip supplied or good place to attach one

Conclusion

This is my first LEP and I’m very impressed. It’s significantly more throwy than even Osram W1 flashlights the same size. In fact it out throws the Noctigon K1 with W1, which has a head almost twice the diameter!

If you’re after a LEP then I can recommend the Thor II – especially if you want something more impressive than small LEPs and more compact than larger ones.

You can buy the Lumintop Thor II LEP flashlight at NealsGadgets or BangGood (affiliate link).