Spotlight Shifter 1.0 Thoughts

Specifications

Max lumens: 80

Max run time: 3 hours

Modes: 3, high/low/strobe

Battery: 1 AAA

Likes

• Very interesting concept. It’s a focusing flashlight, which means it can adjust from a spot beam to a flood beam by twisting the head of the light.
• Good build quality
• Pretty good form factor. It’s not the smallest AAA light, but it’s not that big either.
• Comes in different colors
• Clip doesn’t seem that strong, but I haven’t had any problems with it. It does carry pretty well.
• Knurling is nice and grippy
• Clicky button works as it should. You can either hold it down momentarily if you need a quick light or click to leave it on. It doesn’t take that much effort to click, so there could be problems with it getting turned on accidentally in your pocket. I haven’t encountered that problem since I don’t carry it in my pocket, but it is worth mentioning.
• Threads are smooth
• Beam is a good tint. It's your normal flashlight tint, not the crappy purplish tint that some cheap lights have.
• 80 lumens is a good amount of light for everyday usage
• Good selection of modes. I don’t ever use the strobe, but I guess it’d be nice to have if you needed it.
• Has an oring so it is water resistant
• Easy to use one-handed
• Decent price. It retails for around $40 on Spotlight’s website. I don’t know if I would pay that much considering there’s several things about the light I don’t like.

Dislikes

• Low mode is not that low. It’s not noticeably different from the high in my opinion. I think the low should be less than 5 lumens.
• Battery life isn’t that great. Like I mentioned above, there is no true low mode, so you’re pretty much running this light on high at all times. That drains the battery very quickly. I don’t think I’ve gotten anywhere near the 3 hours of runtime it’s supposed to have.
• Gets very hot in a short amount of time. The light just can’t keep up and gets hot/starts buzzing.
• Turns off automatically after a long duration of time. I'm guessing that's to help make sure the light doesn't overheat and burn itself out. I've tried plenty of other lights and never had them turn off automatically though.
• There’s a weird buzzing on the low mode. This is another reason I never use the low mode.

All in all, this is not the best light on the market. It’s an interesting concept, but mostly a gimmick in my mind. I don’t think the majority of people would need the option to have both a flood and a spot beam. If you do, check this out, but honestly I don’t think it’s worth it. I’ve been doing more research on focusing flashlights, and there are plenty of other ones out there. This one has quite a few issues that makes using it an unpleasant experience. Thanks for looking!