Contents

• Pricing & Availability
• What comes in the box?
• Design & Construction
• Size & Measurements
• User Interface
• Emitter & Beam
• Mode Chart
• Runtime
• Driver & Regulation
• Switch
• Carry & Ergonomics
• Batteries & Charging
• Competition
• Conclusion

Pricing & Availability

FlashlightGo sent me this light in exchange for an honest review. Here’s a link to their site where you can purchase it.

What comes in the box?

The box is fairly large, black, and designed for retail. It’s got nice black and orange printing all over showing the light and its features. Inside, the light is held in place by a thin vacuum-formed clear plastic insert. All the accessories sit underneath.

• The light itself
• Batteries (inside the light)
• User manual
• USB A-to-C charging cable
• Wrist lanyard
• Belt Holster

Design & Construction

HD32 is a traditional flashlight shape with a switch on the tail, a narrow body tube, and a flared-out head. There’s tasteful machining all over the light to add grip, cooling, and style. I think it looks great. The only thing I’d change is to add some anti-roll flats on the head.

The build quality is top-notch. It feels high quality in a way that you don’t get from cheaper brands. The anodizing and threads are super smooth and it’s dense in the hand.

Size & Measurements

Wuben X1 | Sofirn SF26 | Fenix HT32 | Acebeam L19 | Olight Warrior 3S

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Bezel Diameter	52.0
Maximum Head Diameter	52.0
Length	165
Main Switch Diameter	13
Main Switch Proudness	4.6
Lens Thickness	u/m
Reflector Hole Diameter	u/m
Reflector Diameter	u/m
Reflector Height	u/m
MCPCB Size	u/m
Body Tube Diameter (internal)	22.5
Body Tube Diameter (maximum)	26.1
Body Tube Diameter (mode)	25.4
Body Tube Length	u/m
Tailcap Diameter (not including switches)	28.3
Tailcap Length	29.6
Driver Diameter	u/m
Included Battery Length	76.6
Included Battery Diameter	21.6

Weight without battery: 185g
Weight with included battery: 259g
Belt holster weight: 39g

User Interface

This is a good, simple user interface. I was able to figure it out completely in less than 1 minute before reading the user manual. That’s very impressive for a light with three channels. Most multi-channel lights I’ve tried have nightmarish UIs because they try and pack in too many functions.

State	Switch	Action	Result
Off	Large	Full Press	On (mode memory)
Off	Large	Half-Press	Momentary on (mode memory)
Off	Small	Press-and-hold	Momentary strobe
On	Large	Press-and-release	Off
On	Small	Press-and-release	Cycle brightness level
On	Small	Press-and-hold	Cycle color (W-R-G)

What they got right:

• Clicking the biggest switch turns the light on/off. That’s the most basic and most intuitive function.
• There are no shortcuts. That keeps it simple and reliable.
• It has a momentary or constant switch. That’s really nice to be able to instantly turn it off by releasing the momentary switch, or you can press it all the way to latch it on.
• Mode memory. The light always remembers the last color and brightness level you used and starts back up in the same mode. That makes it reliable and simple to use. It even remembers the brightest you used on a given color after you’ve switched to a different color and come back.

What they got wrong:

• The lowest modes aren’t low enough. In each color, the lowest mode is still fairly bright, too bright for some situations. It’s particularly noticeable if you try and use the red light to “preserve night vision” because it’s still very bright.
• There may be too many or too few modes. This is very subjective, but I think it might be better to have three modes in each color instead of four white and two in each color. Ideally, a super-low Eco/Moonlight mode of 5lm or less, a medium mode, and then the brightest mode. That would make the UI more consistent and would add ultra-low functionality in each color.

On the instant strobe function: I don’t find it useful at all. It seems to me that instant Turbo or instant Low would be much more useful. I know this is a hunting light, so if you know how instant strobe can be useful for hunting, please let me know!

Emitter & Beam

HT32 has three emitters. The main white one is a Luminus SFT70 in cool white, standard CRI. It may not have impressive color properties but it’s efficient and intense. I really like it in my EDC Olight Warrior 3S and I think it’s a great fit here. It necessitates a boost driver, which is great for efficiency and regulation.

The red is a Luminus SFT20 RA and the green is a Luminus SFT20 CG. They work fine, but I don’t love the color on either. The red is monochromatic, which I like, but it’s halfway between red and orange rather than a true deep red like I was hoping for. The green isn’t particularly deep either and it’s full-spectrum rather than monochrome. That means it looks green but you can still see reds, blues, and yellows when you shine it at a colorful object. I don’t know if that’s critical for hunting or not, but I found myself wishing it was a deeper, monochromatic green.

It would have been great to also have a blue LED to round out the R-G-B-W. I hear that’s good for “blood tracking” when hunting too so it wouldn’t be out of place.

The LEDs all sit under a custom triple TIR optic! It’s one large TIR for the main LED that also has two smaller optics molded into it for the color LEDs. How cool!

The white beam is on the throwy side with a fairly tight hotpot and fairly narrow spill. It’s soft with no hard edges. The spill has a large, soft ring so it’s not perfectly even. The color beams have a well-defined hotspot and some asymmetrical spill because the LEDs aren’t centered in the optic, but that doesn’t affect the usefulness of the beam.

In the beamshots below, the basketball goal to the right of the hotspot is 39M away and the power pole in the center is 185M away.

Mode Chart

Disclaimer: All of my measurements are taken at turn-on. Lumen measurements were taken on a Texas Ace 3.5″ Lumen Tube. A candela measurement was taken at 10 meters with an Opple Light Master III on the highest brightness, and other candela figures were calculated relative to that. CRI, CCT, & DUV data were taken for each mode from a few feet away at the center of the hotspot with the Opple Light Master and Waveform DUV Calculator. Runtime tests were performed with the Ceilingbounce app on my smartphone. All of these tests were performed with a fully charged included battery unless otherwise specified. I cannot measure moonlight directly, so moonlight readings are calculated based on the brightness relative to the next-lowest mode. None of this is professional equipment, so take all of these measurements with a grain of salt.

Above are the official specs, followed by my own measurements below.

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
W Turbo	2200	92000	607	69	6280	0.0053
W High	900	37636	388	65	5800	0.0091
W Medium	310	12964	228	64	5740	0.0108
W Low	46	1924	88	63	5630	0.0127
R High	600	1200	69	N/A	N/A	N/A
R Low	200	400	40	N/A	N/A	N/A
G High	1200	11500	214	N/A	N/A	N/A
G Low	310	2971	109	N/A	N/A	N/A

Take the color measurements with an extra grain of salt because my equipment is designed for white light. I don’t know how accurate it is at different colors or monochrome light.

Runtime

Performance: White light performance is good. 2200 lumen Turbo is respectable from an SFT70, especially behind a large TIR. Turbo starts to sep down virtually instantly which is disappointing. I would have liked to see a minute of Turbo before a harsh stepdown instead of slowly stepping down continuously for the first ~80 seconds after activation.

Thermal regulation: The Turbo stepdown appears to start instantly, possibly timed. However, after the initial stepdown, there is active thermal regulation. When cooled by a fan, the light held 1000lm for over an hour.

LVP (Low Voltage Protection): There’s a low voltage warning in the form of a large, noticeable stepdown to a dim level. After that, the light will blink off for a moment every several seconds to remind you to charge it. It will run for several hours like that. There’s also a low-voltage shutoff built into the driver, so you can safely use unprotected cells here. You cannot re-activate the light after low voltage shutoff unless you recharge the battery. Additionally, as the battery drains you lose access to the higher modes and that makes it obvious that the light needs to be recharged.

Driver & Regulation

HT32 has a 6V/12V main LED and a single 3.7V battery, so it must be using a boost driver for that main LED. That’s great because boost drivers typically provide the best efficiency and regulation. I’m not sure how the SFT20 color emitters are being driven.

Regulation performance isn’t as good as I expected for a boost driver. This is good, but about average. Curiousy, the Red Low mode got slightly brighter as the battery neared empty. That was the case at the end of my Red High runtime test too.

I like that the light will not let me enter a brighter mode if there isn’t enough power left. For example, at 3.3V I could only access Low and Medium. If I clicked the mode switch on Medium it just cycled back down to Low instead of High. That gives me a clear indication of when I need to charge it. Some other lights will just keep operating normally but at a reduced brightness so you can’t really tell they need to be charged. With those lights, you might be using “Turbo” mode but only getting 20% output because the battery is low.

Note: All regulation measurements are taken at turn-on so they do not reflect any thermal or low voltage stepdowns that may occur. A value of 0 indicates low voltage shutoff immediately upon activation.

PWM: No PWM is visible to my eyes or camera, nor audible to my ears on any mode.

Parasitic Drain: There shouldn’t be any parasitic drain on this light because it’s got a mechanical primary switch that shuts off power. However, it’s also got that secondary mode/strobe switch that works even when the light is off so there may be some electronic trickery going on.

Switch

HT32 has dual tail switches. The larger, main switch is a forward clicky under a rubber boot. It turns the light on/off and it feels nice and high quality. The smaller, secondary switch changes modes and activates instant strobe from off. It’s a momentary-only e-switch that also feels high quality with a crisp, audible click. Both switches protrude a bit from the tailcap so they are easy to activate, but they do not allow the light to tailstand.

The coolest thing about these switches is there’s only one body tube. Normally, if a light has more than a mechanical on/off switch on the tail, it needs a secondary signal tube for electronic connection to the tailcap. Here, Fenix has managed to put a second switch on the tailcap without a signal tube. Impressive!

Carry & Ergonomics

Fenix did an excellent job on HT32’s ergonomics. All of the milling is the perfect balance between grippy and comfortable. There are no sharp edges or hotspots anywhere. It works best in a reverse or cigar grip, but the forward and neck grips work too if you change modes with the other hand.

Two carry methods are included with HT32: a wrist lanyard that attaches to the tail, and a holster that attaches to your belt. The holster is made of black nylon with a velcro closure and a D-ring on top. There are two belt loops, one fixed, and one that can be opened by velcro to attach/remove it easily. It’s a plain, traditional holster.

Batteries & Charging

HT32 includes one USB-C rechargeable, 5000mah, protected, 21700 cell. 18650s or unprotected 21700s are too short to make contact, but they’ll work if you have some kind of spacer. Some Fenix models also support two CR123A’s, but I can’t find any mention of that in the product documentation so I believe HT32 is limited to lithium-ion cells only.

Charging is facilitated by a USB-C port built into the positive end of the cell. There’s a small LED indicator in the center of the positive terminal that lights up when the battery is plugged in. Red means charging and blue means fully charged. Green would have been better to indicate a full charge, but it’s not a big deal.

There is no powerbank function and the light cannot be used while charging because the battery has to be removed to charge. You can also charge this battery in a traditional bay charger if it fits, but protected 21700s are too long for most bay chargers.

I wish there was a battery indicator. It would be great to have a little multi-colored LED or set of several LEDs on the side of the light. They should light up for a few seconds after the light is activated to show you how much battery is left. Technically you can use the mode switching to check the battery because you can’t access Turbo or High modes if the battery is sufficiently depleted. That doesn’t count as a battery indicator though.

Competition

Here are some lights in the same class and how they compare.

Skilhunt EC300: the floody EDC alternative: less expensive, much smaller, much floodier beam, side switch, also has blue light, USB-C on the head instead of the battery, and a pocket clip

Cyansky H3 V2: uses built-in filters for colors instead of different LEDs, similar size and specifications, tail switch and side switch, less expensive

Olight Marauder Mini: the fancier alternative: more expensive, proprietary magnetic charging, proprietary battery, separate throw and flood beams, separate red-green-blue beams, rotary push knob and toggle switch on the side, shorter and fatter, excellent battery indicator

This section is not comprehensive. If I didn’t include a particular light here, it doesn’t mean it’s bad or doesn’t deserve to be here. I simply cannot list every possible competitor.

Conclusion

This is an extremely well built light. Fenix didn’t cut any corners from the bezel to the tailcap. That comes at a pretty expensive price though ($160 at the time of writing). That seems overpriced to me. With that said, I can’t find another white+red+green hunting-oriented light that I would rather buy.

Thanks to FlashlightGo for sending me this light for review!