Wurkkos HD01 Review – Best Budget Flat Light

1. Pricing & Availability
2. What comes in the box
3. Design & Construction
4. Size & Measurements
5. User Interface
6. Emitter & Beam
7. Mode Chart
8. Runtime
9. Driver & Regulation
10. Switch
11. Carry & Ergonomics
12. Batteries & Charging
13. Competition
14. Conclusion

Pricing & Availability

Wurkkos sent me this light in exchange for an honest review. The Amazon product pages show current pricing: US, UK, & DE. Wurkkos provided those links, but they aren’t affiliate links and I don’t earn any commission.

What comes in the box

HD01 comes in a nice, white box with a magnetic closure. It’s a great “unboxing experience”. Inside is:

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

Design & Construction

The flat-ish design is one of HD01’s main features. It’s a milled aluminum block that’s (relatively) thin on its radiused sides. Most competitors have some fancy stamping or milling on the sides but HD01 is clean and smooth.

Build quality is good. No complaints. I like the deep satin anodizing. It’s IP65 rated, not IP67/IP68 like most other flashlights of this quality, so be careful around water.

Size & Measurements

Nitecore MT1C Pro | Weltool T1 Pro V2| Wurkkos HD01 | Nitecore EDC27 UHi | Mini Maglite

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Width	26.9
Thickness	16.8
Length	110.9
Switch Diameter	8.4
Weight with included battery (g)	93

User Interface

I’m happily impressed by this UI. I expected it to be cramped and unintuitive, but it’s excellent! Well done Wurkkos!

The actions are # of presses followed by a hold (H) or a release (C). So, “1C” is one click and release. “2H” is two clicks but you hold down the last one.

State	Action	Result
Off	1C	On (mode memory)
Off	1H	Moonlight (not memorized)
Off	4C	Lockout
On (except Turbo)	1C	Off
On	1H	Cycle brightness (Low-Med-High)
Any	2C	Turbo (not memorized)
Any	3C	Strobe
Turbo or Strobe	1C	Return to previous state (memorized mode or off)
Lockout	1C	Double-blink the main LED
Lockout	4C	Unlock & turn on to memorized mode

State	Action	Result
Off	1C	Laser on
Off	1H	Side RGB (color memory)
Off	2C	Side White (mode memory)
Off	3C	Side Patterns (always starts on police)
Off	4C	Lockout
On	1C	Off
Side RGB	1H	Adjust color
Side White	1H	Cycle mode (Low-Med-High)
Side Patterns	1H	Cycle pattern (see video below)
Lockout	1C	DoubleDouble-blink the main LED
Lockout	4C	Unlock & turn on the laser

Note: When you lock out either switch, it locks out both switches. You can use either switch to unlock.

What they got right:

• There are multiple switches. All of this functionality would be too much for one switch.
• The main beam’s UI is industry standard. It’s all the typical e-switch stuff so you won’t have to re-learn the UI every time you switch to a different light.
• Clicking turns the light on/off and holding the button changes modes. That’s the way almost all e-switch flashlights should work. It’s intuitive and quick. (Main UI only)
• The common shortcuts work. Moonlight, Turbo, and Strobe all have shortcuts that work the same way as most other lights. They work very well and there’s no learning curve when switching lights. (Main UI only)
• There are 5 brightness levels (in the main LED UI) and 3 levels in the side white UI, which is just the right amount. Enough options but not so many that it’s cumbersome.
• Turbo, Moonlight, and Strobe are not memorized. Each has a dedicated shortcut, so you can access them quickly without overriding your memorized mode. They’re also not in the main mode rotation, so you never need to cycle through them.
• 1H from Moonlight goes to Low. That means you can get to Low mode without having to go through brighter modes if you don’t have it memorized. Some lights don’t have this, and its annoying when you’re trying not to bother other people with excess light.

What they got wrong:

• 1C doesn’t always turn it off. In Turbo and Strobe, 1C just returns you to the previous state, which could be off, or whatever mode you were using last. 2C from Turbo/Strobe should be used to return to the previous mode.
• RGB color adjustment doesn’t change direction. When you are holding the front button to change the side LED color, if you overshoot the color you want you have to cycle all the way back around again. On Sofirn IF24(Pro) with a similar RGB LED array, if you let go of the button and press it again it’ll reverse the direction of color change so you can really dial in the perfect color.

Emitter & Beam

HD01’s main LED is cool white with standard (~70) CRI, and Wurkkos don’t advertise it’s make or model. It seems like a fine emitter choice to me to keep price down and brightness up.

The side LED array consists of addressable RGB diodes and a row of neutral white, high CRI, CSP1313 flood LEDs. Those are excellent for close-up work where you need great color properties.

The main beam is relatively wide for EDC utility tasks, but it throws a decent distance on Turbo if you really need to punch out. It’s not the cleanest, but it does the job. The side is just diffused, so there is no “beam”.

In the beamshots below, camera settings are fixed and the wall is 2.8M away.

In the beamshots below, camera settings are fixed, 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. 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 these measurements with a grain of salt.

The official specs are above, followed by my own measurements below.

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
Turbo	1200	8500	180	71	6510	0.0009
High	420	3000	110	70	6230	0.0029
Medium	110	180	56	70	6080	0.0032
Low	15	110	21	69	5900	0.0039
Moonlight	1.3	9	6	68	5710	0.0069

Level	Lumens	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
High	190	97	4920	0.0056
Medium	25	97	4870	0.0077
Low	0.4	100	4840	0.0051

Runtime

Performance is fair. The main LED stays in the 3-400lm range for about an hour on Turbo and High modes. The side LED array is dramatically less efficient, hanging out a little below 100 lumens for a little over an hour. Not bad for this battery capacity, but other (not flat) lights in this size range can run a lot longer.

Thermal regulation is present and is marginally effective. When it’s thermally saturated, the light is too hot to hold. It’s temperature is low enough to be safe for the electronics, but I wish the thermal limit were 5-10 degrees lower so you could comfortably hold it.

LVP (Low Voltage Protection) is present and works well. When the battery is effectively empty, the light will shut itself off.

Driver & Regulation

The driver appears to be FET only, and that’s pretty typical from Wurkkos. That’s a great way to keep costs down, but FET drivers provide fairly poor efficiency and regulation.

Regulation performance is mediocre. All modes trend down in brightness as the battery depletes, but it’s not dramatic or noticeable until the battery is virtually empty.

PWM: No PWM is visible to my eyes nor audible to my ears. My phone camera can detect some kind of flickering on the three highest modes from the front LED, the two brightest white modes on the side, and the constant-on RGB side mode. This might be a poor choice for video/photography lighting.

Parasitic Drain: I can’t measure parasitic drain because the battery is inaccessible.

Switch

HD01 has two electronic side switches. They’re both aluminum and surrounded by translucent battery indicator rings that light up when it’s turned on or charging. Those indicator rings also glow in the dark, which is neat! They’re fine switches and they do the trick nicely.

I’m delighted that Wurkkos decided to use multiple switches instead of trying to pack 3-4 channels into a single switch & UI. My favorite part is that the switches are completely independent. The back switch controls the main LED only, and it works like every other Wurkkos light, so it’s easy and intuitive to use. The front switch controls the secondary functions.

Carry & Ergonomics

Ergonomics are fine. It feels a little blocky in hand compared to other flat-style EDC lights I’ve tried, and the smooth satin finish doesn’t provide any extra grip. It fits well in the hand though, with no hotspots. I can easily access both switches in a forward grip.

The clip works but is sub-par. I like that it screws on so it can’t pop off on accident. It holds the light in my pocket fine, but there’s almost no mouth so I have to manually lift the clip up to get the light in my pocket. That’s a big issue for me. I also wish it carried deeper, and I could take or leave the second loop for clipping to a hat. That’s handy occasionally but I find those snag on seatbelts too frequently.

A magnet is embedded in the tail and it’s plenty strong to hold the light up on a vertical surface. The tail is smooth too, so if you get any magnetic debris on it it’ll be easy to wipe off. It would have been nice to have a magnet on the side too, opposite the side light.

Batteries & Charging

The battery included is built-in and I can’t find a capacity rating. It’s not user-serviceable, so when the battery eventually wears out, you can’t replace it. That sucks, but it comes with the territory. All of these flat-style EDC lights have built-in batteries.

Charging is facilitated by a USB-C port on the side. It’s covered by a rubber flap that feels reasonably secure. Both A-to-C and C-to-C cables work fine and it’s fully functional while charging. There’s no powerbank function, but I wouldn’t expect one on a small light like this. Charging is quick too.

The battery indicator is the two rings around the switches. Those rings glow for a few seconds after you turn the light on to indicate battery status. Green means good, and red means low. They also glow constantly while the light is plugged in. Red means charging and green means fully charged. The LEDs are quite bright, even distractingly bright. You can also make them fade on/off constantly while the light is turned off by clicking the front switch 5 times. The rings also glow in the dark faintly if you charge them up with an external light source. The green indicator LEDs aren’t quite bright enough to charge them.

Competition

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

Olight Arkfeld Pro: premium alternative

• More than 2x the price
• Higher build quality and thinner
• Has UV instead of side light bar
• Excellent rotary toggle switch
• Better pocket clip (carries deeper and no lift required)

Sofirn IF24 (Pro): not-flat alternative

• similar price
• performance?
• thicker
• user-replaceable 18650 battery
• no laser
• Buck driver (for front LED on pro version only)

Nitecore EDC25: brightest / defensive alternative

• more expensive
• dramatically brighter & throwier (best in class)
• no laser or side LEDs
• dual tail switches (including instant Turbo or Strobe)
• excellent battery & brightness indicator LEDs
• longer and wider, but thinner at the bezel
• stamped aluminum sandwich construction
• proximity sensor

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

I love the UI. I like the aesthetics, ergonomics, beams, and magnet. A better driver would be nice, but I’m satisfied with the FET driver at this price point. I don’t like the clip. Overall I am pleasantly surprised by HD01. It turned out to be a well-designed and highly compelling flat-style EDC light that I can confidently recommend to folks on a budget.

Thanks to Wurkkos for sending me this light for review!