Convoy T3 Ti/Cu Review – High-Class EDC on a Budget

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

Convoy sent me this light in exchange for an honest review. Here is the official product page where you can see current pricing. It’s affordable!

What comes in the box?

The box is simple and made of plain cardboard. A sticker on the side tells what’s inside, and a foam insert holds the light in place. Inside is:

• The light itself
• Battery (inside the light, optional)
• Wrist lanyard (outside the box, not pictured)

Design & Construction

This is an attractive light. I chose the “glossy” titanium version with a copper head and it looks phenomenal. The whole light has a machined finish, but the copper has a clear coat over it that turns it glossy and prevents oxidation. If you want it to patina, you must remove that clear coat. The body tube is slimmer than the aluminum version.

Build quality is appropriate for the price. It’s fairly thick and overbuilt so durability won’t be an issue. It could use another step in the machining process to smooth it out. All the edges on the titanium are a little bit sharp and grabby. That wouldn’t be a big deal, but the clip lands on one of those sharp/grabby titanium corners and it will definitely wear a hole in your pocket. The stonewashed version may be better. The threads are pretty rough, but I gather that’s common for titanium.

Size & Measurements

Wurkkos HD01 | Skilhunt EC200 | Convoy T3 | Skilhunt H150 | Mini Maglite

T3 is fairly large for a 14500/AA size light. It’s substantially larger than Skilhunt H150 (14500/AA), and almost as large as Skilhunt EC200 (18650).

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Bezel Diameter	20.5
Maximum Head Diameter	21.0
Length	96.5
Lens Thickness	1.1
Lens Diameter	18.0
Reflector Hole Diameter	5.0
Reflector Diameter	17.9
Reflector Height	12.1
MCPCB Size	14
LED Footprint	3535
Body Tube Diameter	18.5
Pocket Clip Slot Width	2.5
Pocket Clip Slot Diameter	17.4
Tailcap Diameter	21.0
Tailcap Length	26.8
Driver Diameter	17
Weight empty (g)	77
Weight with Vapcell H10 battery (g)	100
Weight with Eneloop (g)	104

User Interface

This 12-group UI is good. It’s not very polished, but it’s simple if you want it to be and it offers some customization if you want to tinker. I like mode memory off and I use mode group 8 with a 14500 cell and mode group 5 with a AA. There’s info about the mode groups on the product page linked at the top of the review.

This light uses a reverse clicky mechanical switch. A “click” is a full depression of the switch to the point that it clicks. A “tap” is a quick half-press and release without fully depressing to the point of clicking.

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	On (mode memory optional)
On	Click	Off
On	Tap	Cycle mode
On	10+ Taps	Programming

What they got right:

• Lots of mode groups. It’s nice to choose what modes you want available.
• Mode memory can be disabled. That’s awesome for people like me who always want direct access to low.

What they got wrong:

• There are no shortcuts. It would be nice to have a double-tap shortcut to the highest brightness.
• Battery check is a mode. It would be nice to have battery check separate from any mode group and accessible any time. Perhaps after 5 taps or so.

Driver and battery choice considerations. This light has an updated dual-fuel driver that’s not super well optimized for either battery type. With Li-ion batteries it can output a whopping 5 amps (~1000lm) but it has no Moonlight mode and there’s a brief, bright flash every time you activate the lowest mode. On AA batteries it has a nice 1.6lm Moonlight mode and no bright flash, but it only gets up to ~200lm or so (still respectable). If you only plan to use Li-ion batteries, it may be worth asking if Simon will install a Li-ion only driver so you can get a lower lowest mode (0.1% instead of 1%) and no bright flash.

Emitter & Beam

Convoy offers a wide variety of emitter options for T3. I chose Nichia 519A in 4000K for its pleasant color properties.

The bezel O-ring and centering gasket both glow in the dark.

The beam is floody and soft from the domed LED and orange peel reflector. There aren’t any artifacts to speak of and it works well for EDC utility tasks.

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 brightness spec is “300-1200lm” and the official throw spec is “<50 meters”. Those are pretty meaningless. Here’s what I measured.

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
100%	960	6400	160	95	4020	0.0014
35%	450	3000	110	97	4000	0.0014
10%	150	1000	63	97	4000	0.0025
1%	17	110	21	98	3910	0.0014

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
100%	220	1500	77	97	3970	0.0010
35%	77	510	45	98	3920	0.0008
10%	21	140	24	98	3890	0.0008
1%	1.6	11	7	98	3850	0.0002

Runtime

14500 Performance is great. 100% mode steadily drops over the course of two minutes and settles at an impressive 350 lumens. 35% mode lasts longer before stepping down but it settles in around the same brightness level. The light gets too hot to hold if you leave it in 35-100% modes, but it shouldn’t damage the electronics or battery. 10% mode lasts over two hours at a rock solid 150 lumens.

AA NiMH Performance is fine. I only tested 100% mode which hovered around 150lm for a little under an hour. Then it dropped to moonlight and ran like that until I stopped the test. 14500 Li-ion batteries are the way to go if you want the most brightness and runtime.

Thermal regulation consists of a timed stepdown from 100% by the 2-minute mark. Past that, active regulation is technically present but doesn’t do much. My 100% Cooled test only differed with a ~40lm increase in sustained brightness with ~10min shorter runtime.

LVP (Low Voltage Protection) is present and works well on a 14500 cell. When the battery is low, the LED will blink off briefly and periodically to warn you that it’s low. When the battery is effectively empty, the light will shut itself off. It doesn’t rely on the battery’s protection circuit and the light can be re-activated in an emergency. LVP isn’t needed on a NiMH battery, and it doesn’t have it. It does become obvious when the NiMH battery is empty because the output is quite dim.

Driver & Regulation

The driver is a dual-fuel so it supports a variety of batteries. On AAs, it boosts the battery’s voltage up to what the LED needs. On 14500 cells, I’m not sure what circuitry is involved. The product page says it’s FET, but the regulation performance looks more like Linear to me. It’s cool that it takes both battery types, but there are some downsides to be aware of that I covered in the User Interface section.

Regulation performance on a Li-ion 14500 cell is good. It provides near-full brightness down to ~25% charge. I didn’t do separate regulation testing with a NiMH battery.

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

Parasitic Drain: There is no parasitic drain because this light uses a mechanical switch.

Switch

The switch is a reverse clicky mechanical on the tailcap. It’s covered by Convoy’s steel switch boot, which matches the titanium well. The boot sits a little bit crooked and it takes virtually no force to tap it and change modes. I would have preferred a forward clicky and a rubber boot, personally. This steel boot looks a lot classier though.

Carry & Ergonomics

Ergonomics are fine. It’s comfortable to hold and use in a reverse or cigar grip. The titanium is a bit sharp, but not enough to be uncomfortable or problematic.

The clip stinks. This light is best enjoyed without a clip. It is technically functional but doesn’t do anything well. Here are the issues:

• It has no mouth so you have to lift it to get it into your pocket. The fix would be to add a mouth to the clip.
• It lands on the body tube, which is all grabby/sharp corners that will shred pockets. The fix would be to round the corners on the body tube and/or make the clip land on the head. The stonewashed version may not have this issue.
• There’s a sharp transition from the arms of the clip to the first loop, and that can get stuck on your pocket before it seats in the first loop. The fix would be to round that transition like this.
• It carries shallow and leaves the whole tailcap sticking out of your pocket. The fix would be to attach the clip closer to the tail or to make the top loop of the clip a lot longer so it bends near the tail.
• It’s bidirectional, but the second loop is too narrow to fit over a hat, the whole point of a bidirectional clip. The fix would be to make the second loop wider or better yet just remove the second loop entirely so the clip only goes one way. Since the clip is reversible, users could flip it around to clip it to a hat.

Convoy’s screw-on clip should fit (here’s a photo of it on the aluminum T3). That would solve most of the issues, but it would still land on the body tube and shred pockets. Again, the stonewashed version may not have this issue.

Batteries & Charging

The battery is not included by default. You can optionally add a Vapcell H10 button top for a few extra dollars, and that’s a great choice. T3 will run off any AA-size cell, as long as it’s a button top. There’s physical reverse polarity protection on the driver so flat tops won’t make contact. No charging solution is included but Convoy sells chargers separately on their website.

Competition

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

Acebeam Pokelit AA:

• more expensive (for the Ti version)
• USB-C rechargeable battery included
• similar performance
• crisper beam
• fewer LED options
• super crisp hotspot
• available in aluminum, copper, or titanium
• forward clicky switch (allows momentary, but it’s mushy)
• dramatically better pocket clip

Reylight Lanapple Copper or Titanium:

• more expensive
• lower peak brightness
• proper sub-lumen moonlight mode (even on 14500 cell)
• few/no emitter options
• dramatically better pocket clip
• similar UI but more programming options
• same sharp-edged-issue on the smooth version, but the stonewashed is better (according to Cheule)
• battery included by default

Olight i5T/i5R:

• more expensive (for the same material)
• lower peak brightness
• only accepts AA batteries or Olight special 14500 (i5R only)
• dramatically better clip
• Titanium & Copper versions exist but they’re discontinued
• Two modes, always starts on Low, no UI options
• few/no emitter options
• few color options (they do colors in sprint runs)

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 aesthetics. I like the brightness, UI, and battery support. The UI and build quality are fine. I strongly dislike the pocket clip. Ultimately I think this is a great value for money. Most of the competition is either more expensive or not made of Titanium/Copper. If you want a high-class EDC light on a budget and don’t plan to use the clip, this is a fantastic choice.

Thanks to Convoy for sending me this light for review!