MHVAST TS70 Flashlight (Cree XHP70.2, 1x26650)

The flashlight was sent to me by MHVAST for review.
Here's the product's link for more info: MHVAST TS70

The flashlight comes in one of the most luxurious packages I have ever gotten to unbox.

The flashlight is seated into laser cut foam along with the rest of the accessories.



The accessories list includes a USB Type C charging cable, 2 x replacement o-rings, a replacement charging plug,
an adjustable wrist strap and a carrying pouch.



As with most flashlight sheaths, it's made out of nylon and is secured via a velcro flap.



The fitment is good. The flashlight can only be mounted with the head facing upwards.



The back side has a plastic ring as well as a belt loop.
Overall, a pretty standard and proven design.



The TS70 comes with matte black anodization and is e-switch operated.
Its body is infused with rectangular regions that are meant to increase grip.



Opposite to the e-switch, one finds the USB Type-C charging port.
A rubber flap is used to seal it from dust and water.




The e-switch is located on the head and is protruding slightly.



An indicator LED is integrated into the e-switch and turns on while using the flashlight.
Green: 4.2V - 3.3V, Orange: 3.3V - 2.8V, Blinking Red: < 2.8V



The indicator is also used during charging.
Red: charging, Green: full



The head houses the XHP70.2 emitter that is perfectly centered as well as a mild OP reflector.



The AR coated glass lens is protected by a very nice, sandblasted, metal bezel.



The body and tail of the flashlight is a unibody piece.



The tail has two protrusions which allow the flashlight to tail stand and can also be used to install a lanyard.



The head houses the red driver board which seems to be press fit (and probably glued) into place.
To minimize the system's resistance, a brass tab is used on the positive contact.



The threads are cleanly cut and arrive anodized and lubricated.



The flashlight weights 150gr excluding the battery.



With the included battery, the total weight jumps to 248gr.



BatteryThe TS70 comes with a protected MHVAST 5000mAh 26650 cell.



The cell is flat top, though the positive contact it protruding.

 

In order to get its actual capacity, I run the battery through a full charge/discharge cycle.
I discharged it at 1000mA and cutoff set at 3.2V and got 5.433mAh of legit capacity.
The cell seems to be underrated, which is a great thing 



ChargingAs said, the TS70 comes with built-in charging and thankfully it uses a TypeC connector.
I measured the included cable's resistance to be 0.21Ω which is quite big, especially for its length.
I would definitely recommend using a better quality cable if you want to get full charging speed.



After switching to a better quality cable, I was able to get the advertised charging speed (5V, 2A)



After fully discharging the included 26650 cell, it took 3:17h to charge it back up.



User Interface

The MHVAST TS70 uses a pretty straightforward e-switch firmware.

Here's all the supported actions:
   Turn on/off: Single press.
   Mode cycle: Long press (Low > Mid > High > Ultrahigh > Low > ...)
   Turbo: Double press from anywhere.
   Firefly: Long press while off.
   Tactical: 4 sec long press while off. Once activated, the e-switch will act as momentary. Three extra fast clicks to revert to regular mode.
   Blinky Modes: Double press while on Turbo ( Fast Strobe > SOS > 1Hz Strobe)

All the regular modes are memorized.
Low voltage warning turns on at 3.3V and the cutoff is set at 2.8V.

PerformanceIn order to get my measurements, I used the included 26650 cell.
Here's the current draw for each level along with my output measurements.
(Please note that my measurements are taken at turn on).



It seems that the TS70 is honoring the manufacturer's ratings and indeed delivering the expected performance.
I also went and measured the parasitic drain, which turned out to be 66μΑ.

Here's Turbo compared to some of my other flashlights:


Another thing that I liked is the ultra low output of Firefly, which probably is less that 1lm.
You can actually look directly at the emitter die without getting half-blinded by the brightness.



RegulationAccording to what I was told, a lot of time has been spent on the design of the driver.
Let's see how well the output is regulated.

Starting with Turbo, I got some very good results.
Here's a A/V graph I created.



And a W/A one.



So what does the graph tell us?
The flashlight seems to regulate the full output down to 3.8V.
After that threshold, the output is limited to ~5.6A until 3.3V and afterwards the output drops to Low until 2.8V where the cutoff is set.

I am pretty sure that the decision to settle the current draw after 3.8V is done in order to maximize the power delivery of the battery.
It would be pretty counter productive for a cell to deliver 40W of power while e.g being at 3.5V.

I also tested regulation for all the available modes.
A/V Graph for Low, Mid, High, Ultrahigh



And the respective W/V Graph.



As you can see, all the levels seems to be well regulated.
UltraHigh will stay in regulation until 3.1V and will then jump to Low.
The rest of output modes cat stay in regulation down to 2.9V.

I also tested the thermal regulation of the flashlight.

Timestamp	Lumens
0s	4040
30s	3850
1m	3745
70s - 3m	2500 (Stepdown)
3m - 10min	1820

It worth noting that the timestamp of the initial stepdown (at 70s) is variable, depending on the flashlight's actual temperature.
At 3min10s the flashlight stepped down to ~1800 lumen and stayed there until the end of my test. The flashlight's temperate was pretty consistent.
In all cases, the body's temperature stayed within the comfort zone 

Beamshots

Here's a few outdoor beamshots.

Turbo is too bright for 10m distance 

@30m

@75m

A true pocketable, flood monster 

ConclusionOverall an excellent flashlight for all around usage.
The driver seems to really stand up to the expectations, the UI is simple yet effective and the output is massive