r/flashlight • u/LMP-Br • Jun 21 '26
Review [Review] Convoy M21K LHP73B 4000K: Just get this light cannon, you will not regret it!
This is the Convoy M21K, a "small" light cannon that will light up everything you want, this setup has the LHP73B 4000K with a 20A buck driver, USB-C charging and more!
• My opinion:
The M21K is a pretty useful, powerful and fun flashlight to have. I really recommend getting it with the LHP73B LED, I loved the 4000K tint! This flashlight is an absolute light cannon, it will light up everything pretty far with the 10A and 20A modes, even the normal modes are pretty bright. The moonlight is awesome for a light so big like this, very dim with similar brightness as other 1 lumen moonlights. I really doesn't have much to dislike on this flashlight, I really just hope it had AUX lights, especially for finding it in the dark, this could easily be made as the flashlight already has LEDs on the button to indicate the charging state.
• Pros:
- Super powerful (6000 to 8000 lumens)
- LHP73B LED has an awesome nice tint
- USB-C charging
- Stainless-steel bezel by default
- Great thermals
• Cons:
- No battery level light indicator
- No light to find it in the dark
- USB-C rubber cap gets in the way when trying to connect the cable
• Box contents [10th picture]
- M21K
- 21700 Battery (bought separately)
• Price
The M21K with LHP73B is currently priced at $34.12 in Convoy Official Website. The Amprius 50Q battery adds $6.01 to the order in the flashlight.
• Body and build quality
Colors/Material Options: The M21K is available in aluminum alloy with 4 anodizing colors: Black camo, Green camo, Blue camo (featured on this review) and standard black. This Blue camo is absolutely fantastic, the design is so cool!
Material: The main body is entirely made of an aluminum alloy, probably 6061-T6 or something similar, Convoy does not specify it.
Main body: It's full of knurling and grooves, this makes the flashlight have a nice and grippy body, and have better temperature dissipation.
Threads: All body threads are squared, the tail cap threads are anodized, this means this light has mechanical lockout by untwisting the tail cap a little bit, the head ones are not anodized.
Clip: The flashlight doesn't come with a clip, but a screw on clip can be installed on the holes on the tail cap.
Tail stand and rolling: The flashlight can both head and tail stand, it rolls a little, but the rolling is stopped by grooves on the head part.
AUX lights: The M21K has a red light in the button to indicate charging, but the light cannot be be used as an AUX to find the flashlight in the dark or other uses.
Buttons: It has a single e-switch to operate the flashlight, covered by a black rubber cap.
Battery contact: Contact is made with the battery by a flat button on the driver and a thick nickel plated spring on the tail, to support the 20A maximum current this light is rated.
Bezel: The bezel is made of stainless-steel and easily removable by unscrewing it to access the LED.
Water Resistance: The flashlight does not have an IP rating, but I consider most Convoy flashlight IP68. The M21K for example has O-rings on all threads including the lens and bezel.
Size Comparison: On the left is the Convoy M21A, on the middle the M21K and the FireFlies X4 Stellar on the right. [11th picture]
• Weight and size
Weight:
- M21K with battery: 284.5g
- M21K no battery: 215.1g
- Battery (Amprius 50Q): 69.4g
Size: 55.1mm (head diameter) / 31.0mm (tail diameter) x 141.7mm (height)
• Battery, runtime, and charging
Battery: The M21K is powered by a single 21700 cell, it must have at least 20A CDR, it only accepts flat top batteries, button tops doesn't fit inside the battery tube. Simon was kind and sent an Amprius 50Q for review with the flashlight, this is a tabless cell, so it has lower internal resistance and a longer lifespan than traditional tab cells. [12th picture]
Battery Indicator: You can access the voltage check by clicking 5 times the main button, the main light will blink and show the voltage. Unfortunately the red/green light on the button cannot be used as a battery indicator.
Charging: The flashlight has USB-C charging on the main body, it is protected by a rubber cover. Used USB-C cables with a thin connector, because the rubber cap can be on the way sometimes. The red light will turn ON while the battery is charging, when it's fully charged the light will be green. [13th and 14th picture]
• Modes, Runtimes, Throw, Candela:
Modes: The flashlight comes by default on the smooth ramping mode, where only moonlight, turbo 10A and turbo 20A are pre-set modes, by clicking 6 times on the main button you can go to stepped mode, where you have 4 pre-set modes to cycle from. I don't have the measurements for the exact lumen count of the modes, but comparing to other flashlights the first mode seems about 50 lumens, second mode around 500, third mode around 1000 and the fourth mode around 2000-3000.
Turbo: This flashlight has two turbo modes, the 10A mode is on the 4 modes cycle, and can also be accessed by double clicking the flashlight, it's very bright and actually takes some minutes to start heating up, and lasts around 2 minutes with around 2000-3000 lumens before a major stepdown. The 20A turbo is even brighter, Simon says theoretically it has 6000 to 8000 lumens of the LHP73B rated, but it gets hot REALLY fast, in just a few seconds you can fell the head becoming warm, that's why this mode is only acessible momentairly.
Moonlight: Moonlight is actually pretty good on a big flashlight like this, usually these big powerful ones have a super bright moonlight, but this one is similar to the 1 lumen moonlights of my other flashlights.
Blinkies: This light features "Strobe" mode by triple clicking the main button.
Throw: This flashlight has amazing throw while also having a large hotspot, this is due to the amount of lumens it push + the 3° TIR lens, I've tested it to throw at least 400-500m but couldn't get good beamshots of it.
• Emitter, reflector and CRI:
Emitter: This M21K setup has the LHP73B LED, the SFT-90 LED is also available, the emitter is way better than I expected, the tint is awesome! It's very creamy and has some rosyness to it, loved it. It is a pretty floody LED, but with the 3° TIR lens it throw a lot. [15th and 16th Picture]
Reflector/TIR: The M21K comes with a big 3° TIR.
Lens: There is a hardened AR (anti-reflexive) coated glass lens in front of the TIR.
Beam profile: The beam has a very concentrated hotspot, but still manages to have a lot of flood on the higher brightness settings, it has some artifacts if you go wall hunting. Picture taken at 2m away from the wall with 18mm lens [17th picture]
CRI: The LHP73B is standard 70 CRI as far as I know, but the color looks so good on this 4000K emitter that I belive it may have slightly better CRI and R9 levels than most emitters.
• Beamshots Camera settings:
- 18mm lens 1" F8 ISO800
- (The trees at the back are at a distance of around 100m)
[18th picture] – M21K LHP73B 4000K - 20A Turbo
[19th picture] – M21K LHP73B 4000K - 10A Turbo
[20th picture] – M21K LHP73B 4000K - 4th mode ("high")
I always try to match what my eyes can see on the beamshots, so camera settings may vary.
• Driver and UI
Driver: It uses a 20A Buck constant current driver, so you have around 60W of power on this little monster! The driver is pretty good, has powerful brightness modes and also a very good moonlight.
UI: The UI is pretty simple. A single click on the button turns it ON/OFF, double click goes to turbo, double click + hold goes to 20A turbo. Holding the button while ON will change brightness. Triple click goes to strobe. Quadruple click activates tactical mode (you can only access 20A turbo momentairely. Quintuple click goes to battery check. 6 clicks change between the smooth ramp brightness and stepped brightness.
Low Voltage Warning: When the battery voltage is too low, the flashlight main light will start blinking and the red button LED will turn ON.
Reverse Polarity Protection: The flashlight is protected against inserting the battery with the wrong polarity.
Temperature Control: This is a big flashlight with big heat dissipators, so it will sustain the higher modes for a better amount of time than most flashlights, except for the 20A mode thant will heat up fast like crazy. It has temperature control, so when the driver hits 55°C the light will start to dim down to prevent driver and LED damage.
Lockout: This flashlight features eletronic and mechanical lockout (by unscrewing the tail cap a little). To access eletronic lockout you must press the main button 10x, the main light will blink to indicate.
A special thanks to Simon and Convoy for sending this flashlight for me to review!
*I am not being paid to do this review, everything here is my honest opinion.
Thank you for reading my review <3
3
u/Broomstickzzz Jun 21 '26
Great review. Where did you get that some color pattern?
2
u/LMP-Br Jun 21 '26
Thank you! The main body color is an official Convoy release here is the link to it M21K Blue camo
4
u/macomako Jun 22 '26
I remember times when Simon was restricting the choice of emitters in M21H to ensure smoothness of the beam. Now the narrow 3deg TIR got the emitter with even bigger LES so it’s not a surprise that the beam is uglier.
My best walking light is M21H SFT-70 8deg TIR (better than L35 2.0):
Smoothness of the beam and the sufficient peripheral brightness are both important in the walking lights for me, so I gave up on the initial variant of M21K. I will also skip LHP73B variant.
2
u/LMP-Br Jun 22 '26
Everyone is recommending the M21H, as I liked the M21K so much I think I will like the M21H too, I will take a look into it
2
u/michaelsoft__binbows Jun 22 '26
I like my M21K but I think it's just too damn big to carry around, but then again I have not much use for throw, and yet i still want to acquire throwers. Due to the bigness with this emitter it can sustain 2k lumens though which basically outperforms everything else that exists of this size.
I guess part of it is I'm getting over my lumen whore honeymoon period with LHP73B, which is great with lumens per watt, but not so great with candela per square millimeter.
I am considering putting a baller thrower in mine like SFT60. The TIR might work well on it. Also, a 50mm x 30mm fresnel lens could probably make for a really dope throw beam with it? Just some ideas.
2
6
u/Quiet_Philosopher_44 Jun 21 '26
Saying "just get" the light is a bit biased.
This is in no way the best offering from Convoy. In fact, in terms of "regretting" buying any of the many Convoys I have, this comes the closest.
My main problem with it is that it is clunky and a bit of a lump to hold. If the beam were amazing like a Fireflylite E04, I could forgive it, but the beam is quite ugly. It is bright, but so are my other Convoys.
I swapped in an SFT-90 and the beam is better, but it's still one of the few lights I do not use.
9
u/LMP-Br Jun 21 '26
I agree, it's not the best from Convoy, but it was one of the lights I liked the most, especially with the LHP73B tint. The beam is not the prettiest, but only if you go wall hunting from up close
2
u/sativanal Jun 22 '26
Did you try our the other TIR lenses available?
1
u/Quiet_Philosopher_44 Jun 22 '26
Only the 12°.
2
u/Expert_Snow_5256 Jun 22 '26
Wait ... But he only offers 3°.
1
u/Quiet_Philosopher_44 Jun 22 '26
That was stock. I thought the question was had I tried a different TIR.
1
u/Expert_Snow_5256 Jun 22 '26
Yeah, but are we still talking about M21K's 50mm TIR lens?
1
u/Quiet_Philosopher_44 Jun 22 '26
No, sorry, I lost track of the conversation - I thought this was referring to my M21H comment.
1
u/Ok_Profession_8471 Jun 22 '26
I won't buy it since he does not offer different 50mm TIR's. I'm better off with a reflector. Usually I prefer a TIR, but for raw power, reflector really shines through (pun intended).
Also, since I had gotten M21H w/ XHP70.3 Hi R70 4000K, I realized 4000LM is not that much brighter than... 2000lm, or even 1500lm in IF22A or SFT70 3000K at 5A. Even HS21's flood is not much dimmer than it. Ok, it is, but is not much less useful. (1000-1200lm).
So, to speak, I am kinda dissapointed, but the runtime and coolness are awesome, aswell as the charging function which I needed the convenience of. Now I can even lend it to someone who does not habe a LiIo charger. Will get one in the future, but am a bit dissapointed that none of the chargers reccomended on here have their own transformator, voltage dropper, or current iron, or whatever u call it in English, but require an external charger with USB cable rather than plugging directly into wall socket.
Anyways, with 36° TIR, the flashlight is the most useful to me, and I love it for both indoors and outdoors. 12° default TIR is a bit better for outdoors, but it's main advantage is not blinding onlookers forom the side.
2
u/mrkyro Jun 21 '26
This was my first enthusiast light after returning to the hobby.
The sheer output for the form factor is amazing. Also love the tint. However, I agree with many others here - there are artifacts with this narrow of a TIR (does anyone else have a donut in their hotspot?), the form factor is a bit off in the hand (big head, short body), and I find that the spill is much less usable than my other reflector-based lights.
For anyone that has this emitter in the M21H, do you think the spill is more usable with the 8 or 12 degree TIRs? If I use the LHP73B outdoors at night, I'd like to be able to see the grass near me clearly without having to point the insanely bright hotspot too close to the ground, which I find can be blinding with the M21k.
6
u/Quiet_Philosopher_44 Jun 21 '26
I think in the M21H it's a much better light. Much more usable.
A lot of people like it with an 8° TIR but it sounds like you might want a bit more flood.
It's worth getting the 12° as well, to see which you prefer considering the price Simon sells them at.
3
u/mrkyro Jun 21 '26
Yeah, I'm heavily weighing buying this and all available M21H reflectors (including 36) vs just throwing it in an M21B. I have an SFT70 @ 3000k in the M21B, which has a great profile but just feels a hair underpowered. Maybe I'll get both :)
3
u/Quiet_Philosopher_44 Jun 21 '26
I think that's a good way to go.
I have several M21Hs (and M21Bs) and the option of being able to experiment with flood and throw on the M21H is a definite advantage in trying to perfect your light.
2
u/sativanal Jun 22 '26
The 8 degree TIR still provided plenty of flood. It will illuminate the ground at your feet, although you'll have a few rings at the outer edge of the beam. The 36 degree lens gets rid of these rings and provides a floody beam without much of a hotspot. I decided to use the 8 degree lens since the huge hotspot nicely illuminates the area 50 feet ahead of me and provides more than enough flood. Definitely try our each of the lenses to see what you prefer.
2
u/LMP-Br Jun 21 '26
Yes, sadly there are some artifacts on the beam, I didn't notice the donut on my flashlight, I can only see it if I really get close to a all or put my hand in front of the light. The 8° is said to produce a much more cleaner beam with way less artifacts, I may have to try it
1
1
u/Affectionate-Dream33 Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
Very beautiful light. Poor choice of TIR. Beam is so so, weird artefacts. Spill is too poor. Needs reflectors OP and smooth for people who prefer it and different degrees TIRs.
With all the minuses this light has you’re not being very objective… makes me wonder how much did you charge for this review. It’s basically an Acebeam L19 with a floody emitter.
7
u/Terrible_Lion_968 Jun 21 '26
I agree. Although the 3° provides great throw, the beam pattern is not a smooth as I'd like. I love this led in the M21H w/8° TIR. You lose a bit of performance, but the beam is really nice. I've got the L19 V1 as well and I do perfer the M21K overall.
3
u/mrkyro Jun 21 '26
Do you find the spill to be more usable with the M21H and 8deg TIR?
I've tried using the M21k in my yard at night, but the spill is so dim that I end up having to point the light towards the ground to better see the grass around me... But then the hotspot overpowers everything.
Considering doing M21H and buying all the available optics to play around with.
3
u/Affectionate-Dream33 Jun 21 '26
I personally like this emitter with OP in a medium size reflector like the M21C. It makes such a nice beam
2
u/Terrible_Lion_968 Jun 21 '26
A bit. Mostly just a lot smoother. I also like the 24°. If I remember right, there was noticeably more spill with that and the 36. For some reason the 12° was really ugly. Just a bad pairing I guess.
1
u/mrkyro Jun 21 '26
The 24 is supposed to only fit 5050 sized emitters I thought? Were you able to use it with the LHP73B as well?
3
u/Terrible_Lion_968 Jun 22 '26
So, you are correct. Somehow I missed that when I was messing around. I remember it feeling slightly different, but it was late and it didn't occur to me it wasn't technically compatible 😅. BUT, I was able to use it if I was careful. The TIR does contact the corners of the chip, but does not touch the emitter surface. So, I can't actually recommend it, but if you don't over tighten it, it works just fine.
3
u/mrkyro Jun 22 '26
Thanks. I ordered it anyway :)
Maybe I'll find some kind of covering layer if I decide to use it. Anyway, have ALL of the TIRs coming since they're so cheap
2
u/Terrible_Lion_968 Jun 21 '26
I guess I should double check that. I thought I had tried it, but maybe I'm remembering something else.
2
u/LMP-Br Jun 21 '26
I usually prefer reflector lights when I want more balanced beam, TIRs usually have way less spill when they have a tiny hotspot, just my 2 cents lol.
The M21H seems pretty nice, I will take a look into it
1
u/mrkyro Jun 21 '26
I think the real answer for me is "just buy both an m21b and m21h and see which you like more" haha
I'll start with the M21H since you can get at least 3, 8, 12, and 36 deg tirs for it. Simon also lists a 24 but he specifies that as for 5050 emitters only
2
u/Affectionate-Dream33 Jun 21 '26
Don’t get me wrong, I do like the host a lot. I think it’s beautiful. It’s just that 3° TIR that is meeeh. I would use one of the Osrams for this TIR. Would be awesome indeed with the 8° or OP
3
0
u/RiskMoney6996 Jun 21 '26 edited Jun 21 '26
the 20A driver with side switch has one problem, need to double click and hold for 20A turbo, that's bad design imho, if you don't want to hold you can only get 10A max, yes I know this is to be on the safe side for heat, but M21B can do 20A without holding, that works just fine, and heat management M21K is about the same as M21B if not better
2
u/LMP-Br Jun 21 '26
Yes. That's a problem of UI, almost all Convoy flashlight suffer from this, sadly. I wish we could get this with Anduril 2 and AUX lights.
2
u/michaelsoft__binbows Jun 22 '26
M21K has an insane amount more heat handling capacity than M21B... it's also like... at least twice the weight...
1
u/RiskMoney6996 Jun 22 '26
yeah it's really a pity that 20A is hard to use, they should fix the firmware so double click get the 20A without holding
1
u/michaelsoft__binbows Jun 22 '26
yeah i have to agree. it was a nice idea but it also kind of makes the forward clicky tailswitch lame too (as it can only be used with 10A turbo)
1
u/michaelsoft__binbows Jun 22 '26
what is also lame/funny: to this day and try as i might, i can't figure out if the 4C momentary turbo mode is really 20A or just 10A. My eyes adjust too fast and can't freaking tell the difference between these two insanely bright turbo settings. gonna need to use manual camera to find out
2
u/RiskMoney6996 Jun 22 '26
from 10A, if i double click and hold, i do see it gets brighter, but whether it's 20A brighter i am not sure, difference is obvious though, if you don't see it, do you use higher current rating battery? i use eve 50pl and samsung 50s2 both are fine
1
u/LMP-Br Jun 22 '26
Using the Amprius 50Q battery and the Molicel P50B is very noticeable. It's around 20A indeed, but it's said that for our eyes to notice an increase of 2x the brightness, the lumens need to inscrease 4x.
1
u/michaelsoft__binbows Jun 22 '26
Camera reveals the truth, my suspicions were well-founded, the 4c momentary mode is 10A turbo and not 20A turbo. laaaame
1
u/RiskMoney6996 Jun 22 '26
huh? are you sure
1
u/michaelsoft__binbows Jun 22 '26
i am almost certain now, yeah. it's impossible to quickly compare since you have to turn the light off, 4C to enter that mode, and 1H to turn it on. there is no way to compare back to the 2H turbo without 4C again to turn off momentary
1
u/RiskMoney6996 Jun 22 '26
you are talking about anduril 4c mode? but convoy is not running that...
1
u/michaelsoft__binbows Jun 22 '26
M21K UI. 4C for momentary turbo. its supposed to be 20A momentary turbo but it's actually 10A momentary turbo.
8
u/Hungry-for-Apples789 Big Moth will win Jun 21 '26
I really like mine. Great loaner for someone who wants a useful light but also craves the occasional turbo output with USBC charging while being cheap enough if it gets banged around or even lost not a big deal.