Lumintop Thor 4

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Lumintop Thor 4 review

Lumintop Thor 4 specifications

Brand/modelLumintop Thor 4
LED+LEPLED: CREE XPL-HI +LEP
Max. LumensLEP: 280 lm / LED: 2,800 lm
Max. Beam intensity / distanceLEP: 342,000 cd / LED: 102,000 cd
Battery config.21700
Onboard chargingUSB-C + powerbank
Modes5 LEP + 5 LED + 5 Combo
BlinkiesN/A
ReflectorTIR
WaterproofIP68
Review dateDecember 2022

Introduction:

It’s great to have an LEP flashlight, reaching a mile. But what about the times you need a light to use for close-up work? An LEP beam definitely won’t be the right choice for this, unless you had some kind of diffuser. So how about a combination of LED and LEP ?

That’s probably what Lumintop thought when creating the Lumintop Thor PRO a few months ago. A hybrid flashlight with 2 different kinds of light sources, LED, and LEP. But it was a big and heavy flashlight, one that wouldn’t fit in most pockets. So therefore the new Thor 4 has been introduced.

They are also the brand that has produced most LEP flashlights in the last couple of years. So they were already taking quite a bit chunk of the LEP market. So, are all Lumintop LEP lights great?

Well, let’s find out.

Package quality.

You get the typical Lumintop cardboard box, with the following accessories:

  • The flashlight: Lumintop Thor 4
  • Battery adapter to use it with 18650 batteries
  • USB-A to USB-C charging cable
  • Manual
  • Lanyard
  • 2 spare O-rings.

Flashlight in use

The Lumintop Thor 4 doesn’t have any traditional knurling and it can feel a bit slippery. But I must say, that I quite like the pineapple design!

It’s pretty well made, and the little golden ring also adds to the perceived value of the light.

The switch is easy to find, even with the backlit turned off. (BTW. that backlit button really helps find the switch in the dark).

The flashlight has 3 options for light sources. You can triple-click to toggle between them. 1 is just the LEP, the second is just the LEDs, and the last is a combo of LED and LEP.

Unlike the Thro PRO, the backlight has only 1 color, green. The Thor PRO uses 2 colors (blue and green) and the color shows what light source is currently used. Unfortunately, that is missing on this one. So you can’t really know what light source the light is using. BTW, you can turn the backlight off with 7 clicks.

Having the option to choose between flood and throw (and a combination of both) is really cool. Many people look for 1 flashlight for a specific purpose, for example, camping, hiking, around the house, on a farm, etc. But the Thor 4 has both flood and throw, and is therefore great for many scenarios.

Like all jack of all trades, it’s neither the brightest nor the farthest reaching. But it’s a great all-rounder.

It fits very comfortably in my hand, where my thumb rests on the switch, and my index finger covering the USB-port on the opposite side of the head.

Build Quality, and Warranty

All Lumintop’s LEP lights are named Thor, so it’s not a surprise that they called it the Thor 4, even though it is a hybrid flashlight, and not just an LEP like the Thor1, Thor 2, and Thor 3.

The black anodizing has a relatively matte finish and looks nice. There are no sharp edges and even the fins around the head are chamfered and smooth.

Both, the battery tube and tailcap can be removed, and the threads are anodized. So a short twist will mechanically lock the light out. The o-ring, as well as the threads, are lubricated, so they screw nice and smooth. The battery can be loaded from the front and rear. And I would probably recommend loading it from the front.. why? Because the tailcap is a bit hard to attach when the flashlight is loaded with a battery. You have to tighten it with a bit of force, because the battery sits flush with the rear end of the battery tube, and the spring is sticking out the tail cap.

Warranty according to Lumintop, but if you buy it from Nealsgadgets, contact him instead.

  1. 30 days free replacement: Lumintop will replace or repair products with manufacturing defects within 30 days of purchase.
  2. 5 years free repair: Lumintop will repair the products free of charge within 5 years (accessories 1 year, products with built-in battery 2 years)of purchase if problems develop with normal use.
  3. Lifetime warranty: If repair is required after the guarantee period, we’ll charge for parts accordingly.
  4. This warranty does not cover normal wear or tear, abuse, force major damage, or defaults by human factors.

LED, LEP, Lens, Bezel, Beam, and Reflector

The Lumintop Thor 4 looks very promising with a maximum output of 2800 lumens with 4 LEDs, and a total reach of 1170 meters.

It has 4 LEDs on 1 side, and an LEP module in the other. So you can have high lumens and flood, or just 100% throw. You can easily switch between just the LEDs for flood, the single LEP for throw, or both of them combined.

Lumintop’s specs mention CREE XPL Hi, which means they are also a bit throwy! But since it uses frosted TIR optics, you still get a pretty smooth beam that can throw.

And because of these frosted optics, you don’t see any artifacts or CREE rainbow colors. Which is really nice. And on top of that, the optics are protected by a glass lens.

The LED beam is cold at the center, with the following measurement in Turbo mode. Please keep in mind these are averages. If you move the flashlight the temperate might be as much as 100 or 200K different. Just saying. Turbo was measured at a 5 meters distance.

  • CCT: 5908K
  • Ra (CRI): 69.2
  • DUV: +0.0030

And now for the Moon mode. This was measured at about 20-30cm from the Opple.

  • CCT: 5680K
  • Ra (CRI): 68.1
  • DUV: +0.0058

The higher the output, the cooler the beam, and the closer to the BBL (which means, the beam is less green)

Dimensions and size comparison

Dimensions: 

Thor 4 dimensionsMillimetersInches
Length121 mm4.8 in
Head width64 mm2.5 in
Head thickness32 mm1.27 in
Tailcap diameter30 mm1.2 in

Dimensions are rounded to the nearest millimeter, and to the nearest tenth of an Inch.

Weight

With Samsung 50G 21700

Thor 4 weightWeight in gramsWeight in oz.
Without battery:204 g7.2 oz
With 50G battery273 g9.7 oz

Flashlight size comparison

Size compared to other Lumintop LEP flashlights

Image 1, from left to right: Lumintop Thor 2 v1, Lumintop Thor 2 v2, Lumintop Thor 4, Lumintop Thor 1, Lumintop Ant Man.

Driver & User Interface:

Lumintop’s UI is easy to understand and pretty straightforward. And that’s great, especially considering you can choose 3 different mode settings (light sources).

Available modes:

  • Moon, Low, Medium, High, Turbo (for LEP, LED, and combo)

From OFF: (this works the same in all 3 light source configurations: Led only, Lep only, Combo

  • Single-click: back to last used mode (mode memory)
  • Double click: High (another double click would be Turbo)
  • Triple-click: switch between LEP, LED and Combo
  • Press and hold: moon mode
  • 4 clicks: battery check
  • 5 clicks: lockout mode (repeat to unlock)
  • 7 clicks: turn on/off the backlit switch

From ON:

  • Single-click: turn off
  • Double click: Turbo
  • Triple-click: switch between LEP, LED and Combo
  • Press and hold: cycling from low to high (3 modes only) or when release the switch and press again, it will reverse, from high to low

Shortcuts:

  • To Turbo: double click from On, or 2 times double click from off
  • To Turbo momentarily: click 2 times, and hold the second from off to have momentary access.
  • To Moon: long press from off

Mode memory:

  • Yes, a single click from off will return to 1 of the main modes

Blinky modes menu:

  • None

Battery check:

  • 4 clicks from Off shows the battery level:
  • First set of blinks are the Voltage, the second set shows the tenth of voltage. If it blinks 3 times, and then 7 times, it means 3.7V.

Low battery warning:

  • Yes, the light starts blinking, and then the side switch keeps blinking.

Lock-out mode:

  • Yes, with 5 clicks from off to activate, and repeat for deactivation. When you click the switch while being locked out, the light will momentarily turn on in Low mode. (not moon mode).

PWM:

  • Moon mode has some PWM, and the Opple measurements confirmed that.

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

The UI is nice and easy to understand, and the switching between LED, LEP, and Combo was pretty good and easy. A second switch could also work, but this is

Batteries & Charging

The Thor 4 looks very short compared to other 21700 LEP flashlights, and I really like that. It’s quite compact so you can even pocket carry it.

The Thor 4 uses a single 21700 lithium-ion battery, but Lumintop also included a 18650 battery adapter, so you can use those as well. You can use protected and unprotected 18650 batteries. But if you stick to 21700 batteries, only unprotected cells will fit. Protected 21700 won’t fit!

And unprotected 21700 flat tops fit so snugly, you can’t hear any rattling while shaking.

On the opposite side of the switch you get a USB-C port. Lumintop includes a USB-A to USB-C cable, and but it can also charge with a USB-C to C cable. It charges at about 1.8A with both a USB-A cable as well as a USB-C cable. So no benefits of a C to C cable. While charging, the bunny (in the switch) turns red while charging.

Powerbank feature

The Thor 4 also serves as a powerbank. It can charge your phone and other devices on the fly. When the powerbank feature is enabled, the bunny turns blue. When trying to charge my phone it was charging at about 500mA, which is not much. But according to the manual it is supposed to be 5V at 2A max.

(Bunny red = charging… bunny blue = discharging).

Performance test

Lumen measurements:

The output measurements in this review are based on my homemade integrating spheres, each equipped with an Extech SDL400 Lux Meter. For consistency and accuracy, a calibration light (Convoy S2+ with 249lm and a Convoy S2+ with 261lm) is measured prior to each set of lumen measurements.
For high-output lights, one of the lux meters uses an ND camera filter to prevent the lux meter to max out. This is either the Kenko PRO1D ND16 up till about 80,000 lumens or Gobe ND32 for anything above.

Most of the readings were taken with a fully-charged Samsung INR21700 50G.
All Turbo, High, and Medium modes, and didn’t recharge between Moon and Low.

I manually measured the output at turn on, and after 30 seconds. the 10minutes measurements were taken from the runtime graph.

LED Lumens:

ModeSpecifiedat Turn on30 sec10 minutes
Moon1 lm1 lm1 lm
Low75 lm52 lm52 lm51
Med500 lm420 lm415 lm400
High1050 lm989 lm961 lm414
Turbo2800 lm2676 lm2407 lm419

LEP Lumens:

Also measured with Samsun 21700 50G

ModeSpecified at turn on30 sec10 minutes
Moon60 lm62 lm61 lm59 lm
Low70 lm80 lm78 lm76 lm
Med130 lm151 lm148 lm144 lm
High220 lm231 lm224 lm113 lm
Turbo280 lm248 lm259 lm249 lm

LEP + LED combined Lumens:

SpecifiedMeasured at turn on30 seconds10 minutes
Moon60 lm63 lm61 lm
Low120 lm128 lm126 lm121 lm
Med330 lm558 lm545 lm528 lm
High1150 lm1133 lm1055 lm251 lm
Turbo2750 lm2329 lm2086 lm231 lm

I also tested it with a 30T, just to see how much brighter it would be. I could only readh 2360 lumens at turn on, but it did maintain a higher brightness after 30 seconds of 2286 lumens. So, a high drain battery will have better performance.

Parasitic drain:

  • Couldn’t measure

Runtime:

The runtime tests were done in the 50cm home made integrating sphere, combined with the Extech SDL400 data logging Lux Meter.

LED runtimes

LED ModeSpecifiedMeasured runtime (ANSI FL1)Time till shut off
Moon40days
Low20h34h 32min+34h 32min+
Med3h 55min4h 55min5h 37min+
High3h 41min4h 47min*5h 13min+
Turbo*3h 30min3h 06min*4h 46min+

I stopped all runtimes early, because the output was very low, and I had no idea how deep it would discharge. With some tests I let it run for a couple more hours, but they kept running. * this is the runtime the light dropped to a sub 10 lumen mode..

Low mode was supposed to run for 20 hours.. After 34 hours I stopped the test, because it was still at 23 lumens, and could possibly run for a day longer.

I haven’t tested Moon mode, which was according to the manual 40 days, which I don’t trust either. None of the specifiec runtimes make much sense! Typical Lumintop!

LEP Runtimes

LEP ModeSpecifiedMeasured runtime (ANSI FL1)Time till shut off
Moon10h7h 23min7h 23min+
Low8h6h 15min6h 15min+
Med3h 50min3h 33min3h 33min+
High3h 40min4h 21min4h 21min+
Turbo*3h 08min3h 54min3h 54min+

I don’t know what happened with the Low mode and Turbo mode, that it turned off for a second.

Also, it’s interesting to note that once the batteries run really low, the Thor 4 turns to Moon, LED mode.. and continues running for a long time…

LEP + LED Runtimes

Mix ModeSpecifiedMeasured runtime (ANSI FL1)Time till shut off
Moon9h
Low6h5h 21min5h 21min+
Med3h 30min2h 06min2h 06min+
High3h 21min4h 05min4h 22min+
Turbo*3h 15min1h 13min4h 11min+

I didn’t do a moon-mode runtime

Lumintop Thor 4 throw measurements

LEP measurements were taken outdoors at 20 meters, and LED measurements indoors at 5 meters with a Hagner E4-X Lux Meter. Recorded 30 seconds after turn on. I also tested LEP indoors to see if they were close to the numbers outdoors, and they were very close.

ModeSpecifiedMeasuredMetersYards
Turbo (LEP)342,000 cd356,000 cd11931305
High (LEP)316,000 cd11241230
Med (LEP)218,400 cd9351022
Turbo (LED)10,200 cd6,500 cd161176
High (LED)2,650 cd103113
Med (LED)1,200 cd6976

The LEP performed better than specified, but the LEDs performed quite a bit worse.

Beamshots

The first few beamshots are with a 50mm lens. Shed is about 65 meters away.

For the throw beamshots, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 and a 100mm lens. manual settings: ISO1600, .5sec , F4, 5000K

The tower is about 450 meters / 492 yards away.

Flashlights compared:

  • Lumintop Thor 4
  • Lumintop Thor 1
  • Lumintop Thor 2
  • Mateminco FW3
  • Mateminco FW2

Disclaimer: This flashlight was sent to me for review at no cost by Lumintop Lighting. I have not been paid to review, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects.

Final Verdict

Pros

  1. Pocketable
  2. Hybrid light: LEP and LED in 1 light
  3. No PWM
  4. Built-in charging (fast)
  5. Shortcut to Moon from off
  6. Powerbank feature
  7. Pretty good regulated output with LEP

Cons

  1. Lighted switch doesn’t show what light source it currently uses. Unlike the Thor Pro
  2. Runtimes are way off from specified. Typical for Lumintop
  3. The UI includes increased steps as well as decreased steps, that could be a bit confusing.
  4. Not regulated output with LED

Explanation on star ratings:

1: Avoid: my phone flashlight would be a better choice – 2: Poor: significant defect or issues; almost unusable – 3: Average: some defects or issues; but still usable 4: Good: recommended (minor issues) – 5: Great: highly recommended

Reviewer Marco
Author: Marco

4 stars: ★★★★

The Thor 4 is filling a gap in between LED and LEP flashlights. And not just a gap, it fills the gap pretty well. It’s relatively short, and fits in your pocket. It’s the only hybrid light that fits in your pocket, relatively comfortably. Others are either much bigger, or have sharper edges etc.

It performs pretty well in terms of maximum beam distance. But unfortunately, the LED part leaves a bit to desired. It doesn’t have a regulated output, and the specified runtimes are incorrect.

The UI is quite a bit better than some of its competitors, and it’s pretty easy to understand. You just have to keep in mind that you can increase modes and decrease modes at the same time. But I’m pretty sure you can get used to that.

Lumintop Thor 4 discount code

Use the following discount code to get 25% off: 1LumenLEP

1lumen selects and reviews products personally. We may earn affiliate commissions through our links, which help support our testing.