Lumintop Thor Mini

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Lumintop Thor Mini specifications

Brand/model	Lumintop Thor Mini
Flashlight category	LEP / long-range
LED	LEP (shine through)
Max. output	250 Lumens
Max. beam distance	700 meters
Max. beam intensity	122,500 cd
Battery config.	1*18350
Onboard charging	N/A
Modes	2
Blinkies	Strobe, SOS
Waterproof	IPX8
Review date	January 2024

LEP flashlights are not new to 1Lumen, as we have reviewed over 60 so far. But many of them are not in the same category. Some LEPs have small heads, some have larger, and some even have 2 heads.

However, one battery type that is a little underemphasized in the LEP market is the 18350 battery. It’s much smaller than the 21700 or even a 18650, and only 1/3 – 1/5th of their capacity.

And the only company with multiple LEP flashlights in this category is… Lumintop.

So here we are back with another 18350 LEP review for Lumintop, and this time it’s the Lumintop Thor Mini. And as you may know, the Thor series are pretty popular, as they are performing relatively well, for an affordable price.

Oh, and if you didn’t know what LEP stands for, it’s Laser Excited Phosphor. It basically means that the light source is not an LED, but a blue laser. And with the help of phosphor, turns the blue laser into a white light, just like an LED flashlight.

Kind of..

Package quality.

The Thor Mini arrived in a standard carton box, just like its LED counterparts. So nothing unusual here. And this is what you will find inside the box:

• The Lumintop Thor Mini
• Lanyard
• USB-C charging cable (but without a battery, lol)
• QC passed card
• Manual

What is really interesting, is that the package contains a USB-C charging cable, but no battery. I wonder if they forgot to take the cable out, or if they forgot to put the battery in.

The Thor Mini can be had in the following variations: aluminum raw, green, and titanium.

Whatever you choose, make sure you have a fitting battery, because you need one with a button top!

The flashlight itself is very small, and barely larger than a 21700 battery. And handling isn’t too difficult with the features it has, even at its size. The switch is conveniently located, on a protrusion, and not hard to find in the dark. It uses an electronic switch, with a rubber boot, and back lit, to help you locate it in the dark even easier. On the opposite side of the switch the flashlight is flat, with heat fins.

Once in your hand, you are probably only holding it with 2 or 3 fingers (and your thumb), but it doesn’t become really inconvenient. But if you have large hands, this might be a little too tiny.

The battery tube (or body) has the well-known pineapple style knurling, that looks quite nice in my opinion. Probably one of my favorite designs when it comes to knurling/machining.

The rear end of the Thor Mini is flat, so it will be pretty stable in case you want it to tail stand. There is even a small lanyard attachment ring, so you can carry your light this way as well. 3 colored glow tubes finish the tailcap off.

In terms of handling, I think the underhand position is the most logical. But you could hold it like a big cigar in the overhand grip, with your index finger resting on the switch.

Other than that, it’s so small, it could even be carried in your jeans, or in any jacket.

Since it’s an LEP flashlight, I would not recommend it as an EDC flashlight because of the narrow beam. Perhaps a diffuser could turn it into a more normal beam though. It could be a nice locator for when you are hiking and you want to travel light, and still have a far shining light.

Warranty? This is what the manual states:

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

Nope, we are not talking about LEDs, and the bins, and what not. No, here we are talking about an LEP flashlight, with an LEP module. There is no reflector, nor TIR optic inside.

If you see the size of this flashlight, you basically know that you can’t expect thousands of lumens, nor a beam that reaches thousands of yards. Especially, if you see the tiny glass lens at the front.

Right behind the glass is a glow in the dark ring, making the actual visible view to the LEP module even smaller. It blocks quite a large part of the glass lens, but large enough to peek inside, and see a copper/brass looking, shine-through LEP module. Unscrewing the bezel (which is not glued) you can see that the copper/brass module is orange in reality. It’s not the color of orange you would expect from brass or copper. So to me it looks like they wanted to pretend to be copper.

The glass lens diameter is 16mm, and the inner diameter of the glow in the dark ring is about 12-13mm.

The beam itself is very narrow (like you would expect from an LEP), with a clear hotspot in the middle, and smooth spill. It’s fairly neutral in my opinion, and it doesn’t have any blueish or greenish rings like some other LEP flashlights have. No, it is actually a pretty nice beam for an LEP flashlight.

Since LEP flashlights are not meant to be used by tint snobs, I will spare you from any spectral measurements.

Dimensions: 

Lumintop Thor Mini	Millimeters	Inches
Length	78 mm	3.1 in
Bezel diameter	24 mm	0.94 in
Body diameter	24 mm	0.94 in
Widest part – switch	27 mm	1.1 in

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

Weight: 

I used a Keeppower 1200mAh battery with a solder button top.

Lumintop Thor Mini	Weight in grams	Weight in oz.
Without battery:	62 g	2.2 oz
With battery	85 g	3 oz

Weight is rounded to the nearest gram and tenth of an Oz.

Lumintop Thor Mini Flashlight comparison

Size compared to other EDC flashlights and LEP flashlights

Group 1, from left to right EDC flashlights: Olight Baton 3, Lumintop Thor Mini, Wuben X3, Reylight Krystal, Acebeam E70 Mini

Group 2, from left to right LEP flashlights: Lumintop Thor Mini (18350), Lumintop Thor 1 (18350), Lumintop Petal (18350), Lumintop Ant Man (14500), Acebeam Terminator M1 (21700), Lumintop Thor 4 (21700), Mateminco FW2 (18650).

Lumintop uses a pretty easy UI with only 2 main modes, and a strobe.

The available main modes:

• Low, High

The available special modes (blinkies):

• Strobe, SOS

How the UI works when the flashlight is still turned OFF:

• Single-click: turns on in last used mode (mode memory)
• Double click: Strobe and another double click is SOS
• Triple-click: Battery level checker
• 4 clicks: Lockout mode (pressing the switch will be momentary Low)
• 7 clicks: turns off the backlit switch LED
• Press and hold: nothing, but it is registered as a normal click, so the light will just turn on in last used mode

How the UI works when the flashlight is turned ON:

• Single-click: Cycle between high and low
• Double click: Strobe and another double click is SOS
• Press and hold: turns off

Shortcuts within the UI:

• There are no shortcuts from Off.

Mode memory:

• Yes, it will remember the last used mode

Blinky modes:

• Strobe and SOS.
• A double click will activate strobe, from the On and Off position.
• A second double click will activate SOS.
• When SOS or Strobe is activated: A single click will turn the light off!

Low battery warning:

• Not that I noticed.

Lock-out mode:

• 4 clicks from OFF will activate lockout mode. Pressing the switch will turn the light on in Low mode, momentary. If you let the switch go, the light will turn of.

PWM:

• Not visible by eye.

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

• I like the UI, but Strobe and SOS could have been removed. I don’t know what you would use it for. I would think that Beacon mode and SOS would be enough if you would take it on a long hiking trip. So people can pinpoint your location.

Like I mentioned, my package did only include a charging cable, and no battery.

However, if you order the Thor Mini, I would recommend getting a dedicated battery, since you need a button top 18350. Not many 18350’s that I have come across have a button top.

The one shown in their ads mention a capacity of 1100mAh, and is USB-C rechargeable. The one I personally used for this review is the Keeppower 1200mAh, and I added a solder blob to the positive terminal to make it a button-top.

Charge type	Fits	No fit	Charge time
–	Button top 18350	flat top 18350	–

This is the gear I use for testing:

Gear	Purpose	Link to buy
Hagner E4-X	Measuring beam intensity (throw)	Inquire at Hagner.se
2* Extech SDL400	Lumens and logging runtimes	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Leica Disto D2	Distance for throw measurements	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Sekonic C-800	Spectrometer for LED measurements	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk
Uni-T UTi260B	Thermal Image camera	Amazon.com,

Lumen measurements:

How Lumens are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards How Lumens are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards: The ANSI FL1 standards specify that output in lumens should be measured 30 seconds after turning on, as this is the standardized time for measuring brightness according to the industry standard. This is why we focus on this part in our measurements. The ANSI FL1 standards require an ambient temperature of 22 ± 3°C. We record the ambient the ambient temperature to identify potential reasons for any observed discrepancies.

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 before each set of lumen measurements.
One of the lux meters uses an ND camera filter for high-output lights to prevent the lux meter from maxing out. This is either the Kenko PRO1D ND16 for up to about 80,000 lumens or the Gobe ND32 for anything above.

All of my readings were taken from a fully-charged Keeppower 18350, 1200mAh.

The measurements were taken manually at turn on and 30 seconds. The 10-minute numbers are taken from the runtime graph. I also added the 60,90, and 100 seconds measurement in High.

Mode	Specified	0 sec	30 sec	10 minutes
Low	50 lm	39 lm	39 lm	41 lm
High	250 lm	206 lm	240 lm	46 lm
High **	–	251 lm (60 sec)	258 lm (90sec)
High **	–	263 lm (about 100+sec)	–
High 3.7V*			258 lm

**I tested High manually, until it reached its peak output, and that was about 100 seconds in. Then it dropped instantly. I also tested it with the battery at 3.7V, and it had roughly the same output as a fresh cell.

Parasitic drain:

• I was unable to measure its parasitic drain because of the battery setup.

Lumintop Thor Mini Battery life and runtime

How Runtimes are Measured: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards About ANSI FL1 runtime standards: The runtime is measured until the light drops to 10% of its initial output (30 seconds after turning on). This does not mean that the flashlight is not usable anymore. The last column shows how long the light actually works till it shuts off. If there is a + symbol, it means that the test was stopped at that particular point, but the light was actually still running. This happens on certain occasions, with certain drivers, firmware, or batteries.

Runtime tests were conducted in my 50cm homemade integrating sphere, paired with the Extech SDL400 data logging Lux Meter.

Mode	Specified	Measured runtime (ANSI FL1)	Time till shut off
Low	1h 30min	2h 56min	2h 56min
High	90sec + 1h 20min	2h 43min	2h 43min

Their specified runtimes make no sense. Even though my battery is 1200mAh, instead of the 1100mAh they provide. The runtimes are much longer, but at a very low output.

Also, I noticed that you can re-active High again, shortly after it drops in output. This makes me think that it’s more of a timer than thermally regulated. The flashlight will however get really hot if you do this multiple times.

Lumintop Thor Mini Peak beam intensity and beam distance measurements

About Peak beam intensity: Understanding ANSI FL1 Standards About peak beam intensity The calculated value of distance in meters at which the flashlight produces a light intensity of 0.25 lux. (0.25 lux is about the brightness of a full moon shining on an object). This means that the intensity has decreased so much, it becomes difficult to see darker objects, or objects that don’t reflect light. The columns ‘Meters’ and ‘Yards’ use rounded numbers.

Measurements were taken indoors with a Hagner E4-X Lux Meter. The measurements were taken 30 seconds after turn on.

Mode	Specified	Measured	Meters	Yards
Low	–	18,700 cd	273 m	299 yd
High	122,500 cd	107,250 cd	655 m	716 yd

Compared to other 18350 mini LEP flashlights:

Green line is Thor Mini

For the tower beamshots, I used a Canon EOS 5D mk2 with a 100mm lens. Manual settings: ISO1600, 0.5sec, F4, 5000K. The tower is about 450 meters / 492 yards away, but you can’t really see the beam… it’s too weak.

For the shed/fence beamshots, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 with a 50mm lens. Manual settings: ISO1600, 1/4sec, F4, 5000K. The shed is about 65 meters / 71 yards away, and the reflective fence is about 200 meters.

Explore and compare the beamshots from the following flashlights:

• Lumintop Thor Mini
• Lumintop Thor 1
• Lumintop Thor petal

Please note that the following beamshots are mainly intended to showcase the beam pattern and beam quality, rather than overall performance. These images are typically taken directly after activation, and in different seasons or weather conditions, and therefore do not fully represent its overall performance. For accurate performance metrics, such as output, beam distance, and runtimes, you need to look at the performance section of this review.

Disclaimer: This flashlight was sent to us for review at no cost by Nealsgadgets. We have not been paid to review, nor have we been holding back on problems or defects.