ThruNite Archer Mini

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Alongside their Archer Pro, ThruNite also released the Archer Mini, a smaller version of the Pro using a 10400 battery instead of a 14500. It looks nearly identical to its larger sibling on the outside, including having the battery sealed in, though it only offers two modes instead of smith ramping. Let’s take a look.

Package quality.

The Archer Mini’s box is also nearly identical to the Pro’s, including having the tear away strip for opening. This does not work well. Out of four of these boxes, none of them opened correctly, and all four required tearing the flap open. I do not like this feature.

Inside the box, you’ll find

• ThruNite Archer Mini with 10400 battery inside and clip attached
• USB-C charging cable
• Instruction manual

The Archer Mini got the name right; it sure is mini. It’s a tiny, no-nonsense light that you can easily carry with you, clipped to your pocket or tossed in your bag. There’s no nonsense like holes for a lanyard or key ring, or a magnet since it has a tail switch where that would go, so clipping or letting it float free are pretty much your only carry options. The clip’s opening is rather small, so it’s sometimes a bit of a challenge to get it over your pants pocket if it’s made of thicker fabric or baseball cap, if you’re making full use of the dual-direction feature.

The clip and battery are already in place when you open the box, so you can just stick it in your pocket and go.

You’ll want to use the Archer Mini’s lockout mode since the electronic tail switch is very pronounced and easy to accidentally activate. That’s done by holding the button while on low, and while hold-to-lockout isn’t the most secure way to implement it, it’s better than nothing.

Since the Archer Mini only has rings around the body for knurling and combined with the mostly smooth head, it’s a slippery one, so be careful if you’re holding it between your fingers. You’ll probably want to hold this one with your whole fist.

You won’t be tail standing this one, either. The e-switch has a large dome which prevents that, though you could head stand it, if you wanted to.

I feel like the Archer Mini is best suited for daily pocket carry. Its size allows you to forget about it in your pocket, but it will be there when you need it. Without a lot of output, you may want to carry this one as a backup to a larger light, but it does have USB-C charging so if you’ve got one of your many USB-C cables around, you won’t go without power.

ThruNite’s lights have always been well-built in my opinion, and the Archer Mini is no exception.  Interestingly, the Archer Mini comes in black, tan, or green anodized aluminum, while the Pro only has black. I would’ve expected the larger model to have different color choices, but no big deal.  

Not only is the head glued on, but the tail is, too, so there’s no way you can get to the battery or any internals without some work. The only thing you can do is unscrew the shroud around the head to get to the USB-C port. The threads for this section are covered even when the shroud is unscrewed, and thankfully the lube does not get all over the USB-C port area.

While I was carrying mine, the tiny body slipped out of my hand and landed on the hard kitchen floor, but did not take any damage, so that should be an anecdotal testament to ThruNite’s build quality.  

ThruNite’s standard warranty applies to the Archer Mini. Below is copied from the manual; see their Customer Service page for full details. 

Warranty

1. 2-years free replacement: We will offer free replacement within 2 years of

purchase if problems develop with normal use.

2. 30-days refund by Amazon: You may return most new, unopened items sold

and fulfilled by Amazon within 30 days of delivery for a full refund.

3. Lifetime limited maintenance: As to those exceed 2 years of the purchase

date, we will still provide with maintenance service, but the cost of parts will be

charged and freight should be paid by customers.

The Archer Mini uses a Luminus SST-20 for its emitter, in either cool white or neutral white. Based on my measurements with an Opple Light Master Pro, these are likely the 5700K and 5000K, respectively. Usually companies use the 4000K version for neutral white and 6500K for cool white since there’s a greater difference between the two temperatures. My measurements came out very close together and while there’s a visual difference, it’s definitely not very drastic.

As for the other Opple measurements, CRI is low (the 4000K SST-20 has 95 CRI) and DUV is high.  This can be seen in the greenish tint of the beam, in either version.

ThruNite used a plastic TIR lens for the Archer Mini, which makes sense due to its size. The bezel is flat so you can head stand it, but you won’t be able to tell if it’s on. There may be different TIRs used, because the hotspot on the cool white version is larger than that of the neutral white version. 

Mode, Cool White	CCT	CRI Ra	DUV	Flicker
Low	5282K	61.6	0.0136	7808 Hz
High	5295K	61.9	0.0133	17,692 Hz

Mode, Neutral White	CCT	CRI Ra	DUV	Flicker
Low	4535K	60.5	0.0131	3885 Hz
High	4953K	61.5	0.0123	7231 Hz

ThruNite Archer Mini	Millimeters	Inches
Length	83 mm	3.3 in
Head diameter	17 mm	0.7 in
Body diameter	14 mm	0.5 in

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

Weight: 

ThruNite Archer Mini	Weight in grams	Weight in oz
With battery:	36 g	1.3 oz

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

Flashlight size comparison with its competition:

Group 1 ThruNite Flashlights: ThruNite Archer Mini, ThruNite Archer Pro, ThruNite Thrower, ThruNite TN12 Pro, ThruNite TT20

Group 2: Emisar D4V2, ThruNite Archer Mini, Convoy S2+

Group 3: Manker E02 II, ThruNite Archer Mini, Lumintop GT Nano Pro

Available modes: 

• Low, high

Available blinky modes:

• Strobe
  

From OFF:

• Press and hold: Low
• Single click:  Low
• Double click:  High
• 3 fast clicks: Strobe

From ON:

• Press and hold from low: Lockout
• 1 click:  Off
• Double click: High
• 3 fast clicks: Strobe

Mode memory:

•  None

Shortcuts:

• To Low: Single click
• To Turbo: Double click
• To Strobe: Triple click

Low voltage warning:

• The Archer Mini will blink when the voltage is getting low in high mode. In low, the output just sags until it shuts off.

Strobe/blinkies

• There is only one strobe, and it’s accessed by triple clicking  

Lock-out mode: 

• From low mode, hold for one second to lock the light. Hold again to unlock 

PWM

• Present, but not visible

ThruNite built a 320mAh 10400 battery into the Archer Mini, literally. The battery is sealed inside, meaning that once it dies, so does the whole light. At that point, you can either try to break through the glue holding the tail cap on, or try to work with ThruNite’s customer service to have it replaced. My guess is that this is done to allow the electronic tail switch to work without a secondary inner tube, thus saving space and weight, but I’d always rather have a user-serviceable battery.

Without being able to do any testing on the battery, there’s not much I can say about it. The USB-C charging works well, filling it up in about an hour and a half, so that’s about a 250mA charge rate.

To obtain these numbers, I used a very rudimentary integrated shoebox and ceilingbounce on my Samsung Galaxy S10. Measurements have been calibrated using a standardized calibration light provided by 1Lumen.

Lumen measurements (for each mode)

As you can see, neither mode in either temperature meets the specifications set forth by ThruNite. It’s not so far off, though, that it would be a real visible difference, though.

Mode	Specs	Lumens @turn on	Lumens @30 sec	Lumens @10 minutes
NW Low	18	14	14	14
CW Low	18	16	16	16
NW High	405/157	323	303	111
CW High	405/157	369	345	127

It is not possible to measure current on this light since it is sealed.

Battery Life: Runtime graphs

The Archer Mini has well-regulated output after the timed step down from high, with neutral white almost exactly meeting ANSI specified runtimes and cool white falling a bit short.

Mode	Specified runtime	Measured runtime ANSI	Time till shut off
NW Low	7h 30min	7h 34min	7h 45min
CW Low	7h 30min	6h 35min	6h 45min
NW High	55min	53min	1h 24min
CW High	55min	47min	1h 33min

About ANSI FL1 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.

Peak beam intensity and beam distance measurements

The numbers for candela were obtained with a UNI-T UT383S luxmeter at 5 and 15 meters, then averaged

The numbers for high actually meet or exceed specifications, which is nice! I feel like this shows that this light has a narrow, throwy TIR lens.

Mode	Specs	Candela measured	Meters	Yards
NW Low	–	71 cd	17 m	19 yd
CW Low	–	94 cd	19 m	21 yd
NW High	1880 cd	1880 cd	87 m	95 yd
CW High	1880 cd	2045 cd	90 m	98 yd

About peak beam intensity: Peak beam distance according to ANSI FL1 standards: 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). The columns ‘Meters’ and ‘Yards’ use rounded numbers.

These were taken with a Samsung Galaxy S22+ using pro mode and the following settings: 

• WB 5000K
• ISO 200
• Speed 0.5

Distance to the other end of the playing field is 100 meters.

Beamshots of the following flashlights compared:

• Lumintop GT Nano Pro
• Lumintop FW1AA

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