Weltool W3 PRO Tac

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Weltool W3 PRO Tac specifications

Brand/model	Weltool W3 PRO Tac
Flashlight category	LEP / long-range / tactical
LEP	LEP (shine through, Class 1)
Max. output	930 Lumens
Max. beam distance	1,479 meters
Max. beam intensity	547,000 cd
Battery config.	1*21700
Onboard charging	None (battery has onboard charging)
Modes	1 + hidden
Blinkies	Hidden Strobe
Waterproof	IP67
Review date	May 2023

If you know LEP flashlights, you know Weltool. And even if you didn’t know anything about LEP flashlights, and you’ve into flashlight for a while, you also know Weltool.

LEP stands for Laser Excited Phosphor, which basically means that the light source is a laser, instead of an LED. The laser projects light onto/through phosphor to turn the beam into something that looks like a normal LED flashlight. Well, not very normal, because it throws like 10x better.

Weltool is one of the few companies that mostly focuses on tactical flashlights, but they also have some penlights, and EDC-type flashlights. And on top of that, they are well known for their UV flashlights. We reviewed Weltools in most categories so far.

Today, we are looking at the successor of the Weltool W3 Pro, another LEP flashlight we reviewed a couple of years ago. If you looked at some pictures, you probably wouldn’t notice a difference. But there is definitely some, albeit small.

Package quality.

I was pretty surprised seeing the new minimalist style packaging, without an image on the front. All it says is: Tactical flashlight. Perhaps a measurement to prevent the likelihood of getting seized at the customs? Anyway, inside, this is what you get:

• The flashlight: Weltool W3 Pro TAC
• Pocket clip (attached)
• Weltool UB21-50 battery (21700) with USB-C port
• USB-C Charging cable
• Spare O-rings
• Warranty card
• Manual

Before using the W3 PRO TAC, you need to unscrew the tailcap, and remove the battery insulator. If you don’t do that, you can hit that switch 1000’s of times, but it won’t turn on.. just saying…

Equipped with a mechanical forward-clicky switch, the W3 PRO lacks the ability to tailstand due to its protruding switch.

For those looking for an even shorter version of the W3 PRO Tac, Weltool offers the option to purchase the Weltool BB1. I believe it should fit the W3 PRO TAC as well. Personally, I find that most short flashlights on the market tend to appear awkward compared to their full-length counterparts.

Just like the Weltool W3 PRO, it has one of the most grippy machining I ever encountered. The knurling is really rough but in a positive sense. The tail cap is large and is very easy to unscrew. The diameter of the body, as well as the tailcap, are relatively wide.

For carrying, you can use the pocket clip, or get a holster. It’s a little too big to carry in your pocket. At least that’s my experience.

In terms of use, you can carry it in an overhand as well as the underhand position. In the overhand position, you can rest your thumb on the tailcap, so you can manipulate the switch comfortably. In the underhand position, you’d either need to change your hand position or use your other hand to change modes. This is the nature of the beast.

Weltool doesn’t include a lanyard, and the body doesn’t have any lanyard attachment holes. However, you can still connect a lanyard to the pocket clip. The pocket clip is removable, but you’ll leave some scuffs doing so. It is also pretty snappy, so it should do the job well. I almost never ever use a pocket clip for its intended purpose, so take this with a grain of sale. Also, another benefit of having is pocket clip is that it won’t roll of a table easily.

Anyway, the head has some cutouts which makes it not roll off a table anyway. So you could remove the clip if that was the only reason keeping it on.

When it comes to the specific tasks or use cases, It’s obviously made for long-distance, unless you use a filter like the Weltool LF33.

I’d imagine using it for hunting, hiking, camping for specific scenarios. But it might be possible to use in tactical situations as well since the beam is one of the widest LEP beams.

Because of the protruding mechanical forward-clicky switch, the W3 PRO Tac lacks the ability to tailstand due to its protruding switch.

The W3 PRO TAC has top-notch build quality. It features knurling on the tailcap, body, and head, enhancing its grip and handling. The aggressive body and knurling contribute to the overall appeal.

An upgrade from the W3 PRO is that the W3 PRO Tac doesn’t have the issue that you accidentally unscrew the head from the body. This could accidentally, but it doesn’t happen anymore with the TAC version. Thanks Weltool.

The anodization on the W3 PRO is awesome, featuring a matte-type finish. Overall, the build quality of all Weltool flashlights I own is truly outstanding.

Warranty

From the date of sale (the serial number on the Lights body can show the date), the limited warranty for LED products is 5 years, and the warranty for LEP products is 2 years.

The above free warranty does not cover any damages or failure caused by:

• Problems caused by alteration, misuse, abuse, or unreasonable
• Battery leakage , improper operation or using poor quality battery
• The products do not purchase from Weltool directly or its authorized dealers or other illegal way
• Broken lens caused by external force
• Lamp, switch runs out of its lifespan
• rubber cap, O ring’s naturally aging
• normal wear and tea, imprinting, or color finishes
• Other problems caused by improper operation
• Discontinued products

If Weltool products don’t work because of your improper operation, we can provide paid maintenance. Labor is free but we will charge for parts. The total repair fee is assessed according to the cost of the replaced materials. Freight should be paid by customers.

This limited lifetime warranty also excludes batteries, chargers, switches and electronics.

The W3 PRO TAC, is just like its sibling an LEP flashlight. This means that the light source is a laser instead of an LED chip.

With LEPs there are currently 2 main types, namely a mirror-type and shine-through type. The mirror type uses a much bigger module (plastic) and is the earliest iteration. The newer type is the shine-through, where the laser shines through a layer of phosphor to turn the blue laser into a white-ish beam. The W3 PRO TAC version uses a shine through LEP module.

Until fairly recently, most LEPs were sold as being Class III / Class 3, but these are prohibited in many countries. Weltool also knows this, and incorporates a Class 1 in the TAC version.

The LEP sits behind a convex lens that turns the beam into a wider beam, and it is protected by a normal glass lens. This is great because if the convex lens gets scratched, it’s much more difficult to find a replacement. And a normal glass lens can easily be replaced, and is much cheaper.

Here are some of the things it mentions:

When pointing the beam onto a wall at close range, the beam is pretty ugly, and greenish. However, outdoors it certainly comes to life, even with a so-so beam color.

Compared to the W3 PRO and other competitors, it’s producing many more lumens, and has a much wider hotspot. Some people would really like this.

Dimensions: 

Weltool W3 PRO TAC	Millimeters	Inches
Length	160 mm	6.3 in
Bezel diameter	33 mm	1.3 in
Head largest diameter	36 mm	1.4 in
Tailcap diameter	32 mm	1.25 in

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

Weight: 

Weltool W3 PRO TAC	Weight in grams	Weight in oz.
Without battery:	169 g	5.95 oz
With battery	242 g	8.55 oz

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

Weltool W3 PRO TAC comparison

Size compared to other LEP flashlights

Group 1, from left to right: Acebeam W10 Gen2, Fenix TK30, Weltool W3 Pro, Weltool W3 Pro Tac, NEXTORCH T10L, Fenix HT30R

Group 2: Weltool W3 PRO vs Weltool W3 PRO TAC

The Weltool W3 PRO TAC has a pretty simple UI, with 2 hidden modes.

The available main modes:

• High (plus hidden Low mode, second tap after strobe, see explanation below)

The available special modes (blinkies):

• Strobe (hidden, by 4 taps from off)

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

• Half-press: momentary on (no morse coding possible, because of the hidden modes)
• Single-click: turns on
• 4 taps/half-presses: Strobe (you have to fully click to activate continous)
  • If you let go, and tap the switch again, you’ll activate Low mode momentary.. full click will activate continues
  • So, to use low mode continuously, you have to half-press the switch at least 4 times, keep it pressed so you can see strobe mode, let the switch go, and half press again for momentary Low. Or do a full click to use Low continously. 5 taps doesn’t work!!! You really need to activate Strobe first, before you can activate Low.

How the UI works when the flashlight is turned ON:

• Half-press: nothing… it’s a forward clicky switch
• Single-click: turns the light off.

Shortcuts within the UI:

• To Turbo: turn on
• To Strobe: at least 4 half-presses/taps from off.

Mode memory:

• Always start in High

Blinky modes:

• Yes, hidden. Strobe can be accessed by at least 4 taps, for momentarily. If you want to use it continously, you have to do a full click.

Low battery warning:

• Not that I noticed

Lock-out mode:

• No

PWM:

• Not visible by eye

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

• The UI is new to me, but it’s built into a couple of Weltool flashlights now. I’m not 100% on board yet, but maybe I’ll see the benefits sooner. I know some people love this feature, because you basically always start in High mode, which I really like. No mode memory.

Weltool includes a high-capacity 21700 battery. Its model name is: UB21-50. It’s a 5000mAh protected 21700 battery with a USB-C charge port. Weltool also includes a USB-A to USB-C cable for charging. But you can also use USB-C to USB-C in case you wondered. Te voltage read 3.56V upon arrival. This is a great voltage for storage and shipping.

The specs on the battery say: 5V 2.0A, but there was no way on earth to come close to it. I measured around 1.3A max, and charging took 3 hours and 40 minutes.

During the charge, a little indicator LED is visible inside the positive side of the battery. There is a tiny hole with the indicator LED behind it. During the charge, it lights up red, and when finished it turns blue.

Since both, the tailcap and driver, use springs it also accepts flat top, unprotected batteries. You need to invest a little more in a good 21700 charger, if you haven’t upgraded your li-ion charger in the past 3 years. Most chargers won’t accept this battery length.

This is the gear I used for testing:

Gear	Purpose	Link to buy
Hagner E4-X	Measuring beam intensity (throw)	Inquire at Hagner.se
Extech SDL400	Lumens and logging runtimes	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Leica Disto D2	Distance for throw measurements	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Asensetek Lighting Passport Pro Standard	Spectrometer for LED measurements	–

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 prior to each set of lumen measurements.

I measured the output in 2 spheres, to make sure my readings are accurate. And I saw that both measurements were within less than 1% difference, so I trust the following outputs.

All of my readings were taken from a fully-charged Weltool UB21-50 battery.

The measurements were taken manually at turn on and 30 seconds. The 10 minute numbers are taken from the runtime graph. Room temperature was 23 degrees Celsius.

Weltool W3 PRO TAC	Specs	At turn on	30 sec	10 minutes
High	930 lm	1097 lm	1017 lm	896 lm
**High at 3.67V**	–	1085 lm	1010 lm	–
Low	322 lm	374 lm	369 lm	337 lm

For testing purposes I also tested with a 21700 battery at 3.67 Volts. It’s amazing to see that the output is still very close to the output with a full battery!

I try to use rounded lumen numbers, except for maybe Low or Moonlight/Firefly modes.

Weltool W3 PRO TAC 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.

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

Mode	Specified	Measured runtime (ANSI FL1)	Time till shut off
Low	1h 41min	2h 41min	2h 45min
High	3h 56min	3h 57min	3h 57min

High ran quite a bit longer than specced. I’m not sure why that happened.

Weltool W3 PRO vs W3 PRO TAC

People would also like to know how it performs against its older sibling, the W3 PRO. So here we have the runtime graphs combined for the highest modes. These are the numbers in lumens

From this graph you can see that the new W3 PRO TAC has quite a bit higher output for the first 20 minutes. After that, the difference isn’t that big, but it runs for quite a bit longer, and is much more stable.

Weltool W3 PRO TAC 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.

Weltool W3 PRO TAC	Specs	Measured candelas	Meters	Yards	Miles
Low	172,500 cd	198,000 cd	890	973	0.55
High	547,500 cd	583,600 cd	1528 m	1671 yd	0.95 mi

Now I want to compare it with the W3 PRO as well, and this is quite interesting.

This is a comparison in terms of beam intensity (candelas).

You can see that in terms of actual candeals, the difference isn’t that big. But you need to keep in mind that the output (wider beam) of the W3 PRO TAC makes it so much more interesting.

Vs other LEPS

LEP flashlight comparison: small LEP flashlights (< 40mm)

A comparison list with single-cell LEP flashlights we reviewed: These numbers are NOT from the specifications but measured by our reviewers. They include all single-cell LEP flashlights with a smaller diameter head (smaller than 45mm). The numbers include the measurement in lumens (lm), measure candela (cd), and calculated distance in meters, and yards. These numbers are all measured 30 seconds after turning on.

Flashlight	@30sec (lm)	Candela (cd)	Meters	Yards
Acebeam W10 gen2	474	496,000	1409	1540
Fenix TK30	493	384,000	1239	1355
Fenix HT30R	474	700,000	1673	1830
Jetbeam M2S WP-RX	354	345,000	1175	1285
Jetbeam RRT M2S Raptor	365	248,000	996	1089
Lumintop Thor 1	323	356,000	1193	1305
Lumintop Thor 2	324	888,000	1888	2065
Lumintop Thor 2 v2	297	752,000	1734	1897
Maratac LEP DX Reach rev. 2	291	396,000	1259	1376
Nextorch L10 Max	421	440,000	1327	1451
Nextorch T7L	524	428,000	1308	1430
Nextorch T10L	468	484,000	1391	1522
Olight Odin Turbo	379	368,000	1213	1327
Richfire SFC-039	194	197,896	890	973
TrustFire T30R	105	147,500	768	840
Weltool W3 Pro	478	363,000	1206	1319
Weltool W3 PRO TAC	1017	583,600	1528	1671

Interactive runtime graphs below

Below are interactive throw comparison graphs (candela), between single-cell LEP flashlights with a small head (+-<40mm). Hover your mouse over the interactive graph below to see the details of each specific light.

(tip: hold your mobile phone horizontally to see the full graph). Or check this link to view the full interactive graph.

Same, but then focused on the first 30 minutes. Or open new window for 30min interactive graph here.

And now zoomed in to see the details. Or open the following link for the interactive graph.

For the following 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.

Compared to the following flashlights:

• Lumintop Petal
• Natfire SF2
• Weltool W3 PRO
• Weltool W3 PRO TAC
• Fenix HT30R
• Loop SK01s
• Mateminco FW3

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