SureFire Titan Ultra-Compact LED Keychain Light Series Black

This is supposed to be a Surefire but it is worse than many of the cheap Chinese imports. Yes the beam is shaped well, despite an off center emitter. Yes it’s bright, but what isn’t these days? Comes with a nimh battery but no indication of LSD. Very light. But the real problem is the twist switch. Flickering when turning it on and off. Sometimes it gets stuck in one mode and one switch. Some times it doesn’t turn on. Problems persisted after cleaning threads and contacts and relubricating lightly. Not acceptable for this expensive of a keychain light.Also worth noting is that the internal components look.... janky. Cheap plastic ring with cheap crimped contact ring. Nope. Returned due to misfunction.

I'm reviewing both the black 125 lumen version (Titan) and the brass 300 lumen version (Titan Plus).A flashlight is something I feel I need to have with me all the time, whether it's to light up the back of my computer to change a cable, looking for the keyhole, or stranded at the side of the road trying to change a tire, or just finding my way downstairs to check if I locked the front door after just got into bed. The survival instinct in me says I don't want to be caught without light at the time of need so I'm always looking for the ultimate light.So the ultimate flashlight for me is that it's one that is always with me, and that's a keychain light. I've bought quite a few over the years so let's go through them. I don't mind paying more for something that should last years, if not decades,So here are some of the keychain lights I've owned and what I think of them:1. Original LRI Photon. These little button cell flashlights still haven't been beaten in one way, they disappear on your keychain. If you need a little squirt of light, it's there. Way faster than you can light up your phone. Nice wide flood beam because it's basically a plastic shell holding a round LED bulb. The light stays on as long as you keep the button pressed. So it's unlikely you'll drain the battery by leaving it on. Long life lithium cells means it'll last years likely.2. The modern successor to the LRI Photo is the Nitecore Tube. This is like a larger LRI Photon which has a rechargeable battery. The tube is quite a bit bigger but uses a single LED just like the LRI, but you can control the brightness by clicking twice, or holding down the button. To recharge it, use a USB cable. This is big enough that it will make your keychain noticeably bulkier but the runtime and brightness is a lot higher. The highest setting of 45 lumens is very bright, so this will be more than bright enough for any close quarters task. The issue with these is that 1) the rechargeable battery won't hold its charge forever, after a couple of months, you might want to top up the charge 2) people have reported these things malfunctioning/dying. So that kinda of disqualifies it as a "light you can rely on"3. Fenix LD02. This is similar to the Surefire Titan I'm reviewing. Similar size, cheaper price, but has a nice tail clicky switch (press in to click, press again to release). The light is obviously larger/heaver than the coin cell light, but this is a real light with LED with a small lens to give a useful close range beam. Beam is floody but will still light up things at a close to medium distance (like if you need to sweep an interior area looking for something). Three light levels depending on how many times you press the switch. With a much larger AAA battery, the flashlight will last hours in low and medium modes, so you could rely on this if you get lost in the woods at night.Two issues with the light: the click switch may get activated while in your pocket and thus the battery may be accidentally drained. The three levels of brightness is not that useful because the 8 lumens low isn't all that low, say, if you wanted to read in the dark without disturbing your night vision. There isn't that much apparent difference in the modes, I would have liked more separation. The pocket clip is not very good (in that it will probably bend or release itself too easily). Being a Chinese brand light, you may be dealing with somebody in China if you have warranty support.4. Surefire Titan Plus (Titan B) model. This is the 300 "luxury" version of the Titan. It's a really cool light. Tough, made of heavy brass with three useful levels that are well spaced apart. The lowest brightness mode is also way too bright (15 lumens). It has a nice beam with long runtime in low and medium with a "turbo" mode high if you really need sweep a larger area. Because the lowest mode is 15 lumens, you'll probably be happy with using this light in that mode most of the time. Because you have to twist the head to turn it on, there are less accidental activations.The bad thing is about these kinds of light is accessing the medium and high modes since you have to repeated twist on/off/on/off/on to get at the high mode, and it's not always reliable. Sometimes it may skip a mode even if you are not firm with the twisting action (instead of Low->med->high, it might jump to medium on the first try).The brightness modes of this light are well thought out, it has a low (which I will always wish was lower), but the medium can last two hours before dropping in brightness. It's quite bright so most of the time you won't need to access the highest mode. The high is a "turbo" boost mode meant to be used for short periods of time because the brightness drops quickly after a few minutes as it starts to get hot and tax the capabilities of the little battery. Use this mode when you need to flood a large area. Also, the rechargeable battery is needed to access the high mode, a lithium non-rechargeable battery (such as Energizer Lithium Ultimate) is next best, and although it will work, don't use alkaline AAA cells because they're the weakest (and of course alkalines tend to leak and may damage your light)Twisting is easily done with one hand but if you want to access the other brightness levels, you need two hands to do the off/on/off sequence. This is not a light you want to have if you need to access the other modes often. The Fenix is better if you need a light you can flash and quickly change modes.The beam is the same across both Titan models, it uses a reflector behind glass and has unique facets in the reflector to make a beam which is smooth (no well defined spot in the middle). It's brighter in the middle and fades out to a wide flood. Great for lighting up a larger area or in close quarters. So you can't use this light as a spotlight or searchlight in an outdoor setting.The light is a bit too heavy and long and thus a bit annoying to have on your keychain. It has a neat cap on the tail which allows you to quickly detach the light from a lanyard or keychain. This is a light made more for sticking into your small jeans pocket clipped onto your pants. The pocket clip is very good.This is bit of a novelty flashlight made for flashlight fanatics but is built to last for those who take pride in ownership of a well made item. All in all, this is overkill for the "everyday" light at near $100, so I don't recommend it. I love it, but I won't pretend that there is any practical advantage to having a light like this.5. So we get to the Surefire Titan A. This only has dual output levels but is much lighter than the Ultra model because the body is aluminum instead of brass. Shorter/smaller/lighter. It's smaller than the Fenix, but has this Surefire has the advantage/disadvantage of the twist head. I tend to prefer twist heads due to the issue with accidental activations with buttons, but some people prefer the quick activation of a click button.So the light only has low and medium levels (missing the 300 lumen mode of the Titan Plus). Like the others, the low could have been lower, but at 15 lumens, this is the mode you'll probably use 80% of the time, which gives you hours of constant brightness before it starts dropping in brightness. Using a NiMH AAA battery like the one that is supplied gives the longest runtime. Because the battery is a low discharge Eneloop battery, you can rely on this light to have a useful charge even if it's sitting in the drawer for months (years?).The beam of the Surefire is very good as a close range light, it's a spot in the middle which fades smoothly into the surrounding beam. So it's basically a flood of light with a center area that is slightly brighter. This is done using a special reflector which has facets on it to defocus the center spot. Great for close quarters work. The beam is smoother than the Fenix, but the colour of the LED in my sample is more greenish.Also, unlike some other lights, the low mode does not flicker (i.e. it does not use the trick of pulsing the light multiple times per second to provide "low" level). It's a eyestrain free 15 lumens.Unfortunately, it's not perfect, there is no way to stand this light on its tail because of the keyring, and there is no pocket clip at all. Of course, there's the crazy price, which seems like 2X what it should be if you're not used to Surefire prices.But so far, I like this light. It's exactly what I want in a keychain light. Should be reliable, bright as heck, pleasant beam, long battery life and runtime, and always there for me,In conclusion, the Fenix and Titan are the best general purpose lights, the Titan Plus is a ultimate light for connoisseurs of lights, but the Photon is the light you want if you want the minimal survival light.

If you need all the lumens you can get in a tiny light, hard to go wrong with the Titan-B. It can get really bright, but if I had to do it again, I'd go for the Titan-A (which I had but lost), because it's smaller, lighter (aluminum v. brass), and doesn't have the useless clip. The first Titan-B I received I returned because the clip did not even touch the body of the light, and unscrewing the tail cap to remove it was impossible. The replacement Titan-B had a "better" clip, but with so little tension as to be mostly useless. In terms of operation, the twist on/off/select UI works fine, and the head rotates smoothly. The silver/nickel finish is a bit slicker than the anodized aluminum of the Titan-A, however, so not quite as easy to operate. Again, if you need the 300 lumen output (or a 75 lumen middle output rather than the 125 lumen high output of the Titan-A), go with this one, but otherwise consider the simpler, lighter (and cheaper) Titan-A if you want a small Surefire.

This review is for the 125/15 lumen model.I have many SureFire lights. I think some of them are a bit overpriced, but then again I've never had one fail, not one. I have several cheap-o keychain lights, and they get destroyed by me doing stomething like throwing my keys to someone. So I decided to spend the money and try a SureFire Titan.Quality is excellent. Threads are fully formed, the head turns super smooth. Beam is flawless, good color, centered. Run time is as advertised when using the included SureFire rechargeable battery. I measured 140 lumens on high for a 15 second duration, 100 lumens after 2 minutes; and 18 lumens on low. My lightbox measurements probably are not terribly accurate, but the numbers tell me that the output is correctly advertised.I wasn't sure how I felt about a twist-on type switch, but I got used it pretty quickly. It's easy to use with one hand. Keep in mind a twisty means no worrying about a failed switch. One thing that makes a difference is actually having it on your keychain - the ring and keys give you something to grip, and that really helps. Holding the light bare is not as easy. I have not had any problem with flicker, or accidental on / off. The delay to switch from low to high is good, similar to their other lights like the G2X, about 1 second.It's a bit big on a keychain to be honest, but I'm going to keep it on there to see if I get used to it. I don't like the way it fits in some pants pockets, especially with all the other junk on my keychain, but if it functions well, I'll take that in trade.I bought a pack of Eneloop Pro AAA rechargeables. They are rated at 950 mAH, compared to the included battery at 750 mAH. Run time on High with the Eneloop measured about 1h15m, and on Low it measured a good 12 hours! For reference the rated times are 1.0h and 8.0h.I did not have a chance to measure run times on plain old alkalines, but one thing to note is that AAAs are everywhere - TV remotes at home, projector remotes at the office, and in every store, even a hole-in-the-wall roadside shop. This is huge, because in an emergency you can always find a power source.From a practical perspective, I can easily walk around at night on the Low setting. Not sure why some people say it is not bright enough. There's enough light on High to light up a room. Outdoors, I can easily see things at 25 yards on Low; on High I get a good view out to 50 yards. I think that is pretty good, especially for tiny light with a broad beam.One thing I did is *sparingly* apply dielectric grease to the terminals, and clean the threads and apply the same grease there. I've had this about a month, we'll see how it holds up.