Sunrei Headlamp Review

Headlamps have gone from being quite exotic and expensive items to more reasonable prices but while they used incandescent globes they were always power-hungry, battery-eating things. Unfortunately, the more energy efficient globes made by, for example, Welch Allyn are more expensive.

Then the manufacturers switched to using white LEDs and the power demands fell. The headlights were of course still expensive, but the battery life went up (or the brightness went up). Then two things intervened here: the cost of the most common white LEDs with adequate power (often by Cree) fell as the production volumes went up, and manufacturing switched to Asia to cut costs. Some other vendors came into the market: mass vendors such as Walmart and battery companies started to sell much cheaper units, and then the Asian OEMs started to sell direct via the web.

Traditionally one thinks of Asian products as being 'cheap and nasty', but that ignores the fact that many western vendors get their gear made in Asia these days anyhow. And the Asian manufacturers are becoming fast learners: they see the specifications being set by the western companies and have to meet them. So they do - and then they branch out. Which brings us to this headlamp.

The unit reviewed was supplied by www.gearbest.com, with a retail price of about $27. A BPL discount may become available. Photos are largely from the Gearbest and Cree websites.

Incidentally, I did find several other Sunrei headlamps which appeared to also be called Sports 3, but they had slightly different text after the 'Sports 3' part of the label. They looked different. All very strange, but somewhat typical.

ARTICLE OUTLINE

• Introduction
• Description
  • Beam shaping
  • Opening the battery case
  • IPX6 rating
  • Headstrap
• Brightness and battery life
• Field testing

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