Introduction
HRT impressed us with their entry into the illumination market, the AWLS Advanced Weapon Light.
Now, HRT is offering a handheld which boasts 1,600 lumens and 58,000 candela.
Can it live up to the same standard?
First Impressions
HRT has two different heads for their lights. One is the PSF-MK6, which is the super-high candela version we tested on the rifle-mounted light. Our handheld sample has the PSF-MK3 head, which is more suited to closer-range, EDC use.
The difference in output comes down to the use of two different LEDs, and what appear to be different reflectors.
The PSF-MK6 head utilizes the Osram W1, which is the go-to for high-candela flashlights. Modlite uses this exact same LED in their OKW heads, SureFire uses it in their Turbo lights, and many Chinese brands use it as well.
The PSF-MK3 head, on the other hand, uses a Luminus SFT-40. This LED typically produces less candela than the Osram, but can be pushed to higher lumen output. This LED is found in the Sig Sauer Foxtrot-EDC series of lights, and in some of the Olight handhelds. One disadvantage of this LED is that it can have a green tint depending upon its binning.
HRT also offers two different bodies for their lights, 18650 and 18350. Our sample is the larger 18650 body. In terms of physical size, it’s almost identical in length and diameter to the Modlite handhelds. It’s totally pocketable for those of us accustomed to carrying full-size flashlights.
The light comes with an HRT-branded Thyrm switchback, which is a nice touch.
Let’s take a look at the specs.
Manufacturer Claims and Specs
Here are the specs:
| Spec | HRT AWLS Handheld (18650, PSF-MK3) |
| Lumens | 1,600 (raw) |
| Candela | 58,000 (raw) |
| Runtime | 103 Minutes |
| Battery | 18650 |
| Waterproofing | IP68 |
| Price | $184.95 |
I’m not sure what HRT means by “raw” on their output claims. Some manufacturers measure the lumen output of the LED before installing it in the flashlight, which mitigates losses in the reflector and lens, so maybe that’s what they mean. Then again, I’m not sure what “raw” candela requires that the LED be installed in the reflector. Regardless, I think HRT wants us to take those numbers with a grain of salt.
Judging by the specs, we can assume that this light will have a large, bright hotspot. 1,600 lumens seems like a lot for a handheld, so I suspect this light will heat up and step down quickly. Let’s see:
Into the Lab: Lumens, Candela, Color Temp and CRI
Lumens
As I suspected, 1,600 lumens was a bit optimistic for this light.
The HRT runs for an impressive two and a half hours before dropping below ten lumens, and it produces over five hundred lumens for an hour and twenty minutes. If you need a lot of light for a prolonged period of time, this light delivers.
Let’s take a closer look at the first ten minutes:
Over 1,000 lumens for the first seven minutes is impressive. In my personal experience, it’s rare that I use my light for anything more than a couple minutes.
By the ANSI/Plato standard, this light emits 1,411 lumens.
Candela
HRT claims 58,000 candela for this light.
| Candela (0s) | Candela (30s) |
| 50000 | 44710 |
By the ANSI/Plato standard, this light produces 44,710 candela. Not quite 58,000, but again, HRT claims that is a “raw” number, and 44,710 is more than enough to illuminate objects across parking lots and blind would-be assailants.
Color Temp and CRI
As mentioned earlier, the LED in this light is known for an unpleasant green tint. Let’s see if this sample exhibits this.
We can see from the above chart that the light has a very cool color temperature at 7082K, and emits a lot of green light in the R11 and R14 categories. Here’s another visualization of this data:
As far as color temperature goes, this light is not bad. The green tinge is not noticeable and the light is totally serviceable.
CRI is low at 68.8. Targets illuminated by this handheld will appear washed out and blueish. This is common for high-output tactical lights.
Takeaways
The HRT AWLS handheld in this configuration is a great option for EDC, particularly if you’re looking to save some money over the Cloud Defensive and Modlite offerings. That being said, I don’t see any mention of dual-fuel capability for the HRT, which has become expected in this industry.
Its output is competitive, and while we haven’t tested its durability, we can vouch that the HRT rifle light held up very well during our torture testing.
It’s great to see yet more options in this competitive market. What do you think? Do you have the HRT rifle light? Are you in the market for a tactical handheld? What other options have you considered? Let me know in the comments below.
SFT40 will not have a green tint, SST40 will.
You guys really do need to do more testing on what the PRACTICAL OUTPUT CURVE of the light will actually be in normal usage. Tactical flashlights like these aren’t meant to be run constantly, just like weapon lights. This testing that I’m talking about is more specific to ‘offensive’ weapon lights, like the high candela lights on weapons, but it applies to these sorts of lights too. We don’t just want the raw runtime curve of constant on, that’s worthless to us apart from the fact that it tells us a lil bit about what type of driver and regulation (or lack thereof) that an individual light has controlling the power draw and output.
So, for example, the SureFire Turbo may run for “2 hours and 45 minutes”, but for half of that total time, the light is putting out between 400 lumens + 50,000 candela, and then slowly and linearly drops down until death. But when you only run it in constant on and only measure that output, it doesn’t tell us what practical runtime the light is able to achieve at its NOMINAL OUTPUT VALUE. All it tell us is when the light throttles because of temperature or because of some battery saving feature, because now what you’ve done is “cover up” half of the output data for the Surefire with the ‘throttled output data.’
Since once that Surefire drops to like 430lumens or whatever output it steadies out at, and then it stays like that for 87 minutes, all we see on the graph is just a flatline. So then how are we as consumers supposed to answer questions like, “How much TOTAL runtime at NOMINAL OR NEAR MAX OUTPUT do we get if we are turning the light off frequently, which gives the light time to cool off and potentially alter/reset whatever output driver regulations were currently in effect. Does the Surefire get 90 minutes of near-peak or at least nominal output runtime before it starts dropping into a low power mode that trickles the light until it dies? Or does its max output decline in tandem with the voltage of the battery in a linear fashion, i.e. “no intelligent regulation of the out via the driver”?
While the Surefire is throttled down to 430lm, or whatever its steady state is, that whole section of the graph is now hidden from view — we don’t know what the MAX OUTPUT AT A GIVEN BATTERY VOLTAGE WILL BE. That’s what we really wanna know. We wanna know what the actual, PRACTICAL OUTPUT CURVE OF THE LIGHT WILL BE, i.e. if the voltage is x, you will get performance y. This is the information that actually matters to us. I wanna know if the Surefire has somewhat intelligent regulation, or if it really does just lose output linearly as the battery drains. Because if so, that fucking sucks big time and is a huge problem for me.
A good flashlight is one that MOVES THE OUTPUT CURVE AS FAR TO THE LEFT AS POSSIBLE. I want the light to maintain as much output as possible until the battery dies. It should run at approximately the same level until it dies, even if that means dying faster. Because if I bought a light with 100,000 candela because I NEED a light with 100,000 candela, then when I activate that light, I want to see around ~100,000 candela.
I don’t want a light that can’t live up to its output claims after the first 10-15 minutes of usage. I need it to be as close to that as possible and then die when it can’t run that high output anymore, so then I know that it’s time to swap the battery and know that I actually got the full performance from the light, and fully drained the battery of any current utility.
Whereas with a light that doesn’t have a good driver and good regulation, and it just slowly lowers output until it dies, then, once the light stops outputting near the level of light that I wanted it and needed it to do, then I still have potentially a lot of energy left in that battery that is now only useful to me if I ‘happen to not need a light with the original, nominal output, and it’s not a big deal if my light is only putting out 75%-50% nominal output after 15-30 minutes… like wtf man, that’s not a good light haha.
I don’t want to have to alter my behavior or light-use doctrine based on exactly what level of charge I have. I just want to use the light in a consistent manner and only have to worry about changing the battery when the light dies instead of figuring out how much performance I’ve lost due to voltage loss and then somehow track and accommodate that without necessarily being able to TURN ON MY LIGHT AND CHECK TO SEE HOW MUCH OUTPUT I’M ACTUALLY GETTING WHEN IT MIGHT NOT BE A GOOD TIME TO TURN MY LIGHT ON. I don’t want my light to determine which circumstances I can tackle or not based on its percentage of charge.
So yeh, if you really wanna provide us the most useful information about the practical utility of these lights apart from the stuff that we can already see for ourselves, like, ‘how bright do they LOOK compared to other lights, what are their measured lumen/candela outputs before they throttle, or what their color temperature/CRI is, or how the light feels and mounts and what the switches are like etc. And things besides “what’s the output curve like? When does it throttle? How much does it throttle? What’s the max, constant-on run time?”
What we really wanna know is: WHAT IS THE MAX OUTPUT OF THE LIGHT AT EACH VOLTAGE LEVEL OF THE BATTERY BELOW THROTTLING TEMPERATURES? You could break it up into like every .05 or .10 volts.
Not tryna be rude here, but I think it’s reallllllly strange that you guys haven’t been doing something like this considering that you try to be the go-to, most trustworthy, most-accurate, most light-competent holster makers or whatever. We need to know what the driver is doing just as much as we need to know what the emitter is outputting and what the battery is capable of and what the reflect is like, etc. The driver is arguably the most important part. Since an amazing emitter can be completely ruined by a shitty driver setup
Good feedback,thank you!