Disclaimer: I bought the Wurkkos WK15 with my own money. I don’t receive anything from writing this review.
Table of contents:
Price and versions
When buying the WK15, you can choose between two light tints (5000K and 6500K) and whether the flashlight comes with or without a cell.
The cell itself doesn’t cost much (5$) and it’s totally adequate for this flashlight, so I’d recommend getting it.
For the review, I got the 5000K version without a cell.
Link to the store page: Wurkkos WK15 3000lm XHP50.2
Packaging and contents
The package contains:
- Wurkkos WK15
- Manual
- Charging USB-C Cable
- Lanyard
- Two spare o-rings
Build
The WK15 is a pretty standard flashlight. It has a side switch, a clip and some knurling on the tube. The light itself uses a 21700 battery.
The build quality is quite alright. In this price range I’m totally satisfied. It’s comfortable in the hand, the knurling makes the surface non-slippery.
Sadly, it doesn’t have a magnet from the factory, but Wurkkos sells a tailcap with a magnet separetly, one that can just replace the original tailcap.
Clip
The WK15 has a pretty standard two-way clip. It can be carried in a pocket (with the head up or down) and also attached to a cap.
It sits pretty deep in a pocket.
The clip is okay. I personally rarely use the top part of the clip, but I know people that do. The two-way clip is probably a bit more universal than a standard deep carry one-way clip, but I’d also like to see an option for a more standard clip.
The lanyard isn’t anything special. It’s the one that many other lights use (like Convoy or Sofirn). Not amazing quality, but will get the job done no problem.
Sadly I didn’t get a picture of it, so here’s an image from the website.
Size
| Length | 113.5 mm |
| Head diameter | 28 mm |
| Diameter of the battery tube | 25 mm |
| Weight w/o cell | 71g |
| Weight w/ cell | 140g |
Compared to other lights:
Convoy T3 | Sofirn SC18 | Emisar D4K | Wurkkos WK15 | Sofirn SC31 Pro | Wurkkos TS22 | Sofirn SP35 | Convoy M21E
Switch and UI
The WK15 is controlled with an e-switch on the side of the flashlight. It has a short, audiable click.
The switch itself has a charge indicator in the center that can shine either green or red.
Interfejs latarki:
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| OFF | 1C | ON (mode memory) |
| ON | 1H | Changing between 4 modes |
| OFF lub ON | 2C | Turbo |
| OFF lub ON | 3C | Strobe |
| OFF | 1H | Moonlight |
| Turbo | 1C | Last used mode |
| Off | 4C | Lockout |
| Lockout | 4C | Unlock |
| Lockout | 1C | The light flashes twice to indicate lockout |
| Lockout | 1H | Moonlight for as long as you hold the button |
Legend
OFF – flashlight turned off
ON – flashlight turned on
1C – Click
2C – Double click (Click, click)
3C – Triple click (Click, click, click) etc.
1H – Hold down the button
What I like about the UI:
- Simple and intuitive UI
- Shortcut to Turbo and Moonlight from OFF
- Switch lockout mode
- Mode memory
- 4 modes (+ moonlight and Turbo) is quite a wide range of brightness we can choose
- Moonlight is actually quite dim, I’m guessing <1lm
- No auto-lockout 🙂
What I don’t like:
- I’d only suggest one thing. From Turbo, I’d like a click to turn the flashlight off, not go to the last used mode. When I do a click while the light is on, I want it off.
But you can get used to how it currently is.
Emitter and beam
WK15 uses a CREE XHP50.2 LED.
Here’s the beam on a white wall:
There’s quite a bit of tint-shift between the hotspot and spill (light changes from green to pink. The XHP50.2 is known for having this “rainbow” behaviour.
It’s not really a problem when using the flashlight, but for some people this could be a deal breaker.
The beam shape overall I’d call wide/universal.
Measurments with the Opple Light Master:
| Mode -> High | CCT | Duv | CRI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotspot | 5076K | 0.0093 | 66.5 |
| Spill | 5588K | 0.0007 | X |
Beamshots
[ interactive slides ]
Compared to the Sofirn SC18:
Compared to other lights:
Runtimes and measurments:
Here is the WK15’s specification given by the manufacturer:
Standard ANSI FL1
Standard ANSI FL1 describes how companies should measure flashlight specs. For lumen brightness, the measurment is supposed to be taken 30 seconds after turning the flashlight on. Runtime is measured by the time it takes the flashlight to reach 10% of the original output.
Learn more about the ANSI FL1 standard in this article.
| Mode | Candela | Throw | Estimated throw* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turbo @ 0s | 13924cd | 236m | 80m-120m |
| Turbo @ 30s (ANSI) | 7557cd | 230m | 80m-120m |
* – Explanation
The throw/range of a flashlight is defined by the ANSI FL1 standard. It says that a flashlight’s range is how far it will light up a surface to 0.25lux, which is about as bright as full moon.
This most of the time isn’t bright enough to actually see what you’re shining on, so I added in an estimate to what you can expect the maximum range of the flashlight to be.
| Mode | Brightness (0s) | 30s |
|---|---|---|
| Turbo | 2600lm | 2470lm |
| 4 | 1209lm | 1176lm |
| 3 | 509lm | 509lm |
| 2 | 102lm | 102lm |
| 1 | 3lm | 3lm |
| Moonlight | <1lm | <1lm |
The WK15 reaches the specified throw. As much as brightness goes, it’s about 400lm short, but that kind of brightness difference isn’t very noticeable to the human eye.
| Model | cd/lm |
|---|---|
| Wurkkos WK15 | 5 |
Candela/lumen ratio explanation
A good way to determine the beam profile of a flashlight is to divide its candela (cd) by the lumens (lm) it produces. In return, we will get the cd/lm ratio. Here’s an approximate scale of what those values mean:
- 0.1 cd/lm: light bulb
- 1-3: flooder
- 5-15: balanced EDC-style beam
- 30: compact thrower
- 100: dedicated thrower
- 500+: extreme thrower
- 10000: laser
Runtime graph:
Turbo lasts about 45 seconds. Sadly the driver doesn’t have very good regulation and the brightness decreases with the cell’s voltage.
Compared to some other lights:
Battery and charging
I purchased my WK15 without a cell, but in the measurments I used a SOfirn 21700 5000mAh cell, which should be very close to what Wurkkos uses in their 21700 lights.
The flashlight work with standard 21700 cells. There’s a spring on the tailcap, so it should be able to work with a bit longer cells, but I can’t say for certain (I don’t own any protected cells).
The WK15 is designed to be charged by the USB-C port that is behind the rubber flap,
The port is a bit misaligned, but the cable still fits and the light charges.
I didn’t test this feature, but the manual implies that the WK15 can also be used as a powerbank when a USB C to C cable is used.
Manual and warranty
Competition
- Sofirn SC33 – Similar price. Tail switch. Sustains a higher, stable brightness, better driver. 20mm longer and 4mm wider. Screwed in clip. Higher max brightness and slightly more throw.
- Sofirn SC31 Pro – Slightly cheaper. Smaller battery. More advanced Anduril 2 UI. Lower max brightness. similar throw.
- Wurkkos FC13 XHP50.2 – Similar price. Smaller battery. Very similar size. More advanced Anduril 2 UI. Slightly higher max brightness, similar throw. Shorter runtime and sustains a slightly lower brightness, equally bad driver.
Pros & cons
+ Good build quality
+ Simple and intuitive UI, I like the amount of modes
+ Pretty bright
+ Build-in USB-C charging (with a powerbank feature)
+ Good value-to-money ratio
+ Has a good moonlight mode
+/- two-way clip
+/- no magnet by default, but available separately
+/- Uniwersal, slightly wide beam shape
– The driver has a pretty bad regulation, the max brightness decreases as the battery discharges
– The XHP50.2 LED used has tint-shift
– Low CRI
– The USB-C port is slightly misaligned, but still works
Conclusion
Wurkkos has been offering great value flashlights for a while.
The WK15 is a fairly standard 21700 flashlight with a sideswitch and build-in charging. It offers us high brightness with good range. The interface is simple. The WK15 is well suited to be used at home, on walks and for other everyday tasks.
The button has a noticable, short click. The interface itself is well thought out. It has 4 main modes and separately available Moon and Turbo modes. This gives us quite a wide choice of brightness. I like the UI.
The size fits well in the pocket. I’m only slightly disappointed that they didn’t use a better driver here, as the current one doesn’t maintain constant brightness well, the maximum brightness will decrease as the battery discharges.