Thrunite Ti Keychain Flashlight Review

If you were to ask almost any crowd of folks “Hey, what is the best flashlight out there?” someone would chime in “The one you actually have with you when it is dark.” That is the perfect niche for little keychain lights like the Thrunite Ti. They aren’t the brightest or the most full featured lights, but they are the most likely to be in your pocket when you have to walk across a dark parking lot late one night.

The ThruNite Ti is a simple little light. The body is machined from aluminum  and anodized in one of five different colors. The tail of the light has a small lanyard hole for attaching the included mini keychain ring. They head and body both have knurling, so it is easy to get a grip. This comes in handy, since the switch in the light is activated by turning the head. On the dual mode lights, low is the first setting and high is activated by giving the head an extra quarter turn closed.

Measuring flashlight performance recently got much easier with the adaption of the ANSI/NEMA FL-1 standard. Over a dozen flashlight manufacturers got together and agreed to test their lights using the same procedures in their labs for things like output, battery life and beam distance. As long as the companies that make the lights follow the FL-1 standard, the numbers on the package are reasonably comparable between different models and brands. However, since two flashlights with similar numbers can produce quite different real world results, we’ve included some examples to give you a feel for how the ThruNite Ti performs in the real world.

As shown above, the 3 lumen setting is enough light to read a map at night. This is definitely a setting designed for close up work. If you eyes are adjusted to the darkness, it is enough to see what is around your feet as well, but not much beyond that. But, for hunting around in your pack, purse or laptop bag, it is certainly enough light to help you find what you are looking for.

The same map view at the 60 lumens setting gives you a point of comparison. While not a blindingly bright tactical light, 60 lumens is enough light to perform almost any reasonable task you can ask from a flashlight. This is the setting that will give you some reach to look into the distance and figure out what is making that strange sound when you are alone.

There are three versions of the ThruNite Ti light that you are likely to run across. They are all the same size, all waterproof for normal use and all run on one AAA battery. The difference is that the base model ThruNite TiS is a single mode light that only has one brightness setting of 60 lumens when turned on. The other two, the ThruNite Ti and the recently released ThruNite Ti2 are dual mode lights, with both Low and High settings. The Ti runs at both 3 lumens for 25 hours and 60 lumens for one hour. The Ti2 has the same Low setting and an upgraded High setting which outputs 81 lumens for 45 minutes. These dual mode lights are much more interesting than the single mode offering, since there aren’t many multi-output options in the world of key chain sized flashlights.

We’ve been carrying the dual mode Ti model around in our pocket for the last few months and have been happy with it so far.The only minor issue that we’ve found is that the anodizing seems to wear fairly quickly off of the edges and raised portions of the light. This can be seen in the close up picture of the tail end of the Ti. Otherwise, it has performed as expected and we have yet to find where it has accidentally turned itself on when we’ve pulled out our keys. For less that twenty bucks, it is an easy way to always have a light at hand when you leave the house.