SP33S Brutus II

R2,690.00

Sofirn SP33S Brutus compact rechargeable flashlight. 5,000 lumens, 281 ANSI metres. The legend gets better! Customer Reviews

This is the closest you'll get to carrying the sun in your pocket! 

The Brutus is truly a masterclass in minimalist torch design, fitting the best LED and the biggest lithium-ion battery into a tube the size of a spice bottle and delivering more light than a car's halogen headlights. On high-beam.

Over the years I've commissioned Brutuses from different manufacturers, each better than the last. The most recent was the 3,500 lumen SP33 V3.0 from Sofirn, which really was very good indeed, but the engineers at Sofirn are young and restless so they've replaced it with the SP33S which is just... off the charts!

The latest Brutus is equipped with Cree's top-of-the-range XHP70.2 LED delivering up to 5,000 lumens of neutral white sunshine; an industry-standard 26650 Li-Ion holding up to 5,500mAh of high-drain energy; a simple-but-clever control switch; and a two-way USB-C port. 

All this brilliance is enveloped in a 126x36mm water-tight cylinder of aerospace aluminium, stainless steel and hardened glass, weighing just 235g complete with that big battery. Also inside are some very sophisticated electronics to deliver the most light for the longest time possible while protecting the torch from overheating and the battery from running down too far.

It really is a brilliant achievement.

The previous Brutus astonished Pieter du Toit of Paarl, when the headlights on his Land Rover failed while he was driving through the Karoo in the dead of night. Fortunately he remembered he had the little Brutus in his bag. "I did not at first believe my eyes – it worked almost better than the actual headlights – so I drove the next 75km to Calvinia with the window open, holding the torch between the mirror and door," he wrote.

Well, the new Brutus is 40% brighter than that! Sofirn have used the extra light to broaden and smooth out the beam profile, so the hot-spot merges evenly into the spill-beam, a lot like the headlights on a car...

It's the kind of torch you'll want to have next to your bed to investigate bumps-in-the-night; in your lounge during load-shedding; in your car when you're patrolling with the NHW; in your hand when you're confronted by an aggressive person or dog; and in your pocket at all other times.

Apart from the big Cree chip, what really makes the difference is the upgraded "boost driver" – the electronics that feed power to the LED. Thanks to this piece of electronic wizardry, the Brutus can now maintain a rock-steady 2,000 lumen "high" beam for over an hour and a half – almost as bright as the old version on "turbo"!

And that gobsmacking 5,000-lumen "turbo" is just a double-click away, whether the torch is on or off, increasing the beam distance from nearly 200 ANSI metres to 264 ANSI metres – in real-world terms this is roughly the difference between the width and length of a rugby field.

Like all high-end torches today, "turbo" is intended for short bursts because it generates more heat than a torch can absorb. However the Brutus is equipped with an advanced temperature control system that steps down the output when the internal temperature reaches 55C... and then steps up again when it's cooled down a bit. The differences in brightness are more subtle than you may imagine (see my article on beam profiles) so many people won't even see this happening. 

At the 600-lumen "medium" setting this torch will light up a room for over five hours (what load-shedding?), the 100-lumen "low" will run continuously for more than 40 hours, and the 10-lumen "eco" for up to 200 hours. Want a night light so you don't fall over the cat? Check!

More good news is that it's safe to use "unprotected" rechargeable Li-Ions in the Brutus. These batteries cost less and support higher currents than their "protected" equivalents, but they will be trashed if you run them down too far... which won't happen in the Brutus because its low-voltage protection feature turns the torch off before the battery reaches the danger zone.

The new SP33S has a two-way USB-C port, not only to charge the Li-Ion inside the torch (e.g. in a car or with a cellphone charger or a multi-connector) but also to draw power OFF the battery to charge your phone when Eishkom plunge us into darkness. Again. A USB-C to USB-A charging cable is supplied with the torch but, to use the power-bank feature, you'll need a USB-C to USB-C cable, available from any gadget store (if you don't have one already).

The single-button user interface is simple and intuitive, offering a choice of stepped or ramping modes to adjust the brightness from the 10 lumen "eco" up to the astonishing 5,000 lumen "turbo". There's also a "mode memory" so the torch returns to whatever brightness you were using when you last turned it off. A double-click from any mode delivers "turbo", and a triple click unleashes a devastating defensive strobe (don't be tempted to try this on a friend).

The colour of the backlight in the control button tells you the state of the battery and, if you wish, can be set to stay on all the time so you can find the torch (and put your thumb on the button) in the dark. BTW, I supply my famous Operating Guidelines to walk you through these different features – it really isn't complicated.

A stainless steel bezel protects the hardened and coated lens if the torch should fall, and the bezel is crenelated so if you stand the torch on its nose you can tell whether it's on or off. If you're trapped in a car (God forbid!) the torch and bezel are probably the right shape, weight and hardness to break a window to get out.

The flat tailcap means you can stand the Brutus solidly on its tail, so you can bounce the beam off a white ceiling – the best way to light up a room during loadshedding. Being able to stand the torch on its nose or tail is a good thing because, on its side, it will roll off a table if you're not careful.

The torch is machined from aerospace-grade aluminium and anodised to military specifications, so it should be able to take hard knocks. It also has seals to keep out water to IPX8 (submersible) standards, although it's worth knowing that waterproofing and impact are not covered by the warranty because the factory can't verify the circumstances.

The Brutus comes with a lanyard and spare o-rings, and I offer a holster (to carry it on your belt or bulletproof vest) and diffuser (transforming it into a surprisingly useful all-weather lantern) as optional extras.

This torch is a perfect example of where Sofirn is positioning itself... at the pinnacle of the flashlight world! It's really hard to find fault in terms of concept, construction, operation or performance. Their products look and feel like the finest Japanese cameras and yet they are brilliant value, easily beating my rand-a-lumen benchmark, even before I give you a 10% discount if you pay by EFT into our account (drop me a line at mark@torchguy.com and I'll tell you how).

If you can have only one (more) torch, or you need a classy gift for someone "who has everything", you honestly can't do better. I feel honoured to offer these beautiful torches to you.