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I came across the HausBell Cree 7W 300 Lumen Mini LED Flashlight recently on Amazon. For $7, you can get it shipped on Amazon Prime. So curious, I bought one to give it a try.
The flashlight comes in a neat little package. It's a white package that is only a little bigger than the flashlight itself (see photo below).
The flashlight is wrapped in bubble wrap inside the package, but there is nothing else.
The flashlight is small, not much bigger than my finger. Playing around with it, I realized the front lens can zoom in and out as shown in the photos below.
The flashlight says "HausBell" on one side, while saying "CREE" on the other side. You can see the "CREE" label in the photo below.
The flashlight had a curved front lens element (see photo below). I didn't know why the lens was curved at first. I thought maybe it has to do with the zooming function. But I found out later, during the lighting test, that it is for light uniformity.
Much like many other tactical flashlights on the market, the HausBell Cree mini LED flashlight has a orange power button on the back (see photo below). You use it to toggle it on and off.
The HausBell Cree mini LED flashlight comes with a clip for you to clip the flashlight to your pocket, belt, or other things. You can remove the clip using star-shaped mini precision screwdriver.
The front end and the rear end of the flashlight can be unscrewed (see photo below). It allows you to use an AA alkaline battery or a 14500 rechargeable lithium ion battery.
Based on our "Does Battery Types Effect LED Flashlight Brightness?" article, the 3.6v or 3.7v 14500 battery will produce much higher light intensity than the 1.5v AA alkaline battery.
I didn't have any 14500 lithium ion battery on hand, so I only tested this flash light with AA alkaline battery. The following two photographs shows the light intensity of the following four flashlights from left to right. Reviews for each of these flashlight is elsewhere on this web site. The first photo shows the HausBell Cree mini LED flashlight zoomed out. The second photo shows it zoomed in.
As you can see from the first photo the HausBell Cree 7 W 300 Lumen Mini LED Flashlight is arguably brighter than the Centerpoint (80 - 90 lumen) and the Enercell (84 lumen) flashlight. It is not as bright as the Ozark Trail 200 Lumens Aluminum Flashlight.
Cross-Reference
Does Battery Types Effect LED Flashlight Brightness?
We can safely assume that the HausBell Cree mini LED flashlight produces 100 Lumens with a 1.5v AA alkaline battery. A 3.7v 14500 lithium ion battery is 2.47x more powerful than a 1.5v AA alkaline battery. Assuming lumen is linearly proportional to battery voltage, our guess is that this flashlight will produce 246.7 lumen with the 3.7v 14500 lithium ion battery. So it's specification may not be too far fetched, considering that we may be conservative on its 100 lumen output.
In the photo above, we see that the ambient light intensity is significantly less when the light source is focused in a small area. The photo below shows the flashlight zoomed into a small area. You can see the shape of the LED chip.
The photo below shows the flashlight when it's zoomed out to cover a wider area. Notice how the light coverage is uniform from center to edge. You don't see that in many other flashlights. The other three flashlights I mentioned do not have the curved front lens. Therefore, they are brighter in the center and dimmer on the edge.
The HausBell CREE mini LED flashlight only has two modes: on and off.
One of the reason I'm looking at the HausBell Cree 7 W 300 Lumen Mini LED Flashlight is because I'm always looking for tactical flashlights for our airsoft battles. And the cost difference of the HausBell Cree mini LED flashlight compared to flashlights marketed for tactical situation is huge.
Originally, I had envisioned removing the clip and using an 1" ring mount around the smaller part of the flashlight. But it turns out that the larger parts of the flashlight is actually 1" in diameter. Therefore, the only location that is really mountable into a ring mount is between the front zooming mechanism and the rear clip. Luckily, the NcStar 1" weaver scope rings is a perfect fit (see photo below).
The photo below shows the HausBell Cree 7 W 300 Lumen Mini LED Flashlight mounted to the side of a MP5 airsoft gun.
Cross-Reference
Wondering how to get these rails onto your MP5? Checkout our "Adding Rails to MP5 Handguard" article.
After receiving the HausBell Cree mini LED flashlight, I decided to order a few more. Except the original vendor on Amazon had sold out. So I ordered from another vendor on Amazon. The flashlight I got looks the same as the first one I got, but there were some distinct differences.
The second batch of these flashlights did not have "HausBell" nor "CREE" labels. Instead, it says "Made in China". They also has four modes of operation rather than just two: 1) Bright; 2) Dim; 3) Strobe; and 4) Off. There are also a few other minor physical differences. It didn't come with the nice white box that the first one came with.
I got a third one, which has its own distinctive differences. The third one is back to on/off modes. The clip is fastened with Phillips screws, rather than star-shaped screws. And it has no labels on it whatsoever. It also does not come with the nice white box.
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