I want to put these three together because I wanted to check in on the gizmo light market. These three lights are about as gizmo as it gets. One has a secondary set of LEDs, the other has, um, all the gizmos, and the third has three different kinds of emitters. And these three lights are the Tale of Two Gadgets—it was the best of times and the worst of times. Let’s find out why in three mid length reviews.

Loop SK-03

Looking like a greeble from a mid-80s sci-fi movie model, the SK-03 is a busy design. The key feature is the two different sets of emitters, one in the normal place, and the others in an array of six emitters around the waist of the body tube. This second set of LEDs allows the light to be used as a lantern. This complexity is all housed in an exceptionally small body tube thanks to an e-switch. Along with the Wurrkos TS-10 and the 1xAA FW series lights from Lumintop, the SK-03 is about as small as you can get in the 1xAA form factor. But the small shape belays a larger problem—all of these e-switch lights hot pocket like CRAZY. The FWAA was the worst light I have ever seen in terms of inadvertent activation in the pocket. It was atrocious. The SK-03 isn’t that bad, but it is still among the worst. These unprotected or unshrouded e-switches are just too sensitive for EDC. While the Wurrkos and Lumintop lights have flat or slightly recessed switches, the SK-03 has a PROUD switch, which makes tailstanding difficult. It’s hard to fathom a more obvious or easily solved design problem than the e-switch—give the switch some protection and use that protection to allow the light to tail stand. Alas, apparently, no one has thought of this.

Setting aside that obvious flaw, the rest of the very gadgety SK-03 comes out looking very good. The tint, which is always hit or miss with gizmo lights, isn’t bad. The UI, while being more complicated than needed, isn’t a Rubik’s Cube. And the main gadgety feature—the lantern LEDs—actually works quite well (obviating the strict NEED for tailstanding…the button shroud is still quite necessary). As a light for camping, the SK-03 is really, really useful. I have taken it with me for all of camping season thus far, and it has been great. I would avoid the “upgrade” with its weird, bulky, and completely unnecessary clip. If you spring for Ti you're wasting money. The base model with just the light and an aluminum body tube isn’t bad at all. This is a gizmo light where the gizmo actually works.

One other slight bit of criticism—the light comes with four “lens” for the lantern, plastic translucent clips that snap on the body tube. They change the LED’s color, but they are fiddly and easy to lose. I’d much prefer the lantern LEDs be RGB so they can switch colors on their own. How you’d implement that with a single button is a puzzle I don’t care to solve, but it seems like a much cleaner solution than these tiny plastic bits that can break and get lost.

Score: 17 out of 20 (1 off for Design for the colored sleeves, 1 off for Carry for the hot pocketing, and 1 off Hands Free for inability to tail stand well).

Wuben G5

Oh, get ready.

This thing is awful. It is undeniably atrocious trash. The clip is an abomination. The beam is horrendous. The tint is comically bad. The UI is fine, but surprisingly, the switch is bad. How do you screw up a switch? It’s a button. The entire instructions should be: push for on. But no. Wuben decided that you need to pat your head and rub your tummy by making the switch tied to the position of the…charging port cover. Seriously? Why do that? Why tether it to anything all, and if you are going to tether it to something, why the charging port cover? In the Design of Everyday Things, the author explored how complex and poorly designed one particular Nissan van was, in that the sliding door covered the gas tank hatch. So Nissan had to engineer all these things to prevent the door from opening while the vehicle was being refueled. They could have moved the tank hatch IN FRONT of the door OR put it on the other side of van.

This entire light is like that. The head swivels. Why? Dunno.

The clip swings out of the way and hides in the side of the light. Why? Why NOT. The light has an RGB emitter and you can rotate through different colors. Why? Fuck you is why. I am literally confused by virtually every design choice made in the construction of this light. None of them make sense. The light’s form factor and button placement seem to be for creatures with different appendages than those found on humans. It’s awful in hand. Sure, the light is unique. But unique can be both good OR bad, and here it’s pretty clear this bad. REALLY bad. The light also has a self-discharge rate equal to the output of our sun. It is virtually never charged. And the anodizing, I think it is made of egg shells. It seems to flake off for no reason. The fit and finish isn’t great either. The switch seems to stick and the selector dial makes an audible grinding noise when I use it. The clip is difficult to fish out of its little slot and flops around like a seal being electrocuted. We finally have another 0 in the review archive. The only other complete swing and miss was the Ozark Trail Flipper. This is worse than that. The Wuben G5 is a design abortion of staggering dimension. Design students will study this as an example of how not to make products for humans. If the battery wouldn’t explode, I would have lit this thing on fire.

Score: Are you serious? (20 off for producing garbage that, for some reason, I paid money for).

Acebeam K1

Who are these lights for? Who needs a flashlight (lots of people), a laser pointer (many fewer people), and a UV light (about ten folks)? Is there a huge market for bank tellers that do presentations but park in dark parking garages? I guess those folks need something that can light their way, test for fake money, and do presentations. Or perhaps they are for CSI-type folks. I don’t know how the market needs two of these lights, but the K1 is essentially a 14500 version of the atrocious oLight Arkfeld.

But that begs another question—do you really need a light other than the oLight Arkfeld. If you have even a passing yes to any of these questions, then the K1 merits consideration. Did you like the oLight Arkfeld, but hated the forced participation in the oLight “ecosystem”? Do you want your lights to accept new batteries? Do you hate oLight’s squashy optics?

Without referencing the Arkfeld, the K1 has a lot of nice features. It is a Pokelit with a bigger head (because it has to accommodate three emitters, not because it has any sort of real throw). It has a screw-on clip with a body tube that doesn’t roll. The selector ring to change output types is intuitive and well made. The flashlight portion has good spacing between modes, though the low is a bit bright. Changing output levels on the light is easy and consistent to do. The light has light escapes on the bezel to prevent you from accidentally discharging the light. It can’t really tail stand and is a bit big and top-heavy even for the battery format, but it is not gonzo large. It fits in the hand quite well thanks, in small part, to the extra size. Overall, there is a lot to like here. If this was just a flashlight, it would be a pretty good 1x14500 offering. It’s not quite as well thought out as the Lumintop Tool AA v3, but it is just a tier down.

As compared to the Arkfeld, the K1 is a dunk. Compared to the best 1xAA its size and inability to tail stand hold it back a smidge.

Overall Score: 17 out 20 (1 off Design for being quite bit for a 1xAA light, 1 off Output for having a very bright low; 1 off Hands Free for an inability to tail stand)

While these lights have shown that the Gizmo part of the market is doing OK, the G5 left such a bad taste in my mouth that I am really hesitant to even think about wading back into these waters again for a while. With simple, intelligent, and useful lights out there like the Lumintop Tool AA v3, I am not sure why people are tempted by these gadgets. But as long as they keep selling, companies will keep making them. Expect an even worse version of the G5 soon.

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