This is gonna be long, just a forewarning. I’m a believer that the gun industry has a ton of marketing in play and with that comes price gouging for things based on things that can’t quite be defined, like “battle ready” or “duty grade” or a million other terms meant to tug at your defensive heartstrings and make you feel like the price is justified when in reality…it isn’t. Ever had a thought that it’s stupid to pay $250 for a piece of machined aluminum and some screws to hold an optic in place? Or that most of this stuff is probably coming from the same distributor and just has different brand names stamped on it and prices jacked way up for that brand stamp? Yeah, me too.
Such is what led me to PSA in the first place, because I firmly believe paying $2k+ for a mil-spec AR or $800+ for a polymer-framed pistol is unnecessary. I feel much more strongly about $200-400 for flashlights.
So I decided to try a few of these Amazon specials. I have experience with Surefires, Streamlights, and Olights, which are descending in cost. I don’t have a problem with the performance of any of them, just the price for many (some of the Olights I believe are reasonable to a degree.)
All that out of the way, here we go:
Toughsoul 2400 lumen light and green laser combo
This unit is pretty slick, a design I hadn’t quite seen before and was curious how it would actually look and feel on a weapon. Color me pleasantly surprised. Not only does it feel quite solid and well built in the hand, but the mounting options are very slick and leaves it sitting very low profile with a clean look overall. The buttons have a consistent, tactile feel with an audible click on activation or deactivation. The rear button is for the light, the forward for the laser. A single tap activates, a hold activates for the duration of the hold, and a double tap strobes (yes, the laser strobes, but I’m not sure why you would ever want to do that.) Mounting on a PC Charger, this sits perfectly…I aligned the light to be just short of the muzzle, and with that the thumb of my support hand sits directly across the controls which are only slightly raised over the handguard. I don’t have to adjust my firing grip at all to manipulate it.
The light? BRIGHT. Maybe even a bit too bright, if that’s a thing. Whether it truly is 2400 lumens or not isn’t really my concern, my concern is more if it will light up and room and disorient a target, and it absolutely will. Out back, it lights up huge chunks of the yard at a time to distances that are well beyond any reasonable home defense scenario. The laser is also quite bright and has held zero (which I set to match the dot optic at 15 yards) through multiple range sessions. Do I think it’ll hold an EXACT set point over time, that’s yet to be seen, but do I believe it will hold “minute of bad guy” zero at short distances, yes. And frankly, that’s the only real use case I could ever see myself needing for a laser.
I do like that the laser diode is in an entirely different spot than the light on this unit. A concern with another is the diode being contained within the light housing, which generates quite a bit of heat if left on for time.
Lastly, the mounting is quite slick by design. Capable for both MLOK and picatinny out of the box, the picatinny brackets are removable so they don’t get in the way of MLOK, and they include 3.5mm spacers so you can cleanly mount on Magpul MOE handguards. Extra screws and MLOK nuts are included, nice little touch all around.
Charging is done via proprietary magnetic cord, which is VERY short. Minor complaint, not really a big deal, but still something to note. On a standard height wall outlet, you’ll have to lay the firearm on the ground to recharge. I like the recharge-ability of the unit with the knowledge that those batteries don’t last forever, but with the amount of use these lights will see I don’t see it being an issue for years and it saves hassle in stocking and replacing batteries in multiple units.
Toughsoul 1600 lumen light with blue laser
This one I bought out of pure curiosity wanting to see a blue laser. This review will be MUCH shorter as the unit is extremely similar to the one above with only minor differences.
At the same price as the above unit, this comes with a 1600 lumen light, a blue laser, and a slightly different design with a bit of inward angle to the light vs the mounting point compared to the above where the light is straight above the mount.
The light states it’s 800 lumens less than the above, but it is still more than enough. Looking into it in a mirror disoriented me in less than a second and left halos. I didn’t even attempt to look at the strobe. If there’s a difference in the throw and the range, it isn’t enough to be a concern for me. This one still completely lights up a dark room or hallway.
The biggest difference is in the laser. The blue is noticeably less bright than the green of the unit above. Does it work, though? Yes. It’s more of a dark blue, almost purple in certain lighting conditions, not a bright blue. I wouldn’t try to use it outdoors in sunlight, it’s more than bright enough for daytime indoors, though. It has held up to a couple short sessions of 5.56 recoil.
I have this one mounted on a MOE handguard on an AR, so I used the included spacers. With them, it sits clean and pretty much flush with the handguard, again with the controls right in line with the thumb of my support hand. It is very low profile and a reasonable weight. The magnetic charger is interchangeable with the unit above with, again, the same minor complaint of being a short length.
One thing that I could see people feeling one way or the another about with these two units is the first has a bright battery indicator on the outside of the unit that flashes on upon activation, the second (blue) does not. Is it nice having a general idea where the battery life is? Sure. Do I want something lighting up the outside of the rifle should it ever needed to be used defensively? Meh, not sure if it’s a concern since it wouldn’t happen unless you have already activated the light and/or laser, but I can see some not liking it.
Something to note for both of these units: They will only sit usefully on the left side of a firearm. Trying to put it on the right will flip it upside down and in turn, place the light in the way of the controls. Would only recommend these for applications where they can be placed in the proximity of the support hand for a right-handed shooter.
Darkfang 1450 lumen light/laser
This unit is a bit more flexible in placing than the other two which is why I decided to give it a try. Comes in at about $10 cheaper than the above two units.
Although this has a different brand stamped on it, I firmly believe it comes from the same designer/distributor as the two above given the activation buttons feel and work almost exactly the same as the others and the charging cord is also exactly the same and interchangeable with the Toughsoul units
I actually very much like that the same charging cable works for all four of these units. Means that I only have to keep one handy at a time, and now have three backups. Nice little benefit.
Bought these units for shotguns. Although I very much like the other two in the capacities I have them mounted (right on the support hand of a PCC and AR,) I didn’t feel like their designs were great for shotties. These Darkfangs would work on the PCC and AR, but the activation button would stick out from the handguard than the more flat controls of the Toughsoul units, which could be a bit irritating given it’d likely be right in line with your support thumb.
I don’t have much to say about the light and laser on this unit I haven’t already said on the other two, the biggest difference being the Toughsoul units have separate buttons for light and laser, whereas these have one simple on/off (again, with a tap for on, a hold for duration, and a double tap for strobe) and a switch to swap between light only/laser only/combination of both. It’s a bit more awkward to switch between the light and laser on this unit than the others. The light is slightly less bright than the Toughsoul units, but the laser is slightly more so (green vs green.) Minor differences overall, and doesn’t change the intended use.
Mounting is the same. MLOK or picatinny, spacers included.
These come with a pressure switch which also can utilize both MLOK (by default) or pic (with a slightly bulky cover that snaps over the entire switch.) The pressure switch works flawlessly and feels the same as the activation switch on the unit itself. The cord is short, maybe 4-5 inches in total.
These units feel surprisingly light but still feel solid and well-built. Like the other two, there’s no rattles or any place that feels like a potentially weak spot. They’ve held up to the recoil of about 20 rounds of 12ga slugs a piece so far. I decided to mount these on the right side of the shotguns on a picatinny barrel clamp with the pressure switch at the same point on the opposite side. It’s unnecessary, but I kind of like having the ability to activate the unit with either hand should I feel the need to, and yes, the activation switch on the unit still works with the pressure switch enabled.
I didn’t abuse all of these units to any crazy degree (seeing as I’m not crawling through the dirt and rocks in Ukraine,) but I did put the firearms they sit on vertically on their stocks and let them fall over onto the floor a few times. None suffered any damage or loss of functionality between that or initial range testing. I personally won’t put them through any more abuse than that, so their durability seems to be enough for me (and nearly all other average gun owners, for that matter.) Are they “battle tested” or “duty ready”, I don’t know nor do I care to know.
All I know is I’m readily confident that if I happen to need to light up a room in the middle of a night and blind a target, these will do the trick, and for me, they’re great values for the cost. I would have to break 3-4 of these to equal the cost of one entry-level Streamlight and probably 6-10 of them for a Surefire, and these lights are brighter than the ones on entry-level Streamlights, Olights, and the like.
Worth it to you? Think it’s worth the risk? Your call. Like I said at the beginning, I don’t like the idea of spending $150+ for lights, I just don’t think it’s justified under any circumstance for my use cases.
Just wanted to share my own thoughts and experience.
