Spotlight Turbo LED Torch/Flashlight Revisited Review

When Spotlight offered to send me a few samples of their flashlights, I was really happy to recieve 3 of their different models.  It wasn’t till I was doing a quick search for information on the Spotlight Turbo that I found that Julie had already done a review of the Turbo in April 2008. It’s nice to see that the company’s still producing the same product after 4 years and since there’s already a review up here, I’m just going to address a few changes and accessories now available for the Turbo.  So read Julie’s review first, not a lot has changed,  then read on……

 Packaging

In Julie’s review, the Turbo came in a blister pack. Now we all now how hard blister packs can be to open, so it was nice that myTurbo came in a plain cardboard box. Much easier to open and much more ecologically sound.  The lens caps came in a small zip seal bag. The sample I got is a nice bright pink, Julie assures me she had nothing to do with the colour choice, but I’m suspecting some skulduggery some where along the line. :p

Lighter Socket too big?

Once of the major complaints I’ve seen in reviews, including Julie’s, is that the Turbo wouldn’t fit in some cigarette lighter sockets because the socket was too big.  Spotlight has remedied this with the 2-step fit clip.  The clip just fits to the base of the Turbo and using this, it should now fit neatly in most cigarette sockets.

Colour caps

The set of coloured lenses can be fitted to the front on the Turbo.  The lenses come in red, yellow, green, blue and diffuser. As such you can turn your torch into say a bicycle rear light, use it to do light paintings and various other functions, including “fun at parties”.  Did anyone out there know that if you ever go to a penguin rookery at night then you should use a red light so you don’t upset the penguins? 🙂

USB Charger

This is something I think is pretty natty, it’s a 12V adapter that plugs into your USB port for charging your Turbo.  So if you don’t want to use it in the car but rather around the house, you can charge via your computer, notebook, or USB AC Adapter.  It’s really pretty neat, and if you do your calculations on a standard 5V 500mA USB port, you’ll realize that it’s running at 12V at a very low amperage, but the Turbo only needs to trickle charge.

Beam shot

From the previous review it looks like the Turbo has been upgraded to 35 lumen from 28 lumen. Here’s a beam shot looking down my 6 meter (18 feet) hallway.  Even though the Turbo is not really made for this sort of distance, more for short distance and closeup work, it still does a pretty good job at a pinch.  One thing is that the light does have a slight blueish tint to it.  Not enough to be a worry but is noticeable especially if I put it up against some of Spotlight’s other lights.

Other Accessories

To make the Turbo more versatile, there’s now a range of mounts and accessories including a head strap, a lanyard and key ring mount, a magnetic flex mount, and various charging options. I wasn’t sent any of these but you can see them on the Spotlight web site.

Conclusion

I do like rechargeable lights, it means you don’t have to keep feeding them batteries.  You can easily leave this in your car cigarette lighter and always have a light available when you need it for searching the glovebox, reading a map, or working on the car if you break down in the dark.

With the added accessories available now, the Turbo can also be used in and around the house or for outdoor activities just as easily.

It’s really nice to see that Spotlight is basically manufacturing the same product after 4 years with only minor changes to it. The current range of accessories available for the Turbo make this a very versatile personal flashlight for all sorts of situations.