LED Flashlights Fact Sheet
What is CREE® Brand LED Lighting?
CREE® Brand LED lighting is highly energy-efficient ultra bright light source. CREE® leads the LED lighting revolution and is
making energy-wasting traditional lighting technologies obsolete through environmentally friendly LED lighting. The CREE® LED
provides over 50% more lumens of brightness when compared to the standard LED. Please reference the CREE® Fact Sheet for
more information on the CREE® LED lighting in Starline’s flashlights.
What Is SMD LED?
SMDs (Surface Mounted Device) are the new generation of LED lighting, the majority of our bulbs contain SMD chips allowing our
bulbs to be much brighter than older generations of LED. The LED is soldered directly onto the PCB therefore requiring less space
and improves the thermal connection.
What Is SMD COB?
Chip on Board (COB) is the most recent development in LED technology using chips with multiple diodes (typically 9, or more).
There is no casing with COB technology which enables a much denser LED array of light compared to SMD. A consistent and
controlled light beam is given off, without any visible individual light points, thus offering great optics. COB offers a greatly
improved lumen per watt ratio compared with other LED technologies such as DIP and SMD. COB technology gives the best
conditions for optimal cooling, which in turn will increase efficiency and lengthen the overall life of the lamp.
What is a Lumen?
A Lumen is a unit of standard measurement used to describe how much light is contained in a certain area. One lumen is equal to
the amount of light a candle lets fall on 1 square foot of area, 1 foot away. Starline presents the Lumen rating to help you quantify
the relative brightness of each flashlight in our line. Starline has field tested our flashlight selection to determine the Lumens and
Beam Spread. We have presented those results to express the brightness (Lumens) that is emitted from the flashlight.
Lumens vs. Watts for LED Flashlights
The number of watts represents the power consumed by a bulb. Lumen measures the brightness of a bulb. There is no relation
between watts and lumens and it is best not to use watts when comparing the brightness of LED flashlights.
LED Brightness and Beam Angle
The total brightness of a LED bulb or flashlight is best to be measured in lumens. The common range is 10 to 1200 lumens.
Minimal practical brightness is 10 lumens. 30 lumens are bright enough for most common uses of a flashlight. The super bright
“tactical” flashlights start at 90 lumens. These are good for lighting up objects at a great distance and are often used by police
or the military.
It is important to understand the negative correlation relationship between the beam angle and luminous intensity (lumens). As the
beam angle increases, the lumens can decrease and vice versa. What this means is that the light from a flashlight with a narrow
beam angel will appear more intense as the light is concentrated over a smaller area. Light from a flashlight with a wider beam
angle will appear less intense as the light is being dispersed over a broader area.
40° MULTI BULB LED
Beam Spread
40°
light source
dled
beam angle
25° 1 WATT LED
25°
0.5 * Imax
Imax
0.5 * Imax
dwatt