RovyVon Aurora A5 Review

By Logan

PUBLISHED Aug 27, 2024

9

Conversation

Add to Bookmarks

Sometimes, headlamps are overkill for just hanging around camp. And if you like to wear a hat once you’re off the bike, as I do, they can be even more annoying. It’s hard to put on a headlamp under the cap brim, and it’s useless over it. I often end up wearing it around my neck or just holding it. For that reason alone, I was pretty excited about the Rovyvon Aurora A5 when I heard about it. Sure, there are plenty of penlights around, but the A5 has some nifty features, so I decided to bring back the old-school hat clip penlight for use around camp. On one hand, it’s just a tiny ultra-minimal flashlight that’s not much bigger than a Mini-Bic lighter. But it’s also a multi-function light with a few neat features perfect for campsite activities like eating, organizing stuff in the tent, and reading. Read on for my review.

The fourth generation Aurora A5 has a lot of functionality packed into it, especially once you consider that it only has a single button. That fact also makes it easy to operate. You simply rapid double-press it to turn on the main flashlight mode, then toggle through four brightness levels with single clicks. To turn it off, you just hold the button down. Triple-pressing turns on the side light, and single clicks after that toggle between two white brightnesses, a red light, or blinking red. And you can rapidly press the button five times to activate/deactivate lockout mode. That’s just about all there is to it.

The main flashlight beam has four brightness settings, including the 0.5-lumen Moonlight setting that RovyVon claims lasts 75 hours on the rechargeable battery, a 25-lumen low setting that has a claimed eight-hour runtime, a 200-lumen medium mode that purportedly lasts about two hours, and the 650-lumen High setting that sucks down the battery in about an hour and a half. It’s actually quite bright in the medium and high modes. The three photos below show low, medium, and high, just to illustrate the difference between them. The Moonlight setting is very low and indistinguishable in photos, but I found that it’s useful if you’re simply looking for something in the pitch black. Note that it doesn’t “remember” which setting you’re on when it’s turned off, and it always begins in low.

One thing I really like about the latest A5 is that it has a USB-C charging port, which is great when trying to consolidate charging cable types. Everything should be USB-C at this point. The Aurora A5 has a built-in 330mAh LiPo (lithium polymer) rechargeable battery, which takes about an hour for a full recharge. One downside to it is that the battery can’t be replaced. As with most batteries, lithium polymer cells have a limited lifespan before their capacity significantly degrades—that’s around 300 charge cycles according to most internet sources, and once it ultimately dies, the A5 will pretty much be rendered useless. That won’t be for a long while, but it’s worth considering. I prefer headlamps and lights that use a removable, replaceable, and rechargeable battery pack for that reason. The LED emitters and circuitry should last longer than the battery, in most cases.

The A5’s most obvious and interesting feature is that it comes with a clip so it can attach to straps, pockets, or better yet, a hat brim. In that position, you can also orient the side light (Lantern Mode) to point down when the light’s clipped to the underside of your brim. That means no more blinding your buddies while eating or cooking! The side light features two white intensity settings, a constant red light, and a blinking red beacon. The only downside with that is you have to kind of tip your hat up in order to not blind yourself when not looking directly downward. It would be nice to see the sidelight angled slightly forward for this reason.

The fourth-generation Aurora A5 has a few other interesting features. One is that it glows in the dark for a little while after exposed to light or used, making it easy to find if you drop it or set it down. The clip has an integrated magnet, so you can stick it to your steel bike frame as a hands-free work light, and it was redesigned with a detachable magnetic base for another work-light orientation.

Note that there are many different versions of this light, such as the availability of different emitters, including a choice of a red/white or white/UV sidelight. The red option is the obvious pick for camping to keep bugs away. Then there’s a choice of front emitter light. I have the Nichia, which produces a warmer and more natural light. Everything I read says it doesn’t matter too much unless you’re a power user, in which case the warm/natural tone of the Nichia is probably better for reading. Then there are all the various Aurora versions (like the A1, A2, A7, and A8). The only other one I think is really worth comparing is the A8, which has similar features but is brighter. I think the A5 is perfect for anything I would use this light for, however.

• Model/Size Tested: RovyVon Aurora A5, White/Red, Nichia 219C 90+ CRI
• Actual Weight: 22 grams
• Place of Manufacture: China
• Price: $38 at AMZN
• Manufacturer’s Details: Rovyvon