Wuben E2#

Specifications#

Brand/model Wuben E2
LED W3535 5000K Main Light, COB Side White, Red and Blue
Maximum lumens 150 lm
Maximum beam intensity 169 cd
Maximum throw 26 m
Battery 120mAh LiPo
Onboard charging Yes (USB-C)
Material PC, Aluminium
Modes 3
Blinkies Heartbeat, Red Beacon, Red Blue Flash
Waterproof IP66
Review date September 2026

Introduction#

The Wuben E2 is a tiny keyring torch with a main white light, a side white light, red and blue lights, and built-in USB-C charging.

What has Wuben come up with now?!

It looks similar to the design of the Wuben X3 with a semi-transparent glow-in-the-dark polycarbonate housing and a black anodised aluminium bezel.

Wuben kindly provided this torch for review. I have not been paid for this review nor have I held back my opinions of this torch.

Packaging#

The Wuben E2 comes in a white and blue Wuben branded box with an image of the torch on the front and specifications on the side.

Wuben E2 packaging-1 Wuben E2 packaging-2

Wuben E2 packaging-3 Wuben E2 packaging-4

The following is included in the box:

  • Wuben E2.
  • USB-A to USB-C charging cable.
  • Wuben P5 quick-release connector with necklace (optional).
  • Keyring.
  • User manual.

Wuben E2 accessories

User manual#

Wuben E2 user-manual-1 Wuben E2 user-manual-2 Wuben E2 user-manual-3 Wuben E2 user-manual-4 Wuben E2 user-manual-5

P5 Guide#

Wuben E2 p5-guide-1 Wuben E2 p5-guide-2

Torch in use#

The Wuben E2 is tiny! It can be attached to a keyring, attached to a backpack, mounted magnetically on a surface or attached to a necklace.

Wuben E2 necklace-1 Wuben E2 necklace-2

Wuben gave the E2 the nickname “Pulse” because of the heartbeat mode where it pulses like a heart.

The N52 magnet in the tail is pretty strong.

Wuben E2 closeup-tail

The lanyard hole it the tail allows a keyring or a lanyard to be attached.

Wuben E2 side-1 Wuben E2 side-2

The included keyring fits nicely in the lanyard hole.

Wuben E2 closeup-keyring

Build quality#

The Wuben E2 has a semi-transparent glow-in-the-dark polycarbonate housing, an aluminium bezel and a steel button.

It is available with a black gradient.

Wuben E2 cover Wuben E2 closeup-rear

Wuben E2 front Wuben E2 left

Wuben E2 back Wuben E2 right

And it is also available with a red gradient.

Wuben E2 cover Wuben E2 closeup-rear

Wuben E2 front Wuben E2 left

Wuben E2 back Wuben E2 right

The USB-C cover is made of some kind of hard plastic. It feels durable. The port is pretty narrow. Small USB-C plugs fit but larger plugs do not.

Wuben E2 closeup-usb-1 Wuben E2 closeup-usb-2

Overall, the build quality is pretty good.

LED, bezel, lens, reflector and beam#

The Main Light has a W3535 5000K cool white LED. It looks similar to an Osram P9 3737 LED.

Wuben E2 closeup-emitter

The Wuben E2 has a multi-step reflector with a matte finish. There is a glass lens held down by an aluminium bezel.

Wuben E2 closeup-reflector

The Side White Light is a custom COB with 90 CRI 5000K. It helps light up the glow-in-the-dark housing.

Wuben E2 side-light Wuben E2 gitd

There are also Red and Blue side lights.

Red Beacon#

Red Blue Flash#

CCT, CRI, and duv#

I have taken Correlated Colour Temperature (CCT) and Colour Rendering Index (CRI, RA of R1-R8) measurements with the torch positioned metres away from an Opple Light Master Pro III (G3). I measured the centre of the beam.

The CCT is around 5762K, the CRI is around 69 and the Delta u, v is positive (slightly green) for the Main Light.

The beam produced by the Main Light has a slightly pillow-shaped hot spot and spill. It is mostly round. The beam has a bit of throw due to the reflector.

The CCT is around 5000K, the CRI is around 96 and the Delta u, v is positive (green) for the Side White Light.

The beam produced by the Side White Light is cute. It looks like a tiny lantern with light being emitted from two sides.

LED Mode CCT (K) CRI (Ra) x y Duv
Main Low 5705 69.2 0.3278 0.3431 0.0031
Main Med 5787 69.5 0.3260 0.3406 0.0027
Main High 5794 68.9 0.3258 0.3425 0.0038
Side Low 5009 97.1 0.3456 0.3605 0.0042
Side High 4973 96.7 0.3469 0.3642 0.0055

Calculate Duv from CIE 1931 xy coordinates

Dimensions and size comparison#

Dimensions#

I took the following measurements using a digital caliper.

Measurement Unit (mm)
Height 41.57
Width 19.08
Depth 15.0

Weight#

I took the following measurements using a digital scale.

Weight Unit (g)
Torch 11.25
P5 keychain 8.06
Torch with P5 keychain 19.31

Size comparison with its competition#

From left to right: Wuben E2 Black, Wuben E2 Red

Wuben E2 Black, Wuben E2 Red Wuben E2 Black, Wuben E2 Red

Wuben E2 Black, Wuben E2 Red Wuben E2 Black, Wuben E2 Red

From left to right: Wuben E2, Olight i1R 2, Nitecore Tini2, Manker LAD III NW

Wuben E2, Olight i1R 2, Nitecore Tini2, Manker LAD III NW Wuben E2, Olight i1R 2, Nitecore Tini2, Manker LAD III NW

User interface#

The Wuben E2 is controlled by a switch.

The Main Light has three modes: Low, Med and High.

The Side White Light has three modes: Low, High, Heartbeat.

The Side Light also has two more blinky modes: Red Beacon, Red Blue Flash.

State Action Result
Off Press and hold Battery status
Off Click On (memory)
On Click Off
On Two clicks Cycle (Main Light, Side White Light, Side Red Blue)
Main Light Press and hold Cycle (Low, Med, High)
Side White Light Press and hold Cycle (Low, High, Heartbeat)
Side Red Blue Press and hold Cycle (Red Beacon, Red Blue Flash)

Mode memory#

There is mode memory. The last used mode is memorised.

Pulse Width Modulation#

There is PWM but I did not notice any visible PWM (flickering).

I measured the PWM of the light with a Zoyi ZT-706S oscilloscope.

Main Light (Low, Med, High)

Wuben E2 PWM Wuben E2 PWM Wuben E2 PWM

Battery status#

Press and hold the switch to display the battery status with the red and blue side lights. The side lights will remain on for five seconds.

Colour Battery level
Blue Capacity ≥ 90%
Blue blinking 40% ≤ Capacity < 90%
Red 15% ≥ Capacity < 40%
Red blinking Capacity < 15%

What I like about the UI#

  • I like that the UI on the final version is going to be different.

What could be improved#

I would prefer a single click for on/off and hold to cycle between low and high.

Batteries and charging#

Battery#

The Wuben E2 has a built-in 120mAh LiPo battery.

Does the small size justify the built-in battery like AirPods? I think so.

But Wuben has taken some great steps forward recently with the Wuben X4, Wuben X5 and the Wuben X1 Pro where the batteries are replaceable.

It would be nice to see Wuben have replaceable batteries in future designs.

Charging#

There is built-in USB-C charging.

Wuben E2 closeup-usb-1 Wuben E2 closeup-usb-2

Power supply: PinePower Desktop USB-C
USB Meter: ChargerLAB Power-Z KM003C Amazon Australia
Room temperature: 15 C

Wuben E2 charging profile

It took 1 hour 37 minutes to fully charge the torch at a rate of 5V/0.1A.

The red and blue side lights are used as a charging status indicator. The charging status indicator is red while charging and it becomes blue when charging is complete.

Power supply compatibility#

I tried the following power supplies:

Power supply USB Type Protocol Does it charge?
PinePower Desktop USB-C PD Yes
PinePower Desktop USB-A QC Yes
PinePower Desktop USB-A Yes

USB-C to USB-C charging works.

Performance#

Specifications from the user manual:

Main Light#

FL1 Standard High Med Low
Output (lumens) 150 + 100 50 5
Runtime 1min + 30min 1h 7h
Beam Distance (metres) 26
Beam Intensity (cd) 169

Side White Light#

FL1 Standard High Low Heartbeat Flash
Output (lumens) 80 10
Runtime 30min 3h 17h

Side Red and Blue Light#

FL1 Standard Red Beacon Red Blue Flash
Output (lumens) 1 1
Runtime 35h 28h

Lumen measurements#

LED Mode Specs Lumens @turn on Lumens @30 sec Lumens @10 min
Main Low 5 5 5 5
Main Med 50 39 39 36
Main High 150 + 100 124 101 74

Runtime graphs#

I used my own DIY lumen tube with a TSL2591 sensor and forked bmengineer’s project RuTiTe to record runtimes.

Note: Lumen measurements may be off by 10% with my DIY lumen tube.

The room temperature was approximately 15 C.

Wuben E2 runtime graph

Wuben E2 first 2 hours runtime graph

Wuben E2 first 10 minutes runtime graph

Runtime#

Here is a summary of the runtime results:

LED Mode User manual Runtime Turn off
Main High 1min + 30min 34min 13s 34min 13s
Main Med 1h 1h 24min 40s 1h 24min 40s
Main Low 7h 10h 41min 49s 10h 41min 49s

“Runtime” is the time until the output reduces to 10% of the output at 30 seconds (as per the ANSI/PLATO FL1 2019 Standard).

“Turn off” is the time until my DIY lumen tube no longer detects more than one lumen.

“+” indicates that the light remained on after recording had stopped.

The runtime is better than expected.

It would be nice if the Wuben E2 maintained a constant output. It gradually gets less bright over time.

Throw#

I took lux measurements with a UNI-T UT383BT at 30 seconds. High was measured at one metre.

Mode Specs (cd) Specs (m) Candela measured (cd) Distance (m)
Low 9 6
Med 102 20
High 169 26 275 33

Beamshots#

I went to a local park and aimed the torch at a tree 70 metres away.

Beamshots were taken using a Sony RX100M2 using 3.2", f3.2, ISO 100, 5000K WB.

Wuben E2 Main (High)#

Wuben E2 beamshot

Wuben E2 Side (High)#

Wuben E2 beamshot

Acebeam UC3A (High)#

Acebeam UC3A High beamshot

Manker LAD III CW (Turbo)#

Manker LAD III CW Turbo beamshot

Manker LAD III NW (Turbo)#

Manker LAD III NW Turbo beamshot

RovyVon A8 (High)#

RovyVon A8 High beamshot

Olight i1R 2 Pro (High)#

Olight i1R 2 Pro High beamshot

Thermal Images#

I used a HIKMICRO B20S thermal camera to take thermal images of the torch while using High.

Room temperature: 10 C

Time (mm:ss) Max Temperature
00:00 13.0 C
01:00 21.0 C
02:00 26.9 C
03:00 30.8 C
04:00 34.2 C
05:00 36.5 C
06:00 38.3 C
07:00 39.4 C
08:00 40.4 C
09:00 41.2 C
10:00 41.5 C

Wuben E2 Thermal Image Wuben E2 Thermal Image Wuben E2 Thermal Image Wuben E2 Thermal Image

Wuben E2 Thermal Image Wuben E2 Thermal Image Wuben E2 Thermal Image Wuben E2 Thermal Image

Wuben E2 Thermal Image Wuben E2 Thermal Image Wuben E2 Thermal Image

Conclusion#

The Wuben E2 is definitely worth checking out if you are looking for a tiny keyring torch.

The build quality is pretty good. The hard USB-C cover looks durable. The semi-transparent glow-in-the-dark polycarbonate housing does not get scratched easily.

The heartbeat pulse mode looks pretty cool! That is one of the standout features.

The lumen output and beam distance is ok for a torch this size. But if you want something with more lumens and more candelas then the Manker LAD III NW is another keyring torch worth checking out.

Pros:#

  • Good build quality.
  • Good runtime.
  • Hearbeat pulse mode.
  • Small size.
  • Decent beam.
  • USB-C charging.
  • Glow-in-the-dark housing.
  • Strong magnet in the tail.
  • Side Light has a high CRI (90+).

Cons:#

  • Main Light has a CRI of about 69.
  • Output drops gradually over time.

Price#

The Wuben E2 Bundle (E2 + P5) is US$19.99 from Wuben E2 Bundle at wubenlight.com at the time of writing.

The Wuben E2 on its own is US$12.99 from amazon.com at the time of writing.

Product page#

Wuben E2 Bundle at wubenlight.com (affiliate link)
Wuben E2 at amazon.com (affiliate link)

I may earn a commission if you use an affiliate link or a promo code. This will help fund future torch reviews and tutorials.