Form Factor & Build

1- The Surefire U2 has evolved along the bloodline of the Surefire L2, but has features that are above and beyond that of the superlative two brightness level L2. Its geometry is a radially symmetrical (less spring clip) round cross-section / featuring some geometric elements including: a basic cylinder that is modified by a crenellated or 'notched' bezel- scalloped head, a handy levels adjustment collar and a partially 'squared' body section. These signature elements give The Surefire U2 an aesthetic familiarity that reflects a strong adherence to the Surefire approach to ergonomics . Most of these details help to alleviate the monotony of mono-form design so typical of flashlights and in addition, each one serves a task and user centered objective.
2- The notches at the front of the bezel are useful in non-lethal compliance as well as to indicate that the light is still on even if it's head down on a table. Scalloping on the front of the head -behind the bezel reduces material weight, allows for a sure-gripped head removal and adds a touch of flair. In addition, the scallops do stop the light from rolling on a smooth flat surface. The strategically located aggressive knurling ensures a secure grip even with wet or oily hands. The unique new stainless steel wire spring clip advances upon prior designs by being very considerate of garments as well as to gloves and bare hands.
3- The head of Light is wider than the body & tail-piece which are approximately the same diameter.
4- The flashlight has a solid feel with 'just enough' heft to give the U2 excellent balance in the hand. Ideal for individuals with medium to large sized hands, it's quite holdable by users with small hands as well. Photographs of the U2 don't convey just how light it actually is (the deep voluminous reflector creates an illusion of great weight). It's quite holdable by one's fingertips.
5- One's hand surrounds the aggressively knurled body section.The body of the light easily fills a medium (*1) sized palm with no protrusion.
6- A conspicuous and accessible levels control collar behind the head assists in indexing the front of the grip and allows for six levels of brightness adjustment separately from the On/Off functionality at the tailcap.
7- The aluminum wall thickness of the battery tube is 3.0 mm.
8- All sections fit together extremely well with fast and smooth threading action.
9- Black Hard Anodizing Type III (Matte) on the outside and a gold colored plating on the inside provide protection against corrosion and yet in the case of gold plating, afford excellent electrical conductivity where needed. The head is of a slightly more eggplant hue of black that the body section, but this is not so conspicuous as to be obvious or offensive.
10- The matte exterior anodizing finish minimizes reflections and glare by day and by night (Mil Spec)
11- There is no 'play' or rattle anywhere. Substantial 'O' ring seals provide shock absorption, a snug fit and a seal against the elements- especially water.
12- It has a very rugged look & feel- reflecting the actual toughness of the flashlight. It's a Military/SWAT/Law enforcement caliber flashlight that would more than satisfy the needs of any technician or consumer demanding an overbuilt product for recreational or occupational use.

1- Ambidextrous. Center of balance slightly in front of the midpoint on the body section.
2- A medium palm completely surrounds the body of the U2, with the thumb and first or second fingers- naturally positioned on the levels control collar just behind the head-portion. Ideal for individuals with medium to large sized hands- it's quite holdable by users with small hands as well. It is specifically designed to be held using various 'tactical' grips including: Harries Flashlight Technique , Surefire-Rogers grip, forward, upward and downward pointing 'standard' flashlight hand-held modes.
3- A heavy duty knurled combination momentary On, Click On/Off tail-cap switch and textured rubber button (surefire signature) allow for either constant or intermittent light activation-especially with one hand.
4- A hefty polymer collar measuring 1.25" in diameter and .6" long, affords independent brightness levels control. The operator merely rotates the collar with the free hand to either increase brightness in evenly spaced steps from '1' to '6' or conversely reduce brightness by rotating the collar in the opposite direction. Both the '1' and '6' positions are detent stops- meaning that the collar will not freely rotate. It takes a turn of 90º of arc to affect a complete minimum/maximum cycle, and visa versa.
5- No native mounting options for firearms use are evident, though the mid-section is specifically designed with dedicated clamping brackets or other improvised and custom designed attachment solutions in mind.
6-The new steel wire clip design strongly invites users to simply use this light as a quickly accessible- garment stowed tool. The clip is so more friendly to pockets than earlier iterations that we predict it may well usher in a new breed of clips in the Surefire line of lights .Though the U2doesn't have an obvious lanyard attachment point on the light itself, we discovered that the new clip was extremely friendly to lanyard attachment - either through the use of terminal hardware such as gateclips, split rings and lobster claws as well as through direct attachment of paracord and braided nylon terminal loops!

1-Matte anodizing protects a surface that is finely machined throughout and contributes to high tactility.
2-The U2 design promotes intuitive grip focus on the region between the tailcap and the Six -level brightness control collar.
3-The midsection has a square flat-milled section to reduce the width of the U2's body section enough to allow for 'between the fingers' accommodation as required for a comfortable Surefire/ Rogers Hold . Such material reduction may also help to minimize the overall weight of the light.
4- We did not perform a 'pull' test but we judged the combination of aggressive pointed diamond pattern knurling, combined with matte anodizing and the natural slippage-stopping potential of the midsection to be effective mitigators to hand slippage- especially under wet or oily conditions. The U2 shares this genetic attribute with most of the metal Surefire family of flashlights-minimizing manual loss of traction- especially in situations of high user stress or extreme surface wetness or slipperiness.
5- The lightness, brightness and sturdiness of this light make it suitable for critical inspection, law enforcement, military, and security. It is additionally suited for rough outdoors,and other rough environmental use . It's viability in water-sports or underwater is probably very good to excellent (untested)-due to the impressive, medium duty 'O' rings and precision threading both at the head and tail sections. it really deserves to be used anywhere where a combination of lightness, brightness and ruggedness are all equally important.
6- The innovation of a six-level brightness control collar puts the U2 in a class of its own. It allows for task and context relevant illumination level control in a hand-held flashlight. This opens up a wide range of solutions options for end users in all occupational domains- including science, aviation and astronomy. By matching the level of illumination to match the maximum required degree of lighting, 'over exposure' or 'under illumination' can thus be minimized with only one hand-held flashlight. The alternative has been to utilize a series of flashlights, each delivering a fixed degree of illumination and then matching a flashlight to a specific task at hand. The Surefire U2 therefore combines the output of six different flashlights into one.This not only simplifies matters, but it also should help to reduce cost and lost time and opportunity for the end user.
7-The toggling push for momentary On and click for On/Off activation procedure is an intuitive and fast implementation of the dual function tail cap switch.
8- By clearly and ergonomically separating the activation and levels control functions, the Surefire U2 offers some important advantages over products that either combine the two functions or place them in very close proximity.
-By having two independent functions , the U2 may be placed into one of 4 activation 'states', namely Standby Off, Locked Off ,Full On and Momentary On while at the same time, the brightness level may be preset separately or subsequently 'dialed' to a desired level without affecting the tailswitch function at all. This attention to the the user-centric aspects of human factors of flashlight use is commendable since it essentially focuses the design of the controls around the user, context and task rather than bowing to the convenience of the design engineer, as has often been the case with less user-centric designs.
-The aforementioned bifurcation of the controls also has the added benefit of mitigating against a brightness setting being accidentally or unintentionally activated.
-By sticking to a physical user interface for 'dialing in' the desired setting, Surefire has shielded the end-user from the added cognitive effort that an overt software based UI entails. Making the functionality as transparent and familiar a concept to the end user as possible brings the U2's design in direct alignment with fundamental usability heuristics and best practices.
8- As with the head of the U2, the tailpiece may be removed for maintenance-and unscrewing it affords access to the switch's internal parts.
9- Due to a protrusion of the textured rubber switch button- the light may not be stood on its tail for ceiling bounce mode. Candle mode is also not an option due to the inability of the user to separate the emitter from the rest of the head section and exposing it.
10-The integrated emitter assembly is not user accessible or modifiable.
11- The innovative redesign of the steel pocket clip- using a wire rather than a section of spring steel has the following advantages:
-undesirable wear on garments and the cutting of hands has been eliminated
-speed of stowage as well as deployment should be greatly increased.
- the attachment of various and sundry terminal hardware such as terminal clips and the attachment of lanyard string has now been greatly simplified. The 'open-outline' design of the U2 clip makes it possible to attach the light to anything from a pair of jeans to an automobile's visor without damaging or deforming fabric.

The Surefire U2 scored Maximum Distance for Object Identification or MDOI at 150 feet -and did so while displaying one of the brightest/ widest coronas we've seen to date from any flashlight of its class. The U2's brightness is more than adequate for light military,SWAT, law enforcement, security,tactical, critical inspection, general searching- as well rugged outdoors use.
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1- The Surefire U2 is a medium/heavy duty rough use flashlight that's ideal for general flashlight tasks in a number of everyday and several demanding applications. Due to its robust construction and waterproofness- combined with bright beam, we judge it to be an excellent choice for any flashlight tasks that demand reliability and a relatively long-life bulb.
2- Thanks to the multi-level brightness adjustment collar, the Surefire U2 gives the customer a choice between the full brightness of a 5 Watt LED's output for maximum illumination or reduced brightness settings for tasks that do not require the maximum possible output. This has the result of making the Surefire U2 not only more economical to use than comparable lights for a variety of tasks, but in addition it extends the life span of the LED from 900 hrs nominal at 5W to anywhere between 900hrs & 100,000hrs - depending on the mixture of output settings that the flashlight has been set lat.
3-Value. With new flashlights in the Luxeon market space -being released weekly- it's hard to define a relative value when comparing non-comparable's. The Surefire U2 Digital Ultra stands alone in a pioneer class with few if any commercially viable peers. At this point in time, the Surefire U2 rates 4.95 stars out of a possible 5 stars.
Our gripes were... A) Cannot stand up on its tail for Ceiling-bounce mode.

4.95 Stars- Highly Recommended- Best In Class