David Chow of 4Sevens.com is no stranger to many flashlight enthusiasts. His online stores have been a mainstay of many “Flashaholics” for many years now. The Quark series of lights however represents the first foray of the 4Sevens brand into the world of lights that David is so passionate about. Already renowned for listening to his customers as a retailer, David has attempted to bring that same Customer-centric approach to manufacturing as well.

Quark 123

At first glance the entire quark line appears similar to offerings by Fenix. The Quark 123 seems to be a maturation of the Fenix P2D/PD20. Further inspection however, reveals that 4Sevens has taken pointers of what people love about that stellar series and added many of his own improvements to the mix both correcting things people dislike and improving things people love.

One of the biggest complaints about any multimode light is the level of the lowest power beam. 4Sevens has taken this to heart and delivered in a big way. The entire Quark series includes a super-low “Moonlight Mode” clocking in around .2 lumens. This incredible level not only is excellent for nighttime navigation without the usual destructive effects on dark adapted vision, but is also amazingly efficient enough to be used as long as needed without any fear of battery depletion. In Moonlight mode, runtimes are measured in days rather than hours.

Of course, you cannot have a good multimode light without also covering the High end of things. The Quark series accomplishes this with aplomb. 4Sevens has taken a very wise route with the lumen ratings of their lights. Right from the start they have purposed to underrate whatever they can. They are using this as a way to better establish themselves as honorable manufacturers and let the lights speak for themselves rather than focusing on inflated “facts” and figures. These lights are brilliantly bright for their size and appear to definitely fall within range of their stated figures.

Quark Series

By using Cree’s XP-E emitter and combining it with an expertly focused textured reflector, the Quark series succeeds in producing one of the most amazingly smooth beams I have encountered to date. The XP-E once again seems far better suited for flashlight use than it’s XR-E sibling, eliminating the characteristic dark ring surrounding the hotspot and bringing back the concept of a transitional corona that evens out the light distribution to a much more usable shape. Add to that 4Sevens ingenious design that absolutely guarantees a perfectly centered emitter and you find that the likelihood of variance between beams is virtually eliminated.

The finish of the Quark lights is very nice and well thought out. The design is simple and understated and yet very useful. Every band of quality knurling is intentionally placed and the anodizing appears of the highest caliber. Head to tail this series has a very simple beauty that is clearly evident.

4Sevens has also given great thought to attachment and carry methods for these lights. Each model comes with not only the stainless steel belt/pocket clip but also a high quality neck lanyard, a durable nylon holster, and also some newly minted hands-free use options pioneered by 4Sevens. All of these show the level of conscious decisions that have gone into every facet of these lights design.

Quark 123

Constructive Criticism

For all the myriad of attachment options the Quark 123 is the only one of the entire series who’s clip is not removable or reversible. This is it’s absolute weakest point in my opinion. The fact that the clip is permanently attached to the head of the light rather than the body actually causes much consternation when changing modes. It actually ends up interfering with the twist operation by obstructing the users grip on the body of the light. What ends up happening by accident all too often is the tailcap gets unscrewed rather than the head. Beyond that, I personally feel that the clips one and only location is far too near the center of the light for best use as a pocket clip. Also, in my specific unit, the clip does not feel securely attached at all. It wiggles in a manner altogether dissonant with the construction quality of the light as a whole. Add to this the extra difficulty that it presents with the use of the holster and I suspect that the clipless variation is a far better purchase. It would be nice to see 4Sevens devise some other method of utilizing a clip with this their smallest light.

One ailment that the entire Quark series appears to suffer from is known around enthusiast circles as preflash. Preflash is when a brief burst of higher intensity light is emitted when a low level light is first switched on. The 123, like most of the Quark line, has this occur only intermittently, generally directly proportional to how recently the light has been used earlier. This characteristic quantifies as more of an annoyance than actually detrimental to usage, due to it’s brevity and still low power level in comparison to the light’s capabilities. The problem is, annoyances oftentimes are what causes another light to be chosen for usage when a need arises. It would be in every one’s best interest if this flash were to be either eliminated completely or at the very least, reduced in duration so far that it becomes imperceptible.

Quark Series

Conclusions

Though this is merely 4Sevens initial engagement in the realm of manufacturing illumination tools, I believe that the results are positive for both sides of this initial sortie. 4Sevens still has some small hurdles to overcome, but even now, the Quark series is quite the testament to solid engineering. I am definitely looking forward to the continued expansion of their newly developed line.

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