Ulanzi Cute Lite Review | It broke immediately

[@TeaJayPhotography]

Seems to be a common problem. The power switch on mine stopped working after using the light maybe 10 times.

[@TrentonHoshikoCinematography]

That sucks, I'm sorry to hear that! I'm tempted to see if the updated version solved the problem, but don't really want to waste money if they haven't solved it.

[@Nacho.100]

Its happened to me to.. I oppened it and.. there is no way to repair it without destroying the all unit.

[@TrentonHoshikoCinematography]

Bummer, I hate that it has been happening to a bunch of people! I wasn't brave enough to open mine up haha

[@Nacho.100]

@@TrentonHoshikoCinematography Well, if you cut where the boton is, you are going to finde a flat boton facing to the battery and not to where the on botton should be. Its a stuppid way of be doing things but at the end you can still be using your light.

[@greeneyez2319]

Would you believe me if I told you that it didn’t just happen once, but twice with each one that I had. The first one did it within 5 presses, so I contacted them and they sent me a replacement. Well, the second one failed instantly lol. I was more excited about the accessories than the damn lights themselves. Complete garbage when it comes to reliability.

[@TrentonHoshikoCinematography]

That is unfortunate that there seems to be a consistent quality issue! The accessory options are great, but I'm definitely not trying to give the light itself another shot :(

[@andyroth303]

I had the same thing happen. The first one I received had a broken power switch right out of the box. The replacement broke on about the 4th use. This really sucks because it’s actually a nice little light. Im glad I decided to open mine up because it was an easy repair. The Back cover is just a press fit; it pulls straight off exposing the access holes for 4 Phillips screws. The front face comes free exposing the circuit board. The little tactile switch on the board physical broke and fell apart. The two pieces of the switch were inside the Cute Lite when I opened it. I researched the actual tactile switch itself and it’s a quality name brand component. According to the data sheet for the switch its rated for at least 100k presses! So what gives??Also the same tactile switch used to be a commonly used part in many older smart phones w/ side buttons. Point is, it’s a quality part that’s tried & true yet it’s breaking very early in this light. There’s nothing about the designed construction of this light that can cause the switch to break. It has to be getting compromised somewhere during the Cute Lite manufacturing process. Anyway, I was able to reassemble the broken tactile switch and using a couple tiny dabs of hot glue it’s not only fixed but it should never fall apart again. Too bad I can’t post a picture here. I suspect there’s a flaw w/ whatever robot is responsible for physically placing the tactile switch on the circuit board during manufacturing. Or the switch gets damaged before the circuit board gets installed inside the light. It’s a real shame! The Cute Lite is actually designed/engineered really well. It uses quality components and it’s built to be serviceable. I.e. It’s not all glued together. It uses an o-ring seal to make it weathertight. My impression is the light was engineered w/ reliability & quality in mind but somewhere during the actual manufacturing process that switch is getting damaged. It’s really unfortunate.

[@TrentonHoshikoCinematography]

I never saw this reply until now (I really hate how KZbin manages comment notifications!!). What an interesting journey you went on, thank you so much for sharing, I love details like this! I definitely would not have expected it to be made with good parts and any durability because of that crucial part breaking so easily. I like your hypothesis that it beaks because of a manufacturing process. Maybe there is hope that later version don't have this problem...although I am not jumping ahead in line to test that out right now, just in case.