If you like thrower flashlights that reach a super far distance, this review is for you. Today I am looking at the Jetbeam RRT-M1X Raptor a LEP light, where the main LED has been replaced with a Laser Excited Phosphorus module producing a crazy amount of throw and a very tight compact beam. It also has Jetbeams rotary controls up front. Thanks to Jetbeam for sending this to me to look at and review.
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Packaging & Accessories
The light comes in a generic plastic case with a handle and sliding latches. It has as sticker thats placed on top. It’s not the level of packaging I expected for this price range of light. That said it does the job, and I would rather more be put into the light and less on the packaging. Inside the there is foam that works but isn’t cut specifically for this light. YOU get the light itself, a Jetbeam JR51 5000mAh 21700 battery with onboard MicroUSB charging, lanyard, MicroUSB cable, 1 extra switch cover and 3 spare orings.
Construction
The RRT-M1X Raptor is made from aluminum JetBeam’s popular gunmetal gray anodizing, I really enjoy this finish and it’s pretty durable as I found out during testing as my testing on accident. My light took a tumble from my jacket pocket about 1M onto concrete. It is a little scuffed up but not too bad. The design here is similar to the M1X WPRX it replaces. Starting at the tail you have a forward click mechanical switch and 2 tails where you can attach a lanyard. It will tail stand but it’s not very stable. There is minimal knurling on the tail and body tube that add some grip. Threads are square cut, nicely greased and anodized.
You do have a rubber tactical ring which is nice to allow you to cigar grip the light if you wish. The body tube has flats milled in for the labels and a little added grip. The body tube is also removable from the head, but not reversible.
The head features the rotating ring controls, with a total of 5 detents that are just over 180 degrees in total movement. They feel ok, not super crisp but not mushy either. I like rotary control on a light like this, they are simple and they work great with gloves on which is important this time of year. There is some thinner heatsinks too.
The head has a cool design. It has some scallops out of it to save weight and reduce thermal mass and its a fun design. Then some non useful straight knurling for design. The bezel does unscrew and is lightly crenulated. I did minimal disassembly and the lens is glass, quite thick and antireflective. There an optic inside and it looks to be a magnifying lens of sorts.
Size and Weight
Overall length was 183mm, minimum diameter on the body was 26.6mm, maximum diameter was 61m. I measured the weight here at 334.9g. So it’s a little on the heavy side. Here are a few pictures of what it’s like compared with other flashlights. The light is IPX8 water rated.
Emitter & Beam
So instead of an LED, the RRT-M1X uses a LEP or Laser Excited Phosphor. Jetbeam calls this the WP-T2 LED but it’s not an LED. LEP’s work by using a blue laser emitter on a layer of phosphor to create a “whitish” beam that is then sent through a convex lens. This is the second generation LEP light from Jetbeam and it’s a more compact system thats on a single board and much more compact then the previous systems. However it does still have a front heavy design.
The result is a beam that’s extremely concentrated. At 8ft it’s less than a 3 inch circle, it also has basically no spill like your traditional flashlight does. This concentrated beam does spread out a little at distance but it’s not much and my night shots show that. I did a comparison with the AceBeam L17 the furthest throwing 18650 light I have, on it’s own it’s quite focused but it makes the RRT-M1X look like a laser pointer. The tint here definitely has a greenish tint to it. There was no visible PWM to the eye or camera.
Jetbeam on the Left, Acebeam L17 on the Right
Acebeam L17 Beam Shot
Jetbeam RRT-M1X
I will throw up a stats photo here of the official stats. It’s important to note that LEP lights are not super bright in terms of lumens, only 480 lumens, but they are super intense. Jetbeam claims that it’s 1,322,500 candela. That’s higher then my meter goes up to so I was unable to verify but I can tell you it’s the most intense flashlight I own and throws the furthers.
Heat & Runtime
Runtime here is good to look at. First off I expected that this light would produce more heat because of how intense it was but it doesn’t Maximum heat I saw was about 32C during testing, and that’s a regulated temp. It does seem to have a timed stepdown, to 50% relative output after 3 minutes. Compared with other LED based throwers I have this is good, given the other LED based throwers generally produce a lot more heat.
Total runtime starting on high with the included fully charged 5000mAh battery was 4:42:00 with several stepdowns along the way. When the light shut off I measured LVP at 2.974v. You don’t need a high output battery for this light either with the maximum amperage requirement I measured under 3A. So since this light is using a non proprietary button top protected battery (Long in length) you can choose based off of capacity rather then performance.
UI
The UI here is simple with the rotary switch at the front. It’s 5 position switch with detents at every point, total rotation is just over 180 degrees. Starting from the left most detent and working clockwise you have low, medium, high, strobe, SOS. The switch at the rear is a your on and off control without a momentary mode as it’s a forward clicky switch.
Recharging
Recharging here is accomplished with the included Jetbeam 5000mAh 21700 battery. The battery itself has microUSB built into it, with a small LED at the positive side. Red when charging, green when charged. I would have loved to see USB-C instead here, especially on a premium light. It took a lengthy 7:13:29 to fully charge this battery which is quite slow, the fastest charge rate I saw was .75A, and it only decreased from there for the remaining 6 hours. Fully charged the battery measured 4.206V.
My recommendation would be to use your own charger like the Vapcell S4 Plus or Xtar VC4SL and charge at a more reasonable rate. This battery can very safely handle a 2A charge rate and that will cut the charge time to more than half. I tested the capacity of this battery with my VapCell S4 Plus charger at 4785mAh.
Pro’s
- Seems durable after a 1M drop onto concrete (Accident)
- Crazy amount of throw, super focused beam
- Love the Rotary interface, it’s easy, simple and works.
Con’s
- LEP lights in general are more expensive then your typical flashlight. This is no different but the performance is unparalleled when compared with LED lights.
- Supplied battery charges extremely slow, use an external charger instead of the onboard MicroUSB on the cell.
- Non proprietary battery, low amperage requirement.
Conclusion
I am so glad I was able to try out a LEP light. I have been wanting to try one since I first learned about the technology. They are super fun to play with but from a practical perspective, they are pretty specialized. This isn’t the brightest flashlight I have (Lumens) but it is the most intense (candella). The result is a light with a super compact, tight beam that really goes the distance without having the usual size or weight of most of your ultra thrower LED based lights.
I have a few doubts on if it is capable of throwing what it says (2300 meters) in the real world of if this is more of a “lab” number. What I can tell you is that it outperforms any of the LED flashlights that I have in putting light on target at a distance as long as you can deal with a small hot spot. Think of it like a fat tip laser pointer almost instead of a fine point. It basically has no spill at all, either at a distance or up close.
So for very specialized tasks, maybe hunting (With a colored filter), search and rescue at a distance, or signaling a LEP makes a lot of sense. I don’t think this is the best option for hiking or camping, or power outages though. So I can recommend the Jetbeam RRT-M1X Raptor for you to tip your tow into the world of LEP lights.
So do you guys have a LEP light yet, if so let me know in the comments what you use yours for as I would love to get this thing out in more scenarios.