Today I have the new Reylight Quad Emitter Dawn flashlight by Maratac. It’s a CountyComm exclusive light producing 3200 lumens out of 4 Cree XPL-HI LED’s in 5000k and can be powered from a 21700 or 18650 battery. It’s got this really nice dimpled style texture on the body all done in this grey type 3 anodized body. Let’s take a deep dive on this light and show what it’s capable of.
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CountyComm is giving my viewers 10% off their order of this light by using the code “LiquidRetro” at checkout. Check it out here if you are interested https://bit.ly/2SqBcTo
Packaging and Accessories
The Reylight Maratac Quad Dawn packaging is very simple. It ships in an orange hard plastic case with foam inside, some extra orings, and a plastic spacer for running an 18650 if you want to. The case is nice to store the light in but great to put other stuff in too. CountyComm is shipping these with a Samsung 40T 21700 battery but no charger. No manual is included but it’s a pretty simple 4 mode interface so you don’t need one.
Construction
The light is made from 6061 aluminum and type 3 hard anodized in a gray matt finish. Starting at the tail switch, it’s a recessed textured rubber boot with a mechanical switch underneath. It has a satisfying feel and sound too it. The clip attaches at the edge of the light, using 2 purple anodized titanium screws and a titanium clip. I will talk more about the clip in the retention section. The only branding is opposite the clip, and it has the Maratac logo and the serial of the light. This minimal branding is great!
The body and tail are a one piece design. I really like the almost golf ball like dimpling on the body of the light. CC says this increases the gripping surface by upto 300% over standard knurling, I don’t know how they come up with this calculation but I just like the feel in my hand and different look to most other lights on the market, and it won’t tear up your pocket insides. The head grows in diameter and has 4 tear drop shapes milled into it the length of the head. It’s a design feature that is common on many other ReyLight designs, like the LAN, and Gemini.
At the front the bezel is raw aluminum to provide some contrast and when standing on the head it allows light to leak out letting you know if it’s on or not. The lens is sapphire, which is great for scratch resistance. Below that is the quad carillo style optic and LED’s. There is a green glow gasket underneath, it’s reasonably bright but definitely not turbo glow.
Size and Weight
I measured the light at an overall length of 121.78mm, a minimum diameter of 25.5mm on the body and a maximum diameter on the head at 28.2mm. Weight with my 21700 battery is 140.1g. With a 30Q and spacer the weight was 127.6g.
The light is narrow for a 21700 and quad emitter light. Here are a few comparisons to similar quads or 21700 lights.
Retention
For retention this light has the same pattern Reylight has used on the Dawn and Gemini flashlights. It’s a wide paddle clip that has the popular Steel Flame spacing for the screw holes, so you can upgrade to a skull clip if you like. The stock clip is 1.2mm Thick and quite stiff. It’s a bit of a challenge to get it to clip to my pants pockets. That said it’s very secure and isn’t going to go anywhere once clipped. I like how this light feels in my hand, it’s the perfect size for me and that dimpled texture gives a nice grip.
LED & Beam Shots
The Reylight Quad Dawn by Maratac is using Cree XPL-Hi LED’s in 5000k tint so it fits that classic neutral white tint, but to me it seems on the cool side of 5000k. My preferences in recent years has opted to the warmer emitters but this is nice too. The optic is all flood, and it’s pretty even with no real distortions, not something you see on all quads. The beam has a broad center with a slight corona, and the overall shape is slightly square at short ranges.
Quad Dawn Beam Shot
Reylight Krystal Beam Shot
The middle 2 modes exhibit some PWM, It’s not bad and my eye or camera can’t see it but my scope can. See the example below.
Heat and Runtime
The Reylight Quad Dawn by Maratac has quoted outputs of 2 lumens, 250 lumens, 1400 lumens and 3200 lumens. I did my runtime test with an Xtar High Drain (42A) 4200mAh 21700 battery because that’s what I had two of. I did a complete runtime in Turbo, which isn’t recommended because of the extreme heat, but it’s how I test all my lights in the brightest possible mode and see where they go from there. On this light it starts stepping down pretty soon after and a 0:2:25 it’s down to 50% relative output. From here it holds itself for an hour before stepping down again and ending at around the 1:15:00 mark. During this time the light gets super hot, a whopping 78.9C (174F). This is dangerously hot, for both the battery and your skin. Again this isn’t recommended, CountyComm recommends only using “turbo” for 90 seconds and when you do that the light steps down much less and remains a warm but reasonable temp of less then 60C. I tested High only mode and fell a little short of the 2 hour quoted runtime but my battery is also 800mAh short of what the light ships with so I expect it to hit that without issue.
UI
The UI here is super simple, it’s a 4 mode flashlight, with moonlight, low, high and turbo. Mode spacing varies quite a bit, between 2, 250, 1400, and 3200 lumens. The mechanical button can accept half presses while on to advance the modes and then a full press to lock in on. There are no flashing modes on this light, which I am cool with. The light doesn’t have memory mode.
Pro’s
- I love the golf ball style dimpled texture on the body, it’s different and functional. Nice grey anodizing here too.
- Surprisingly light and small for a 21700 quad light.
- No stepdowns due to thermals mean it stays bright for as long as possible but gets extremely hot.
- Simple 4 mode interface, no strobe.
Con’s
- In continuous output in maximum output this gets super hot, Up to 78.4C in uncooled runtime tests. This is too hot to hold safely, so run the light only as bright as you need or can stand.
- The pocket clip is super stiff, it takes effort to clip onto your pocket.
- Some rattle with the 18650 adapter but that is to be expected.
Conclusion
The full name of the light (Reylight Quad Emitter Dawn Custom Maratac LED Flashlight + Glow Afterburner) is lunacy, but the quality of the light makes up for it. For a 21700 sized light it was smaller than I thought it would be. The slimness of the tube really helps.
It’s not something I will carry often in my front pockets for EDC for office tasks but you could carry it pretty easily in a larger pocket or back pocket if you wanted. It’s not too big in a front pocket either if you wanted. For me it fits great in the hand and that is only made better with the dimples for grip. It’s a great walking the dog type of light, high at 1400 lumens and the floody beam is more then you need, and with 2+ hours of runtime it is plenty for most people. One more mode between low at 250 lumens and high at 1400 lumens would make it a little more useful I think.
That said on Turbo for continuous use this light is dangerously hot, 78.9C (174F) is burn you hot, that said you I only saw this at the 31 minute mark and I don’t think you will see it in the real world because a sane person would shut the light off or turn it way down as you wouldn’t be able to hold it. I don’t recommend running your light in turbo for so long because it’s not good for the battery either.
Overall this is a nice light at a fair price. I enjoy it and am glad I have one. It’s easy to recommend and is a nice size too. Remember these are limited to only 500 lights and are only being sold through CountyComm, so check the description below for a link to their website to pick one up if your interested.
CountyComm is giving my viewers 10% off their order of this light by using the code “LiquidRetro” at checkout. Check it out here if you are interested https://bit.ly/2SqBcTo
