Tag: every day carry

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Olight Warrior Mini 2 Fire (Titanium) And X9R Cell Review

If you follow my channel you know I have reviewed the Original Olight Warrior Mini, and it’s past issues. You will also know I reviewed it’s successor the Olight Warrior Mini 2 just last month. Today I am looking at one of the special edition “Four Elements” versions of the Olight Warrior Mini 2 made of titanium, that will be on Olights July flash sale starting on July 26th at 8pm Eastern time. This is their biggest sale of the year with upto 50% off select models, and some new stuff. The Titanium Warrior Mini 2 will sell out fast, so let’s take a quick look at how these differ from the aluminum models and take a quick look at another new Olight product the X9R Cell. Thanks to Olight for sending me this stuff.

See my full review of the Aluminum Olight Warrior Mini 2 https://liquidretro.net/2021/06/17/olight-warrior-mini-2-review-1750-lumens-listening-to-user-feedback/

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Olight Flash Sale Link: https://bit.ly/OlightLiquidRetro

 

10% OFF Coupon code: LQ10 Coupon Code will work during sales on non-sale listings only.

 

X9R Cell

I want to take a very quick look at the X9R Cell, a very small keychain light that’s modeled off of Olight’s much larger X9R. You can get an X9R Cell for free by logging into your Olight account, and it will be added to your cart. This thing is tiny, only 35mm in length, and 11mm at the head, and weights only 4.5g. It’s rated for 2.5 lumens for an impressive 30 hours. It’s using a very small CR425 customized battery that Olight is giving away free replacements till the end of 2023. 

On that battery it sounds like Olight has shortened the positive contact pin to make it customized. Rechargeable versions of this battery can be found online, I am interested to see if people will be able to modify those to work here. My bet is it will work.

Olight has thought about the design here, when the head is screwed all the way onto the light, it’s off. You have to unscrew the light slightly to use it, this is nice because you are less likely to loose the head when it’s on your keychain since it can be tight. It’s a fun little novelty light that works, worth adding to your order, or probably paying the shipping if your collector.

 

Titanium Warrior Mini 2

Versions

On to the Titanium Warrior Mini 2. Only 4000 of each of the 4 colors will be made worldwide according to Olight and you can buy them individually or as a set. The first color is Fire which is what I have here, it’s anodized in a rainbow finish and has flames, as well as the word fire milled into the body tube section. Water is anodized in a dark blue, great looking color and similarly has the word water and waves milled into the light. Air is a silver titanium finish and had Air milled into it, Lastly is Earth, in a brown/bronze anodizing with a geometric shape and the word earth milled in. To be honest the words and symbols on the light I could do without, it feels a like Yu-Gi-Oh ish to me, especially since each comes with their own unique “trading card” and that’s not something I have ever been into. 

Packaging & Accessories

The lights come with the an upgraded packaging that Olight does with their special editions, with updated pictures and text, and no specs on the back. Accessories that come with the light are the Warrior Mini 2 itself, Olight custom and proprietary 3500mAh 18650 battery (ORB-186C35), the MCC3A magnetic charger, lanyard, and carabiner style ring, Warrior trading card, as well as a manual. 

Construction

The biggest difference in the construction of the lights is the material, with it being titanium here and the different colors of titanium that are offered. Each different color gets a different body texture milled into the light to suit the name and color. I am going to say neither are as grippy as the original aluminum model. 

Other small differences are under the clip it has a slightly raised surface to take the wear. I like this modification. All other markings are the same, parts are interchangeable between the different models as well.

 

Size and Weight 

Diameters and lengths are the exact same between the lights, but weights are where things differ. Most thing of titanium as being lighter, which isn’t actually true, it’s stronger for its weight in my applications when compared to aluminum. So the new Warrior Mini 2 in Titanium without a battery but with a clip comes in at 91.9g, where the aluminum light in the same configuration comes in at 70g. So Titanium here is actually 21.9g heavier. This isn’t something I noticed and may partially be down to the milling differences on the body too. 

LED & Beam

There are no changes in the LED, Beam, or runtimes here. Olight’s using a timed stepdown mode so runtimes are the same between the lights as well. The LED being used in the Warrior Mini 2 is the SST40 in a 6000-7000k tint. It has a little green tinge on the lowest modes but once you apply more power that fades substantially.  I have no problems with the SST40 LED but wish one of the neutral tint bins was used here. On special editions I think having a different LED option would be nice, wouldn’t a warm white be awesome for the “fire” model here? 

The beam is good through the TIR optic despite having the proximity sensor taking up some of the available room. There is a glass lens here, instead of the one piece plastic Lens/TIR optic that the Warrior Mini used. This, combined with the proximity sensor should eliminate the melting lens and clothing issues the original light had. 

 

Olight lists the official output modes as:

Turbo – 1750 – 500 – 200 Lumens with step downs.

High – 500 – 200 Lumens

Medium – 120 Lumens

Low – 15 Lumens

Moon – 1 Lumen

 

UI

The UI on the Warrior Mini 2 Titanium is the same that’s was on the Olight original Mini 2. It has 2 buttons for operation, first the two stage tail switch which is the more tactical operation, and then the standard silicone button up front for normal uses. It follows Olights basic UI for the most part. 

When you half press the tail button, you get medium in configuration 1, and then turbo 1750  lumens when you full press. This is in configuration 1, In configuration 2 the tail switch goes to turbo on half press and strobe on full press. 

UI is similar to other Olights but with some differences. Long press from Off to go to moon light mode, Double click to go to Turbo, and Triple click to go to strobe.There the front eswitch is mostly used as a mode switch but can be used to turn the light on and off from off as well.

The proximity sensor on the Warrior Mini 2 works much better than other models with the proximity sensor. What they did right was to give the programming the ability to step the light down to safe outputs and temps if the lens is obstructed, but then step back up the light to its previous level when that obstruction is removed. It’s super simple, but no previous Olights that I have reviewed with proximity sensors have worked this way. The sensor is also unable to be disabled on this light from what I can tell. One minor annoyance with the proximity sensor is it’s made testing runtimes very difficult because even in High the light will shut off after 1 minute when it detects an obstruction. 

 

Recharging

Nothing new to report on the recharging front with the Warrior Mini 2. It comes with Olights newest MCC 3A charging system which is faster and denoted with the red ring inside. The magnetic charging system is convenient and easy but does require a proprietary battery (3500mAh in this case) and the Warrior Mini 2 is no different. The proprietary Olight battery goes with the positive terminal facing the head in this light. This battery doesn’t have a plastic ring that stands proud and can be charged in a conventional charger.

I saw total charging time take 2:35:00, and as usually my charging monitoring system doesn’t like the drops in current that the MCC chargers do so my graph is incomplete. Max charge rate I saw was 1.3A at 1:16:00 mark. Once full the battery measured 4.2145V. LVP was measured at 2.75V.

 

Conclusion

Overall the Warrior Mini 2 is a nice light, and a good upgrade over the original with more performance, and more importantly it fixes the flaws in the original light with the added proximity sensor. This makes for a better flashlight thats much safer to use. I just wish it wouldn’t have grown in length as much as it did. I do wish for the special edition here they choose to put in some special edition LED’s too but unfortunately we just get the standard SST40 in Cool white. 

I am glad they have decided to come out with some special editions of this light in titanium, one of my favorite materials. I expect because of that and the limited numbers of production these will sell out fast. While the body milling isn’t my favorite, I do like the anodizing choice here and the price on this flash sale isn’t much higher for Titanium. 

 

Flash Sale

So if you like the colors, the milling, or titanium you will want to be waiting at your computer or phone when this flash sale starts tonight July 26th at 8pm Eastern Time. Remember they have other lights on sale, up to 50% off and a few more new colors and new products like the OPen 2 Pro with a green laser, a new weapon light, and new colors on the X9R, and Olight Warrior Turbo. Remember to use my link in the description below to help support the channel, and if you miss the flash sale you can still save 10% by using my discount code LQ10 on non sale priced items.

Get the Warrior Mini 2 in Titanium and X9R Cell using this Flash Sale Link: https://bit.ly/OlightLiquidRetro

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Olight Warrior Mini 2 Review (1750 Lumens, Listening to user feedback)

Todays’ video is on the brand new Olight Warrior Mini 2. Olight took feedback from the community on the original Warrior Mini, which I have done 2 previous videos on, and made some changes for the Warrior Mini 2. The Mini 2 follows in a similar manner on how Olight upgraded the S2R Baton II, into the Baton Pro with it gaining in length and features. Olight did send the new Warrior Mini 2 to me to review it and help promote their flash sale that starts tonight at 7pm Eastern Time. I will explain the sale further on in this review, but do know that if you’re interested in anything, using my link below will help the channel, and if you’re watching after the sale is over, I will have a code below where you can save 10% off regular prices. This will be a longer review, but it has chapters so make sure to skip around to see the parts your most interested in.

 

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Warrior Mini 2 Flash Sale Link: http://bit.ly/WarriorMini2FS

Warrior Mini  2 Bundle Flash Sale Link: http://bit.ly/WarriorMini2Bundle

Olight Flash Sale General Link: https://bit.ly/OlightLiquidRetro

 

10% OFF Coupon code: LQ10 Coupon Code will work during sales on non-sale listings only.

 

A little bit about that flash sale before we get into the review. It starts June 17th at 7pm Central time and it runs for 24 hours. You can get the Black or Tan Warrior Mini 2 for 35% off $67.46 during that time. They will also have a Warrior Mini 2 Mountain Sky limited edition color for $71.21. There are bundles for all 3 with the i3T Mountain Sky edition too for a few more dollars. Other sale items include the Odin which I have reviewed previously, the new Olantern Mini, and some Mega packs of Olight products. If you order during the flash sale you will also get a free Olight Fathers day Mini tool. 

 

Packaging & Accessories

Standard Olight packaging applies here with the white boxes, and nice glossy photo, and full of tons of information on the back. Inside is a pull out try with the light including the yellow read me card to help you get the basics of your light down and ensure success.

Accessories that come with the light are the warrior Mini 2 itself, Olight custom and proprietary 3500mAh 18650 battery (ORB-186C35), the MCC3A magnetic charger, lanyard, and carabiner style ring as well as a manual. 

Construction

Construction quality is typical Olight, quality machining, fit and finish with the design and anodizing here. The tail is a one piece design with the body tube, so the battery goes in only from the head side. The button on the rear is all metal exterior construction and features the tri lug design we have seen on other recent “tactical models allowing the button to be pressed more easily with gloves. It’s also magnetic but not strong enough to hold the light horizontally on the few painted metal surfaces I tested, it does tail stand though. The button itself is spongy, and fairly stiff. It’s a two stage actuation which I like quite a bit from a UI perspective but it takes a bit of muscle memory to know how hard to press to get into that first lower output mode. 

The texture on the body is aggressive but not sharp in the hand. I really like the feel of it. The downside is it’s aggressive enough to tear up pockets with pulled in and out during repeated use. Threads are smooth, square cut and nicely greased. Up until this point it’s all the same as the Warrior Mini. The one difference on the body tube is the addition of a pocket/lanyard clip indention at the rear of the light. I’ll talk about the options this opens up during the retention section of the review.

The head internally has a single short spring in the center, and then a ring with pogo pins for making contact with the proprietary batteries negative terminal on the top. This is the same basic design as the Warrior Mini, and the heads are in fact interchangeable. On the exterior the clip is captured. The button is the same as Olight has used in recent models with the LED underneath to indicate battery charge status. It can display, Green, Orange, and Yellow. 

The head is what’s the most different on the Warrior Mini 2, over the outgoing model. It’s longer overall, with an aluminum bezel that protects the glass lens (yes). Inside is still a TIR style optic, but a little different style, it’s deeper and has a clear center instead of a bubble center. There is also the proximity sensor in the bezel, it doesn’t have a noticeable effect on beam quality. 

Is it Safe?

Since I know this is what a lot of you are wondering I will make it it’s own section but talk more about how the proximity sensor and UI works in the LED and UI sections. The video is really best for this part where I demonstrate all this, so make sure to check that out. So let’s take a black synthetic sock and put it over the lens of the light to show what happens and that this one won’t melt any clothing. I will speed this footage up a bit to show that after stepdown the light will shut off after 1 minute if the lens is still blocked. I wasn’t able to get anything to make the tail cap turn the light on with a high resistance metal object. I tried Keys, Ball Chain, Coins, etc. 

Size and Weight

I measured the overall length at 118mm, minimum diameter at the tail at 23.3g, and maximum diameter at the head at 25mm.Weight with the battery and main pocket clip installed is 120g. The light is IPX8 water rated and drop rated for 1.5M. So the light grew in length by 11mm and weight by 15g over the original Warrior Mini that I have in the same accessory configuration. 

 

Retention

You have some new retention options from Olight with the Warrior Mini 2, First up is the pocket clip, this is similar to the one on the original Warrior mini, being that it’s a dual direction clip and can be used to clip onto a hat to use as a make shift headlamp, but the new clip on the Mini 2 is longer by 13mm. It can also now mount on the rear of the light if you wish for a no show deep carry carry. In the top position the clip is captured and won’t rotate, but when mounted on the tail cap it can rotate. The fit here is tight though so it takes effort.

It also has a clip style attachment for a lanyard point which can be mounted anywhere the clip can be mounted too. You can use the included lanyard here or on the clip if you wish. Or you can use the new Carabiner style ring and put a finger through it so you don’t drop the light. Both of these retention options will fit on either the top or the bottom of the light.

 

LED & Beam

The LED being used in the Warrior Mini 2 is the SST40 in a 6000-7000k tint. It has a little green tinge on the lowest modes but once you apply more power that fades substantially.  I have no problems with the SST40 LED but wish one of the neutral tint bins was used here. 

The beam is good through the TIR optic despite having the proximity sensor taking up some of the available room. There is a glass lens here, instead of the one piece plastic Lens/TIR optic that the Warrior Mini used. This, combined with the proximity sensor should eliminate the melting lens and clothing issues the original light had. 

Warrior Mini 2 on the Left, Original Warrior Mini on the Right

 

Overall the beam here is great for EDC in my opinion with a medium to large hot spot and quite a bit of spill, good for close up and medium to far range. With the tail switch this would be a good option to do a one handed grip of your weapon and have the light nearby in the opposite hand (Harris or Chapman style) if you wished. The one downside more of the light sticks up out of your pocket here with heads up carry which are key to those grips. 

 

Olight lists the official output modes as:

  • Turbo – 1750 – 500 – 200 Lumens with step downs.
  • High – 500 – 200 Lumens
  • Medium – 120 Lumens
  • Low – 15 Lumens
  • Moon – 1 Lumen

Turbo sees a slight bump with the Warrior Mini 2 as does the step down modes in Turbo and High outputs. The stepdown upgrades are only 30 lumens so it’s really hard to notice but the extra 250 on Turbo you can notice slightly. There is a very small amount of PWM that I can detect with my oscilloscope on Low mode, on all the other modes no PWM was detected. 

 

For Night Shots, please see the video.

 

Runtime & Heat

One minor annoyance with the proximity sensor is it’s made testing runtimes very difficult because even in High the light will shut off after 1 minute when it detects an obstruction doesn’t move. The white surfaces of my test rig reflect light well and make this feature turn the light off, and not step down. So I improvised and used a dark room with the light testing sensor about 3 feet away.

 

Olight lists turbo as lasting for 4 minutes on the Mini 2, and as you can see from my graph that lines up very well with what I saw, you only get top output for a minute before it steps down to 29% relative output over the next 3 minutes. After that it runs for 208 minutes (Exactly what the manual says) before stepping down 2 more times. Total runtime was 4:20:00. LVP on the battery was 2.75V. Max temp I saw during this time was 54C at 1:45, but during the bulk of the runtime the light ran about 41C. I also ran a runtime on medium and got numbers that were within 2% of Olight’s claimed runtime. I have every reason to believe Olight is telling the truth here. 

 

UI

The UI on the Warrior Mini 2 is the same that’s was on the Olight original Mini. It has 2 buttons for operation, first the two stage tail switch which is the more tactical operation, and then the standard silicone button up front for normal uses. It follows Olights basic UI for the most part. 

 

When you half press the tail button, you get medium in configuration 1, and then turbo 1750  lumens when you full press. This is in configuration 1, In configuration 2 the tail switch goes to turbo on half press and strobe on full press. 

 

UI is similar to other Olights but with some differences. Long press from Off to go to moon light mode, Double click to go to Turbo, and Triple click to go to strobe.There the front eswitch is mostly used as a mode switch but can be used to turn the light on and off from off as well.

 

The proximity sensor on the Warrior Mini 2 is the first time they have got it right in my opinion and I have not wanted to disable or remove it to make the light better. What they did right was to give the programming the ability to step the light down to safe outputs and temps if the lens is obstructed, but then step back up the light to its previous level when that obstruction is removed. It’s super simple, but no previous Olights that I have reviewed with proximity sensors have worked this way. The sensor is also unable to be disabled on this light from what I can tell. One minor annoyance with the proximity sensor is it’s made testing runtimes very difficult because even in High the light will shut off after 1 minute when it detects an obstruction. 

I would be a fool` for not mentioning that the Warrior Mini 2 has a lockout mode after what happened with the original Warrior Mini. I am sure Olight would like me to mention you should use lockout when carrying this light in your pocket. The manual does mention to lock the light if it’s left unused or carried to avoid accidental activation. To enable lockout hold the front button for about 3 seconds, when off, moonlight will turn on and then off to let you know it’s activated. The same will deactivate it. You can’t mechanically unscrew the light to stop any parasitic drain on the light, the light will work if any threads are engaged in the head of it. 

 

Recharging

Nothing new to report on the recharging front with the Warrior Mini 2. It comes with Olights newest MCC 2A charging system which is faster and denoted with the red ring inside. The magnetic charging system is convenient and easy but does require a proprietary battery (3500mAh in this case) and the Warrior Mini 2 is no different. The proprietary Olight battery goes with the positive terminal facing the head in this light though which isn’t always the case. This battery doesn’t have a plastic ring that stands proud and can be charged in a conventional charger like the Vapcel S4 Plus, or various Xtar chargers I have reviewed in the past. I did test the capacity of the included 3500mAh battery at 3398mAh so a little short of the rating but not too bad.

I saw total charging time take 2:35:00, and as usually my charging monitoring system doesn’t like the drops in current that the MCC chargers do so my graph is incomplete. Max charge rate I saw was 1.3A at 1:16:00 mark. Once full the battery measured 4.2145V. LVP was measured at 2.75V.

 

Pro’s

  • I like that you can mount the clip either near the front or the rear of the light but you pay in overall length.
  • Glass Lens = No melted lens issues
  • Proximity sensor here means the light isn’t going to melt clothing or damage itself, and the programming here is good
  • I couldn’t get the light  to come on with stuff in my pocket on accident via the rear contacts.
  • New carry option with the ability to mount the clip on the rear of the light, and new retention options.

 

Con’s

  • Longer than the Warrior Mini, which makes it less appealing to EDC in my opinion, but it’s safer to carry too.
  • Still cool white only options
  • Name, I would have called this the Warrior Mini Pro to mirror what Olights done with the Baton line.

 

Conclusion

So if you follow this channel and I hope that you do, you will know I have done 2 previous videos on the previous model light, the Warrior Mini. Overall I liked the light but it had a few issues, that occurred when the light came on accidentally while in people pockets for various reasons. This resulted in melted lenses and a few melted pieces of clothing. Well with the Warrior Mini 2, Olight solved that problem by using a glass lens and installing a proximity sensor, and I think their implementation here of those is good. 

On past Olight models, I have not been a fan of the proximity sensor, but on the Warrior Mini 2 I think they got the programming right to where it provides added protection so you don’t melt your clothing or burn yourself if the light comes on accidentally, but still let’s the light be useable since when the obstruction is removed from the lens the light goes back to its original brightness.

I wouldn’t have called this light the Warrior Mini 2, and instead called it the Warrior Mini Pro because it’s s similar upgrade on what Olight did with the S2R Baton II and Baton Pro, where output was increased as well as overall length. You don’t notice the brightness change much on the Warrior Mini 2 but the increase in length is noticeable, if you choose to EDC. 

Overall the Warrior Mini 2 is a nice light, and a good upgrade over the original with more performance, and more importantly it fixes the flaws in the original light with the added proximity sensor. This makes for a better flashlight thats much safer to use. I just wish it wouldn’t have grown in length as much as it did. 

So if you have made it this far you might be considering picking up this light, and if you are the flashsale that starts tonight June 17th will be the best time to pick up the light during Olights Flash sale and introduction of the Warrior Mini 2.

 

Sale Details

You have 3 colors of Warrior Mini 2 available on the sale. Black and Tan for $67.46 and Mountain Sky for $71.21. For about $4 more you can get a bundle with the I3T mountain sky edition too.

Odins are back in Black and gray for $118 and $125 respectively. There are bundle deals with Obulbs and the new Olantern Mini’s too.

Olantern Mini is being released for the first time in Black and Red for 25% off $44.96 and has a bundle option for the I1R 2 in Desert Tan.

There are also Mega Packs and Free tiers too to get free products or save more. Everyone who buys something will get a free Fathers day Multitool too. 

 

Warrior Mini 2 Flash Sale Link: http://bit.ly/WarriorMini2FS

Warrior Mini  2 Bundle Flash Sale Link: http://bit.ly/WarriorMini2Bundle

Olight Flash Sale General Link: https://bit.ly/OlightLiquidRetro

 

10% OFF Coupon code: LQ10 Coupon Code will work during sales on non-sale listings only.

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Lumintop Gift G1 Review (A flashlight made from TurboGlow?)

What would happen if you took an AA Lumintop Tool and made the body out of TurboGlow instead of metal? Well that’s what we basically have here with the Lumintop Gift-G1 a flashlight where most of the light is made out of TurboGlow and copper. It’s available in a number of colors and has both Cree and Nichia emitter options too. Thanks to Lumintop for sending this to me to review. It’s a fun light so let’s take a closer look.

 

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Get 20% off the Gift G2 by using the coupon code 20G1GiftOFF at https://www.lumintoponline.com/lumintop-gift-g1-turbo-glow-600-lumens-edc-tactical-flashlight-p3430046.html

 

Packaging & Accessories

The Gift-G1 comes in a small cardboard box with minimal information on it, on the back you have the emitter chosen and the body color of the light. Inside accessories include the light itself, yellow lanyard, 2 spare orings. A glow ring and 14500 battery are both optional. No pocket clip is included with the light, more on that in a minute. 

Construction

The Gift-G1 is made from TuboGlow with an internal aluminum sleeve for electrical conductivity, and at the head, the pill is made from raw copper. TurboGlow if you don’t know is the premium solid glow in the dark material. It has a much longer glow life then normal glow in the dark material. While there are several color choices available, especially with the Gift-G1 such as Lava, Red, Rainbow, Pink, Purple, Blue, and Green, I went with green because it’s the brightest color that lasts the longest. 

 

The tail cap has a semi translucent black button inside and it has RGB LED’s underneath. These LED’s come on when you have a liion battery (14500) in the light, so you get a neat effect on the sides of the LED’s slowly fading between Red, Blue, and Green. 

Internally the parts are the same as the AA Tool, and interchangeable if you have both lights. There is an aluminum tube under the TurboGlow for conductivity. At the head of the light there is a exposed raw copper pill with light engraving of the Lumintop name, and model number. It’s a nice functional heat emitter too.

 

Lastly at the front the front bezel is TurboGlow and easily unscrews to expose the TIR style optic. This exposes the MCPCB. This makes the light very easily modded if you wanted to do an emitter swap. 

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 88mm, minimum width on the body at 19.21mm, diameter at the head at 21mm. Diameter of the glow ring is 30mm. Weight with the light, 800mAh Keeppower 14500, and Reylight Lan/Pineapple clip is 70g. The light is IP68 rated. 

 

Retention

The Gift-G1 comes with a yellow lanyard as the only factory supplied retention option, that can be attached via an optional anti roll ring/cigar grip ring. This works if that’s how you want to carry the light like this, but for me if I am going to EDC a light I need a pocket clip, so I went through my lights to see what I had that might work, and I found that the clip from my Reylight Lan/Pineapples V3+ work decently well here, You basically get the entire cap section sticking up out of your pocket (20.5mm) which is a bit much for me, especially when running a 14500 and having the tail cap light up but it’s still better than no pocket clip. 

I should note, with a clip like I had, I had more then one person stop me and said the light in my pocket was on when in fact it was just the tail cap LED’s or TurboGlow glowing. So it did draw some attention to itself.

 

LED & Beam Shots

The Gift G1 here is available with a Cree XP-G3 LED in cool white, or a Nichia 219C LED in Neutral white which is what I choose. It can be powered off of a AA or 14500 battery. I will include a chat here showing the claimed outputs for each emitter and battery combination. 

I found the beam pattern to be nice for EDC, It’s got a medium large hot center with a large dim spill, good for general shorter range and medium range tasks good for maybe 200ft max. One quick note about TurboGlow is it really lasts a lot longer than your traditional GITD material. With this light when you use it, you get light leakage around the front of the light so it continuously charges it. It makes for a lot of fun, kids love it. I found no visible PWM here to the eye or camera. 

 

Heat & Runtime

As mentioned before the light will run from 2 different power sources, either a AA 1.5v battery or a 14500 3.7V battery. You get the best performance and tail cap LED’s only if you run with the Liion 14500 but I did test both battery types.

 

With the 14500 the light stepped down from 100% relative output after 2 minutes and then ran at 55% relative output and declined in a slow manner. To me the curve looks unregulated. Total runtime was 1:10:00 but after this the light staid on in it’s firefly mode for about 2.5 additional hours. Maximum heat I saw was 48C at the 20 minute mark. The exposed copper does a nice job here with heat dissipation and adds some style points too. The light does have LVP. 

I did my AA test with a Amazon Basics High Capacity NiMH battery. These have proven to be good performance in the past, and here we saw a very flat output curve maintaining 98% relative output for 2:12 minutes. Heat here was minimal and I saw the peak being 36C at the end of the runtime. 

 

UI

The UI here is simple, it’s a 4 mode light, starting at the lowest mode. Once on, you can half press the mechanical button to go up in modes. There is a strobe mode, to access that, once the light is on, click give it a half press  6 times to get to strobe. 

 

There is memory when the light is off for 3 seconds this will memorize the setting and the light will come back on to that desired setting. That said my light has a firmware bug, and this only works with a 1.5v battery, if I use the 14500 Liion, memory mode doens’t work. Lumintop confirmed that they are aware and plan to fix it on the next batch of lights.

 

Pro’s

  • Fun
  • Choice of Body colors and Emitter options
  • Good beam profile for EDC

 

Con’s

  • No clip is included, but there are options on the market that fit.
  • The glow ring isn’t included and without it or a clip it leaves a gap on the body of the light.
  • Memory mode firmware bug.

 

Conclusion

The fun with the Gift-G1 is the TurboGlow body, it’s availability in several colors, and the LED’s in the tail cap that change color when using a 14500 battery. Inside it’s basically a Lumintop Tool which is a good EDC style light. For me the let down was no pocket clip, a must on a light this size if I am going to EDC it but luckily the clip from my Reylight Pineapple fit to make it more usable on a daily basis for me. 

I think this would make a great gift, a nice addition to a flasaholics collection since there are very few lights made from so much TurboGlow or a gift for a child (kind of expensive) to get a kid into the hobby if you like. 

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Wuben F5 Lantern & Fill Light Review (500 Lumens, 3 Tints, USB-C)

Today I am taking a look at a new Lantern and video fill light from Wuben with the F5. It can produce 3 tints, at 3 different brightness levels each, up to 500 lumens. It has an internal 5200mAh battery that can power the light and also be used to charge your devices. Thanks to Wuben for sending this to me to review and take a look at. 

 

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Pick up the Wuben F5 at https://bit.ly/3xwOYqY and get 10% off by using the code CD10F5LR at checkout.

 

Packaging & Accessories

The Wuben F5 packaging is a nice box with a photo of the light and it’s lumens and battery size at the front. On the back you get a few more stats about the light and the box seals.

Included accessories is a rubberized lanyard, USB-A to C charging cable, and a metal 2 way S binder. The manual is usable but could use some polish by a native English speaker. 

 

Construction

The F5 is made from plastic all around. The build quality feels solid, with the front diffuser feeling a little hollow. The front panel is domed and acts as a diffuser for the approximately 90 LED’s underneath. The sides and back panel are all one piece and available in a dark green or black color. 

Each side of the light has a feature, with the top having 4 LED power and locator LED’s. On the left hand side when looking straight on you have the port cover for the USB-C input, and USB-A output ports. Opposite that you have the 3 buttons to control the light, on/off, and up/down buttons. On the bottom you have a ¼ 20 brass grommet to connect into for mounting or for use on a camera. On the back you have a raised circle that features a fairly strong magnet inside that easily supports the lights weight to mount on metal surfaces. Around that is a hinged metal ring with a fairly stiff hinge. You can use this as a small kickstand to prop up the light or to put your finger through to hold the light in a more secure way. One corner is drilled to accept the included lanyard. 

 

Retention

As mentioned previously there is the included rubberized wrist strap that attaches at the corner of the light. On the back there is the magnetic ring that supports the weight of the light well in any position on a variety of ferris surfaces. There is also that metal ring and stiff hinge acting like a kickstand or finger hold. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the size at 78.8mm by 84.6mm by 33.7mm. I measured weight at 206.5 grams without the lanyard. The light is IP64 rated. So it’s dustproof and rated for submersion upto 1 meter. The light does not float. 

 

LED & Beam

There is no mention of exact emitters that are in use here but I can tell you there are 3 tints in this lantern, 3000k, 4500k, and 5700k. I can’t say exactly what CRI is here but my guess is somewhere in the 70-80 CRI, so pretty standard. There are a total of 30 emitters the 3000k and 5700k tints, 60 in total. For the neutral white mode the light actually runs both emitters at the same time. The beam is very even and diffused thanks to the frosted lens/diffuser on the top of the light. 

Exact outputs here vary based on the tint being used but Low ranges from 7-10 lumens, Medium 120-140 lumens, high 430 to 500 lumens with step downs from 230 to 300. 

 

There is some PWM here, especially in the lower output modes. I can’t see it with my eye but I can with my scope. The images here are from the warmer 3000k mode.

 

Runtime & Heat

Runtimes on the F5 are quite good, I did my runtime tests with a full 5200mAh internal battery on each color mode, in the top brightness. All 3 exceeded Wubens runtime numbers with warm white being 11:25:00, Neutral white and cool white both at 10:09:00. 

All 3 tints sustained theirs for about 8 minutes before stepping down to about 65% relative output. Basically this is a great light for long sustained outputs, perfect for that lantern application. Heat was really not worth talking about here, the sides and back stayed at room temp and only the front diffuser slightly heated up to be just warm.

 

UI

To turn the light on or off it’s a quick press on the center on/off/mode button. Wuben mentions stepless dimming here, and I don’t want anyone to get confused, this light does have steps, it’s not a light with ramping. That said the changes between modes are a soft fade. You have a plus minus button to adjust brightness in 3 steps. To change tint’s once on it’s a quick double press. The order it goes is cool white, neutral white, warm white. 

 

The battery indicators on the side also have what Wuben calls a Breathing LIght, I would call this a locator function. The lights fade in and out slowly to help you locate light in the dark. Useful for if your camping or trying to find it in a bag. This can be turned on or off if you triple click the central button with the light off. There is a lockout mode as well if you press that center button 4 times. 

 

Recharging

The Wuben F5 has a 5200mAh lithium ion battery inside. It’s non user serviceable. On one side of the light it as a large port cover that’s covering the USB-C port for charging, and a USB-A port to use it as a powerbank. There are 4 LED’s on the side that give you charge status when charging  and discharging. These values are a little different depending on the mode so make sure you consult the manual for the exact. 

 

For charging the light does support USB-C to C which is great to see, and in my tests took 3:22:24 to charge to full. Max charge rate I saw was 1.7A. 

As a powerbank I ran a discharge test at 2A, 5V which is the maximum it can output and it did this for 1:31:00. Capacity after conversion was measured at 3039mAh. So not the most efficient circuit here. 

 

Pro’s

  • 3 Built in Tint options with every light
  • Long runtimes for a pretty compact package
  • Charges via USB-C to C
  • Can be used as a powerbank
  • Strong Magnet, ¼ 20 grommet, and finger ring retention options

 

Con’s

  • Non user serviceable battery
  • Only 180 degrees of light instead of 360.

 

Conclusion

Lanterns are not the most exciting light in your collection but possibly one of the most useful. The Wuben F5 is up there in my opinion with the BLF LT1 I looked at last year. It’s smaller and doesn’t output in 360 degrees like a true lantern does, but it has a host of other features that make it useful for both the enthusiast and general user. 

The ability to run all 3 tints at 3 brightness levels really is great, for me I will definitely leave it in warm or neutral tints. The light is nice and diffused too.

I feel like the size and weight here are right. As much as I love the BLF LTF, it’s big, and heavy, the Wuben F5 is a reasonable size here and has more output/battery life then lanterns from larger brands and for less overall cost. 

If you don’t have a lantern in your go bag, I would strongly recommend one. This would be a great addition to that tornado, hurricane, earthquake or general power outage situation since you can use it to provide 10 hours of light on high, or 20 hours on medium, and use it as a powerbank to keep your phone topped off. Safe to say I am a fan and I do recommend it.

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Cyansky M3 Review (700 Lumens, Titanium, 16340, EDC)

Today I have Cyanskys Titanium M3 light. This is a new manufacture to the flashlight world and new to me. Thanks to them for sending this to me and being patient with how long it took me to review it. 

 

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Packaging & Accessories

Packaging here is a very small retail hanging box. It’s made of plastic and has a few stats on the outside and a clear window to see the light inside. Accessories include a 700mAh 16340 battery with microUSB charging on the cell, a microUSB charging cable, extra oring, and clip. Outside the box came a fairly traditional lanyard with some leather straps at the joints.

 

Construction

The light is made from titanium, the exact alloy is unknown, but it looks and feels of it. The finish is a fine bead blast and almost semi gloss as a result. The tail is flat, non magnetic and there are additional “required” laser engravings here. You have a spot for a small diameter through the lanyard here, which might be a good idea due to the size of the light. 

 

The clip on the light is designed to fit at the rear, for a head down carry. It’s the clip on type and is a pretty tight fit. The body section has different linear millings on it to add some texture and style. Thread on the body are square cut and have the slight grittyness/galling of titanium. The tight threads, and strong spring at the rear mean with the battery in it’s a little hard to get the threads started sometimes. 

 

The head looks like you could reverse the clip here but in practice it doesn’t work very well, due to the wrong angle of the clip. The head grows in size slightly with some very shallow fins and anti roll “rings”. The button here is nearly flush fitting and also titanium. It’s hard to find and makes no noise when pressed which makes it even harder to locate. The front bezel is thin in depth but thick in diameter. It spins freely but doesn’t seem to unscrew. 

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 50.85g, max diameter at 22mm, minimum diameter at 20.5mm. I measured the weight with the battery and clip installed at 49.1g. The light is rated for IP68 so not completely waterproof but good for 30 min of water at 1.5m. 

 

Retention

The light has 2 retention options, first is the push on clip, it’s designed to fit at the rear of the light. While it can rotate it’s a tight fit and will scratch the light. The clip allows for a very deep carry but amount of space at the top of the loop is too small for any material that I tried. 

 

The other option is to use the included lanyard at the rear of the light. This lanyard is a little more fancy than normal with a bit of leather on it and it didn’t fit in the box. 

 

LED & Beam

The M3 uses Cree XP-G3 LED with the S4 bin. It’s very cool white, and fairly harsh to my eyes. I would guess it’s about 6500-7000k. The orange peel reflector under the anti reflective coated lens, is actually pretty small, at about 9mm in diameter, and it’s decently deep. That said the beam is mostly flood, it has a semi large hot spot but it’s not very defined. Personally I prefer a TIR style optic in a light like this. 

 

As far as output Chansky claims 700 lumens, but comparing it to other lights I have I have my doubts about this. That’s confirmed by a few others reviewers. Mode spacing is decent but it lacks a firefly mode. Modes spacing is 5, 30, 150, 700.

 

I noticed no PWM to my eye or camera. On my oscilloscope there was a bit of sawtooths to the lower modes. Nothing to worry about. 

 

Heat & Runtime

I did all my runtime tests with the included 700mAh 16340 battery. When I tested the battery itself in my Vapcell S4 Plus charger that I reviewed last year it came in right at 704mAh which is great. The light will also run off a CR123A if you want, but expect less runtime. 

 

Overall effective runtime on this light in my tests was 1:05:00. LVP kicked in at the 2:15:00 mark at 3.13V. Turbo on this light steps down very quickly, at the 30 second mark, It’s able to maintain this after step down for most of it’s runtime thought. Max temp I saw was 54C at the 1hr mark. 

 

UI

The UI on this light is simple but a little different from many others. From off, to on you have to press and hold the button, and the light comes on in low. If you keep holding the light will go to strobe. Once on you have 4 modes, and at any time you can do a single press to go up modes. Long press will turn the light off. There is no memory modes or shortcuts. The biggest issue I have with the UI is finding the button, it is almost flush, and the same color when looking at it so it’s hard to feel and hard to see. 

 

Recharging

Recharging is accomplished on the included 700mAh battery via a built in MicroUSB port on the battery. The charging time here is pretty long at 2:09:00, and on the slow side at 0.34A. This is certainly on the safe and conservative side for a battery this size. The battery itself has LED’s on top like many cells with onboard charging, red when charging, green when charged. 

 

Pro’s

  • Titanium body with a nice fit and finish
  • Very small, and short size
  • Standard Battery

 

Con’s

  • Very cool white, floody beam
  • Button is hard to find, has no tactical feel, impossible to use with gloves.
  • Expensive list price

 

Conclusion

The Cyansky M3 is a good first attempt by the new company of an EDC style flashlight. While it’s expensive because of its titanium construction that also what caught my eye and why I wanted to take a look. The front lens assembly is a little different construction from what’s more commonly seen, and the result is a very floody beam. I personally prefer a TIR optic in this type small EDC light.

In a future light I do hope they improve the button locatability with maybe a button with some texture on it, add some additional space on the clip so that it fits better over more materials, and offer an LED that more neutral, maybe even high CRI even if it sacrifices overall output. 

 

Because of the well thought out UI, activation in the pocket isn’t an issue, it just takes a second to remember you have to press and hold to turn on, making it different from most other flashlight UI’s. 

 

Let me know in the comments below on your thoughts on ths Cyansky M3.

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Nitecore T4K Review “The Worlds Brightest Keychain Flashlight” (4000 Lumens, USB-C, 4 Emitters)

Today I have Nitecore’s new T4K the worlds smallest 4000 lumen light. This continues on Nitecore’s trend of coming out with increasingly larger, higher performance keychain style lights, with the TIP, TUP and now the T4K. Thanks to Nitecore for sending this to me to look at and review. I will have a link to where you can find it if you are interested. 

 

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Packaging & Accessories

Packaging here is really stepped up, and it reminds me of Olight boxes with its magnetic closure and Thank you Message inside the front lip. The sides have some info and feature list on the back. Inside you get the T4k itself, a USB-A to C cable, a keychain clip, the manual and a warning about using lockout (Smart). 

 

Construction

The Nitecore T4K will look similar if you are a TUP owner, and it has a similar physical layout with a few changes. It’s made of a black anodized aluminum construction shell that’s held together with torx bits smaller than T4. On the top you have 2 buttons, a power and mode, as well as a small OLED screen that helps navigate the UI. It’s not necessary but I really like it. Branding is minimal which is nice as well.

 

On the front you have what looks to be a custom optic and flat face, when the light is on at the front you get kind of a side indicator like on a car at the seam which is kind of neat. At the back you have the USB-C port with no cover, and the mounting point. Nitecore says it can withstand 66 pounds of weight which hopefully is significantly more then you have on your car keys, but that should help it from getting caught too if pulled. This has a quick detach point too thats quite solid, and made of metal. I will talk more about the clip in the retention section.

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 36.34mm width at 29mm, and thickness at the head at 25.2mm. Weight with the clip and quick detach is 76.3g. The T4K is IPX 54 rated which means splashing water and dust should be fine. 

 

This compares to the TUP which comes in at 53.9g and is smaller in all dimensions. If you are TUP owner and are happy with the size the T4K isn’t that much bigger but is larger in all dimensions. Here is a photo of a few other keychain lights that I have and you can see the T4K just towers over all of them. It’s even a little larger then the Olight S1R II Baton. 

 

Retention

The T4K has a few options for retention. First you have the pocket clip on the back. It’s a wide clip, that’s attached via small Philips screws which seem like an odd choice given the rest of the light is assembled with Torx. This clip allows the light to sit pretty low in the pocket, if you choose to carry it that way. I won’t due to it’s diameter but it also clips on to molle webbing pretty well. 

 

At the back there is a quick release mount to attach it to the included key ring or you could use a small diameter lanyard too. It has a spring mounted button to attach and detach and can withstand a pull force of 66lbs which is impressive.

 

LED & Beam

The T4K has 4x Cree XP-L2 V6 in Cool White, no exact tint is specified but it’s pretty standard cool white, not super blue. The beam pattern out of the optic is fairly round but far from perfect, it has a few artifacts but it’s only really noticeable on a wall or flat surface and not in use. It’s a large spot, with very minimal spill, a little surprising as I expected this to be mostly flood. Rather then tell you all of the official technical data, here is the slide from Nitecore. 

 

Heat and Runtime 

Turbo runtime is going to be easier if I show it here due to the sample rate of my light meter, so let’s do that. Remember that this is 4000 lumens and a very small light. At first it will run for 10 seconds, before stepping down, I can keep running retriggering turbo and you will see the graph on the screen get shorter and shorter as the light heats up. After doing this 6 times the light does warm up. The thermocouple on the side during my testing said 52C (126F) but it doesn’t feel too hot to hold in the hand. With the normal modes it only gets slightly warm. After these 6 turbo runs the battery voltage did drop from 4.2V to 4V. I do wish I had a thermal camera because of how this one spreads heat out on the bottom of the light and through the clip. Not your typical flashlight. 

 

Normal mode runtimes were pretty good, they have flat outputs until they run out of power, with a small spike at the end. I tested High and came up a little short of Nitecores official rating of 2:45:00, at 2:17:00. So you might take the other runtimes with a small grain of salt.

 

UI

This light ships with 2 UI, the default being “Demo” mode. Given the package is a sealed box without a window, I can’t think of a legit reason why the light has a demo mode, and why it would be the default. Nitecore says this is for EDC use, but I would prefer to manually turn the light off, if my task takes longer than 30 seconds. For practical use the user needs to switch it into daily mode by pressing both buttons at the same time while the light is off.

 

Daily mode is more straightforward and what you would expect. The light starts in moon light mode and linearly goes up. Ultralow mode is 1 lumen, then 15 lumens, 65 lumens, 200 lumens, and momentary turbo of 4000 lumens. This is the same as the Nitecore TUP except for the difference in Turbo output. The light has memory in this mode and will remember where you were last at. It has 2 buttons, basically a power and a mode button.

The light has direct access to low and Turbo. To access low, when the light is off (and not locked) press and hold the power button to access 1 lumen mode. To access tubo press and hold the mode button, and this is in momentary.

 

The light also has 2 lockout modes. Lock 1 is half lockout mode. It locks the power button but if you press and hold (about 1 second) the mode button you get access to turbo. To exit lockout you have to hold both buttons at the same time. In lockout mode 2 the light won’t turn on until unlocked. 

 

Recharging

Internally the Nitecore T4K has a 1000mAh lithium polymer battery. For recharging the light has a USB-C port on the rear. The interesting thing here is that it doesn’t have a cover to prevent dirt and water. I think it would be nice if it did but I suppose it’s fine that it doesn’t. We all carry around smartphones most with exposed ports and things end up being fine. 

 

Total charge time of the internal battery was 1:20:00, with max charge rate bing 1.1V at the 32 minute mark. The light does support charging via USB-C to C cable and via a USB-C PD charger which is the way it should be. It’s nice the display say the voltage of the battery as well. 

 

Pro’s

  • Nice to see USB-C being used here and full compatibility but a port cover would be nice
  • I like the screen, and it gives a lot of useful info like output, estimated runtime, and battery voltage.
  • UI makes sense here, just remember to use lockout if it’s being carried to prevent an accidental blast of 4000 lumens.

 

Con’s

  • Too big for the keychain name, it’s more of a jacket pocket light
  • Short turbo runtime but that’s to be expect at this size
  • Pricey if you think of it as a keychain light, not terrible if you think of it more as a pocket light.

 

Conclusion

My conclusion on the Nitecore T4K is it produces a ton of light from such a small package, but I don’t think it should be called a keychain light. It’s just just quite a bit larger than I want on my actual keychain especially if I try to put them in my pants pockets. I think it works better as a something to put in a jacket pocket. Runtimes on the lower modes are long enough that you could realistically go walk the dog with this one more then likely if you wanted, and the UI is such that it’s easy to boost from 200 lumens to 4000 lumens if you need more light. That mode spacing gap though is huge between 200 and 4000 lumens, A mode of 1000 or 1500 would be nice to bridge the gap especially if you could get a minute or two out of it. 

I don’t always talk about price but I feel like I kind of have to here, the current MSRP of the T4K is around $80 at the time of this review, and I feel like that’s on the pricey side for what’s targeted to a keychain light. It’s got the output, screen, and USB-C but that’s just a lot. 

 

The TUP might be more practical but the T4K is the output king. If you want something to impress someone with how bright it can be for how small it is the T4K does a great job of that and I can recommend it. 

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Olight i5T Brass & OPen 2 Blue Reviews

Today I wanted to share with you 2 special editions that Olight is going to have for sale on their upcoming Valentine’s day Flash Sale tonight. The i5T in Brass, and the OPen2 in blue anodized aluminum. Now you have probably seen lots of gear influencer video’s in the past on other Olight sales, this isn’t one of those videos, but full disclosure Olight did send me these to help promote the sale, and provide an affiliate link which does help support the channel. I have been a long time Open2 and i5T user so let’s talk about the sale and get into the details about both items.

Link to the Olight Valentines Sale (Brass i5T & Blue OPen2) http://bit.ly/OlightLiquidRetro

Flash sale date: January 25 2021 8:00PM EST – To January 26 2021, 11:59PM EST

Open 2 Blue(Limited Edition), $44.96?MSRP?$59.95?
i5T EOS Brass(Limited Edition), $31.96?MSRP?$39.95?

35% OFF These bundles
1) Open 2 Blue + i5T EOS Brass, $64.94?MSRP?$99.90?
2) S1R II + Baton Pro, $100.69?MSRP?$154.90?
3) S1R II + S2R II, $87.69?MSRP?$134.90?
4) i5T OD Green + i5T PU, $42.84 (MSRP?$65.90)

Free Tiers:
1) Over $129 get a FREE i3T Black (MSRP: $19.95)
2) Over $199 get a FREE M1T Plus DT (MSRP: $59.95)
3) Over $299 get a FREE Seeker 2 (MSRP: $109.95)

 

 

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Klarus XT11 GT Pro Review (2000 Lumens, Cree XHP 35 HD, USB-C,18650)

Today I have a newer light from Klarus the XT11 GT Pro. This is an update to a light that Klarus has made previously. Klarus (Affiliate) sent this to me earlier in the year for review, and I appreciate their patience as it took me a little while to get to it. 

 

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Construction

The XT11GT Pro is made from aluminum and is anodized in a smooth medium gloss black anodizing. Visually it’s different then the standard XT11GT. It features the same tactical tail cap, with the large center button being a mechanical switch with a grippy silicon cover and the paddle on the side to allow for mode selection. The paddle was upgraded to aluminum here for incredibility. The clip is a clip on, non fixed and rotates around the body of the light. It’s not deep carry with it leaving about 32mm exposed from a pocket. 

The body is milled with small horizontal lines going around the body of the light and then it has small relieves milled in. It’s a nice change from traditional knurling and provides a good amount of grip. The threads are nice and square cut and it’s a dual wall construction. The head and body tube appear to be once piece. As we get to the head of the light it grows in size, It’s got a built in anti roll ring that adds some style and nicely disguises the USB charging port cover. This is definitely one of the better designs I have seen for this. 

The bezel is a little aggressive and the outer edges have some sharper sides. It’s a gunmetal color and stainless steel I believe. It’s easily unscrewed by hand. Inside is a anti reflective coated glass lens, a fairly deep smooth reflector 

 

Size and Weight

I measured the length at 139mm, minimum diameter on the body at 25mm, maximum diameter on the head at 35mm. Weight with the included battery and clip was 169.2g. 

For an 18650 light it’s a little on the long side, but that’s not unexpected with the deeper reflector. Here are some comparison shots with the light and some others.

 

Retention

Your 2 Retention methods on this light is with the included pocket clip. Unfortunately this isn’t deep carry carry with about 32mm of the light exposed if you do decide to use the clip. With the size of this light that’s ok, as I think it’s more of a bag or coat light myself. The included holster does the job pretty well too, no complaints there. 

 

LED & Beamshots

The XT11 GT Pro is using the Cree XHP 35 HD LED in cool white at 6500k. This is an interesting choice of LED”s since it’s officially been discontinued by Cree. That said plenty of existing stock still exists and Klarus must feel like they have enough to meet the expected demand of this light. The beam it’s self is a good all arounder. The deep smoother reflector means the light has a fairly small hotspot and it throws pretty well but there is also spill to allow for short and medium range light. So a good all around beam. 

The light will run on 18650 batteries which is how I will use it, but it will also run on 2x CR123a batteries which is nice as a backup. As a result the working voltage is 2.8V to 6.4V/ No PWM was observed. 

 

Runtime & Heat

I measured runtime with the included 3100mAh battery. Turbo runtime was 50 seconds before stepping down to 90% and then it ran for another 2 minutes 10 seconds before settling at 30% relative output where it ran for an additional 1:37:00. Total runtime was 2 hours. Max Heat I saw was 42C at 1:35. 

 

UI

Like many of Klarus recent lights this has 2 modes of operation, a Tactical and a Outdoor setting. The tactical mode allows the main button on the rear of the light to go to turbo, and the paddle to be a shortcut for strobe that you can lock on by holding for 2 seconds.

I primarily tested the light in it’s outdoors setting though. When in this setting the primary button on the rear is a shortcut to turbo both as momentary or locked on. Once on you can use the paddle to decrease the modes from turbo, high, Medium, and low. You can also use the paddle when the light is off to start in moonlight mode and then increase in output for each push. It’s a system that works better then I expected and is pretty intuitive once you use and get it.  

 

Recharging

One of the updates the XT11 GT Pro has is USB-C charging. Unfortunately it doesn’t support USB-C to C or USB-C PD charging. So you need to use the supplied (or similar) USB-A to USB-C cable to charge the light. The port cover here is nicely shaped and fits well into the side of the head. It’s one of the better executions I have seen of this in 2020. 

I charged the included 3100mAh battery from LVP to full in a total time of 3:23:10. It wasn’t the fastest charging rate, as the maximum I saw was right at 1A. There is a small LED indicator light built into the side of the light to act as a battery charge state indicator. Green is anything more then 70%, orange is between 30-70%, and red is less then 30%, red flashing is less then 10%. 

Packaging

My light is a super early production light (Serial number 17), and doesn’t have a box so I can’t comment on that. I can tell you the accessories it came with. My light came with a 3100mAh button top protected IMR 18650 battery, a Klarus branded lanyard and a USB-A to USB-C charging cable. It also came with a nylon, Klarus branded holster. It has a Dring and velcro belt loop. It seems to be solidly made. 

 

Pro

  • I like the outdoor UI setting here once you get the hang of it but it’s a little different.
  • Nice size in the hand for an all around light if you want your buttons on the rear.


Cons

  • Seems expensive
  • Cool white only
  • No true moon light mode, lowest is 10 lumen output
  • No USB-C to C compatibility and slow charging

 

Conclusion

My conclusion for the Klarus XT11GT Pro is that it’s a good all around light general purpose light. The 2 UI modes allow you to use it tactically if you want or use it in the outdoor mode which is more appropriate for everyday uses like power outages and camping. The beam is useful with enough throw and spill to do both jobs pretty well. What I don’t care for is the asking price I am seeing at the time of filming. It’s high in my opinion currently. Around $50-60 would make it a good value but at nearly double that I would struggle to pay full price. So if you’re interested I would watch for a sale or coupon.