Tag: everyday carry 2023

The Wuben X3 Lightok is the latest new product from Wuben, it’s the 3rd and smallest in the X series of side by side lights from Wuben, but this one brings quite a few different features we have not seen on the others. First is the rotating head to convert from straight on to 90 degrees, both red and white LED’s, and LCD Display, Wireless charging, and a charging case. There is lots to go into detail on this one to explain everything.

Wuben did send this to me to promote the X3’s launch on Kickstarter which is live now. Links will be in the description below to where you can learn more. Supporting the Kickstarter will help support my channel here too. All that said these are my unbias views and opinions on the light and not influenced by Wuben’s decision to send me the X3 in advance of the campaign. 

Back the Wuben X3 on Kickstarter at https://bit.ly/LR-X3

 

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Packaging & Accessories

With my preproduction sample, I didn’t receive the final packaging or accessories. Mine came with the charging case, the flashlight itself with the clip preinstalled, and Wuben’s combination lanyard and USB-C charging cable that’s nifty. The manual I received is the first revision and a bit rough on the translation in some places, word choice is odd, and there are some phrasing head-scratchers. I do expect this to be fixed in the final version.

 

Construction & Design

Lots of things to talk about on the X3. First, let’s start with the light itself. The head module is made of aluminum and anodized in black in my example. The body in my example is made from hard plastic, which is semi-transparent and glows in the dark. Wuben has said there will be 4 different colors offered, black, white, camouflage green, and a gradient ramp blue similar to what they have done on other X series lights. It unclear if that will be just the head or body color differences and if there may be different materials chosen for the body. The campaign will have pictures to explain that for sure.

The head features two LEDs (White on the left, Red on the right), both LEDs sit behind TIR optics, and a single-piece plastic lens held in place with an aluminum bezel. On the top, you have a small LCD screen on the left, and the UI button on the right which has a nice milled circular texture on it. The head itself rotates clockwise when converting from a right-angle light to a straight-on one. There are only detents at the beginning and end. 

The body of the light in my example is made of semi-transparent glow-in-the-dark plastic. On the front, you can see the coil that allows it to charge wirelessly. On the back you have a spring steel clip that’s attached to the light that I will talk more about later and at the bottom there are 2 magnets that hold the light up well. The sides are smooth with some angular relief cuts that seem to fit my hand reasonably well. The light can head or tail stand without issue, it’s a rectangle.

The next piece is the recharging case. This is made of soft-touch plastic that seems to show most marks and fingerprints pretty easily. There is a clear diffused piece of plastic that is hinged and when in the up position the light slides in to charge or for storage. This diffuser combined with the rotating head allows the light to act like a lantern if you want it to. It’s a nice bonus for what is otherwise the charging case. The front of the case contains a little rubber door that covers the USB-C charging port for the internal battery in the case, and the button to control the case.

 

User Interface

The user interface of the light is reasonably simple, especially the small LCD Screen next to the button. From off a quick press puts your into the main white LED modes, starting with the mode used last (excluding turbo) so it does have memory. Once on long pressing the button allows you to change the 3 main white modes. Double pressing goes to Turbo. Triple pressing at any time takes you to white SOS. 

The light also has a red LED thats pretty easy to activate. From Off, long press to go to red, this also has memory mode and strobe inside its 3 mode options, which I’m not a huge fan of myself. Similarly long pressing once already on in red, allows you to change to the other two red modes. Once the light is completely off, the light will go back to white with just a quick press. One interesting note is that you can use the case to make either the red or the white light a lantern. 

 

Retention

The retention option on the light itself is the spring steel clip that’s screwed onto the back of the light. It’s made of pretty sturdy steel and is quite stiff. I would say too stiff as it took two hands to put it onto some overalls or the pocket of some jeans. It’s attached so that it’s a heads up carry. Not great for putting in your pocket to conceal in an EDC manner, but makes sense to use it more as a right angle light. 

The case has a slot in the back for attaching the included dual-purpose lanyard and charging cable. It’s a pretty neat design with a cable holder for lack of a better word captures the USB-C ends and the cable portion is more of a ribbon material with a handy metric ruler on it.

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length of the light at 70.35mm, the width at 35.05mm and the depth at 19.77mm. The weight of just the light with the clip is 62.7g or 2.21oz. With the case but without the lanyard it comes to 5.87oz or 166.4g. The size of the case is 85.4mm x 47mm x 39.7mm. The light is IPX 65 water-rated and drop resistant for 1 meter. No water or drop rating is given for the case. Here are a few photos of the X3 next to it’s other X series lights and my Wurkkos FC11 reference light.

 

LED & Beam

The Wuben X3 is using the Samsung LH351D emitter in a neutral 5000k tint. On my Opple meter, I measured 4895k at 94.5Ra (CRI), so not only is it neutral but it’s high CRI as well. The DUV was very neutral with no color tinges like you sometimes get with the LH351D’s. For me personally, this is a nice choice of emitter and tint.No specific LED was mentioned for the red LED’s here. There is PWM found here but it’s quick.

The beam pattern is a fuzzy tight hotspot with a minimal amount of spill, I think the fuzzyness is due to the TIR reflector that’s being used here and I don’t really notice it until you are showing the light on a flat uniform surface like a wall or ceiling.

 

Outputs

A note on outputs, that things in general underperformed Wuben’s initial claims. With Turbo lasting less than 30 seconds in my multiple tests, if I followed the FL1 standard of taking a reading after 30 seconds, the claims here should be more like 175 lumens instead of the 700 claimed or the 515 lumens measured at initial power on. The rest of the modes were within a reasonable margin of error for me, and red actually was more than claimed.

 

Heat & Runtimes

For my heat and runtimes, I took measurements with my TexasAce Lumentube. Starting in Turbo the light stepped down very quickly right at 30 seconds, this is disappointing along with the output numbers being less than claimed on my preproduction model. This isn’t heat related as the heat barely changed during this time. Max heat was 63C at the 18-minute mark. There isn’t a ton of room to dissipate heat here with the smaller aluminum head. The light was able to sustain between 100-180 lumens then for 90 minutes, in High outputs were slightly lower and runtimes were only 2-3 minutes longer. In Medium the light ran for about 4:30:00 at a very stable 75 lumens or so. 

 

Recharging

Recharging of the X3 flashlight itself can only be done wirelessly. Luckily it seems to use the Qi charging standard so not only can you use the case the light comes with but many other charging pads seem to work in my experience. I have a 5W Samsung charging pad here that I used, and doing that the light took just shy of 2 hours to charge.

Internally the light itself has a lithium polymer battery thats 1000mAh in size. Charging this via the case took about 2:46:00. I measured this by using the case with a full charge, plugging in the light and then plugging in the case to AC power, so in theory the power being consumed was for charging the light. This is a fairly slow charging speed for a small battery, but we need to keep in mind wireless charging isn’t super efficient, just convenient. 

The case also contains it’s own 3000mAh battery. In my testing, I found that I could charge the X3 from LVP to full about 1.7 times before it’s internal capacity was full. I tested charging just the internal battery in the case from zero to full and that took 2.5 hours. The case did seem to always draw a small amount of power when it indicated it was full regardless of how many hours you left it in. 

 

Conclusion

When I first read about the X3 I thought it was a little bit of a gimmick, but once I got it in my hand and started using it, it grew on me quickly. It’s a useful feature set for what it is. I like the dual emitter colors, especially in this side-by-side format, it works well. The rotating head here works really well, so not only is it a light you can clip onto a vest or pack strap, but you can use it more like a conventional flashlight too. It’s a good LED and tint option in my opinion here too being neutral and high CRI.

The LED screen here is functional by telling you the mode, number of lumens and power level indicator. The only thing I wish it did was estimate the remaining runtime at this power mode. That’s something NItecore has been doing on their lights with screens that are useful rather than a graphic showing the battery level that isn’t very precise.

The glow-in-the-dark body in this example and the internal LED that comes on when it’s charging creates a neat glowing effect. The magnets in the bottom are strong and functional too. The wireless charging works well but is kind of slow. At first, I was against the idea but found it rather convenient that you could charge in the case or in most places I could charge my smartphone. I could even do wireless powersharing from my smartphone if I wanted. I can’t think of really any other flashlights I have used that charge via Qi. 

This isn’t something I will probably EDC In my front jeans pocket like I do smaller round lights due to it’s size and harder angles, and not being deep carry at all. For me, it’s probably more of a back pocket or elsewhere in my bag type of light. I have been finding it something I grab when I need to go look at something in the basement or at night quickly because I like how it feels in my hand. I’m a little disappointed that the output here for me isn’t what’s claimed, and it’s off by a decent margin. Not sure why there is such a large difference but I know other reviewers have had similar experiences. Wuben either needs to address this or adjust its claims to match outputs that are closer to reality. Overall a fun light I can recommend, especially if you have some of the other X series of lights and like them, just be aware turbo output may be underwhelming.. I will have links below in the description to where you can find the Kickstarter on this one or if your watching after the Kickstarter is over where you can pick up the light now.

Back the Wuben X3 on Kickstarter at https://bit.ly/LR-X3