Tag: led flashlight 2020

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Reylight Quad Dawn Maratac (21700, 4000 Lumens, Cree XPL-Hi, 5000k)

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

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Olight Warrior X Turbo Review (1100 Meters of Throw, 21700 Rechargeable Battery)

Today I have Olights new thrower flashlight, the Warrior X Turbo. It’s capable of 1000 meters of throw on 1100 lumens and 250,000 candella. It has an Osram LED, and is compatible with the pressure switch from the Olight Odin. Thanks to Skyben on Amazon for sending this to me to look at and review.

 

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Packaging & Accessories

I won’t go into much detail here but the Warrior X Turbo has great packaging, arguably Olight has the nicest packaging in the production flashlight world. The light comes currently as two colors, you have the black model that I have here and then Olight does offer a limited production gunmetal gray as well. As a base package the light comes with a 5000mAh proprietary 21700mAh battery. Fun side note I will link to a video another flashlight reviewer did of how they make these batteries. You also get the latest generation of the MCC charging system, a Tactical Grip Ring (TGR), pocket clip, anti roll ring, lanyard, and a nylon holster. 

 

Construction

The Warrior X Turbo takes a lot of the design cues from the Olight M2R Pro, in the tail cap and body, adapting them to the larger thrower platform. Overall build quality is great for a production light.  First the more aggressive tail button is here, which does allow the light to tail stand but it’s not the most stable when doing so. The tail is also compatible with the locking remote switch from the Olight Odin so if you have that it works here great. Inside the tail is a spring loaded contact internally. 

 

Threads on the body are anodized, nicely greased and have a double oring system, to interface with the anti roll ring and the TGR. I will talk in detail about the clip in the retention section. The grip on the body is the same as what was on the M2R Pro, a more aggressive triangle, and has a few flats milled in for labeling. 

The head is glued to the body and really grows in size to accommodate the large smooth deep reflector. I like the relief that’s milled in to give it some more style and save weight. The front bezel is beefy with large solid crenulations that allow light the light to stand on its head and for light to spill out. It’s not glued in place and can be removed with some force. This does effect the beam shape on the outer edges. The lens is large and anti reflective coated.

 

Size & Weight

I measured the length at 159mm, maximum diameter at the head was 58mm, minimum diameter on the body was 26.2mm. Weight with the battery, clip, standard anti roll ring came in at 296.1g. Here are a few pictures of the light with a few similarly sized lights you might know. 

Retention & Grip

You have a couple of retention options for the Warrier X Turbo, it does come with a captured pocket clip, but it’s 38mm from the top of the light. That’s ok because with the size of the head here, your not going to be EDCing this in a pocket. The captured clip is nice, it won’t rotate because of an extra tab in the clip and on the light and anti roll ring. 

 

The stock anti roll ring allows you to use the standard cigar style grip without problems, but that can be a little uncomfortable so Olight includes a Tactical Grip Ring (TGR) that’s a softer silicon like material that slips on in its place. 

Other options include a lanyard that’s included, and the included holster thats purpose built for this light. It has a velcro belt loop and plastic D ring. 

 

LED & Beamshots

Olight doesn’t say which LED is in this light officially, but they do list the tint at 6000-6700k, and by looking at it my guess is it’s one of the OSRAM models we have seen in other popular throwers. I wish they would list the LED they are using like almost every other manufacturer does. It’s a cool tint but not blue. The beam has a small but very intense hot spot, possibly one of the tightest I have had in recent times. There is a spill but it’s very minimal, only a few percent of the center, and there is some distortion on the edges from the shape of the outer bezel that’s noticeable at short range. I didn’t measure any PWM on this light on either mode.

 

 

Runtime & Heat

The ability on the Olight Warrior X Turbo to sustain it’s turbo output was better then I expected. From start to full and stable step down was right at 9 minutes, and it stayed above 80% relative output for the first 6 minutes. At that point it was running at 50% relative output for 1:45:00. Total runtime was just shy of 3 hours. The good news is with such a tight beam even at the lower output throws pretty well. When the power level reaches 20% the light starts to vibrate every 5 minutes to let you know, when it’s below 10% it will vibrate every minute, and below 5% it will vibrate every 10 seconds. You can’t miss it especially if mounted on a firearm. Maximum heat I saw was 48C at the 9 minute mark. LVP was measured at 2.95V.

UI

The UI here is super easy, it’s a 2 mode light with momentary and full on tactual switch. Low is rated for 150 lumens and you can use it in momentary if you half press the button and hold, or a quick have press will lock it on. A full press gives you full power 1100 lumens before step down and a quick press will lock it on, or a full press and hold will work in momentary. It’s the same UI we have seen in other tactical Olights with a rear switch. This light also works with the pressure switch from the Olight Odin.

 

Recharging

I had a little bit of trouble recording the graph with the Warrier X Turbo with my equipment due to the spikes along the curve where the current drops very near zero which tricks the measuring tools, but overall charge time here was 5:30:00, and the maximum charge rate I saw was 1.92A. I measured the full battery at 4.172V. No concerns with the charging but I will have to look for a firmware update for my equipment. 

Pro’s

  • Long runtime for “Turbo” Nearly 10 minutes. 
  • Great build Quality
  • Despite being cool white it’s not obnoxiously blue in tint
  • Options to mount/cary/activate

 

Con’s

  • Tail magnet is only for recharging & the pressure switch, it’s not strong enough to hold the weight of the light.
  • Proprietary Battery
  • On the pricy side
  • Two modes are ok, 3 might make it a little more useful for more then a weapon light.

 

Conclusion

The Warrior X Turbo is a nice more compact thrower from Olight. It has almost as much power as the much larger, more expensive Javalot Pro, but in a size thats easier to use, and carry on your person. While this is designed as a weapon light with the compatibility with the remote pressure switch and to beagle to be mounted on a weapon, it also works pretty well as a super easy main thrower. To me the long 6-9 minute runtime on Turbo is hard to beat in many other thrower style lights in this price category. 

 

It’s an Olight so it has the usual caveats, like the proprietary battery, and the cooler tints. If you are less sensitive to those things I can recommend the Warrior X Turbo as a pretty sweet well built thrower.

 

Get the Warrior X Turbo in Black on Amazon at https://amzn.to/32ntwHs

Get it in Gunmetal Gray at https://amzn.to/3hpK7yz