Today I have Acebeam’s new L35 Tactical Thrower. The one I have here has a Cree XHP70.2 LED capable of 5000 lumens with a throw out to 480 meters. It has a big TIR reflector in it’s short head to create a real wall of light that you will see in my night shots. It’s powered by a 21700 battery too. Thanks to Acebeam for sending this to me and providing a discount if you are interested in this light. More info on that will be in the description below.
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Packaging & Accessories
The L35 comes in a cardboard retail top hanging style packaging. The front shows the light in 1:1 scale with Acebeams black and orange theme. The box has a lot of information on the side and rear panel. There are two versions of this light, one with a Cree XHP 70.2 LED and the other with a LatticePower P70 that isn’t widely available yet (New LED). The light also comes as a kit version with a 21700 battery with onboard USB-C or not. Other accessories that come with all lights are a box of spares (2x O’Rings, 1x tail button), non branded lanyard, standard paperwork and a holster. The holster on mine had a pretty crumpled end, it’s just nylon, no additional padding inside. It’s a fairly tight fit for the light, making me think this isn’t a holster made specifically for this light but one that’s repurposed from another model.
Construction
The Acebeam L35 shares a lot of characteristics and good build quality traits with the Acebeam L17 I reviewed earlier in 2020. It has the same mat anodized aluminum and nice machining. Starting at the tailcap you have a raised branded Acebeam button, underneath it is a mechanical switch for a full actuation it does require a decent amount of force. A quick 1/8 turn on the tail cap does disable the tail button and side switch. There is a small amount of knurling thats pretty aggressive on the tail. Inside there is a single very stiff spring.
Threads on this light are anodized, square cut, nicely greased and very smooth as a result. Some of the best in the production light category. The tactical ring is aluminum and completely round, it’s removable but you first need to remove the oring in front of it. Below that is a removable pocket clip. The body of the light is glued to the head. It has a milled grip pattern into it and it’s very mild for a tactical light. I do like the look though as it’s kind of a spiral.
The head has 3 steps before reaching it’s final diameter at the front of the light. There is minimal branding, just the brand, model number and at the back. The side switch is polished and a very tight fit. It’s fairly sensitive but flat. To the left of this at the 9 oclock position there is a LED for a battery indicator and status indicator. The head then grows with the reflector. It’s quite short for it’s diameter and there is the aggressive diamond knurling. At the very front is a pretty aggressive tumbled stainless steel strike bezel. Underneath is a glass lens over top of the TIR plastic reflector. I can see a small molding marks inside inside the reflector but these don’t show on the beam. The center is diffused as well.
Size & Weight
Overall length of the light came in at 152mm. Minimum diameter on the body was 25.42mm, maximum diameter on the head was 54.1mm. I measured the weight with the clip on but without a battery at 166.2g. The light is rated for a 1M drop and is IPX8 rated to 5M.
Retention
As mentioned previously the light does come with a nylon holster that’s Acebeam branded. Mine was kind of crushed at the end in shipping but still works fine. It has very little padding which is ok. There is a dring and fixed belt loop. I question if this holster was made for this light as the velcro doesn’t have full engagement.
There is also a removable pocket clip on the light that fits below the tactical ring. It’s not fixed and rotates with moderate pressure, I would expect it to rub on the anodizing over time too. The pocket clip here is less for EDC carry in a front pocket but more for clipping on to a vest or something like that. There is a lanyard and the main attachment point is on the tactical ring.
LED & Beamshots
My L35 here is running the Cree XHP 70.2P LED in a neutral white at 5000k. Mine has a green tint that’s more noticeable at lower powers and in the corona and spill. Not very surprising to have tint shift on this Cree LED. It’s rated for 5000 lumens, a beam distance of 480 meters at 57,600 candela. There is a LaticePower P70 LED option for this light that is a slight decrease in lumens but an increase in throw by 90 meters. I will be interested to hear more about it when it becomes available as it’s a new LED. You do need a high drain (At least 20A or more) 21700 when running this light to get maximum performance. If batteries are not as high drain the light will start to blink when in turbo mode and step down quickly.
Mode spacing is pretty good here, as you can see from the table below. It’s nice to see it have a 1 lumen moonlight mode. The jump from high at 1500 to turbo at 5000 sounds like a lot and it is quite a bit. There is no PWM with this light.
Heat and Runtime
For my runtimes tests I used an Xtar 4200mAh battery with a max amperage rating of 45A. This light requires a battery capable of 20A or more in order to see it’s top performance. In turbo the light ran for 1:15 before stepping down to about 38% relative output. This was a bit disappointing how fast it stepped down as the difference of 5000 lumens to 1500 lumens is substantial. Here it ran for another 1:10:00 before shutting down with LVP kickin in at 2.966V. I did the same runtime test but only ran it on high and got slightly longer runtime of 1:19:00. This curve was very flat. So at these higher outputs the light has a fairly limited runtime, but the good news is the cure is flat after the initial step down.
Heat was interesting, I had trouble keeping my thermal couple attached to the light, with the small shelf the tape didn’t want to stay attached as well as I hoped in my 3 test. Maybe it’s time for some high temp tape. Max temp I saw before step down was 43C, but during the longer runtimes heat continued to rise to about 55C before it looks like the thermal couple came loose during the last 15 minutes.
UI
The UI is simple to use, you have 2 controls, the eswitch at the front and the instant access to turbo via the mechanical switch in the rear. If you turn the light on with the rear switch, the front switch doesn’t work at all. With the front switch you can simply press to turn on, and then press and hold to cycle between the normal outputs. Double press to go to turbo, and triple press to go to strobe. To lock electronically press and hold for 3 seconds, and the same to unlock or just slightly turn the tail cap.
Pro’s
- I like they replaced the eSwitch from the L17 with a Mechanical switch here on the tail.
- The hotspot is large, not a super long distance thrower.
- Relatively small and short head given it’s performance.
- Simple UI.
- Takes a standard battery
Con’s
- Strobe isn’t utilizing all the lumens here which is a little odd.
- Quite a bit of tint shift.
- No tail standing
- Turbo runtime is quite short at just 1:15.
Conclusion
The Acebeam L35 with the Cree XHP 70.2 LED and TIR reflector is an interesting light. It looks tactical, and and with the tail cap only working for turbo it is. It’s a little odd to not find strobe on the tail cap though but it’s not a feature I personally miss. The beam here is interesting as it’s not the throwiest for its, size or power, instead you get a large intense hotspot that goes 480 meters. The LatticePower P70 LED is a little less on peak lumens but throws another 90 meters. It’s compatible with a remote pressure switch too should you want to run it on a weapon.
To me it’s not quite a thrower, but definitely on the side of a more tactical then most long distance thrower lights. The beam is pretty useful, since it is larger not nearly as focused as the L17 was. It is on the expensive side but right now for Black Friday Acebeam is running a 30% off sale on this new light to help with that, and that brings it more in line with its competitors.
