Review: Mini Maglite Pro+

Thanks so much for the informative review! Frontpage'd and Sticky'd.

Thanks! Sounds quite nice.

-Garry

If this will run on one 14500, someone with a lathe could make a pocket model out of it.

Steve: someone with more electronics experience would have to answer that one.

Awesome review and pics BetweenRides!

That would be nice. I wonder what the minimum voltage is. Any chance it would run on 1xaa?

Thanks for the review. I wasn't aware this even existed till I opened this thread.

Great review! thanks for posting it.

Much better beam than the old incans had.

Thanks for the kind words. These do take a long time to write up, don't they?

Old-Lumens: When you sent me the 3AA Mag Mod, I noticed there was a clear plastic holder with a few parts in it but didn't pay it much attention. A couple weeks ago I picked up the new IQ Switch at Harber Freight and started trying it out on my lights, I happen to look in the tool box and noticed the package again and was pleasantly surprised to find a Terra Lux reflector and LED upgrade. I ended up using the IQ on your mod, which gives me a High-Med-Low (Plus 2 useless disco modes), then using all the Terra Lux parts to upgrade the old blue Mini Mag in the review pictures - very nice!. Feels like I got 2 flashlights for the price of one, thanks for sending.

Nice job. What is the difference between the Pro and Pro+?

The Pro has slightly lower lumens output at 226, a bit longer run time (2:30) and only one mode like a normal Maglite vs 245 lumens, 2:15 run time and two modes for the Pro+.

Thanks

That's the first light from Maglite that raised my interest in a decade or so.

Any sentimental flashaholic above a certain age will have to have one of these, IMHO. I, for sure, will be acquiring one (at least). Now if I can only find my Brian Adams cassette...

This seems like a fantastic light. I mean, where else can you get 245 ANSI lumens out the front for 30 bucks with 2 AAs?

Maybe Romisen and some DealExtreme lights come close, but if you look at Jetbeam, NiteCore, Olight, 4Sevens, Fenix, they all have about the same light output, minus the adjustable beam, for 50+ bucks. Sure they have more modes, but even so... the Maglite appears to be very competitive.

I'd really like to see some beamshots/video of its flood to throw mode. Obviously not a real flood2throw, but at least you can mess with the beam profile a bit.

Good review, thanks.

Well, while I like that they brought out a new light, it is still a light with plastic reflector and lens, no current regulation, no clicky and the max output isn't available the whole runtime, so comparing the Mag with a Jetbeam BA20/Klarus P2A for example isn't exactly fair. If this light hadn't the Maglite name and looks... I guess people would not so generously overlook these downsides. It is still a good price point for a Mag. It is more like a "factory modded Mag", than a brilliant new design. But I understand the sentimental attachment to the host body... even if I would probably not buy it.

Nice writeup! Thanks for taking the time as this is one I'm sure a lot of people are interested in, including me. Having a light that will run off 2 AA batteries is great since AA batteries are always available and I'm glad to see this kind of output on a Minimag. Usually people measure amps at the tail instead of volts. How much difference is there in focus? Maybe you could post a picture of it zoomed in and out?

The "Low" mode is almost as bright as the previous generation Mini Maglite LED (some of which were multimode) and way, way brighter than the old incans.

Nice review! I'm looking forward to picking up one or two of these when I can get them on sale.

As an aside, having two modes is not a first for the LED Mini Maglites. The previous generation of LED Minis actually had 4 modes: High (100%) > Low (25%) > Strobe > SOS. The modes are activated by a quick off and on.

They were a huge improvement over the old incan models in output but they still only put out 69 lumens on High. Laughable now but at the time it was a major jump from 17 to 69 - a four-fold increase in output. Come to think of it with the old LED models the 25% low was the same as the high on the incans. On the new LED Pro models the low (25%) is the same as the high on the previous LED model. Hmmm... coincidence? LOL! It's possible that we won't see another improvement on these until they can safely produce one that runs at 1000 lumen so that 25% low is the same as the Pro output on high. ;)

@ brted and JohnnyMac:

I never had a Mini LED before this, so I was unaware that they offered multi-mode. Thanks for the correction - I will have to adjust my wording in the review to reflect that fact. And I'm sure I just wasn't thinking when I posted the tail cap measurement as volts, I will correct and when I get a chance measure with Primaries, nimh and Eneloops.

@ joe1512 and brted:

Sorry, photography is not my strong suit (but I'm getting better). I'll work on posting some better beam shots to illustrate the focus/zoom and show with different battery types. I'll have to get my son to help, as he has actually had photography training. Maybe he can help me do some outdoor shots as well. If I can describe it better, the beam is a little ringy when first turned on, as you adjust out, it smooths out the rings and makes a smoother beam with a more gradual transition between the hot spot and flood.

thanks for the review!

So the regulation isnt very good? No constant brightness? Chin*se lights have constant brightness regulation! :O