[Review] Magicshine Headlamp - MOH15 and MOH25

I was given the opportunity to test and sample a pair of new headlamp from Magicshine, a company that was known for their wide range of outdoor bike light. To be honest, Magicshine wasn't in my radar until I heard from an old friend. If you are interested to find out more about Magicshine, you can google them with words like "Magicshine bike light" or similar.

Let's get started.

The new Magicshine headlamp in this review is Magicshine MOH15 and Magicshine MOH25. MOH15 is a neutral white, high CRI CR123A/16340-size headlamp, while MOH25 is a cool white, AA/14500/CR123A/16340-size headlamp (AA-size battery is supported via the use of included AA-extension tube). These headlamps come in simple cardbox packaging:


I was rather impress by how they arrange the included items in the box using a card separator:

and the same card separator was used to hold and lock the headlamp in place:

removing the locking section of the card...

rotate the headlamp by 90°...

and removing the headlamp from the card...

Specifications table of Magicshine MOH15 and MOH25:

Contents of the Magicshine headlamp package:

both MOH15 and MOH25 includes a Micro-USB charging cable, user manual, headlamp strap, spare O-ring and LiIon battery pre-installed in the headlamp. Some portraits of MOH15 and MOH25...

when removing the AA-extension tube, both headlamp is of the same length/height

the years of experience Magicshine has in producing rechargeable bike light shows in the choice of material use and design. The Micro-USB recharging port speaks quality:

the cover is thick and sturdy and provide good protection over the Micro-USB port:

the Micro-USB port is one of the easiest to connect the recharging cable to, it's a really smooth experience.

Recharging takes approximately 2.5 hours from almost empty to full.

The switch will light up Red when recharging, Green when charging completed:

The included Micro-USB recharging cable resistance is a little on the higher side based on my measurement, a lower resistance cable would be desirable.
A quick click/press of the switch from off will show the state of charge of the LiIon battery (this battery status feature is only available when used with 3.7V LiIon battery, it is not available when using NiMH, 3V CR123A and Alkaline as power source).

There are 4 stages of battery status:
1. Sturdy Green: between 100% - 75%
2. Blinky Green: between 74% - 50%
3. Sturdy Red: between 49% - 25%
4. Blinky Red: less than 24% (time to recharge)

A long press will Turn-ON or Turn-OFF the headlamp. Last Mode will be memorized. After Turn-ON, single click/press the switch to advance to next mode (cycled):
Low -> Medium -> High -> Turbo -> Low -> Medium -> High -> Turbo -> ...

the headlamp holder is integrated onto the headlamp body:

these headlamp runs hot when in Turbo and High, I would say the integrated plastic holder is Magicshine MOH15, MOH25 achilles heel when it comes to heat dissipations as the heat are not travelling to the rest of the headlamp body and stay on the head part. On the other hand, it is also due to this design that I can still operate the headlamp without burning my fingers when I needed to change mode from Turbo to lower output or to switch to the Red LED output.

the heat-sink fin behind the LEDs:

connecting the included headlamp strap is quick:

I really like this headband, it's rare to find a comfortable headband to wear that are both comfortable and can stay on. This headband, delivers on both.

Wearing the headlamp, my son approved:

you can turn the headlamp 110°, enough to adjust to your desire viewing angle:

the parts of the headlamps:

the AA-extension tube leave something to be desire, for one, the quality of machining is not as tightly control as the main headlamp body, secondly, I think the the length could be 1-1.5mm longer, look at the position of the included 14500 battery in MOH25 vs the 16340 battery in MOH15:

the 14500 is slightly protruded out from the extension tube, and this makes tightening the tailcap taking a little bit more efforts than I used to. by tightening the tailcap more in order to make contact, loosening the tailcap will instead loosen the AA-extension tube itself. using NiMH/Alkaline battery does not present the issue.

MOH15 and MOH25 user manual:

my measured output of Magicshine MOH15 and MOH25:

the usual disclaimer: I do not claim the above measured lumens as authoritative nor an indication of over/under-stating the number given by manufacturer. My home-made light-box is calibrated against known light output (e.g. SureFire, Elzetta, etc.) so take it with a grain of salt and just as a relative reading.

and the runtime in Turbo:

as well as the first 30 minutes of Turbo runtime:

heat plays a big part in both headlamp's sustainable runtime, these test were carry out without any cooling under room temperature of ~26°C. I have also conducted another test in High mode, with and without active cooling runtime, and below is the results:

the above test were carried out using the same headlamp (MOH25) and first 90 minutes of the High mode runtime are plotted.

about the tint, to my surprise, the cool white tint of MOH25 is not bad at all, I would say it's ~5700K - 6000K which is fairly good, while the neutral white 90 CRI tint on the MOH15 is ~4500K - 4700K, which is very close to the Nichia 219C High CRI LED to my eyes (my >90 CRI Nichia 219B are warmer).

the low and high output Red beam picture below:

these headlamps have one of the nicest Red beam profile I have ever seen, and it has some throw too due to the TIR optics.

To switch to using the Red beam, double-click on the switch when headlamp is ON. Another double-click will switch back to the other LED and vice-versa.

The switch can also be used to perform Electronic lockout, just double-click when the headlamp is OFF, it will blinks 2 times to signify the headlamp has successfully enter lockout mode. To unlock, you can either double click (which will turn ON the headlamp) or loosen the tailcap and tighten it back.

When the circuit is open (loosening the tailcap), the headlamp will reset, and the default mode is High (after tightening back the tailcap).

a comparisons of tint and color reproduction between the neutral white 90 CRI of MOH15 vs cool white of MOH25:

I would say both are pretty good with the MOH15 having more accurate colors reproduction (hints: look at the Yellow and the Red in the picture)

and finally, a line up of angle light/headlamp that's within my reach to show a size comparisons to others:

In conclusion, I really like both headlamps due to the tint and pretty long low mode runtime. I hope Magicshine will continue to research into better heat management and thus offer us longer sustainable high output mode. But as it is, both are still good headlamps and I recommend you to check out the MOH15, I'm bias toward the High CRI between the two.

Thanks for reading.

XP-G3 is far from my favorite, but a high CRI AA headlamp is still exciting. Looks perfect to leave stashed in a glovebox.

I didn’t have good experience with the XP-G3 emitter (cool white and high CRI) until these, without expecting much, I was genuinely surprised by these Magicshine headlamps. :slight_smile:
However, I do not know how tight is the bin control/selection from the manufacturer, so YMMV.

Thanks for the review.

Nice looking lights, but whats up with the poor regulation?

wow, i`m about post my review.. and my rutime charts definetely differ.