On The Road X6M
Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★★☆
Reviewer's Mod Host Rating: ★★★★½
Quick Summary:
| Battery: | 1x26650 |
| Switch: | Electronic sideswitch + rearward clicky on the back |
| Modes: | Ramping (with quick access to low and high) |
| LED Type: | Cree XM-L2 T6 3C |
| Lens: | Normal glass |
| Tailstands: | Yes, very stable |
| Price Paid: | This light was provided by Banggod.com Regular price with XM-L2 T6 3C 63,99$ Regular price with XM-L2 T6 1A 59,99$ |
| From: | Banggood |
| Date Ordered: | Ordered 29th march (Item was just listed, not in stock) Shipped 6th april Received 16th april |
Pros
Great looks!
Nicely engineered and machined
Good reflector and centered emitter
Great output and beam
Tint options (CW or NW)
Good 3C tint (no green or excessive yellow looking tint)
Electronic sideswitch + rear clicky
Stepless ramping and the ability to remember output
Always starts in low and quick access to high.
Power indicator + output limitation when low on power + low voltage cut-off = idiot proof
So, so:
- No AR lens
- Threads are good, but could have been better considering the price
- 无英语 manual (Y U NO WRITE ENGLISH)
- No superlow or moonlight mode
- I would prefer if the blue E-switch light were dimmer
- If you look very closely you can see several minor imperfections in anodizing
- Screws that were supposed to hold the star down were screwed in the wrong way (reflector still put pressure on it)
Cons:
- A "bug" in the UI (if you break power and turn the light off and on again within about ¼ of a second, the light will behave as if it hasn't got power.)
- Does not seem like it lives up to the IPX8 rating.
Introduction
When I saw this light I knew I wanted one in my life. I think it looks absolutely amazing! I know looks are subjective, but this have got to be one of the best looking manufactured lights I have ever seen. Although, with a price tag around 60$. I was not sure how great value this light really was. Never heard much about «On The Road». I knew «On the Road again is a song». And X6M is a BMW. And that BG sells some other On The Road lights, most of which seems quite overpriced.
Luckily Banggood provided me with a sample and sent it out the same day they got it in stock. It only took 10 days to arrive after it was shipped. Lets take a look....
Unboxing:
Bublewrapped envelope
A bit more padding.
Yay, not one of those tiny boxes where the light is all squished. (You all know the type of cardboard box I am talking about)
Nicely packed. Not easy to understand much of the Chinese manual though.
You may notice through the review, that color looks a bit different. It really depends a lot on the lighting. I would say its a dark gunmetal grey looking color. Isn't she a beauty by the way?
Quite fresh from the factory! :)
Adapter for 18650 battery. It really "hugs" the fatter 18650 batteries. No rattle (unlike the adapters in the back). Nice attention to detail making something that does not have the traditional boring tube seen in the background.
Size comparison with other lights:
That tiny looking light at the left is actually a Convoy M1 (OEM D4). Looks like a kids toy when its side by side with X6M.
On the right is a Ultrafire F13, which most would consider to be a proper mans light. Not compared to the beefy X6M.
Convoy C8 at the left. As you can see, a C8 light is considerably smaller.
HD2010 have a wider reflector though, making it a better thrower.
Design/build quality: ★★★★½
Tailcap assembly is basically identical to an HD2010 (seen on the right). That is a good thing, as its well made. But this is a 60$ light, I would expect threads to be a step up compared to a 30$ light. I would preferred to see a gold plated spring too.
Looks like a typical button found in many Convoy lights. A good rearward clicky.
Threads are good though. O-ring and threads could be lubed better, but I prefer to do that myself..
The body took some muscle to unscrew from the head/center section. (And so did the driver circuit retaining ring).
Threads on driver circuit side.
Driver circuit compartment. These screws are screwed in from the wrong side.
Driver circuit:
There are no O-ring, only the rubber button,
No water came in through the switch after hours in the bucket, and being showered. But it seemed like there were signs of it. I would not trust it to be IPX8 proof. But you do not need to be afraid of some rain or anything.
The middle section of the light is one piece, no screw in pill. Great heat transfer. Nice soldering, star mounted with adequite thermal paste.
Very good looking bezel. I'm quite sure its made out of aluminium based on the weight.
Glass lens sits inside the bezel with a green GIT O-ring. According to a quick measurement, light loss is about 5,5%. In comparison a brand new AR lens from CNQ showed 4,9% loss based on ceiling bounce. I would prefer AR coated lens, but its not much behind a budget AR lens and its thicker, 3mm.
If you are very picky and look very closely. You can see that above all the red lines, anodizing is not covering the aluminium properly. This picture shows it good, better than real life actually. This was slightly noticeable on the tailcap edge too. The machining on the exterior is basically perfect. Anodizing looks really good, but it lacks that last 1%. I would guess its not HA-III anodizing on this light, although I cant say for sure.
This light will tailstand, and its very stable. Or it can hang from bushes..
♫ On the road again, I cant wait to get on the road again... ♫
Cooling fins on the head prevents it from rolling around on flat surfaces.. or cardboard..
Grip of a 26650 is just like a good and proper big old knife.
User interface: ★★★★½
- This light have two switches. A rearward clicky on the back and electronic sideswitch with a built in red/blue backlight.
- In order to turn the light on, you have to press the rear switch. The light will then start in lowest mode.
- Hold the E-switch in order to start ramping. The light will then start increasing the output, step-less. Let go of the button and the light will stay on that brightness level. The light have now memorized the output level, so if you turn it off (into standby mode) with the sideswitch (short press), it will remember the brightness level when you turn it on again.
- Ramping from lowest to highest takes about 4 seconds, + 1 second for it to start ramping.
- If you want to signal with the light, through the sideswitch, you have to do it a bit slow. You can not mimic strobe, or do fast morse-code.
- You have to ramp all the way to minimum or maximum in order to ramp the opposite direction. When you reach maximum or minimum brightness the e-switch light will blink showing that you have reaching the end.
- When the light is on, you can double click on the E-swtich in order to get quickly go to highest output.
- Turning the light off and on with the rear switch is an easy and fast way to get to lowest output.
If you turn the light off and on too fast (within about 1/4 of a second) you will experience what I assume to be a bug. The light will not turn on or be in standby mode despite that the power from the battery is going to the driver. This can also happen if the light light is turned on, and you gently press the rear clicky (only a milimeter to break the power for a super shot time). Fix, turn the light on and off again.
Depsite this little «bug», that many may never notice. Its a simple UI. Easy to ramp, always starts on low. Easy to get to high. On top of this, there is also the battery indicator.
There could be more to the UI. But there was no English manual for the light, so who knows if I have missed a feature.
All in all, its a nice ramping UI. Better than a few I have tested in other lights (premium and budget).
Powerlight/battery indicator
When the flashlight light is in standby. The blue E-switch light will dim up and down.
When the flashlight light is on, the light in the E-switch will change color depending on battery state.
This is what the manufacturer says: (numbers in parenthesis by me)
100% to 10% capacity = Blue light
10%-5% capacity = Red light (starts around 3,25-3,3v)
5%-0% capacity =Flashing red (starts around 3,05v)
(Power cut off around 2,95v.)
I would say its a good estimate. These indications will depend on the light output you are at (more power equals more voltage sag) and how the discharge curve of the battery looks like.
Runtime vs output and temperature: ★★★★½
Manufacturer ratings are 1 hour and 30 minutes on highest setting and 88 hours on low. (based on 4000mAh battery?)
I made a graph. First some notes:
1. Lumen output is just a simple estimate on the graph below. (its closer to emitter lumens than OTF lumens)
2. Run is done on max output. Graph recording stopped when power indicator showed red light. You can still get lots of hours of use after this...
Some observations and notes:
- KP 26650 have about 50% longer runtime until the red light comes on,compared to the KP 18650. On top of that its able to maintain higher output.
- I got 2 hours and 2 minutes on high before the red light turned on with the KP 26650 battery.
- After 2 hours and 2 minutes on high, I changed to low and kept at it. About 20 hours and 15 minutes later the battery was "empty" (2,95v). Impressive. The battery got several rests though, I did it over several days..
- After the power indicator became red, I could also drain a battery to cut off in about 15-20 minutes if using max output.
- When the battery is very low on capacity the light will shut itself off if you try to assess full output.
- The light can easily handle the heat of discharging a full 26650 indoors without any cooling. Light got hot, but never too hot to hold. Peak at about 45 degree Celsius according to a cheap IR meter.
- I never did runtime test on lowest output. It would probably be 100 hours+ before red, and then an additional 20 hours.. Or about 5 days with decent power.
Light output, tint and beamshots: ★★★★½
Manufacturer ratings are 10-1000 lumen and 39700lux..
The emitter is driven at 0,02-2,9Amp. Which is nice.
My measurements say 40400lux (My lux readings are 10-20% lower than some others on BLF). About 825 OTF lumen @ 30 sec (quite comparable number with others) In comparison to a Convoy L4 with CW U2 emitter output is 14% lower. Lux is 16% higher. Considering that the X6M does have a NW T6 emitter and a regular mcpcb, output is good.
The tint is nice. No hint of typical green looking stuff that you can get from certain 3C emitters. It reminds me more of a 3A. Tint is very good.
One thing I like a lot about the beam that is not visible on the beamshots is the "outer spill", the spill that lights up closer to 180 degree, which is outside the spill ring seen in photos. Despite that it throws better than say a Convoy L4, it will also put a bit more light around you and close to your feet. Difference might be small to some. But this makes it a better light for walking around in the woods and places where you need to see a little bit around you compared to many lights with similar sized reflectors.
No ugly rings or anything either.
ALL beamshots are mouseovers. I included some other stock lights from comparison sake (pictured in post 16). These are not direct rivals in any way. Just some stock and quite bright budget lights that could be interesting to compare.
Camera settings: 2 sec, F5,7, ISO 800, WB 5200K, Focal length: 17mm (APS-C)
X6M high vs low (low seems brighter in real life, but as you can see, lots of difference)
X6M low vs Convoy L4 low (as you can see, X6M have a lower low)
X6M vs L4 (both on high.)
X6M vs Boruit RJ-2013 (A cheaply made budget thrower, wider reflector than HD2010. Not so deep, as seen by the spill.
X6M vs COURUI (the big headed light with a massive reflector)
Again, comparing with some large reflector throwers makes little sense. Remember that the X6M have wider and brighter outer spill than all these lights (light in the dark area on the pictures)
Value: ★★★☆☆
X6M isn't a cheap light. But overall the X6M is "more flashlight" than all its cheaper budget rivals (at least it seems like that to me). I look at the X6M like this. Someone took a Convoy L4. Mixed it with single cell Convoy L5/LXP. Added some spices from the XINTD X3, some steroids, and some brains (/sophistication) that you usually don't find in the cheaper lights. And voila, you get the X6M. A nice mix of many great lights, but also a step up in some departments.
At 64$ with NW emitter, its not a bargain though. Luckily there are some nicer coupon codes out there. I rate it based on regular/full price.
Detailed specs and facts (my numbers):
Performance:
Light Output: Around 825 OTF @ 30sec
Beam Intensity: About 40,4Kcd @ 30 sec
Lens loss: About 5,5%
Power Source Options:
- 26650 (works with all lengths, protected/unprotected)
- 18650 (26650 to 18650 adapter included)
Switch type:
- Tailcap reverse-clicky + Electronic sideswitch (with light)
Modes, PWM, drain
- Modes: Ramping
- Emitter Amps: 0,02 to 2,9A (lowest to highest mode)
- Tailcap Amps: 0,06A to 3A (lowest to highest mode)
- Current drain in standby: 3,27-7,5 mA (due to pulsing standby light)
- Current drain when "UI bug": 1mA
- PWM: 242Hz
- PWM whine: No, not audible (barely noticeable if I hold it right into my ear)
Memory:
- No memory when starting the light, lights always starts on low when using the rear clicky.
- Memory activated after the power is on and the light is switch off with the E-swtich
Dimensions:
Overall Length: 170mm
Bezel Diameter: 53,4mm
Neck Heat Sink Diameter:42,5mm
Body Diameter: 33mm
Tail Diameter: 36,9mm
Reflector Inner Diameter: 45,5mm
Reflector Outer Diameter:48 mm
Reflector Depth: 37mm
Reflector Emitter hole Diameter:8,9 mm
Lens Diameter: 48mm
Lens Thickness: 3mm
Emitter star diameter: 20mm
Driver diameter: About 30mm
Misc:
- Waterproof: Kinda, but Im skeptical about the IPX8 rating
- Anodizing: Looks like darkgrey gunmetal.
- Bezel material: Aluminium
Weights :
Overall: 282g without battery
Ready to use: 379g (with Protected Keepower 26650 4500mAh)
Conclusion: ★★★★☆
On The Road has done a lot of great things with this light. Its without a doubt one of better 26650 single cell single emitter lights out there. Its well driven, nicely built, and comes with a UI/features that are well implemented. Overall, it does a good job in all departments. There are some things to nitpick on, but most are minor issues, if not irrelevant.
I can easily recommend this light and I give it a solid 4 stars.
Coupon codes:
Coupon code "X6M" gives you 21% discount on the light. Should be available out this month (april)
X6M with T6 1A emitter, 47,39$ with coupon code. Regular price 59,99$.
X6M with T6 3C emitter, 50,55$ with coupon code. Regular price, 63,99$
X6M with T6 1A emitter + charger and battery, 56,22$ with coupon code. Regular price 77,49$
X6M with T6 3C emitter + charger and battery, 65,16$ with coupon code. Regular price 82,49$
Optional coupon codes:
OTR - 15% off on all On The Road Flashlights
BLF - 8% off on all Flashlight stuff
