Jaxman M8 (Nichia 219b) micro review

LED Flashlights – General Info 18650 Flashlights
1

I haven’t taken any photos yet, but I got my 90+ CRI Jaxman M8 from Aliexpress.com today.

It makes me a little sad how cynical I’ve become. It feels like a high quality build. Nice threads, very nice matte anodized finish, great beam, very little heat so far, and, of course, beautiful color. After several minutes on high, it was warm, but not at all uncomfortable.

In all fairness, for $20.50 + $3.31 shipping, it’s a fantastic bargain. One I would recommend for almost any non-addicted average consumer. It arrived in an impressive Jaxman box with a lanyard and spare O-rings.

This should be pretty obvious from the photos, but the head is a little larger in diameter than my cheap P60 hosts. It is smaller, and feels much more pocketable than a C8.

But, I’m a little disappointed. I suspect the segment of the enthusiast market that actually wants a 5 mode (H-M-L-Strobe-SOS) with no mode memory that always starts on high is pretty small. I may change the driver eventually, but it’s got a LOT of solder holding it in place.

My only other Jaxman light is a 219b E2. I like it, maybe even more. It had the option of L-M-H (no strobes, yay!), and that’s what I requested. I didn’t see any mode options available on the M8 page.

I’ll try to get some photos tomorrow. But I figured I would get this down since I haven’t seen a review of this particular configuration yet.

I really want to love this light. It feels great, and works great. The modes bug me enough that I probably won’t buy another one for myself, but I definitely would for muggles.

ETA: Since the description doesn’t say, for now, I’m going to have to assume that the driver doesn’t have low voltage protection, or even an indicator. So, maybe it isn’t perfect for muggles.

2

Thanks for the mini review. I think Jaxman need to work on their UI / mode options. Just adding memory would make this light more attractive.

3

If you have a soldering iron, you can change the Jaxman M8 driver’s mode groups.

Jaxman M8 driver
No stars : H – M – L – Strobe – SOS
Left star : H – M
Mid star : L – M – H
Right star : H – M – Strobe

When you “solder a star”, you connect the inner half of the star with the outer half of the star with solder. You don’t have to make the solder connect all the way to the edge of the driver.

You can actually request one of the other mode groups at order time (mentioned in the M8 XPL-HI product page), but the M8 Nichia product page doesn’t mention it. :frowning:

4

That makes the light look more attractive!

5

Nice mini-review! :smiley:

6

Thanks!

7

Argh. Thanks for pointing that out. I was going to request L-M-H, just to see if they would do it for me, like they did with my E2, but apparently, I forgot.

I can probably solder a star. If it turns out their driver does have low voltage protection or an indicator, I might end up loving this light after all. I think I’ll put one of my cheap ultrafire cells in to speed up the test.

The probability of photos today is low. This weather is too perfect, I gotta ride.

8

I get M8 (L-M-H modes only) recently and like add some observations.

No sound. I dont heard and my daughter (yonger ears) dont heard any sound on any mode.

I measured heat on high mode. Very subjective method and measure instrument was my own hand. Used battery was ~2280 mAh (Liitokala 500) and charged ~2 month ago.

time are approximate (±some minutes and measured ~5 min intervals) first are estimation for head and second for body
If time missing, then my estimations are same that previous
5: warm, no heat
15: hot, warm
20: little more hot, little more warm
25: same, hot but holdable
55: same, little less(?) hot
75: heat droping
80: hot, warm
start blink ~87: same that on 80

after blinking battery ~3,3 V

9

Nice! Thanks for adding that. I’ve been meaning to get back to this, but, life.