Review: Monoprice "Pure Outdoor Select Series Headlamp"

The Pure Outdoor Select Series Headlamp is a micro-USB rechargeable headlamp from Monoprice and is presently on sale for $7.50.

The main light has high, medium, and strobe modes. The red lights are controlled independently of the main light and have one constant and one strobe mode. The red light modes are fairly standard, and I didn’t get a decent picture.

The white light has a very wide spill, a moderately-brighter spot, and a considerably brighter spot-within-the-spot. The asymmetric reflector shape doesn’t make for the most beautiful beamshots, but it isn’t really a problem and may make the lower part of the beam a little floodier. Definitely CW but not extreme - maybe 5500K? Here’s a couple beamshots comparing with my Fenix HL50 on high.


Monoprice claims 215 lumens on high. Though I don’t have an integrating sphere to verify that, it seems reasonable when comparing a freshly-charged light to the Fenix HL50’s High and Turbo modes. But their 2:30 battery life estimate is low. Here’s the illuminance runtime graph:

Looks pretty much like direct drive, 3:20 to 50, 3:45 to 10.

If the 215 Lm initial output is right, integrating the output curve gives us ~480 Lm*h total output, which is comparable to CR123 lights. (I think the lumen-hour, though it has its limitations, is a seriously underused metric.)

I didn’t measure runtime on medium, but another review said it was just shy of 16 hours before dropping off. Comparing to the high output, I think that means probably 13:30 or so before hitting 50%. The runtime and comparison to my HL50 on medium make me think it’s a bit over 50 lumens.

Measured weight with headband is 71g. Monoprice says 62g which is too light to include the headband and too heavy not to.

The headband seems comfortable and the hinge relatively reliable. The two control buttons are glow-in-the-dark. The only thing that seems a bit flimsy is the silicone charging port cover.

In summary:
Pros: plenty of light at a cheap price and low weight, rechargeable
Cons: not regulated, only IPX4

No, this isn’t going to replace anybody’s wonderful 18650 headlamps, but it probably beats most of the 3xAAA lights to pieces while costing only about as much as 3 AAA NiMH’s do anyways. At that kind of price it’s hard not to recommend.

nice thanks!

Monoprice is always a good place to shop. I have never had a problem with anything I have bought from them