Review Nitenumen x8 Bike Light - multiple beamshot locations

NITENUMEN X8 XM-L2 U3 1800LM Rechargeable LED Bike Light

This light is provided by Banggood for review and it can be found here : https://goo.gl/5Tj5eH
Coupon code to lower price onto $39.95 is : NNMX8

Basic product features, that are taken from the user’s manuals :

Size : 102 mm ( length ) x 45 mm ( width ) x 27.5 mm ( height )
Weight : 243g
2 x Cree XM-L2 U3
2 x 18650 3400mAh
Max output : 1800 lumen
Max luminous flux : 5500 cd
Max beam distance : 148 m
2 x mode groups with mode memory :

  1. low - mid - high - ultra bright - strobe - SOS
  2. low - mid - high
    Brightest and runtime :
    Low : 15 lumen = 76:20 h
    Mid : 180 lumen = 16:50 h
    High : 850 lumen = 6:20 h
    Ultra : 1800 = 4:15 h
    No brightness or runtime for strobe and SOS.
    1 m inpact resistant
    IPX-68 waterproof ( rain-proof )
    Power indicator :
    Light on, green and red light to indicate the power
    100% - 60% green LED on
    60% - 30% red LED on
    below 30% red LED trinkle
    Notice that there is no info about colour temperature of the light, but as I can see it is cool white.

It came out in very hard cardboard packaging with high quality that will prevent possible damages in transport.
In package are included :

1 x Light
1 x Mount
1 x Usb cable ( for charging )
1 x Spare charging port cover
1 x Manual in English and Chinese
1 x Warranty card

The light is a little bit heavy but it has 2x 18650 that are built inside and very well made housing of this lamp with thick layer of aluminum and high quality military grade anodization, so when you take it in hands it give a impression of extremely quality light and that is resistant to falls more than 1 m, so I would not be afraid eaven if someone fall down from the bike that this light will be seriously damaged from that hit.

Topside of the light has two buttons. First one is a power and second is a mode button. To turn on the light you need to press power button and hold finger on it for 1 sec, so it is not momentarily turn on, but when you want to turn it off there is no need to hold 1 sec on it, since it will be off when you press the button. In order to change modes you just need to press mode button and no need to wait, so it is just 1 sec delay to turn the light on, all other simple operations are end with simple press on the desired button.
Remember modes from manual that I earlier mention ? 1. low - mid - high - ultra bright - strobe - SOS and 2. low - mid - high, first is ok, but second is not low - mid - high, it is low, high, ultra bright, don’t know why they are wrong here, but there is mode memory so there will not be problems. To change mode groups, simple press mode button 1.5 sec when light is turn on to move from one group to other. Buttons are very well corresponding on the press.

From the bottom side of the light there is standard micro usb port that you can charge you light ( with usb cable that is provided in package ), so you can charge it on usb ports on your computer or put it on some adapter if you have it, of course on better adapters that can provide higher current the charge process will be faster than on standard USB port on computer, the power button will blink red when charging is in process and it will be remain on green light when charge is done 100 %. There is charging port cover which fits very well on that hole.

On the other side it is located a mounting system for the bike, which is I must admit not the best designed. I don’t have any complain for this part that is made from the plastic, it is really strong and solid so it is good made and can handle this light with no problems, but my main complaint is on this part from the rubber that need to fix lamp to the bike. There is 4 holes for different customizable thicknes, that rubber is pretty solid but it is elastic, I wan’t to say, will not be easily tear but it is elastic. And that is main problem which I notice while driving, you must to fix lamp extremely hard and in one more hole so that lamp will not have judder. Better explanation is that there is no chance that light can fall off or to be move, but light beam will be unstable and it will judder so it is very annoying, it can be tolerable on the road with no holes and bumps but if you plan it for off road then you must to tighten it very very hard that you avoid this.

NOTICE : In time when I write this there is new mounting system for this light on Banggood, so I think that Nitenumen catch this problem and do a version with updated mount system which it seems to be better than old one.

Old one.

Tear down went quite easily. I use one T4 x40mm and one ordinary screwdriver. You must to remove multiple screw in order to complete disamble this light. So as you can see on the pictures, the reflectors are SMO and with no AR coating on lenses, there is 5 pin connector that connect power and mode button with board, Cree leds are genuine but from some reason I don’t know why it is write ‘’solarstorm x8’’ on the board.

Batteries are made by LG, and as you can see the mark on it is LGABF1L118650, all is good soldered and remain hard without fear that something will desolder or drop off while driving and shaking. Batteries look like they are LG genuine, and I do a test for a battery runtime.
Tested it on ultra bright mode while driving my bike in night at temperature of 14 degrees.
The light was able to hold exactly 2:24 min, and then colour on indicator was changed from green to red, after that I continue to use it but I was not drivig my bike any more, and next step down on indicator happen on 3:28 min, when light indicator changes from steady red to blinking red, from that point I turn off the lamp and I do not go to the end.
Today I put light on the 1A charger and to fully charge it need 6:45 min, for faster charging it need to be an charger that can put more current.
While testing this light in driving I touch lamp many times to check how much hot it is and I can say that light was not eaven a warm. Yes it was a lot of wind and only about 14 degrees, but in that conditions lamp was remain with very very low heat.

Reflector and lens size.

Driver and led board ( I don’t want to desolder a wires so that I can remove led board that driver can been seen completely ).

The light that this one will be compared is my old one bike light and it is Ultrafire 501B with Cree XP-L V5 in it with 5 modes, hi, mid, low, strobe and sos.

Beamshot section is on 3 different locations X8 vs UF 501b.

First one is in building which is dimension 21m to the opposite wall and width is 7.5m to the big pillar on the left side from right. It is almost complete darkness, couple of windows in the distance…

Control shot with some light inside building that are arranged on the side.

Ultrafire 501b XP-L V5 LOW

Nitenumen x8 LOW

Ultrafire 501b XP-L V5 MID

Nitenumen x8 MID

Ultrafire 501b XP-L V5 HIG

Nitenumen x8 HIG

Nitenumen x8 ULTRA

Beamshots location two. Distance to the tree at the midway is 75m and width of the road is 4m, no moonlight, pretty dark.

Control shot at the day.

Ultrafire 501b XP-L V5 LOW

Nitenumen x8 LOW

Ultrafire 501b XP-L V5 MID

Nitenumen x8 MID

Ultrafire 501b XP-L V5 HIG

Nitenumen x8 HIG

Nitenumen x8 ULTRA

Beamshots third location is in the middle of the forest with absolutely complete darkness and you can’t see a man standing 10m away from you. Distance to the tree in the middle is 80m and width of the road is 3.5m.

Control shot at the day.

Ultrafire 501b XP-L V5 LOW

Nitenumen x8 LOW

Ultrafire 501b XP-L V5 MID

Nitenumen x8 MID

Ultrafire 501b XP-L V5 HIG

Nitenumen x8 HIG

Nitenumen x8 ULTRA

For the references a Nitecore p30 on the same location on max.

Short video with Nitenumen x8 on same location :

Overall impressions.

For :
-Extremely bright light with wide angle of coverage both in front and to the side off the road.
-Very good quality of the light, solid construction.
-Strobe and SOS can be cut from the loop.
-Mode memory, charging port, power indicator.
-Easy and fast removal.

Against :
-Badly designed mount problems in off road ( new version of mount is available )

Neither for nor against :
-Weight, I thought weight is problem but just in case for reminder that there are inside 2x 18650 which have almost 100 gr so the lamp itself is not so heavy.

All in all I am very satisfied for this money what I get, and I hope new mount is even better so that problem with mounting can be solved.

Nice review, thanks. Looking forward to the run times as the spec seems a bit optimistic.

I’ve had this light for a little while now. Really like it. Of course, I don’t use the original rubber mount, the later model with upgraded mount should be good.

I don’t notice the pwm much but for efficiency I wish it was constant current.

BTW very nice review :+1:

Nice review, thanks you for work.

I had been curious about this light. I wasn’t keen on the mount. With the new mount I am more impressed.

Does the light get warm? I did not notice heat sink or thermal paste in the tear down

Kinda useless on public road…

Thanks people, I updated for now with pictures for : ‘’Reflector and lens size’’ and ‘’Driver and led board’’.

Board with leds on it, sit ‘’nowhere’’ so thermal paste is useless.

See here :

As red arrows snows there is empty, there is nothing which can make a contact with led board in that part, only contact is marked with green arrow, and of course around.

So that complete aluminum part ( housing for reflectors and leds ) are behave like heatsink maybe there is not enought contact, but so far in driving I don’t notice any problems with heat. I assume if you leave light in room on max that will get hot like all other lights which is normal especially for lights with 2x leds.

Thanks for the review. I’m glad they got the modes wrong. I like what I’m seeing in this light, but probably would skip it if the non blinkie mode group didn’t have ultra high. I love the low mode too. More lights should have lows like that. That new mount looks like it’d stay put too, unlike all the silicon band light mounts I have.

From manual :

  1. low – mid – high – ultra bright – strobe – SOS
  2. low – mid – high

In group 2 low is low from 1 group, and mid is not mid from 1 group it is high, and high from group 2 is not high from 1 group it is ultra bright, why they write lo mid hi, I don’t know maybe it is not related to first group in strength at all… maybe it is just sorted by power and it is not generally associated with first group. @pinkpanda3310 maybe can confirm this.

I wish so badly to try a new mount system, it seems to be a lot better but as I can see from the pics it will not adapt in this old modes since hanging is different.

That works for me. I’d rather have mode 1 without the blinkie modes, but mode 2, the actual mode 2, is fine too.

You are correct. The mode spacings are -
Group 1 low mid high ultra strobe SOS
Group 2 low high ultra

A little bit irritating not having mid in group 2 :expressionless:

It is good to me until there is ultra bright :smiley:

:arrow_right: Review was edited and this part is inserted so you do not need to read it again.

As I promise I do a battery test for this light.
Tested it on ultra bright mode while driving my bike in night at temperature of 14 degrees.

The light was able to hold exactly 2:24 min, and then colour on indicator was changed from green to red, after that I continue to use it but I was not drivig my bike any more, and next step down on indicator happen on 3:28 min, when light indicator changes from steady red to blinking red, from that point I turn off the lamp and I do not go to the end.

Today I put light on the 1A charger and to fully charge it need 6:45 min, for faster charging it need to be an charger that can put more current.

While testing this light in driving I touch lamp many times to check how much hot it is and I can say that light was not eaven a warm. Yes it was a lot of wind and only about 14 degrees, but in that conditions lamp was remain with very very low heat.

Is the temperature 14 degrees C?

This light looks really good compared to similar lights from Raveman, Fenix, and Gaciron.
My problem is that I am waiting to buy the Q8, so this will have to wait :frowning:
Thanks again for the outstanding review

14 degrees C is the outdoor temperature ( not temp of the light ) while I tested it and driving a bike. And I said in that weather conditions and outdoor temperature, a lights remains with very low heat so there is no problem that light will be overheated.

Don’t know what light is Q8 :frowning:

Only problem with this light was badly designed mount, all other was more than ok, but there is new version of mount available and I hope it is better :+1:

My mistake I meant the
BLF Q8
I have waiting for this light for some time It’s hyped up with big expectations

Hi,

I’ve got this light but known as the evolva x8. The light itself seems great but the mount is poor as you’ve stated in the review, I’ve used a GoPro 1/4 thread to atatch the light onto my bars but I’m still not confident. The “new” mount in the above pictures looks spot on, can anyone send me a link to it? I’ve search high and low on the internet but have been unsuccessful.

Thanks in advance.

Mike.

You intend to use BLF Q8 as a bike light ? :open_mouth:

The new mount is selling with light now, I’m not sure can you get only a new mount without a light :frowning:
Try to contact nitenumen maybe they will sell only mount.

A little update on this lamp :).

Be aware that this is ANSI compliant measurement - so those are “cold lumens” ;).