APEX 5T6 (5 x Cree XM-L T6 | 4 x 18650)
Reviewer's Overall Rating: ★★★★1/2
Summary:
Battery: | 4 x 18650 |
Switch: | Tail switch, Reverse clicky |
Modes: | 3: High, Medium, Low (with memory) |
LED Type: | 5 x XM-L T6 3C (NW) |
Lens: | Glass |
Tailstands: | Yes |
Price Payed: | $98 + shipping |
From: | CNQG |
Date Ordered: | June 2012 |
Pros:
- Bright (A bit less than King, but still very bright)
- A real flooder
- Available as NW
- Very good runtime with four cells
- Runs cooler than King
- Has also medium mode
- Well spaced modes
- Good handle, which enables variety of grips
- Handle can be taken off if needed
- Tailstands well (and can be used to illuminate the whole room )
- Good build quality
- Nice color (not gold, but still something else than "normal" black / silver)
- Comes in a fancy box
- Lanyard included
Cons:
- PWM on low and medium modes (~125Hz)
- Positive pole of the cell needs to be smooth, or it carves the metal from driver board
- No side switch
- Threads were dry -> needs silicone grease
Features / Value: ★★★★☆
The light comes in a fancy package, design of which may annoy someone, but I like it.
The box was intact after the air mail abuse and managed to keep the light safe. The green sticker says NW (and the same in Chinese).
..which contains the light itself, a nice lanyard, and one extra O-ring
Features are good: Three well spaced modes (about 2200, 1000 and 300 lumens OTF), tail switch (reverse clicky) and no blinky modes.
UI is pretty normal: High-Medium-Low, with memory. And with reverse clicky, the other modes are always just a half-click away.
If anyone is worried about the light turning on accidentally, I can comfort you by saying that the light can be locked out simply by unscrewing the head about 1/8 - 1/4 turns.
Value for money: Good.
Design / Build Quality: ★★★★☆
Design is nice. This must be the best form for a multi-cell, multi-emitter light! Short enough, quite thick and with good handle that allows different grips (as demonstrated by kramer5150). However, I miss the side clicky.. (-> minus one star)
The anodization is good overall, glass lens looks nice, and the switch feels reliable.
Color is good. Not plain old black, but nice gray.
I thought that I wouldn't like the handle and was pleased to hear that it's removable. But I was terribly wrong: I like the handle very much. It is very well made, solid and allows me to carry the light in multiple ways. The handle doubles also as a hook, with which the light can be hung on something, like your backpack or jeans pocket.
Let's see some details..
Cooling fins and the stainless steel handle:
Five well centered NW emitters, ready to push out some serious amount of lumens:
The threads were smooth, but very dry - requires fair amount of silicone grease. The O-ring is well placed and it keeps in place very well. Note also the scratched metal on the driver board. (I forgot to smoothen the positive poles of my new batteries..)
Here are the three main parts disassembled:
The tail switch looks beefy enough to handle the high current:
A look to the inside. Four cells in a smallest possible formation. Nice! Also longer cells like XTAR 18700 fit fine without any problems.
A closer look to the switch and tail cap springs:
Here's the outer part of the tail cap:
Here's the light mostly disassembled. Note especially the separate reflectors. Need even more flood? Just take off one, two or all of those.
The O-ring between lens and bezel is a beefy one. And so is the rubber plate between reflectors and lens.
A look inside the head. Driver says: "V2", so this must be the upgraded version manufactured specifically to Ric?
Emitters are placed in a thick plate, which sits on top of wide enough ridge. It's attached with three screws and some fujik. The construction seems to work fine, given that the emitters are located near the edge. Thermal transfer seems to work fine (see thermal graph later in this review).
Emitters are placed near the edge of the plate for better thermal transfer. They do also have nice plastic centering rings, which make sure that the emitters are perfectly centered in reflectors.
Another photo with two reflectors in place:
Some measurements:
Length: 150mm
Head diameter: 70mm
Body diameter: 50mm
Tail diameter: 65mm
Weight: 628g with 4 cells (= ready to use), 438g without
Size compared to Skyray King:
And the bottom line in the quality: Absolutely nothing to complain.
Battery Life: ★★★★★
Good! Four batteries will allow long runtimes.
I measured the current at the switch and got results of 7.35A on high, 2.65A on medium, and 0.45A on low.
This would give almost 1.5h runtime on high, almost 4h on med, and over 20h on low!
Light Output: ★★★★★
This light is a bit less bright than my Skyray King NW, but I would still classify this as "very bright". Ceiling bounce was measured about 5% less than my King on high (can't be seen with eye).
There is some thermal / battery sag, but less than my TR-J12. It also did run cooler than King or TR-J12 in my tests. The large body with nice fins seems to take the heat quite well!
Here are ceiling bounce and temperature results for a ten minute run indoors, ambient temperature 26 degrees Celsius. There was no cooling and the max temperature at end was nice 48°C (about 10°C less than King & TR-J12).
I estimate (ceiling bounce + "known" references) the light output to:
- over 2000 lumens on high (maybe around 2000-2100?)
- about 1000 on medium
- about 300 on low
Two white wall beamshots (WB: Daylight)
Couldn't take outdoor beamshots due the lack of darkness. Sorry about that.
You can refer to kramer5150's thread for some outdoor beamshots.
Summary: ★★★★1/2
Very good flashlight with nice finish for anyone who wants to put out massive amount of neutral white lumens. And the color is not gold, which seems to be important thing for some of you..
If I would need to choose between the King and this, the choice would be very difficult. Output is nearly the same and both are available as NW, so that wouldn't be the differentiating factor. I love the side clicky in King and the handle in this one. This has the medium mode and King is cheaper.. Luckily I don't have to choose one -> I'll take both of them!
Verdict: Highly recommended!
The End (pun intended):
Thanks for reading & watching. Hope you enjoyed the review!