If you can figure out what lock and unlock do you will be my favorite person ever. Al i can see they do is turn the display off and on with a gnetle swipe.
The LED display. Shows lumens and voltage. Fairly accurate. This is an awesome feature that I wish more lights had. Itās not perfect though. The display isnāt that sharp owing to Imalentās use of frosted clear plastic over the display. Smooth plastic or glass would have worked better.
Nice fairly throwy beam. Not surprising from the relatively large smooth reflector and XPL HI. The beam pattern is quite nice.
Overall very good build quality.
Price: much cheaper than a Zebralight SC600w III HI.
Innovative. Itās rare to see flashlight developers trying something new. The LED display on this light is quite innovative and something other manufacturers arenāt including.
What I did not like:
The ātouchā sensors are unreliable. Sometimes it takes me 3 or 4 tries just to get the light to turn on. The touch sensors feel like a gimmick. Why couldnāt they just have used a couple momentary e-switch pushbuttons like other lights? Momentary switches would have worked 10x better. It feels like Imalent tried to reinvent the wheel and forgot to ask themselves āIs this actually better?ā I consider these finicky unreliable controls the biggest negative of this light.
The ātouchā sensors are hard to find by feel. Expect to have to rotate the light a few times before you locate the controls. And this is before having to spend multiple tries just to get them to work.
Bad UI: The light only has one mode, with 2-way ramping and memory. Unlike a magnetic control ring, the ramping is far too slow to serve as the only control. This light really needs shortcuts to min and max.
Defective shipment. My package failed to include the micro-USB cord that was supposed to ship with the light.
Poor placement of micro-USB jack. The micro-USB jack is too close to the bottom edge of its recessed pocket for the rubber cover. Many standard micro-USB cables wonāt fit because of this. Imalent should have centered the socket under the rubber cover, or made the socket and cover bigger.
Personal preference
Cool white tint. I prefer neutral tints. I have not attempted to replace the emitter with one of better tint as I decided it was not worth the effort.
Chunky. For a single 18650 light, this light is chunkier than Iām used to. I find this light too big and heavy for pocket EDC. While it might make a good searchlight, I canāt really think of any situation where Iād grab this over my SC600w III HI.
My conclusion: I really wanted to like this light since very few flashlight designers are trying something really new and innovative. Unfortunately, this light just has too many downsides, and I cannot recommend it. The troublesome controls combined with bad UI are enough to push this light into the āunsatisfactoryā category. It just takes too much time and hassle to get the light to turn on to the desired setting. NOT RECOMMENDED
Comments: I would have recommended this light if Imalent had used momentary pushbuttons for the controls, and had included simple shortcuts for min and max (such as double-click for max, long-click for min, etc.)
Iāve got one in Astrolux guise and my feelings are mixed. Mainly due to the touch button operation. The buttons are hard to find in darkness and the response is very inconsistent.
Having said that. Itās a great Mk I version. Improve the haptic side of the buttons and the consistency of the response and itāll be an unbeatable proposition in single 18650.
I would suggest a clicky on-off button (tail but shrouded so it can be used standing up) and a further look into the electronics. Iād also like to see over- and undercharge protection built in for the Mk II version .
Would be nice to enhance it and make a BLF version of this one. Potentially, itās a winner.
I commented on this light before and after trying to use it for some time, I agree with OP. Itās not bad (display) but it could have been so much better. When Manker picks up the idea of the Oled but with a proper switch in, letās say, a U11 format and choice in tints of LED, I would jump. Iād loved to like this light but in itās present form, I donāt.
But I still think this is the way to go. UI should be programmable once, then fire and forget. It should have a less throwy reflector option, haptic switch and firefly mode. Iād still like a child of this and the Manker U11, which I consider the all-round best single 18650 light.
A friend of mine started a āgiteā (small site with several holiday homes) in France. She needs an all round, fairly small, rechargeable, but luminous light. I recommended the Manker U11. I wish I could have recommended this one.