XTAR R01 XM-L Rechargeable Flashlight
The Xtar R01 is very new to the market so here is a review for those that are looking for more choices in rechargeable lights. Even if you are not looking for a rechargeable light, this light has some features that you may find of interest. The light retails around $60-$70 without battery. Xtar was running a promotion for their previous version of the light, the A01, which is equipped with an XP-G R5. While in contact with them about the details of that promotion, they informed me about this new light. Miles at Xtar graciously provided this light to me at a promotional price of $44 including one of their 18700 2600ma batteries with Sanyo core. So is the light decent for something modestly priced? Read on and find out.
Manufacturer Specs:
CREE XM-L T6 LED with a 50000h Lifespan
Max Output Flux: 800 Lm
Runtime: low 18-lumens(180 hours)/ middle 320-lumens(200 minutes)/ high 800-lumens(80 minutes)
Max range: 118m
Powered by 1 x 18650/18700 Li-ion or 2 x CR123A dry battery
Waterproof Degree: IPX-6
Switch: Tailcap Switch
6061 durable aircraft-grade aluminum alloy
Size: 160mm(length) x 37.0mm(head diameter) x 25.5mm(body diameter)
Netweight: 124g
Creative design with 5 modes: High100%, Mid40%, Low10%, Strobe, SOS mode, can cancel or recover
Mid, Low, Strobe, SOS mode at will.
Built-in Charging Management Module, Can charge for 1X18650/18700
Input C&V / Output C&V: 5V 500mA / 4.2V 500mA
The specs are a little thin, so I inquired of Xtar some additional information:
Type III hard anodizing
2.5v~8.4v
2.0A driver
800 lumen claim at the emitter measured in Integrated Sphere
Features 4/5
The R01 package included a holster, lanyard, USB recharging cable, spare o-ring, spare clicky switch, manual and a wall adapter. My package also included an Xtar 2600ma battery, but apparently this is not included in the basic stock package. Because this light is brand new, Xtar had not finished a retail package of it so my sample came with each component heavily bubble wrapped and then sent in a box. The new manual also had yet to be finalized for mass printing so my copy was clearly done as a one-off. I have to say that it is nicely detailed, but was for the XP-G R5 version of the light. The warranty claims to be for 24 months.
Xtar offers the light in both XP-G and XM-L editions. The LED module is easily removable and replaceable. As of now, I don’t see Xtar selling modules by themselves for user upgrades, but perhaps this is coming. In fact the entire light is able to be disassembled by the user. The bezel can be unscrewed to access the lens, reflector, and led module. The recharging module can easily be unscrewed from the light. The tailcap can be fully disassembled. In fact, the manual gives a full exploded schematic of the light. Its highly mod friendly if you find parts that fit. One issue I ran into though is that the reflector does sit loose in the head. It is not secured or screwed in to anything. If you unscrew the bezel, it is a pain in the butt to get the reflector and emitter lined back up again. You’ll see that in the emitter shot that the emitter is very slightly off center because I had a heck of a time lining it back up after unscrewing the bezel.
This light is pretty unique currently in the flashlight world. To my knowledge, it is the only rechargeable light currently available with an XM-L. This is also one of the few lights with a USB rechargeable option. Since it also comes packaged with a wall adapter you do have the option of plugging into either a USB port or the wall right out of the box. Further, there is a car adapter as an optional accessory so you can pretty much charge this light anywhere.
One huge feature that gives it an advantage over just about every other rechargeable light is that you can use just about any 18650 in it and still fully use the rechargeable feature. In most other lights of this type you have to mess with a proprietary battery to be able to use the in-light charging. In this case, if the battery quits, just get another 18650 and you are good to go. The downsides are the fact that since the charger module is entirely self contained in the light, it must be a little longer than a typical 1x18650 style light to accommodate the circuit, and that Xtar does not feel it necessary to include a battery in stock form. Dealers do tend to offer the light with battery as a package, however. It is sort of puzzling why they don’t just price the retail price slightly higher and just include the battery. In actual operation, the charging system is unusual in that you must turn the light on and then plug in the cord in order for it to work. An led light just below the port on the flashlight comes on red while charging and turns green when finished. So far I have tested twice and it seems to turn the light green at 4.14 volts, which is actually consistent with Xtar’s normal chargers. Xtar claims termination, but I am not sure how to test this and I haven’t had time to leave a battery on a few extra hours to see what the voltage would be.
An issue I have with the charge system is that that they do not use a standard micro usb attachment for the flashlight itself. It instead uses one of those round mini-plugs that we used to see to plug in the AC/DC adapters in older electronics/cell phones. This means that the USB cable is not a standard USB to micro USB cable, but pretty much proprietary. It’s a rather silly oversight for a device that is USB rechargeable.
Another unique feature is the DIY mode circuit. If you have basic soldering skills, you can easily adjust this light to remove any of the modes you don’t won’t. It’s a simple, but somewhat crude solution to the fact that so many people want so many different mode options on their lights. You can make it a 1 mode light, or a 3-mode without flashies, or leave it in stock 5-mode form, or do any other combination you want. Simply unscrew the head and the PCB has four accessible contacts. Each contact is for a different mode (there is no contact for high obviously). If you want to remove a mode, just put a blob of solder on the corresponding contact. To restore that mode, just remove the solder. Its basic enough that you don’t need to know anything about electronic circuits to do it and it allows the light to be customizable to your needs. Its not nearly as graceful as a nice programmable interface, but I do give Xtar credit for providing such a feature on a light of this price point. If its unclear how this works, here’s the page from the manual:
Operationally, the light uses a forward clicky and it has mode memory. All the modes are controlled via the lone tail switch. While Xtar is not the only manufacturer to do this, the combination of a single switch that controls modes as well as turn the light on or off in a forward arrangement is a little odd. This arrangement makes it impossible to change modes while the light is still on. You must instead turn the light off and then back on. The best thing to do is to select the mode before fully turning on the light. You go through half depressing until you find the mode you want and then fully depress the switch for it to remain on. It does take a little getting used to. However, the forward clicky is nice for momentary on should you need it and if you are to eliminate all the modes you do not want, you will probably really like this. The light does have memory that appears in my testing to take effect after three seconds. The switch is fully recessed within the tailcap, which helps with accidental activation and allows the light to easily tailstand.
The light is capable of supporting 1x18650, 2xcr123a, or 2x16340. Obviously, if you plan to use the recharging function, you can only use the 18650, but you can use the other batteries to power the light.
Build Quality 4/5
The light is pretty well built. It is hard anodized as claimed. The threads were all nice and smooth though in need of a little more lube. There are orings everywhere you would expect. Anodizing is fairly smooth and uniform as is the gnurling. However, the gnurling is on the shallow side. I prefer a more aggressive, deeper knurling. I didn’t see any excess debris other than the retaining in the tailcap looks a little grimy. The soldering seemed pretty clean and well done. There is a tiny imperfection on the outside of the tailcap. Eagle eyed viewers will be able to spot in the photos. The light feels very solid in hand and I detected no rattling or other issues. The tailswitch itself has a reasonable tactile feel. It did not strike me as particularly troublesome or blow me away as fabulous. The threads on the tail end of the battery tube are anodized so it does have lock out ability. The included holster is one of the better ones I’ve seen in this price range, but still nowhere near heavy duty.
A minor nitpick: While I wouldn’t say the cable for the charge is too thin, it is a little thinner than most of my standard USB cables. I do wish that it was a little thicker. Of course, if Xtar would use a standard micro USB port for the charge module, this wouldn’t even be an issue.
The design seems like it would dissipate heat fairly well for its size. The pill does make contact with both the head and the battery tube so it should provide plenty of metal for heat dissipation. The light did get a little warm but I have yet to run it on high for more than about five minutes at a time. After five minutes it was a little warm, but not hot.
Light Output/Battery Life 4/5
I do not have a light meter or an IS. I do have a pretty crappy DMM so I will start with those figures. I can’t guarantee that these figures are reliable, but they do make sense given the beamshots and from what I saw visually.
Low 20ma
Med 0.57amps
High 1.75amps
Two things off the bat. The low is pretty low. Not moonlight low, but in the neighborhood of 10 lumens and with only 20ma draw, that 18650 is going to last a very long time. Yes, its on the large side for EDC, but with the real, usable low, this does become a feasible EDC option. The other, is the high draw. Given that Xtar claimed that it would be a 2amp driver, this reading is low. At that current level, it would not reach the claimed 800 lumens at the emitter. Again, I can’t trust the accuracy of my meter. However, given the output, that current number seems reasonable. Based on the comparison shots and my own eye, OTF lumens is close to 500 lumens. The output is very slightly more than what I am seeing with my Xeno E03 XM-L on high with a 14500. The medium mode seems to come in pretty close to 200 lumens judging by my eye and the beamshots. I’d say the modes are pretty well spaced.
UPDATE: I've retested the draw and got the following, more reliable figures:
Low 20ma
Med 0.71amps
High 2.01amps
Output is on the floody side, but with still some throw. As you’ve seen, the reflector is orange peel but measures roughly 33 mm wide and about 26mm deep so it is bit larger than a P60 reflector. Close up on a white wall, you actually see a slightly brighter small hotspot within the hotspot. However, at any sort of distance, I don’t see this affect. Outdoors, I did see some reflection of light off a building over 200 meters away, but I wouldn’t really think of it as reasonable. A house at 120 meters was reasonably lit so it will give you at least 100 meters of effective range. The color on my sample was surprisingly warm. This is the warmest LED light I own. Perhaps I won the tint lottery on this one as Xtar makes no claim on bin colors or of a neutral or warm white emitter. I wouldn’t say that it’s a warm white, but it is clearly more of a yellow than my Xeno E03 cool white or my Fenix LD20 Q5. I wish I had a neutral white light to compare it to.
Indoor beamshots: Xeno E03 XM-L 14500, Fenix LD20 Q5 Nimh, Xtar R01 XM-L 18650
Ceiling bounce shots:
LD20 Q5
R01 Low
R01 Medium
I changed up the ceiling beam shot a bit to compare the E03 XM-L on 14500 and the R01 on high. I found these shots to be a little more informative than the ones taken with the others. To my eye, the R01 is the slight winner.
E03 14500
R01 High
Outdoor Beamshots - 40 feet to crabapple tree
LD20Q5
E03 14500
R01 High
R01 medium
R01 low
The output modes are clearly controlled by PWM. The light does make some audible noise if you hold the light close to your ear on the medium mode. On the low mode, the pwm is on the low side, but I did not find it bothersome in any way. I could wave my hand rapidly in front of the light and see some strobe effect. However, the clearly audible noise of the medium mode is not present.
Overall 4/5
This is a solid light. I do, however, feel somewhat like Foy did in his review of the Xtar Wk25. It is in many ways sort of vanilla. I don’t find anything particularly objectionable about the light. Some may not like particular features of this light that would make it not feasible for them, but others may want those features so I can’t judge on that basis. However, there was nothing about this light that blew me away or stood clearly above other lights. However, this light does provide a collection of features that does make it unique. Yes other lights are better in areas, but don’t provide some of the other things this light provides. I do like the light and would recommend it as another option in the rechargeable light field. Actually, I would still recommend it just as a stand alone light given the reasonable price.