Review: Wuben I331 Iron Man

I have received the Wuben I331 from Tmart.com for the review, curtesy of Ray.
They gave me a coupon for the I331: Wuben

Wuben specs for the I331
• Small and light, with a patented cool design
• Top grade XPL-V5 LED casts ultra bright beam
• Waterproof, impact resistant aero aluminum shell
• 600mAh 14500 battery for up to 100 hours of working time
• Battery indicator on the switch displays blue when the battery is over 30, red when 10–30% and flashes when below 10%
• Support USB charging
• Include a lanyard for added portability

I make my best efforts in order to be as impersonal as possible in the early parts of the review, limiting my personal comments at the end of the review. However, I am being nothing but honest saying that I am really surprised by the packaging.

I have seen some lights during the years of flashlight passion, and I don’t recall a package like this. The box looks like a sci-fi book, ready to sent you into space. I usually don’t care much about the packaging and I open it right away to check the insides.

With this box I spent a bit more looking at this black package with shiny grey lettering and geometrical pattern.

Let’s open the box, shall we?

Inside you have: the I331, a 14500 battery branded Wuben, lanyard, and braided micro USB cable.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but I have not seen many lights looking like this one: the black HA III anodization is interrupted by geometrical milling with a shiny finish.






The XP-L V5 emitter in a smooth reflector, with a crenelated metallic bezel on top. The emitter is slightly decentered, and at the bottom of the reflector there are some imperfection. A residue of the machining?

The U shaped tailcap allows tailstand and easy access to the mechanical switch.

At the head an electronical switch

Unlubed but well made trapezoidal threads. They are anodized so you can physically lockout the light untwisting the tailcap.

The light has a micro USB port for charging the batteries. The micro USB cover has some protrusion to keep it in place.

It is a very big light for an AA light. It could easily pass for a 18650 light.

UI
Using the tailcap switch you turn the light on and off.
With each press of the electronic head switch you will cycle between the levels, in a descending order (high, medium2, medium1, low, moonlight, high… in loop).
When the light is on keep pressed the side switch to go directly into high mode.
When the light is on a double press of the side switch will get you into strobe mode, and another double press will give SOS mode.

The side switch has a led underneath it, it is blue flashing when the battery is above 30% of charge, red when the 10charge<30, and flashing red when <10%.

When charging using the micro USB port, remember to click the tailcap switch as you want to turn the light on.

Output and runtime
Output and runtime have been tested with the provided wuben 14500 battery.
First I test the 600 mAh battery at 1.5A up to 2.8 volts with my SCYRC MC3000.



Beamshots, at 0.5 m from the wall



My thoughts.
The light is well built, and the packaging is really super nice.
However, the light should be improved to be on the level of the packaging: the reflector on my sample has some imperfections, there is visible PWM at all levels but high, and the regulation can be improved on all the tested levels.

Thanks to AntoLed for lending me the camera and the luxmeter.

Thanks for the review. I really do like this light, but you pointed out the one thing that I noticed and will keep me from purchasing. It just seems too big to be a 14500 light. Either fit it for 18650 or shrink the host down significantly. This disappoints me too as I really like everything about it…the design is awesome and I love the lighted side switch.

It is not that this is a small 18650 light, and they fit the tube for a 14500.
This light has a rather big reflector (for its size): look how close the spot of the XP-L Hi is to the one of the XP-L, and an integrated recharging.

Nevertheless, it is long.

Nice, thanks for the review! :innocent:

Measurements? By that I don't mean the graphs only geeks need, but actual weight/length/diameter etc.