I just received one of the new ArmyTek Wizard WR headlamps today from Andrew&Amanda. I purchased this light with my own funds and this is my first review.
I had a requirement for a red/white headlamp for work. I ordered and received the new Wizard WR along with a Nitecore HC65 and Acebeam h40 (just for fun).
Onto the review.
The Wizard WR went straight to the charger after checking the included 18650 3200mah battery voltage at 3.6. Using the USB mag charger it charged just short of forever, during this time the light and charger did not get hot or seem to be strained. I was using a power strip with built in USB ports listed at 2.1 amps. The light on the charger never turned green (It’s red when charging and green when complete) until when checking the temperature the charger disconnected and reconnected. Once the connection was reestablished the charger was showing green and I had to go into work anyway Voltage of the cell was at 4.18 after a 10 min test. I need more testing charger to see if it’s a viable option, it for sure is a handy one!
The light has a very easy to use UI, much simpler then the pros. Single click of the firm button brings up last brightness and color setting. Press and hold button to start cycling through brightness settings. The only odd thing I noticed in usage was when holding the button to cycle between settings it will only go into firefly on the 1st cycle, after that you will only get three brightness settings. Switching from red to white and back is a simple double click. The light has memory on both modes separately, nice but when double clicking from off to switch colors it will flash whatever the last mode was before switching led output color not really a problem just something to know if trying to turn on low red in the middle of the night and the last setting used was high white you will be blinded. I hid the blinking settings following the directions and am grateful that is possible. On this light as I have no need for them until I get hopelessly lost in the jungle or woods.
The amount of red light the headlamp puts out is amazing, the only other red led headlamp I own is a zebra light 502 and while good it is no where as bright as this Wizard WR. I have attempted to take some beamshots using my IPhone XR but they don’t do it justice it is a wall of red light or a wall of white light. I found the low setting of white more then enough for 80% of my tasks and will be interested to get it out on the trail. I attempted to check the low voltage protection of the light and it seems that once the battery is under 3v it will only stay in low and only advance to Med for a few seconds before stepping down. This takes a lot of time to run down a battery to cut off! Thermal Regulation appeared to be working well and the light stepped down and back up After extended time on high. It ran most of a work shift on a higher setting then I needed to use and the battery was still at 2.88 volts when I no longer needed light and the sun was up.
I have only two issues so far, the headlamp strap is not as nice as the acebeam it has no silicone strips in it to keep it from shifting around, I prefer this type of strap as it can be worn looser making it more comfortable. Second thing and more major issue is when the light is on if you lightly tap the tail cap into your palm or a hard surface it makes the light noticeably flicker, not enough to change modes but enough to cuts the light out for a split second. I tried a longer 18650 with protection built in to see if it was battery length issue and loosing contact with the same results. I have contacted Armytek about the flickering will update This post with what they have to say. update Armytek had me bypass the tail cap and test it again and sadly it still was flickering, something must be loose in the circuitry. Very disappointing to have to send a brand new light back to the manufacturer. The HC65 is working great for my current usage but over all form factor of the WR is almost perfect for my usage. Hopefully round 2 will be a success.
Pictures uploaded are control, low, med, high, red to white, firefly was not able to be picked up on the iPhones camera unless I got much closer to the Wall.
Control
Low
Med
High
Low
Med
High
Nitecore HC65 For comparison
High
Red
HiCri
Cool day from amazon AA on 14500
