This review is of the Lumintop MoonBox 3.0, kindly provided by @Banggood. Aside from the light itself, I receive no compensation for the review.
This is a multi-functional light that includes a white light, UV, red+green lasers, plus a side RGB panel that has many displays/functions. Click on the sections below to read more!
Basic observations
The light comes in a very compact box. Aside from the light, also included are a manual, a lanyard, plus a USB to type C charging cord.
The light feels remarkable lightweight for its size, and is packed with various interfaces and features:
In addition, there is a very strong tail magnet that easily holds the light on a ferromagnetic surface.
Emitters, beam, and performance
The head of the MoonBox 3.0 looks rather unusual:
Aside from the main white emitter (unspecified, but 3535, domed, cool white and low CRI), there is a UV emitter inside a very elongated reflector, plus apertures for the red and green lasers.
The white emitter is unimpressive, though to be honest, I doubt any of us is here for the main white emitter. Although the OP reflector produces a well-shaped beam, the emitter suffers from angular tint shift, and the cool white + low CRI combination is not suitable for such a compact, relatively low power light. I would rather see a domeless high CRI emitter instead.
The UV emitter is unspecified, but produces good output (heat can be felt on skin), and its visible light emission is comparable with emitters from known manufacturers such as Seoul and Luminus.
The red and green lasers are an interesting pair; either can be activated jointly with the main light. The green is a 520nm direct-diode laser, which is excellent as it avoids the instability of 532nm DPSS green lasers. It is also much brighter than the red laser, which is comparable to the red laser on a generic presenter. Both lasers produce clean beams without splotches (as long as the lens is free of fingerprints or other smear). The green laser is powerful enough to make a visible beam in a dark sky, but safe enough to not burn black electrical tape even after focusing by a convex lens. An excellent balance is achieved.
The side panel is packed with many individually-addressed RGB LEDs, which mix to produce different colors. The RGB-mixed white is only a few lumens in output, but heats up disproportionately–the body gets very warm after being left on for a while. It is unclear what causes this; I suspect that the diffusion panel might be made from a dark plastic that absorbs most of the emission and only lets a few lumens out.
I am unable to accurately measure output, but the claimed 1200lm is believable based on ceiling bounce comparison with other lights. I measured throw at around 110m, which is within the specified 112m up to measurement error.
User interface
The UI is too complex to be described here, so I will only give a high-level overview and refer the reader to the manual.
The emitter group (head vs side panel) is toggled by a side switch, which feels oddly loose and flimsy. Within each emitter group, the first switch button is generally for advancing the mode, while the second switch activates secondary emitters or more refined features.
The basic UI for the white emitter is the standard e-switch UI. However, worth mentioning is a bug related to mode memory, which is only effective for 1-2 minutes after the light is turned off. If you turn the light on after this time, it “forgets” the previous mode used and defaults to medium.
The UI for the side panel is quite rich. Noteworthy are the following functions:
- red/blue police strobe
- RGB-mixed white light. Despite the spiky spectrum and extremely low CRI, the light is more visually pleasing than a typical low CRI cool white, and has high saturation.
- Continuously selectable single-hue light. This is a very nifty feature for color mixing demonstrations.
- Auto color-changing modes.
Essentially, pretty much everything you could hope for from an RGB light.
Notably, there is a small screen that displays the current output level as well as the battery level, which is a nice touch.
Battery and charging
The light runs on a built-in battery pouch, and has an unprotected USB charging port. For this, I doubt the claimed IPX6 rating. Fortunately, this does not matter very much as it is not intended to be an EDC/tool/heavy-duty light.
Charging proceeds at a maximum of 1A, which is pretty fast for a 1500mAh cell. During charge, both the display screen and the side panel display the state of charge, which is convenient.
Here’s a quick look inside the battery compartment:
Concluding remarks
I was looking forward to a fun light and quite pleased with this offering. The 520nm green laser is very useful for pointing, both at reflective objects and at the sky. The side RGB panel offers continuously selectable hue and a plethora of other functions. For a fun mood light, the MoonBox 3.0 is a unique offering.
What I like:
- 520nm green laser with good power/safety balance
- Continuous hue selection in side RGB panel
- Good UI for the huge selection of features
What I think can improve:
- Side panel light should be diffused with clear plastic to increase transmission efficiency
- Main emitter should be domeless high CRI
- Fix the forgetfulness of mode memory
- More robust construction + protection of switch buttons and charging port
Thank you for reading!