(mini) Review: Klarus P1A

LED Flashlights – General Info 1 x AA / 1 x 14500 Flashlights
1

OK, guyz, so I've receved last Saturday my eagerly awaited Klarus P1A from DD :) Will put official specs here, just in case:

What can I say? Nice small but sturdy package. Comes with all that typical extra stuff, as described in DD (will not post pics of the light right now because you will find nice ones in DD, with good macro shots)

About the light itself. Impressions just right after taking the light out of the box, nothing more: amazing quality :love: I think you've already noticed that I'm a "semibudget" flashaholic, and I think all lights I have are superb quality (and all of them with small cons and so on, but whatever :) ). Man, this one is no exception. Superb feeling! I don't have Fenix or more expensive lights, but really, anodizing (HAIII) is perfect, all parts are machined with outstanding precision.

It's not lightweight, but you actually feel those 60 grams. It feels very robust and comfortable in hand.

I've noticed that the knurling on the body is slightly less aggressive than on the tailcap, just as I like.

Normal threads (not square) and anodized in the tail, so if you slightly loosen the tailcap, it'll prevent accidental switching. All threads are decently lubed (great lube, btw)

It can tail stand, but the rubber cap protrudes a little bit, so it's quite wobbling tail stand :| The rubber cap is slightly rounded thus prevent the light tail firmly.

PS: So, Klarus, put flat rubber cap in your next models, please ;)

Truly AR coated, crystal clear lenses :O Well, don't know if that's AR, but all reflections looks less bright (i.e. a normal incandescent bulb filament) and with violet/purple tint. Just FYI, all my ITPs doesn't have that purple tint reflections, and they are AR coated too :| So, if someone knows what's that coating, please explain ;)

The emitter is perfectly centered, in a small, black and plastic thingy without any anomalies (i.e. damaged clear plastic covering the emitter)

LOP reflector and black o-ring on the front. Overall, veeery clean install. No evidence of solder drops, finger prints, etc.

As for the switch, the light has momentary ON. The clickie sounds quite cheap (like in my Xeno), but works flawlessly. Not a con really, but you need a good press to turn the light ON (not momentary I mean), quite long displacement IMO :puzzled: The rubber cap is not thick so it's easy to press.

The light comes with SS clip, but IMO it's very stiff :( Haven't tried it yet, but looks like you can turn it the other way and clip it to the baseball cap, for example. Maybe that stiffness will hold well the light on the cap.

Tint is quite cold, with veeeeery slight purple/violet tint (spill). I thought it will be really a "Premium R5" as stated (i.e. ITP tint :bigsmile: , which is perfect white on all my ITP lights).

The beam pattern - excellent :D just what I was looking for. I don't have any lux meter, but I can say that the hot spot is very similar to my ITP C7 - quite good defined hotspot, but with soft corona (or soft 2nd hot spot). It's quite hard to notice the "donut hole" (typical thing on many lights). It's very small and you will never notice it in real life.

It has 2 modes: 11 and 150 lm. Can't prove that without lux meter, sorry, but for me, the LO is perfect for most situations. And HI is really high :D Very decent (IMO) output for 1xAA.

Can't say anything about regulation :( Will try to measure current tomorrow. From selfbuilts reviews I can say that other models (P2A, P1C) have excellent regulation. No PWM at any mode :D It's CC :P

Overall score: 4,7/5 :cool: (especially for that price, ~$30 @ DD :P I've got it for much less, lol, but indeed, I'd pay those 30 bucks without a doubt)

4,7 because of: wobbling tail (rubber cap prob), stiff clip and CW tint. A lil' bit better switch would be great too.

Well, I'll upload some pics if you want tomorrow :) Over and out.

2

I just come to look at pics, disappointing

I'll check again tomorrow.

3

Good comments... I hope to get my light soon too so I can check it out. Ive heard a lot of good things about Klarus...enjoy the light!

4

Thanks for the great review! Not mini at all. Covers more important topics than any other typical "review" by dealers.

You're the first one to have received the DD order, sweet!!

Let's not forget Speedsix's thread. Has some info too.

I am looking for a DD holster for the P1A. Three holsters which MIGHT/COULD fit (i dunno!!!) are:

by UltraFire SKU: A06170000F


5

The P1A is a little thicker than the average C3-style lights, but I tried my P2A head (same diameter as P1A) in my C3 holster and it fits.

That holster with an Hugsby P31 ... I wonder if the P1A clip works the same way

6

Nice nice, thanks!

i like the colors (Have never been to army myself.) so i will probably grab the #214, which is made for the Ultrafire G10 (well, according to an ebay offer). The G10 (Ultrafire, Uniquefire, XXXFire, etc.) seems to have about the same dimensions as the P1A.

7

I had the same problem of a couple of my lights not tail standing because the rubber boot was just barely too long and it made the light wobble. I found an easy fix. I took an O-ring from one of my iTP A3 E0S lights,(Each one comes with an extra o-ring). I took the tail cap apart and removed the rubber boot. I put the 0-ring over the top of the rubber button and re installed it into the tail cap. After I'm finished the rubber boot sits just slightly lower in the tail cap and allows the light to tail stand.

8

well understood what you mean Chidwack, thanks!

Excellent idea. So easy and cant get any better. ( i never have such great ideas )

!!!

9

215 Ultrafire holster is a good fit for the P2A BTW.

10

Vectrex, any of your holsters fit the P1A?

11

I put P1A in my C3 holster and it fits nicely, the same variant with the flap also works but the Velcro is not fully engaging.(overlapping is not enough for my taste) Added some pics to the slideshow.

12

Fantastic photos, thanks so much!

Quite interesting .. the P1A is about the same size or form factor as a C3, but in your C3 holster the overlapping is not optimal, i garee ;)

I ordered the Ultrafire #214 which seems to be 100% identical to yours with the flap, only with differing coloring.

hmm.. it's the same holster isnt it?

I dont think that yours with the flap is the Ultrafire #215, or is it?

13

P1A is ~9 mm longer and 2,5 mm more diameter than my Hugsby P31 which is C3ish. The elastic sides on the holster accommodates for the additional thickness but the flap part with the velcro isn't coping very well with the additional length. UltraFire™ 215 should be the 2AA variant for the P2A...also not fully overlapping but a lot better than the P1A in the small holster with flap, also available at Dino as Ultrafire 214. Just get the one without the flap ... the clip will secure it enough and at 99 cents it's a no-brainer.

14

Thanks.

Well, if the P1A doesnt fit super well, then torches like the Quark AA or the Xeno E03 would fit. They are C3-ish imho :)

The form factor of the P1A brings such problems. New holster, and also new diffuser. I havent received my P1A yet, but ive already placed orders for the diffuser (23mm) and the holster (UF 214).

For the rest of the afternoon i will look at your series of photos and dr**m and dr**l

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Concerning diffusers

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From the DX webpages we could tell that UF #214 is too small for the P1A, so the flap-less 0.99$ would be the best choice, true!

And what about a belt holder which you can swivel? (it is not my original idea. i've seen such a thing in a retail packet (Skilhunt?) and i was wondering if it can be purchased separately)

Something like the following item (which i already own!), but to be attached to your belt, so that you can shine in front of you, with hands-free operation:

17

i've received mine from Dinodirect (shill shill hehe), my first impressions:

+ high quality feeling. a little heavy, too thick walls. maybe serve as heat sink i dunno

+ Sunawayman-like anodization quality. incredible, really.

+ doesnt look or feel bulky in your palms, i am positively surprised! 23mm (p1a) or 21.5mm (Xeno e03) does NOT make a difference.

+ runs on Protected 14500 flawlessly. you get two DIFFERENT modes (brightness levels), nice!!

+ nice beam pattern. the tint is premium. CoolWhite. very tight and bright(!) white hotspot with (not too bad) greenish corona, very minimal corona artifacts, and purplish spill. It's the same coolwhite you see in Xeno E03 XML T6 coolwhite. the beam pattern is almost perfect, the tint is good. The tint of my (more expensive) klarus mix6 is better: uniform color, white.

+ accessories: tailcap boot cover, 2 fat o-rings, wrist strap, instruction manual

+ momentary activation and switch: very good

+ it's clearly a thrower imho.

+ apart from throw vs. flood, superior to Xeno e03 in many respects: momentary on, sturdy clip, heat sinking, mode memory, professional look, professional feel, military grade, perfect regulation (constant brightness), better mode spacing, better flashlight brand

- the clip is NOT reversible. or let's say it this way: the clip is NOT MEANT to be reversed. there is no pre-existing groove for bezel-up carry. i am negatively surprised!!

- well, as you can see above, the clip IS reversible (clip it right below the o-ring!) and it fits there even better than in the pre-exisiting groove for bezel-down carry but you will lose the High-mode because the head cannot be fully tightened any longer. you could remedy this by installing a copper sealing washer (perfect ground size: 14.5 x 19.0 x 1.6) between the head and the body tube, however you may consider a different method (or torch!) to attach the P1A to your head (headband, head strap) or baseball cap. Why? Because the P1A is heavier, bulkier and longer than for example the Quark AA.

- clip is too sturdy. i cant remove it. simply push from the side. dont pull or lift the clip. push it from the side to take it off.

- threads are not square cut. tail threads are anodized (lockout possible) and lubed, head threads are unanodized and unlubed wtf.

- tailstand wobbly (rubber boot)

Here some tailcap readings: (note: "remaining offline voltage" is the cell voltage measured after swiftly taking the cell out of the activated flashlight. this voltage may coincide with the cell voltage under load, since after the measurement the cell would recover and voltage quickly rise to a stationary real offline voltage)

LiIon, High-mode: falling amperage, no regulation (runtime estimation impossible)

remaining voltage (offline) 4.221V sssV sssV 2.686V
tailcap current 2.020A sssA sssA 0.624A

LiIon, Low-mode: falling amperage, no regulation (runtime estimation impossible)

remaining voltage (offline) 4.221V sssV sssV 2.634V
tailcap current 0.516A sssA sssA 0.038A

eneloop, High-mode: constant current regulated, avg. 2200mA (estimated runtime: < 60mins.)

remaining voltage (offline) 1.52V 1.47V 1.31V 1.16V
tailcap current 2.614A 2.3A 2.2A 1.8A

average current draw is 2.2A which seems to be a stabilization point for a wide typical voltage range. when the cell approaches and passes the 1.20V mark, amperage would linearly decline (2.1A, 2.0A, 1.9A, 1.8A, ..).

eneloop, Low-mode: constant brightness regulated, avg. 80mA (estimated runtime: 25.0h)

remaining voltage (offline) 1.52V 1.47V 1.31V 0.89V
tailcap current 0.068A 0.070A 0.077A 0.229A

Runtime, eneloop 2000mAh, High-mode:

the torch gets really hot shortly before it drops out of regulation after 60mins (remaining offline voltage, 1.21V) which is about the same disappointing result which one gets with Jetbeam BA10. Within the next 5mins the torch would cool down (0.87V) and be noticeably dimmer after, say, a total of 1h15min (0.85V; recoverable to 1.17V). The light continues to dim for a long duration of 1h45mins until the LED emits practically zero light: the light is off after 3h02m30s of total elapsed time (0.8460V; recoverable to 1.12V). the eneloop cell is fully(!) depleted; capacity consumed: 2030mAh(!!). In the Klarus printed manual, the runtime is indicated as "1.5 hrs"; clearly, this number is really wrong (an intentional lie?!). The max acceptable number to be printed optimistically in the manual should be 1.2hrs imho but a much fairer value to be published would be 1.0 hrs.

Runtime, eneloop 2000mAh, Low-mode:

Low-mode (P1A w/ Premium R5)
 testrun stopped remaining offline voltage recoverable to capacity consumed
Eneloop cell#1 & testrun#1 25h4min ~0.84V 1.1764V 1899mAh
Eneloop cell#2 & testrun#2 27h3min ~0.83V 1.1054V 1948mAh
Eneloop cell#3 & testrun#3 tba tba tba tba
Eneloop cell#4 & testrun#4 tba tba tba tba

In testruns#1 and #2 the torch began to dim visibly after exact 25.0hrs and brightness dropped fast within 5mins to 50%. At this point 1899mAh of the cell's capacity is already consumed and the remaining ~100mAh are used to keep the LED lit at sub-moonlight level for extended time. The light continues to dim for a long duration of 2hrs until the LED emits practically zero light: the light is off after 27h3mins of total elapsed time (< 0.83V; recoverable to 1.1054V). (*FYI* Actually the LED begins to emit an accelerating pulsating signal at that point, which is a common observed phenomenon when a cell is beyond its assumed death and repeatedly auto-recovers to the LED's threshold voltage.) the eneloop cell is fully(!) depleted; capacity consumed: 1948mAh. In the Klarus printed manual, the runtime is indicated as "28 hrs"; clearly, this number is really wrong (an intentional lie?!).

Runtime, Protected Trustfire flames 14500 900mAh, High-mode:

High-mode (P1A w/ Premium R5)
 14500 cell#1 14500 cell#2 14500 cell#3 protection PCB tripped
testrun#1 38m19s 40m56s 35m39s yes
testrun#2 39m34s 41m31s 37m04s yes
testrun#3 N/A N/A N/A N/A
testrun#4 N/A N/A N/A N/A

In order get some confidence in the runtime results i did 6 testruns: 2 tests with each of my 3 cells. The results from the table clearly indicate how the quality (=actual capacity) of the cell has a direct impact on the runtime. Obviously cell#3 (purchased from DD and delivered without hologram!) is a poor quality cell with low capacity. In this high drainage test cell#2 (also purchased from DD) is the best performer. Rounding numbers, we can safely state that the runtime is 40mins.

Runtime testruns, Protected Trustfire flames 14500 900mAh, Low-mode:

Low-mode (P1A w/ Premium R5)
 14500 cell#1 14500 cell#2 14500 cell#3 protection PCB tripped
testrun#1 2h34m27s 2h27m13s 2h20m40s yes
testrun#2 2h32m14s 2h27m12s 2h20m07s yes
testrun#3 N/A N/A N/A N/A
testrun#4 N/A N/A N/A N/A

In order get some confidence in the runtime results i did 6 testruns: 2 tests with each of my 3 cells. The results from the table clearly indicate how the quality (=actual capacity) of the cell has a direct impact on the runtime. Obviously cell#3 and cell#2 (both purchased from DD and delivered without hologram!) are poor quality cells with low capacity, and cell#1 (purchased from DX) the best performer. Rounding numbers, we can safely state that the runtime is 2.5hrs.

18

Again with the tints? Really? Do want me to put in my sig "Kreisler still does not understand how binning and selection and ratings like CW/NW/WW of high power LEDs work.... so take his posts like 'X flashlight has Y tint/sub-tint/LED-color' with a grain of salt (more like 2 tons)"... because I will do it. ;-) If you don't believe me ... buy 10-20 Ultrafire CW C3 and you will have pretty much have a cool white rainbow. It is called "tint lottery" for a reason. Also there is no such thing as a "premium" tint.

But back to the P1A... I also like it better than my Xeno, but the smooshy switch with the long travel to engage could be improved... it works well, but it feels weird. My Xeno E03 XP-G or P2A have about the same beam pattern than the P1A. Since you some of you also have both AA Klaruses... is it just me or is the reflector on the P1A less stippled (smoother) than the P2A? It seems to result in a little harder transition between hotspot and spill.

19

hehe.

hi Vectrex, ive never handled the P2A in my life before. Speedsix has the two Klaruses. And since when do you have a Xeno?, it's not in your sig :D

the hotspot is very tight with a rather hard transition to the corona, i would agree. very very light orange-peel textured. and i am questioning the usefulness of such a focused beam pattern in indoor use without a 23mm white diffuser.

so P1A's purchased at different times (production batches) will result in different tints? .. i understand.

Tank has a good variety of diffusers!, and very cheap at PriceAngels.com

23mm white diffusers by Lumiquest also available from KD (link1, link2).

Personally i ordered the ones from Dinodirect, so ask me! Here some details:

a white hard plastic diffuser tip for the Klarus P1A (bezel diameter 23.00mm) is the Tank007 diffuser product#23100, which is available thru DD for $3.39, or from BOB for 5.90$, or from AA for 2.81$,

a soft(?) white diffuser tip is available thru MF for $2.63.

a German dealer sells original(?) Klarus diffuser tips for €4.90 plus shipping.

he also sells Klarus holster for the P1A.

i havent received my P1A yet .. but once i have, i will use my DD credits on the Tank diffuser. Finally something sensible to buy!!

20

It is at least not guaranteed that the tints will be exactly the same. I think you will have to go to different price levels for hand-selected (human eyes) tints. The budget lights I have seen so far where I had the possibility to check multiple specimen of the same light were different sometimes even within the same shipment. (5-6 UF C3, 8 Hugsby P31/p32, 3 Skyray S-A1) XR-Es CW seem to have a wider variation in LED-color than the newer XP-G ones, but still. One could argue that the quality of brands like Klarus is higher than the Ultra-budget brands, but every additional selection process raises costs and when you look at brands like 4sevens who sometimes are knowingly building predominantly greenish emitter in their flashlights despite being 'premium'. (and I am almost sure they ordered a specific tint) They simply cannot afford not to use those emitters. David Chow of 4sevens went for the first lot of XM-L emitters not knowing what he will get. If people in the industry can't even pinpoint the LED color before they hold them in their hands, I find a bit premature of us hobbyists to say 'flashlight x has always y LED color'.

This is all "CW" ... and even the squares with the "exact tint" can have a wide variation.

As long as emitter aren't for order with color coordinates with 3 decimal points preciseness... it is essentially order something and hope for the best, at least in budgetland. BTW I already made space in my sig... ;-)