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.