Disclaimer: I received this flashlight for free, with the understanding that I would make a full review of it. I have tried to be as informative and impartial during this review as I possibly can.
The Acebeam W10 was provided by BestLight
Long story, short:
This is, pound for pound, the greatest thrower than you could possibly fit into a pocket. It has more throw per bezel MM than ANY other light I know about, including venerable and now impossible to acquire lights like the DEFT-X EDC (which was limited to a few units, and was double the price of this light, and was bigger at the bezel)
If you need throw on the go, this is the light for you.
Manufacturer specifications:
You can read the manufacturer specification on the acebeam page, to avoid cluttering the review. That said, the box itself includes some ANSI information, and the manual is fairly thorough.
Unboxing and Contents:
The W10 is very nicely packed inside a retail-ready cardboard box that features a picture of the light, and uses magnets to stay closed.
Inside the box, we can see the light inside a black foam cutout, along with the included accessories, which are:
A lithium-ion battery warning.
A user manual, very complete, and with both english and chinese sections.
Warranty Card: 15 days for exchange, 2 years for free warranty service, 5 years for warranty service, for the cost of the parts used on the repair.
Spare tailcap and O-rings, and 18650-to-21700 battery adapter.
Clip, installed. Very secure fit.
Green and red filters, that screw very nicely into the front of the light, and a strike bezel, which comes installed, and also threads into the front of the light.
5100 mAh Acebeam 21700 battery.
Build quality and durability:
Acebeam certainly knows what they are doing when they build a light. The anodizing feels thick and smooth, all the threads are very smooth, and greased in all the right places.
The tailcap switch is a forward clicky. The rubber boot feels like quality, the switch is very nice to press, with only a slight force required to activate it momentarily, but with what I consider a perfect amount of resistance before switching it on permanently.
The tailcap threads are nice and square, the oring is thick and sits snuggly in the groove. The tailcap MCPCB is held down with screws, and the spring is soldered securely.
The clip, while basic, performs it’s function well and is secure. For a light this size, I don’t consider deep carry much of a priority.
The knurling feels great, and it is very clean. Each of the diamond shapes in the knurling is concave, which makes the knurling hold onto your hand very nicely. The swirl-pattern on the tailcap and below the head are not quite as grippy, but I don’t think most people would really need more grip than what the center knurling provides.
The removable strike bezel is thick, pointy, and it would absolutely do damage to anyone it would hit. Minimal pressure is enough to feel the bezel “digging” into the skin, and a good hit would almost certainly draw blood and be quite painful.
The head has fins for heat tranfer, and during use, the light does not get too hot to hold at any point.
The head and front bezel are threadlocked securely. We can see some screws if we take a peek into the optic, which I assume are responsible for keeping the optic in place.
The light can charge whichever lithium-ion battery is installed via it’s USB-C port, which is quite well protected by a threaded section right behind the head of the light.
The light can be charged while running with the battery inside, or even be made to run directly from USB power, with no battery in the light.
It has a small indicating led. It will shine red while charging, and green when the battery is fully charged.
User Interface and switches:
You have on. You have off. You have a single switch. Not much to look at here, but for it’s purposes, I think it’s a great UI. If you turn this light on, you want to see something in the distance. No use for low modes.
Runtime:
Runtime, uncooled. 16.5 minutes to 80, 87 minutes to 50, 163 minutes to 10%, Acebeam 5100mah battery.
The light has no low voltage protection, and as such, I would recommend using protected batteries with the light, like the included 21700 battery.
Beamshots and comparison pictures:
I went to a near beach at night and took some pictures. The tiny cabin in the picture is for lifeguards to stay at during the day, so no one was bothered by the constant death rays
The distance to the cabin is about 320 meters/1050 feet. All the pictures taken at the same settings, and as close to real life as I could manage.
Convoy C8: Zoomed out, zoomed in.^Excusethe^blurriness
Acebeam W10: Zoomed out, zoomed in.
Acebeam W10: green filter:Zoomed out, zoomed in
BLF GT: Zoomed out, zoomed in
The red filter stops far more light than the green one, and is not useful at such long distances.
Of course, comparing the W10 and the GT is a bit unfair. They play in entirely different leagues. But it does show you the kind of results the W10 is capable of doing at a small fraction of the size and weight of a behemoth like the GT.
Acebeam achieves this incredible throw on such a small light by using a different kind of LED compared to every other flashlight I know about, a LEP (Laser Excited Phosphor), which makes it quite different from the front compared to other lights.
Some pictures to give a sense of scale to the W10.
We can see that it is about as tall as a convoy C8, and much smaller at the bezel, but despite that fact, it has almost twice the throw.
No flashlight I have found that you can buy right now can reach the throw of the W10 in a bezel under 63mm diameter.
Lux and Lumen measurements:
I take my lumen measurements using a homemade “approximating sphere”. The results should be taken with a grain of salt, specially with such an outlier light (Very focused beam), but they are as follows:
Lux@7@30s meters= 4130 lux, or 211190 candela, or 919 meters of ANSI throw.
Lumens at 30s= 185 lumens
Personal opinion and recommendations to the manufacturer:
The Acebeam W10 is a fantastic piece of gear if you absolutely need to carry as much punch as you can in the smallest size possible. But, like every light, it has something to improve.
Personally, I would love to see an upgraded version with a more stable output/runtime.
And… that’s about it, really. While the light has a very limited skillset, it really, really excels at what it does. Throw far in a small form factor. If that is what you need on a light, there is nothing else even close to the W10.