I know it’s not exactly a budget light, but I thought you might like to see my latest 1x21700 review now up on my flashlightreviews.ca website:
It’s a nice performer, as you can tell from one of the runtimes I’m showing below. But please check out the full review for a more detailed assessment.
Nice thorough review!
I reviewed this light, too, but my review is very short. 
Feel free to post reviews of any budget of light.
I’m sure someone on BLF will appreciate it because we all have different budgets. 
Nice review. Though the double click from off to turn it on… is, well a “Turn Off!!” 
The high parasitic drain is not good either. I think the cutouts for showing the pretty blue inner tube would be dirt and crud traps long term.
IOW, I am not running out to buy one.
BUT, as usual, a great review.
All very good points. The high standby is weird, but otherwise I find the performance excellent. And I really like the “moonlight” mode (~1 lumen). It seems be rare to find that nowadays.
The style is a little over the top, but I kind of like it. 
Haha, well I struggle to keep my reviews short. 
I have this in SS. Probably the nicest looking light I have. I wish it had a better balance of throw and flood. Its by far mostly a flood light.
Also, the spacing between the modes is weird. Low is too low, medium is too low, etc.
I do like it but it has a few shortcomings.
Thanks. Yes, I usually like a little more throw myself - but I have larger lights for that. I find this general beam quite good for around the house activities, including backyard, dog walking, etc.
Hard to get the right mix of mode spacing, but I find the E70 is better than most of the other ones I have on hand for testing right now.
I just got my first Acebeam, the h16 headlamp. It’s a very different light but has a similar (same?) UI. I feel the double-click in and of itself isn’t a huge issue, but the problem is it takes away one of the typical eswitch options from “off.” I really like the common eswitch UI that is hold for moonlight, click for last memorized mode, or double click for turbo. You get three easy options from off.
This Acebeam UI eliminates one of those options and IMO isn’t much more versatile than a clicky-based UI. Couple that with the excessive parasitic drain and I’d rather just have a clicky at that point.
Thanks for the review. This is great info.
Very nice review.
Thank you
This Acebeam UI eliminates one of those options and IMO isn’t much more versatile than a clicky-based UI. Couple that with the excessive parasitic drain and I’d rather just have a clicky at that point.
Agreed, that and the high standby drain are what knock this down half a star for me. Don’t know why they went with a non-standard UI.
They went with a non standard UI because only a fraction of flashlight enthusiasts like Andruil.
As dumb as ‘double-click for on’ is, it’s still better than ‘hold for off’ (Pioneman’s latest UI, seemingly.)
I am pretty sure that even the not even… or more likely, especially, the newest users expect to have to click something twice to turn it on…
It’s a little odd that it uses a XHPNN.2 HD (domed) emitter. That entire Cree generation has mostly been avoided in torches due to the rainbow beam effect when focused. The LED emits different frequencies at different angles, so the hotspot ends up a significantly different color than the spill.
For example, here’s another XHP70.2 light, the Thrunite TC20:
In case the rainbow effect wasn’t obvious enough, I ran it through a filter which normalizes the brightness of each individual pixel as far as possible without changing the hue. Here’s the result:
The E70 beam pic shows a similar effect:
It can usually be fixed by removing or slicing the dome, or by using a Cree “HI” version instead of “HD”. In addition to improving the color consistency, it also increases throw.
Thanks for hue pics, I agree it is noticeable. But I suspect the AR coating is responsible for most of the purple fringing at the periphery. I haven’t tried removing the lens here, but I have other XHP70.2 HD equipped lights that don’t show it. But they all do show a clear yellow-green shift in the corona to mid-spill. I agree the HI models seem much nicer, with fewer colour distortions.
BTW, based on the discussion here and elsewhere, I’ve decided to knock another half-star off my rating.
I’m still “calibrating” my new star rating system, and have decided the high standby drain (along with the beam tint issues and double-click for on) are enough to bring it down to 4 stars. The excellent regulation and efficiency - and including of Moonlight mode - still make it a great choice though.
I really like my Acebeam E70 hi cri version with the gt40 . It’s one of the prettiest lights I’ve ever seen produced I. The last 20 years or so .
I think it took guts to make such a cool design . Only things I’d change would be…Lose the cheap looking clip … it looks like an old convoy s2 clip painted black . And on such a nice looking light I wouldn’t have added any of the silly logos . I’d even take the name and model # off the body .add it in small print on the tail .
The high cri is as good as it gets .
One of the more interesting lights out there.
Sounds like a winner, have to love high CRI options.
Yeah, AR coating can have a pretty big impact on the beam, both in terms of the overall tint and also the presence of a colorful ring around the edge.
One of the worst “fringing” cases I’ve encountered was an EagTac D25A:
The blue area disappeared when I removed the lens, leaving just the white area.
I’m not sure, but if I position things so my eyes are in the blue fringe, and look into the light, it looks like there may be something like this going on:
As for tinting the beam, I think the worst one I’ve used was an Olight S10. It made the entire beam turn green. The stock Olight lens is on the left here, and on the right is the lens I replaced it with. The lens swap made the beam a much nicer color:
Usually with any new light, one of the first things I do is check the coating. I have a Viltrox L116T mounted in an Ikea Tertial arm as a desk lamp, and its dotted pattern and square shape work really well for lens checks since it allows me to see both sides. Here’s one example. On the right is a clear, uncoated lens. On the left is a lens with blue coating on one side and nothing on the other side. I flipped both lenses over from one picture to the next.
With a bunch of recent LEDs though, like XHP70.2 and XP-G3, the rainbow effect is inside the LED itself. Fixing it takes a pretty heavy diffuser, which of course eliminates any chance of a throwy beam.
Oh yeah, I remember those heavily green tinted early Olights.
I agree with your assessment - it seems like the green AR lets the white light through, but changes its overall tint. The purple AR seems to only have an effect on light hitting the coating at a step angle of incidence, causing an edge effect
