Board logo

subject: Mrlite I5 review [print this page]


Mrlite I5 review
Mrlite I5 review

Up for review is the Mrlite I5,

Here are some of the specs from their site. Do visit it.

Material: aircraft aluminum alloy T6061

Weight: 133 g (exclude battery)

Mil-Spec type III hard anodized finish

Water proof to IPX-8 standard

Battery: 1 x 18650

Reflector:OP

Switch:Reverse switch

here is the light:

hmm.. the lettering on the head leaves a bit to be desired.

box came a little battered during shipping

machining is pretty high quality :)

Size Comparisons:

Comparison Beamshots:

White Wall Shots:

Shutter Speed is not specified -- the white wall shots are meant to show artifacts, rings, etc in the beam, not for brightness comparison.

there is a slight, almost invisible cree ring.

Outdoor Beamshots:

coming soon.

Runtime:

Impressions:

To start, this light is one of Mrlite's second attempts at creating a high quality flashlight. Their original attempt was somewhat of a miss, quality wise. Now, this time around, they have boosted up machining and improved quality on the bodies quite a bit.. but there are problems that leave a little to be desired.

I do not enjoy writing negative points about a light but they have to be written for the consumer's benefit.

First of all, the light is still using a Cree XR-E. While it still gets the job done, there are other, even cheap, lights out there that have at least upgraded to the Cree XP-E for a better beam profile.

Second, the light does not fit many consumer available 18650s -- the only ones I could fit were unprotected flat-top 18650s I pulled out of a laptop battery pack. Mrlite reported to me that the circuits would have overdischarge protection built into the circuit, but with the runtime test, I've observed that the batteries are pretty much running until overdischarged.

Thirdly, their UI choice is rather odd -- it consists of 3 closely spaced modes, a relatively slow strobe, and beacon. There is also a "turbo" mode, (go into low mode, shut off, wait 2 seconds, turn on, tap clicky 6 times for the highest), which isn't the brightest, either. It informally tested roughly 140 lumens otf -- but Mrlite will be reprogramming their light, it was programmed at a lower output by mistake.

Alright, enough of the negativity, and to the positives,

As stated earlier, the machining is done very well, the knurling is very grippy, ergonomics seem fine, threads are smooth, lasering is precise (except, the head's wording is a bit odd, as noted above) :/

Mrlite has also stated that the dealer carrying their lights can program the UI to whatever, making the 3rd negative void. An easy fix to the 1st problem would be to change out the emitters to Cree XP-Es or XP-Gs, but at the moment, these lights are not on par with the enthusiast market.




welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net) Powered by Discuz! 5.5.0   (php7, mysql8 recode on 2018)