mattchase
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Smith & Wesson Galaxy Luxeon Flashlight and Headlamp (from Costco.com) - Lots of Pics
First Impression
The first thing I noticed is that these lights are very hefty, far outweighing the Mini Mag LED 2AA flashlight. Including batteries, the S&W weighs in at 6.95oz compared to the 4.35oz of the MagLED (empty weight is 5.3oz, much more than the 3.5oz claimed on the PowerTech website). The light is also much larger in diameter, though is a tad shorter than the MagLED. The body is anodized aluminum, most likely type II (I was able to scratch through to the metal with a sharp edge with similar results to scratching my MiniMag). The entire flashlight has a textured surface, even the head and butt that look smooth have very fine rings running around them, giving a good gripping surface. The headlamp is also a good size, much bigger than my old Garrity 2 LED headlamp, but it is still fairly light as it is made of plastic. It also has 2 straps, one for around the head, one for over the middle, and having worn it for about 30 minutes last night while working on this review I can say it is noticeable but not too uncomfortable to wear. The packaging states that the headlamp is water resistant, and while I didn't test this it does have O-rings so I believe this to be true. At this point in time I'm not willing to do a dunk test with either of these lights, but I wouldn't be afraid to take them out in the rain. Also, the batteries simply slide right into the back of the headlamp, there is no battery holder to lose because it is built in.
Mag LED, S&W Galaxy, Fenix L0D, S&W Galaxy Headlamp, Garrity 2 LED
Build and Performance
The flashlight has a rubber end that appears to be a click on/off, but it isn't. There is a pushbutton action to this rubber end, but it only turns on the flashlight for as long as you keep pressing on the end. To get the flashlight to stay on, you need to turn the end cap until it is snug. I wasn't sure at first but have come to like this arrangement, though it means you can't stand the flashlight up on it's end because the rubber butt isn't flat. There are 4 sections to the flashlight, the reflector / lens, LED head, main body, and end cap, and all have small O-rings in them. The reflector has an interesting design (to me at least), it has a small clear tube in the center that extends from the LED all the way up to the edge of the poly carbonate lens (see photo below). Also, the reflector seems quite shallow, the reflector on my Mag LED is about three times deeper, and even compared to my tiny L0D the reflector isn't much deeper on the S&W. All of these parts do appear to come apart though, so perhaps a replacement reflector / head could be used or a mod created to change the shape of the beam (which as you will see could be better). I didn't remove the reflector because it is in very tight, and I feared damaging it to take it out. Before putting the head back on I removed the batteries (I can hear some of you sighing with relief). I mention this because while the spring in the butt cap is designed to hold still while you screw the cap on, the spring in the head isn't, and screwing it onto the body with the batteries installed might potentially damage or tear off the spring. And speaking of batteries, the package doesn't specify which direction they install, nor if the LED is reverse polarity protected. I took an educated guess as to installing positive side towards the head, and don't plan on testing it the other way around.
The Costco website states "6 continuous hours of battery life" for the headlamp as well, but it doesn't state whether or not it is regulated. From the EV readings I could see that the trend is a slow, steady reduction of brightness...over more than a 12 hour period! I stopped testing the headlamp at 12 hours as it was becoming fairly dim, though it was still usable. The center spot still lights up the R/C airplane on the wall (see 2nd beamshot photo below), though not very bright. The corona of light is very dim, but is also still usable in a small area (it would still be somewhat effective if you were wearing the headlamp and looking down at the ground - and it was very dark). This test was also done using the included Duracell alkaline batteries, which were at 100% capacity at the start.
Dang that Fenix has a nice beam...
On the other hand, the headlamp has a nice smooth (and huge) outer ring along with a bright focused spot. The outer ring isn't super bright, but it is bright enough that you would be able to make out areas in your peripheral vision out to a short distance, though perhaps not details beyond a few feet away. The spot does a good job of projecting across my loft and lighting up my R/C airplane at 35', much better than the flashlights. The color of the beam is also more pleasant from the headlamp, it is a cooler white than the flashlight. I'm actually happier with the beam of the headlamp than I am the flashlights.
Overall I would say the flashlights are decent performers with room for improvement. The flashlight is indeed regulated and the brightness is strong for a full 2 hours. Even with the sudden drop at about 2 1/4 hours the flashlight is still usable for some time afterwards at short distances (moonlight mode). The beam is the one thing that could use the most improvement, I am guessing it's limitations are mainly due to a less than stellar reflector design. The headlamp is the complete opposite, I think it is a great light with a good beam and a really great runtime. The corona (or is it spillbeam?) could probably be brighter to get a better flood view, but with fresh batteries it is pretty good, and the center spot is very good.
Smith & Wesson Galaxy Luxeon 1w Torch (x2)
Smith & Wesson Galaxy Luxeon 1w Headlamp
Purchased from Costco.com for $60 - Item 201569
Smith & Wesson Galaxy Luxeon 1w Headlamp
Purchased from Costco.com for $60 - Item 201569
I recently discovered the CPF forums and am glad (relieved!) to find there are many others in the world with the same obsession that I have with flashlights. I never really could explain it, just always have been drawn to the aisle with the flashlights at every store I would go to. The last time I had looked at LED lights was many years ago, and I wasn't overly impressed by them, though I did buy a couple (a Coast torch and a Garrity headlamp - neither really bad, just not what I was expecting). Now after some intense research on CPF I made a few new purchases, starting locally with a Mini Mag LED 2AA (and a Nite IZE upgrade for my other Mag) that really impressed me, especially since it is considered a lower end LED light. I have always had a special place in my heart for the smallest, super bright light that I could whip out of my pocket, and a Fenix L0D CE has filled that spot nicely. But you guys already know everything about those two lights. The third light I bought is less known, in fact I couldn't find any reviews on it at all, so for the benefit of others who may be looking for an entry level kit at a decent price, I bring you my impressions and tests of the Smith & Wesson Galaxy Luxeon combo from Costco.com. This $60 kit comes with 2 - 1w Luxeon flashlights (2 AA) and a 1w Luxeon headlamp (3 AAA) with the Smith & Wesson name on them, which are actually made by PowerTech Inc. The flashlights also include belt carry cases.
First Impression
The first thing I noticed is that these lights are very hefty, far outweighing the Mini Mag LED 2AA flashlight. Including batteries, the S&W weighs in at 6.95oz compared to the 4.35oz of the MagLED (empty weight is 5.3oz, much more than the 3.5oz claimed on the PowerTech website). The light is also much larger in diameter, though is a tad shorter than the MagLED. The body is anodized aluminum, most likely type II (I was able to scratch through to the metal with a sharp edge with similar results to scratching my MiniMag). The entire flashlight has a textured surface, even the head and butt that look smooth have very fine rings running around them, giving a good gripping surface. The headlamp is also a good size, much bigger than my old Garrity 2 LED headlamp, but it is still fairly light as it is made of plastic. It also has 2 straps, one for around the head, one for over the middle, and having worn it for about 30 minutes last night while working on this review I can say it is noticeable but not too uncomfortable to wear. The packaging states that the headlamp is water resistant, and while I didn't test this it does have O-rings so I believe this to be true. At this point in time I'm not willing to do a dunk test with either of these lights, but I wouldn't be afraid to take them out in the rain. Also, the batteries simply slide right into the back of the headlamp, there is no battery holder to lose because it is built in.
Mag LED, S&W Galaxy, Fenix L0D, S&W Galaxy Headlamp, Garrity 2 LED
Build and Performance
The flashlight has a rubber end that appears to be a click on/off, but it isn't. There is a pushbutton action to this rubber end, but it only turns on the flashlight for as long as you keep pressing on the end. To get the flashlight to stay on, you need to turn the end cap until it is snug. I wasn't sure at first but have come to like this arrangement, though it means you can't stand the flashlight up on it's end because the rubber butt isn't flat. There are 4 sections to the flashlight, the reflector / lens, LED head, main body, and end cap, and all have small O-rings in them. The reflector has an interesting design (to me at least), it has a small clear tube in the center that extends from the LED all the way up to the edge of the poly carbonate lens (see photo below). Also, the reflector seems quite shallow, the reflector on my Mag LED is about three times deeper, and even compared to my tiny L0D the reflector isn't much deeper on the S&W. All of these parts do appear to come apart though, so perhaps a replacement reflector / head could be used or a mod created to change the shape of the beam (which as you will see could be better). I didn't remove the reflector because it is in very tight, and I feared damaging it to take it out. Before putting the head back on I removed the batteries (I can hear some of you sighing with relief). I mention this because while the spring in the butt cap is designed to hold still while you screw the cap on, the spring in the head isn't, and screwing it onto the body with the batteries installed might potentially damage or tear off the spring. And speaking of batteries, the package doesn't specify which direction they install, nor if the LED is reverse polarity protected. I took an educated guess as to installing positive side towards the head, and don't plan on testing it the other way around.
Runtimes - *Update*
The packaging doesn't specify runtimes, but the Costco website states that the flashlights have "Electronically regulated six hour constant on run time". I have a recording light meter now, and have updated my handmade graph with a screenshot of my light meters log. This test was done using Eneloop batteries. Please note the logging program crashed towards the end of this test and I lost some data (hence no time intervals along the bottom). You can see that at about the 2 hour mark the flashlight had a small drop in output, then runs pretty steady again for a short time (from previous tests, I would say an additional 15-20 minutes). At that point output drops to a very dim light, still usable but only at very short distances. This moonlight mode then continues on for well over an hour.The Costco website states "6 continuous hours of battery life" for the headlamp as well, but it doesn't state whether or not it is regulated. From the EV readings I could see that the trend is a slow, steady reduction of brightness...over more than a 12 hour period! I stopped testing the headlamp at 12 hours as it was becoming fairly dim, though it was still usable. The center spot still lights up the R/C airplane on the wall (see 2nd beamshot photo below), though not very bright. The corona of light is very dim, but is also still usable in a small area (it would still be somewhat effective if you were wearing the headlamp and looking down at the ground - and it was very dark). This test was also done using the included Duracell alkaline batteries, which were at 100% capacity at the start.
Dang that Fenix has a nice beam...
For the beamshots above, each flashlight was placed in the same location about 2 feet from the wall. The colors are a bit off as my wall is a slightly greenish-gray color, I corrected for this a bit in post-processing but it's not perfect. The flashlight beam has a bit of a warm white color, though it isn't nearly as green as the beamshots make it look. The other things I noticed about the flashlights were the rings (which weren't even perfectly round from one light), and the fact that both flashlights had a noticeably different beam. The focused center is similar (though also slightly different), but the outer corona on one is much smoother than the other. When taking apart the reflector section I noticed that the reflector on one isn't set evenly inside the head, it is titled slight to one side. I tried to fix this but wasn't able to, again due to fear of damaging it. In actual use the rings aren't too bad, they are visible but the center spot is so much brighter that it is easy to ignore the rings. The beam isn't very good for flood use, but the center spot is bright and projects fairly well. I have an open loft and am able to light up my R/C airplane on the far wall pretty well, which is around 35' distance (see beamshots, below).
On the other hand, the headlamp has a nice smooth (and huge) outer ring along with a bright focused spot. The outer ring isn't super bright, but it is bright enough that you would be able to make out areas in your peripheral vision out to a short distance, though perhaps not details beyond a few feet away. The spot does a good job of projecting across my loft and lighting up my R/C airplane at 35', much better than the flashlights. The color of the beam is also more pleasant from the headlamp, it is a cooler white than the flashlight. I'm actually happier with the beam of the headlamp than I am the flashlights.
For the second set of beamshots I photographed each light from the same position, approximately 35' away from my target (the R/C airplane). The camera was mounted on a tripod and set to 1 second at f2.8 for all shots. I include a control shot so you can see that the window light doesn't affect the outcome of the photos, it is doing nothing to light up the room itself, it only slightly highlights the curtain. Again, to my eyes the color of the flashlight isn't nearly as green at it appears here. The full power shot of the headlamp really shows how much larger the corona is on it compared to the flashlight, as well as how much brighter the center spot is. And since I was so impressed by the runtime I thought I would include a comparison shot of the headlamp with 12 hours logged on the batteries. It's pretty dim, I computed about 12% of the starting brightness and am actually surprised it is still useful at such a low percentage ...especially considering this is 35' away. As you can see at this distance the corona is not visible, though at 3' - 5' it is slightly visible.
LUX Values - *Updated*
The packaging states the flashlights to be 35 lumens, and the headlamp is 30 lumens. The following images represent the center spot readings at 1m using Eneloop batteries. I also did QUPS readings (milk box apparatus) and got about 1500 lux overall (averaged from multiple readings) for the flashlight which comes out to just under 21 lumens. The headlamp put out about 2800 lux overall (averaged from multiple readings) for about 39 lumens.
The packaging states the flashlights to be 35 lumens, and the headlamp is 30 lumens. The following images represent the center spot readings at 1m using Eneloop batteries. I also did QUPS readings (milk box apparatus) and got about 1500 lux overall (averaged from multiple readings) for the flashlight which comes out to just under 21 lumens. The headlamp put out about 2800 lux overall (averaged from multiple readings) for about 39 lumens.
Galaxy Flashlight (left) ---------------- Headlamp (right)
Overall I would say the flashlights are decent performers with room for improvement. The flashlight is indeed regulated and the brightness is strong for a full 2 hours. Even with the sudden drop at about 2 1/4 hours the flashlight is still usable for some time afterwards at short distances (moonlight mode). The beam is the one thing that could use the most improvement, I am guessing it's limitations are mainly due to a less than stellar reflector design. The headlamp is the complete opposite, I think it is a great light with a good beam and a really great runtime. The corona (or is it spillbeam?) could probably be brighter to get a better flood view, but with fresh batteries it is pretty good, and the center spot is very good.
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