skillhunt x3 review

ergotelis

Enlightened
Joined
May 31, 2007
Messages
734
Location
Greece/Hellas/Crete
Got about one month ago my skilhunt x3.




The pictures and the specs from the company site were rather convincing. A nice looking flashlight, with the best led around and a rather good heatsinking design. Taking a look at the dimensions, 45mm wide and 193mm length) i assume it is quite compact in comparison to others big xm-l flashlights.

Here, Defier X3 with some other classic flashlights for comparison:



So, lets start with the package:


A nice plastic case, with a lot of accessories:



-The extension tube,


(the flashlight with the tube installed)
(in accordance with the wide voltage range of the circuit), allows to use a lot of combinations, such as 3x/4x cr123, 2x18650, 2x18500,2x17670 and finally 3x rcr123. From the beginning, my favorite combination is the 2x18500.
The main advantages, compact size(34mm less length), less weight less costly batteries. Here, you can see the different configurations and the weight:
x3+tube+ 4x cr123 / x3 + 3x cr123 / x3 + 2x 18500 / x3+tube + 2x 18650


A main competitor, fenix tk35(with 2 18650 installed) weights almost the same. Both are considered lightweight flashlights for their class. Moreover, fenix does not seem to have any copper heatsink, which weights a lot, in comparison to an aluminum one.


-The holster:

it is very nice, opens from both sides and allows to mount it in several ways.

-Silicon grease is necessary for a flashlight that need to remain waterproof.

-peg ring

-some spare parts

-A very nice looking paracord 550 lanyard

-And of course, the operator's manual, which has guidelines for all the defier series flashlights.





Now, lets analyze the parts of the flashlight.
The Head:

Nicely designed, with a SS strike bezel and the copper(gold plated) fins showing up a really beautiful flashlight. As a friend mentioned, it looks like the Mercedes of the flashlights. The quality is rather high too, my sample did not have any defects on the anodization, really nice solid and tough aluminum skeleton. As manufacturer says,
the flashlight has rugged indestructible aluminum body with anti-scratching type III hard anodization. The glass is, according to manufacturer, Toughened ultra-clear glass lens with anti-reflective coating, antifog coating and diamond coating. I can see the AR coating, it is visible under reflection.
Other than the nice design, the SS bezel and the fins offer excellent protection. For me, where fishing on the rocks is my favorite hobby, a SS bezel is necessary in order to protect my flashlight, as it might drop on the rocks.It is removable too.
The fins,are designed-constructed in way that,( with a decent airflow),it will ensure that the flashlight will dissipate the heat as good as possible. Someone might say, this is useless(really few flashlights out there with this design) and copper heatsink with gold plated heatsink is quite expensive in construction. So, is it worth? Lets see it!

Here, we are going to compare it against the classic fenix tk35. A more powerfull flashlight, drives the led up to 3,2amp, in comparison to the 2,2-2,3amp(estimation, could not open the head, well glued!) of the skilhunt. In a room without airflow, after 18min, TK35 reached a temp of 56 C degrees at the hottest point, while skilhunt reached a temp of 58,4 C.

I assume that skilhunt has better heat dissipation control, even though it is driven less harder, it does get more hot, showing that more heat comes out of the led, does not stay inside. So, what happens when we get some decent (~15km/hour island wind) airflow? Skilhunt is cooler, max temp after 18min is 40,9 C and on fenix 44,5 C !



So, we assume that the fins do their job.



As for its weight, it is for sure the most heavy part of the flashlight:



The Tube:

The tube has a classic design, standard knurling, not aggressive, just enough to ensure a good grip. I would like it to be a bit more aggressive. Walls are thick enough to show a good solid feeling. The clip is present for secure pocket storing, but is removable too, is someone does not like it, or you can put the peg ring, for better hand grip. The threads are square(really important feature for long term operation) and anodized, so you can lock out your flashlight to ensure it won't open incidentally.

The tailcap:

Nicely designed, a bit aggressive,though all aluminum, i would prefer it to have a SS bezel too. It doesn't have a spring inside to circuit with the batteries, but a gold plated "button", which allows for sure better contact with the battery and minimal resistance. The switch is a forward clicky, it can be activated through momentary action. The switch is also secured with a screwed ring, a nice idea, enhances waterproofing. Also, the design allows the flashlight to tailstand.



Worth mentioning is the fact that the flashlight is Dustproof and Waterproof to IP-68 standard and can be mounted on weapons with compatible weapon mount.




Enough with the construction, now lets analyze the operation and the performance data:
This flashlight has two buttons, one the head to change modes, and one on the bottom to turn on and off. It has 3 levels, that are memorized. I would like the flashlight to have the possibility to have instant strobe mode by simply pressing the side head button, like olight M30(i know it requires different design with some disadvantages, such as parasitic drain and the buttons to be close). On the other hand, its activation is like in Fenix tk35/tk60 etc, you have to open up the flashlight and then hold the side button for more than 2 sec. Still quite a good feature.

The flashlight has 3 levels, according to the manufacturer, the lumens and runtime is for
High: 700lm /130min ,Medium: 350lm/250min, Low: 140lm /650min.
-I assume these where not OTF values, as i measured 602 OTF and 24600 lux, 321 OTF and 13150 lux, 123 OTF lumens and 5260 lux respectively. I use an empty white room for OTF values(comparing the ceil bounce) and 4m distance for lux readings.
- The amp draw on fleshly charged batteries is 1,2amp on high, 0,62amp on medium and 0,23amp on low.


With the two 18500, the total runtime was 1 hour and 14 minutes.
The current draw on one hour runtime with two 18500 was 1,3amp, so i assume that it is regulated.
Did not make a runtime test with two 18650, but i assume that it will be more than two hours with good 2900, runtime manufacturer specs(130min) seem quite close to reality.

Looking more carefully these specs, we find some disadvantages of the flashlight.All are around the circuit basically. Other than the fact that the low is not that low(123 OTF is quite high, but this might not be a case for most people) we have quite high energy loss in low and medium.For example,in low, we get 140 lumen and burn 0,23am*8+V= 1,84 watt. A cree xm-l can produce more than 250 lumen with 1,84watt. This is due to PWM that the circuit uses for the lower modes.( To add here, a lot of other brands use PWM for levels, it is quite common). Because most people might not be familiar with these technical terms, the main point here is that the flashlight the runtimes on medium and low would have been better if they used a current controlled circuit, like some other competitors. Moreover, the PWM frequency is visible to me, (selfbuilt measured 196hz) which might be quite distracting in some people. Of course, on high, we don't have any problem, efficiency is quite high and no distracting PWM effects. If they could use a current controlled circuit in the next flashlight, then i would be quite sure that i am seeing the perfectly designed flashlight! :thumbsup:




Now, lets see some performance shots first on white wall, for all the levels:
High / medium / low

As you can see, the flashlight, even with the smooth reflector, it has quite a clean and nice beam, well done with this! Also, the tint is the very nice, no green/blue,white with a tiny mix of yellow, about 6000Kelvin i assume. It shows some donut effect, but it is very slight, most xm-l flashlights with smooth reflector suffer from it.




I had taken some outdoor beamshots in comparison to other flashlights, X3 does remarkably very well against tough(and much bigger sized!) competition! In this roundup you can see other contenders, as well as the characteristics of the outdoor beamshots(range,camera settings, location etc)
Here is the outdoor beamshot of Defier X3 @120m

And here is the link to the other thread:
http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/showthread.php?319141-Beamshots-of-14-powerful-xm-l-flashlights%28including-TK70%29-1-xp-g-for-comparison.




So, concluding,
what i liked:
- Beautiful and compact design, excellent heatsinking, great construction, good boxing and accessories, good performance on high
what i didn't like:
- Low is not that low(for some might not be that disadvantage), PWM is visible, not that good runtimes on medium and low.

 
Last edited:

^Gurthang

Flashlight Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 2, 2009
Messages
1,071
Location
Maine, deep in the Darkness of the North
Thanks for the review, well written and good useful info. Like you I would like to see a real "LOW" low, 100+ lumens does not qualify for low output. I do like the "legobility" of the X3, makes it very versatile.
 

ms1496

Newly Enlightened
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
61
Location
NE Ohio
Nice light and review!
Thanks for your time covering it :thumbsup:

Its funny though because the branding and graphics used for the company/box remind me of buying a computer graphics card or gaming memory.lol :rolleyes:
 
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