This isn't a real review by any stretch. Just some impressions after owning the light for a few days.
First the good:
The overall build quality of this light is nice. The threads feel good. It's fairly solid. The tail switch, which I understand has been widely criticized, is actually pretty easy to use and good. The light feels good in my hand. Because it's AA based, it's thinner than a lot of lights I have (18650 and CR123 lights), which is welcome. It's grippy and just nice to use.
This is my first modern AA light, so I was expecting it to live up to it's specs. ...but it's still brighter than I thought it would be. For non-flashlight people, it's unbelievable for running off of AA batteries! I'm very happy with it's maximum output. The reflector must be quite deep as well, because it's beam is almost *exactly* the same size as the beam from one of my Solarforce lights with a P60 sized XPG dropin. The SF is brighter, but not by a lot. Very good beam on this PA20.
The medium setting of 16 lumens is good for general work. I think it's brighter than 16, but it's close enough and it works. The low of 1 lumen is really good for moonlight mode. It's 100% usable for walking around a dark house at night after you've woken up and doesn't blind you at all.
The mediocre:
High on this light is rated at 110 lumens, versus 230 for "turbo". In practice there's not a big difference in brightness between these levels. Outdoors at night, you can see the difference when hitting objects 30+ yards away. But indoors you can only detect a small difference. It's almost a wasted level, but not quite. In theory this lower level gives you 3x the run time so that could be good I guess.
The bad:
I pulled the clip off of the light within minutes of getting it. I didn't do anything weird; just pulled it to make it snap off. It scratched the finish noticeably down to bare aluminum. I tried to snap it onto the ring above where it was installed, thinking it would be a deeper carry location. Well, that ring is *slightly* narrower upon close inspection. The clip won't snap onto it properly, but it will scratch the finish nicely if you try. So I've got two little gouges in the finish now. I've also had the clip pop off when I was carrying it in the corner of a rear pants pocket. I guess I won't do that any more.
This has been documented in another thread, but I didn't see this in several hours of researching this light. The modes don't work as advertised. The more I use it, the more it bugs me. Here's the deal:
With the head loosened, half pressing, or quickly doing on/off will change modes through high, medium, low, strobe, and SOS. It remembers the level you last left it on and turns on to this level with the head loosened. With the head tightened, you only get turbo. Pressing the tailcap over and over in any combination just gets you turbo. This is great. EXCEPT... If you quickly press the tail switch with the head tightened, it will invisibly change the mode for the head loosened mode!
For example, if I leave the loosened mode set on medium, when I have the head loosened and I switch it on, I get medium. If I tighten the head I get turbo. But if I quickly press the tail switch 3 times, with the head tightened, it changes my head loosened mode from medium to SOS! I'll never see this until I loosen the head, but it does it. Repeatably.
I don't want to be too harsh, but this is broken behavior. There's no reason for it to work this way. It's poorly engineered in this respect. This is a solid light with nice performance that is marred by a rather glaring bug. Jetbeam should fix this. They should be embarrassed to have delivered a product that doesn't work correctly.
The copy I got did not come in the large plastic storage case that's pictured on the web site. I got a small cardboard box. The holster it was supposed to have? No where to be found.
Overall I still like this light. The little things about it leave me with a bad taste, but it is still a good light. Would I buy it again knowing all of this? I'm not sure. The good is good. The bad is irritating, but not a total deal killer.
Brian.
First the good:
The overall build quality of this light is nice. The threads feel good. It's fairly solid. The tail switch, which I understand has been widely criticized, is actually pretty easy to use and good. The light feels good in my hand. Because it's AA based, it's thinner than a lot of lights I have (18650 and CR123 lights), which is welcome. It's grippy and just nice to use.
This is my first modern AA light, so I was expecting it to live up to it's specs. ...but it's still brighter than I thought it would be. For non-flashlight people, it's unbelievable for running off of AA batteries! I'm very happy with it's maximum output. The reflector must be quite deep as well, because it's beam is almost *exactly* the same size as the beam from one of my Solarforce lights with a P60 sized XPG dropin. The SF is brighter, but not by a lot. Very good beam on this PA20.
The medium setting of 16 lumens is good for general work. I think it's brighter than 16, but it's close enough and it works. The low of 1 lumen is really good for moonlight mode. It's 100% usable for walking around a dark house at night after you've woken up and doesn't blind you at all.
The mediocre:
High on this light is rated at 110 lumens, versus 230 for "turbo". In practice there's not a big difference in brightness between these levels. Outdoors at night, you can see the difference when hitting objects 30+ yards away. But indoors you can only detect a small difference. It's almost a wasted level, but not quite. In theory this lower level gives you 3x the run time so that could be good I guess.
The bad:
I pulled the clip off of the light within minutes of getting it. I didn't do anything weird; just pulled it to make it snap off. It scratched the finish noticeably down to bare aluminum. I tried to snap it onto the ring above where it was installed, thinking it would be a deeper carry location. Well, that ring is *slightly* narrower upon close inspection. The clip won't snap onto it properly, but it will scratch the finish nicely if you try. So I've got two little gouges in the finish now. I've also had the clip pop off when I was carrying it in the corner of a rear pants pocket. I guess I won't do that any more.
This has been documented in another thread, but I didn't see this in several hours of researching this light. The modes don't work as advertised. The more I use it, the more it bugs me. Here's the deal:
With the head loosened, half pressing, or quickly doing on/off will change modes through high, medium, low, strobe, and SOS. It remembers the level you last left it on and turns on to this level with the head loosened. With the head tightened, you only get turbo. Pressing the tailcap over and over in any combination just gets you turbo. This is great. EXCEPT... If you quickly press the tail switch with the head tightened, it will invisibly change the mode for the head loosened mode!
For example, if I leave the loosened mode set on medium, when I have the head loosened and I switch it on, I get medium. If I tighten the head I get turbo. But if I quickly press the tail switch 3 times, with the head tightened, it changes my head loosened mode from medium to SOS! I'll never see this until I loosen the head, but it does it. Repeatably.
I don't want to be too harsh, but this is broken behavior. There's no reason for it to work this way. It's poorly engineered in this respect. This is a solid light with nice performance that is marred by a rather glaring bug. Jetbeam should fix this. They should be embarrassed to have delivered a product that doesn't work correctly.
The copy I got did not come in the large plastic storage case that's pictured on the web site. I got a small cardboard box. The holster it was supposed to have? No where to be found.
Overall I still like this light. The little things about it leave me with a bad taste, but it is still a good light. Would I buy it again knowing all of this? I'm not sure. The good is good. The bad is irritating, but not a total deal killer.
Brian.