Review Klarus XT11GT

For consideration in the review forum

As some of you might know i won a Klarus XT11GT (give away) here and i want to write a little review about it. Later i realized how much features and complex UI this thing has, maybe i was a bit cheeky So im sure i will forget something, feel free to ask.

The XT11Gt is a typical tactical 1x18650 light with the famous double tailcap switch (paddle) from Klarus and a side switch. Now you see more and more manufactureres adopting this additional paddle switch in their tactical lights. The XT11GT is very similar to the XT11S model except the emitter and the length, according to the manufacturers specs its a bit longer now. I dont own the XT11S, so i can not confirm that.








The light comes in a standard red/black cardboard package



This is what you get when you buy the light, a lanyard, a holster with Klarus label, a spare o-ring, the manual and a USB to micro USB cable. You also get a 3600mah 18650 battery.


Now to the XT11GT itself, here is a 360° view of the light





Here are some closer images of the light. The machining is pretty good, they did a very good job here. Klarus use their typical battery status indicator switch here as well, i always loved that feature, its a pitty that many other manufacturers dont use indicators like that. The light comes in black, other tactical Klarus models like the XTQ1 are in grey. I usually prefer other colors instead of black like olive, desert tan, grey etc.. but thats a matter of taste. The switch can indicate the battery status in the first seconds after you switched the light on. The status is indicated in 4 different battery status levels, more on that later.

The head is glued in with blue loctite, i have no problem with that. However the grooves you can see on the head have minimal anodizing problems at the edges, you can see the silver aluminum trough, its barely noticable in real life though. Maybe this is because they use some kind of tool that fit in those grooves.




As you can see the surface looks really smooth, perfect laser engravings. The tactical ring is not firmly installed, you can twist it with your fingers, im not sure if that is on purpose or not. My XTQ1 have a loose ring as well. I want to mention those things and dont give a biased review here.




The light has a coated glass lens and matte grey stainless steel bezel, probably beadblasted.




The additional Klarus paddle switch next to the tailcap clicky, its a forward clicky which means momentary on is possible. The paddle is a feature i love about those tactical Klarus lights. It can be pressed easily with gloves. I will write more about it later.


Lets compare the Klarus XT11GT with other 1x 18650 tactical lights, its a rather short light despite its USB Port.



Since i cant remove the head i had to take that picture trough the battery tube. Im not sure why the head is glued but i can imagine that it would be a pain to unscrew the tailcap if the head wasnt glued in since i need some force to unscrew the tailcap. Usually i grab the head for a firm grip and unscrew the tailcap with my other hand. This would be not ideal when the head is not glued in. My XT11GT tailcap needs some force to get it tight and every mm will count here otherwise you will get some contact problems. As i arrived in the forest at night for the outdoor beamshots i thought the light is defective but the tailcap needed an extra mm to get contact.

The XT11GT has a spring in the head as well, its perfect for use with a bicycle (for example) since the battery has better contact compared to a flashlight with a single spring and vibrations dont influence the light that much.


The XT11GT uses a XHP35 HI D4 emitter with a smooth reflector while the XT11S uses a XPL High emitter, it has four brightness levels and two special modes (SOS and Strobe). According to the manufacturer the light has 2000 lumens on turbo (with the right battery), 400 lumen on high, 100 on medium and 10 at the lowest mode. The mode sequence is a loop from Turbo to low. A peak beam intensity of 40401cd is plausible, i had similar results with a luxmeter.





PWM



The light has PWM in the lower modes and there is a little high pitched buzzing going on, of course you can only hear it in a silent environment.










Here is a little color bin comparision, its cool white but i would say not as cool as a nitecore MH20 or Olight S30 for example.




I had no problems with different sized batteries or flat tops cells. As you might see, the light has an inner tube. I guess this is because of the electronical paddle switch in the tail cap.
A polarity protection is also build in.



The charging feature of the light

I used a 2 amp USB Adapter and a USB Power Monitor. The light charged with about 0.93amp as you can see. During charging the status indicator LED inside the side switch is red, when the charging process is finished it will turn green. If something is not right during charging you will get a blinking orange indicator light. I noticed that the status indicator turned green but the battery was still charging (with 0.7 amps). 40 minutes after the indicator went green the light stopped the charging process and the USB power monitor showed 0.0 amp. I left it still plugged in for 2 hours and in those 2 hours the power monitor showed a little 0.12 amp blip every 10 secs. I called it a day and removed the battery, it had 4.23V. I used the 3600mah Klarus battery, it was already 90% charged for that little test.





Here are the four battery status colors you will see when you switch the light on, the indicator light is only active for several seconds after you switched the light on.
Green indicator light = A full or nearly full battery
orange indicator light= i measured a battery right after the orange indicator light appeared with 3.8V
red indicator light = i measured a battery right after the red indicator kicked in with 3.5V
blinking red indicator = i measured a battery with 3.0V

I dont know the correct limits under load.







To the UI:

Now this is the complex stuff and im sure i will forget to mention something here since the light has some more features compared to other lights.
The XT11GT offers you three different operating options/methods, those are the...

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At default the light comes with the tactical setting, switching between those three operating modes is pretty simple and it works like a charm. When the light is off, long press the side switch for about 10 sec, a strobe mode will appear, keep pressing the side switch the whole time! While pressing the side switch you can push the paddle switch at the back to change between the 3 settings. The light will give you blink signals to indicate in which setting you are. The light flashes once for tactical setting, twice for outdoor setting and three times for the advanced tactical setting.


tactical setting/mode:
In tactical mode/setting all three switches work and the main difference compared to the outdoor setting is the instant strobe function when you keep the paddle switch pressed from on or off.
The tailcap clicky will give you instant turbo everytime you press it. You can turn the light on with the side switch or like i mentioned before with the tailcap clicky (instant turbo). You can change the brightness levels with the side switch or the paddle switch (short press), the only difference is that the paddle switch gives you only 3 brightness levels while the side switch gives you 4 :naughty:

The side switch is pretty similar in tactical and outdoor mode. You can lock out the light with the side switch from off when you press it longer than 5 secs and a triple click will unlock it again. You get instant low when you long press the side switch. A short press from off switches the light on in the last mode you used it (mode memory) and you can select your brightness levels with a short click as well. A double click from off or on will trigger the strobe mode, another double click SOS. A long press from on switches the light off (with mode memory), you can alternatively switch the light off with the tailcap clicky as well but you will enter turbo mode before the light can be switched off. When you switched the light on with the tailcap clicky you can not switch the light off with the side switch!

outdoor setting/mode:

The only difference between the tactical and outdoor setting ive noticed is that the paddle switch gives you instant low from off instead of strobe and you can select between 4 brightness levels with the paddle switch now, in tactical mode you have only 3 brightness levels on the paddle switch but of course 4 as well when you use the side switch for that, i know its a bit confusing. According to the Klarus website one benefit of the outdoor setting is mode memory but mode memory (side switch) works in tactical mode as well.


advanced tactical setting/mode:

In this setting the side switch is deactivated, its a very simple and reduced mode compared to the others. The tailcap clicky gives you turbo from on or off and the paddle switch will give you strobe from on or off, thats it. You cant select a brightness level in that mode.




runtime test:


The diagram looks a bit weird but this is because of the temperature sensor, the XT11GT monitors the temperature constantly and therefore adjusting the brightness all the time, you can see that in real life pretty good. Many other lights dont have a temperature sensor and those lights use a timed step down instead.














indoor beamshot





Compared to a Klarus XTQ1








outdoor shots

little camping white table in 51 yards

GIF

The XT11GT is a nice light, pretty sophisticated, the paddle switch is awesome and the overall quality is very good. Some wont like the PWM and the slightly overcharging (4.23V). Maybe only my copy does that! If Klarus can iron out those little things, especially the little overcharging it will be a hard to beat tactical light in that 1x18650 format. Feel free to ask, im sure i forgot to mention something because of all the features.


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