An adapter for a 18350 battery, 3x XPL-Hi (3000 lumens are declared) or Nichia to choose from, TIR optics with diffused light — the contraption turned out to be relatively inexpensive, but peculiar.
What do you know about Mateminco? Yes, most likely nothing. But Astrolux is known to everyone who is interested. But it’s the same thing, just Astrolux is the name for sale on banggood. The rest is the same assembly of the same flashlights. This is quite a decent brand, little known only because it is 100% scored on any marketing activity. It’s a pity, for example, the powerful and long-range search flashlight Mateminco MT70 — I find it simply wonderful in terms of the combination of brightness and range, neutral light and side fill, convenience and price.
I recently posted reviews of two long-range flashlights from Nealsgadget: powerful and bright Nightwatch NI40 and compact Nightwatch NS22. And this review is the last one in the package from Neil. I repeat for those who are not in the know — this is a well-known store in lamp circles, which not only gives good prices, but also, in addition to well-known models, offers specific and nowhere else available flashlights with a wide selection of installed LEDs. The purchase is the same as in any other store — create an account, pay and get a track number.
Buy Mateminco X6S
Specification:
- Fitted with 3* CREE XPL HI or Nichia 219C LED
- Maximum output 3000 lemens(XPL HI)
- Max beam intensity 12900CD
- Max Beam Distance 227m
- High efficiency Fet driver
- Constructed from aero grade aluminum alloy with HAIII militaary grade Hard- anodized finish
- Standby lit LED switch design
- TIR lens and toughenedultra-clear mineral glass with anti-reflective coating
- over-discharging and electric reverse polarity protection
- Battery hack mode
- Impact resistant to 1.5m
- 129.6mm*40mm(18650) 123g;92mm*40mm(18350) 111g
Packaging and appearance
The only element of packaging design is the manufacturer’s logo. But the cardboard is thick and reliable. In general, the gift potential is mediocre. On the other hand, you do not have to overpay for all the beauty that will still go to the trash.
the kit includes everything you need: the flashlight itself, a clip, instructions, o-rings and an adapter for 18350 and, what surprised me, a pair of tail buttons of a different color.
With the exception of the missing side button, the flashlight almost completely copies the old-old Eagle eye X6 outwardly
Despite the radical change in optics, the flashlight, with its rather large head, looks unequivocally like a compact long-range shooter. The design is very simple, very simple. In this regard, the model is frankly mediocre.
The flashlight is slightly longer than the Convoy S2+, but given the protruding head, it is still closer to the C8, which calls into question its EDC potential, at least with 18650 power. . And if you put the 18350 handset, then you definitely get a very compact flashlight. It is clear that for a wide range of users this will not be necessary due to the banal reason for not knowing that there is such a type of battery in general. But in flashlights there is no such problem, and for many, the ability to drastically reduce the already moderate length of the flashlight will be a significant advantage of this model.
White (or the second — pinkish), translucent and luminous button is hidden below the level of the sides. So I don’t see any potential problems with accidental inclusion here. The course is typical for a mass of flashlights with a tail button: deep and with a pronounced click. What I liked — in the off state, the button has a fairly bright button backlight
The spring is solid, though not thick, but double, which is clearly logical with such and such brightness. But from the side of the head, the spring is ordinary, single. If you see logic here, write. I personally don’t see it.
Access to the driver is simple, you just need to unscrew the clamping ring. As for the driver, the situation here is muddy, I still don’t understand whether it’s BLF A17DD FET + 1 or from X5 X6. Neither Neil himself nor the representative of Mateminko gave an answer.
The thread is relatively small, rectangular. Just about three turns. The tailcap enters easily.
Depending on which fit of the clip is more convenient for you, you can turn the body in the desired direction, the thread is the same on both sides. The clip is moderately tight.
The knurling is simple, with ordinary rhombuses, on the sides there are two cheeks with the name of the model and pictograms. And I would not say that it is tenacious, in this regard, the clip is very useful. Without it, I would turn the case so that the clip seat is at the head, then this groove lies exactly under the fingertips.
But what I have not the slightest complaint about is the cooling fins. There are many of them, and they are quite deep.
The bezel is wide and twists without the slightest effort. Under it is a sandwich of TIR optics, an o-ring and glass. Last hardened, anti-reflective.
Three brighter XPL-HI or Nichia LEDs are responsible for the light here, in the case of which the light will be less bright, but with a significantly higher color rendering index. At the same time there will be other optics, sharpened for blurry dipped beam.
I did not unscrew the substrate with LEDs, as far as I can tell, there is no pill there, the head is solid.
In general, outwardly this is a very simple flashlight, the main plus of which (besides the price) lies in what will be discussed further — namely control and light.
Control
Like other different options for flexible control, you have to scratch your turnips here. But, having understood, everything falls into place.
By and large:
on / off by pressing, and rewinding modes with quick (half) pressings.
From the minimum brightness, you can get into the strobe mode if you hold the button for about a second (can be disabled).
All.
Yes, there are groups of modes mentioned. no information about them at all.
You can choose for yourself the necessary group of modes, their order (min-max max-min), turn on / off the firefly and muggle mode, i.e. a group with less brightness, which is important when you give a flashlight to children or friends. This is all quite simple, despite the apparent oversaturation of the scheme.
Actually, you need to do about 14 quick clicks and the flashlight will start to do “blink and bzzzz”. 1 «bzzz» for the first option, 2 for the second, and so on.
What initially puzzled me was that the calibration of the temperature sensor here does not occur by clicking room readings into it (for example, 25 clicks for 25 degrees). Here you need to reach the seventh group of «bzzz», click and the flashlight will turn on at maximum brightness. And here you choose the degree of heating of the body and turn off the flashlight. That’s it, the thermal cutoff threshold is set. Initially, he made it fire too early and I reset the flashlight to almost «ouch, it burns.»
How Mateminco X6s shines
In my case, it was cold white light, but you can choose warmer, or even Nichia, which will bring not only changes in light in brightness and color rendering, but also in light distribution. Personally, this uniform circle of illumination and a rather sharp border reminded me of a zoom lens at close focus. Frankly, the light distribution is not to my taste. I’m not saying it’s good or bad, it’s just not to my taste.
No visible PWM flicker.
The flashlight, which is logical, heats up quite quickly and you should not count on prolonged (without blowing) use in modes above 579 lumens. The latter, in fairness, is quite suitable for long-term use. It is bright enough for all household purposes and at the same time the temperature threshold does not reach the pain threshold.
And, in fairness, the size of the head plays into the hands here. In the near future I will talk about much more compact new products from Lumintop with the same brightness, and there the compactness will decently hit the turbo duration.
As one would expect, the maximum brightness here is too high for cooling to have any effect that is noticeable in real use, which cannot be said about the 1300 lumens mode.
But I would still consider these older modes as a classic short turbo for moments when you need to highlight something. Heating, I repeat, does not go anywhere.
But the average mode is quite well balanced and there is no need to worry about thermal cutoff. Alas, there is no full stabilization (and I don’t remember that it was in flashlights with such flexible firmware) In the first hour, the brightness will drop by 30% and this 1% will be virtually indistinguishable in two minutes. But in the second hour, the brightness will drop from 70% to 15%. Measurements were with LG MJ1 battery. In general, for domestic purposes it will do, but you should not count on a long evening walk with bright lights if you do not have another spare battery.
On the other hand, this brightness is quite comparable to 100% for S2+ XML-2 4×7135, the most common flashlight model. And my experience says that often such brightness is frankly excessive and it is logical to go to a lower mode, where 203 lum.
And for 18350 this mode becomes virtually uncontested. Neither the capacity nor the size will make it possible to fully use the margin of brightness.
Well, how does the Mateminco X6S shine live? In one word, bright. Yes, even if by modern standards this is an unremarkable brightness, and now there are a lot of flashlights that have crossed the threshold of 1000 lumens. But, for their dimensions the flashlight is really bright. Yes, it’s worth mentioning that:
a) You can count on maximum brightness only for a fully charged battery. As you discharge the ceiling of this brightness will fall.
b) light distribution for an amateur. Yes, you get a bright and evenly filled circle of light. It is, no doubt, wide, but outside it, the brightness drops dramatically. Well, and, of course, it’s not worth talking about some kind of range. The flashlight works across the squares and at maximum brightness you can light up somewhere on the edge of a neighboring garden, but no further. But it will be visible in the entire width of the said garden.
Personally, I have never changed optics, but I believe that with a high probability there is something standard here and it will not be difficult to change to fit your needs.
Of course, in the video version of the review there are more illustrative examples of how the flashlight shines.
General impressions
A very, very specific flashlight. According to my impressions, this is another forum craft that has not found wide popularity. And outside of the forum it can not be found at all.
On the one hand, the scales have a small price and rather flexible control, a choice of LEDs and a very high brightness even in the version with Nichia LEDs. Due to the relatively large head, this is not a decorative turbopuff. Well, the 18350 case, again, is. The backlighting of the button is beautiful.
But on the other hand, there is mediocre stabilization and light distribution (at least out of the box) for an amateur. Yes, and a foot, purely EDC light is implemented here to the body of a pocket long-ranger and not everyone decides to carry such a tadpole in his pocket either. Oh yeah, there’s also a «fucking» guide. The interface implies a choice of preset modes, but there is no indication of them anywhere at all. And this information was also not obtained.
It’s not that I don’t recommend this model, but taking into account the abundance of all sorts of nuances, one should really sensibly evaluate all its pluses and minuses and not indiscriminately pursue high brightness. It is quite possible that here it will be more practical for you to look at some flashlights using the links from the “about the author” sections below.
