Klarus H1A-PL light headlamp with 14500 battery

About a year ago, Klarus released the first, titanium and expensive model in this line. Probably, the forehead was in demand and the manufacturer released a radically cheaper plastic version.

Now you can buy only on the official page of the model and Amazon, but I’m sure that in 2-3 weeks the model will appear on Ali and from the dealer, for example klaruslight.ru

Official page

Packaging and appearance

A neat red and white box, through the window of which you can see the browband itself. Looks nice, got to me from China intact.

Inside there is a white backing with contents: manual, flashlight, head mount and 800mah 14500 battery with charging cable for it

The head mount is just a belt, not «underpants». The material is pleasant to the touch, with a good print. Not cheap oak. But there are no gel strips against sweat and slip.

Well, here is the headband itself. In principle, it is quite compact. I don’t think you can do anything less with this power supply, except for an L-shaped metal case (where, as expected, there will be only one type of light).
The device is quite simple, so the story about the appearance will not be long.

Here is the ancestor, the titanium H1A, for comparison. You don’t have to look closely to see the family resemblance.

There are no defects in the casting of the case, there are all sorts of flashes, scratches, backlashes and other things — everything is neat. I dealt with a $ 4 headband for 18650, the difference is colossal (which does not negate the fact that he honestly shines for his 4 bucks)

Dimensions are given above in the specification. As for the weight, see for yourself, well, there’s no way to pull your head off — there’s simply nothing to do.

The flashlight has an angle adjustment with a conventional ratchet, everything is completely standard here.

You can get to the giblets without the slightest effort, and here the situation is this. Alas, you have to rely on a relatively thick metal substrate and the thermal conductivity of plastic. And if this is not a problem for lower modes, then taking into account the heating in High cases of such sizes, I would like to see some better heat sink on the case. On the other hand, the brightness in this mode has a reasonable duration and I would not talk about some kind of overheating.

Buttons … yes, just buttons. One is larger, the other is smaller, blindly I don’t seem to get confused where which is which.

As for the optics, there is still a TIR lens (a peculiar one, with a ribbed upper part) and two blisters of side LEDs for additional light.

Here, perhaps, that’s all. I did not notice any obvious jambs of appearance. Neat, pleasant to look and feel contraption. Not something superb, but just quite at the level of other plastic headbands that I had in my hands.

Control

convenient. by and large the same as in other models. You can easily get used to it.
It’s nice that there is access to High and LOW from the off mode.

How klarus H1A-PL shines

Cold white light with a fairly clearly visible hotspot from the main light and the most diffused neutral light from the side light. There is no visible PWM flicker.

It is clear that there is no reason to wait here for a long high and Klarus, as usual, in the specification wisely bypasses the fact of a drop in brightness. On the other hand, after a fair period of time, when I was already tired of waiting, I started high again and this mode started at the same level as at the beginning, which surprised me pretty much. Those. in fact, this is a turbo — short-term and forced mode. Its duration here is quite enough to look around.

Mid is already fully stabilized and gives, in principle, a decent duration of one hour, then switching to Low, in which it works for another 3 hours. It will be difficult to remain without any light at all, because then the headband drops even lower, to a level of about 10 lumens, at which it will shine for almost 9 hours. For something like a tent, by the way, it will be tolerable brightness.

The maximum duration of the side light is also quite good, 2 hours, after which it works another 8 hours in the Low area. And again, tired of waiting for the shutdown, I tried to run high — it starts again at the same level, worked for 40 minutes. Those. in principle, a constant forced return to the original brightness can achieve almost 4 hours of operation in this mode.

Well, the world itself. It is clear that there are no miracles of brightness here, but simple options for using this headband are quite overpowered. Jogging, forays into the forest, work at home and in the country — there is enough brightness and duration of work. In general, the same mid is quite a convenient mode.

the video review of the headband will contain more examples of how the latter shines.

General impressions

Functionally and externally, this is a good thing. Of course, if you sensibly assess the abilities of a forehead with such food. And if so, then the side and main light together and separately will be quite convenient for various everyday needs.

30 bucks … On the one hand, this is a typical price for this kind of headbands, especially when it comes to a new product. And here, just looking for branded headbands with this kind of power, you will see that this model does not stand out in any way. The question is that in the post-Soviet space, only a few will be ready to pay such a price for such a forehead, in contrast to the countries of the camp, where this is a completely passing price tag.

It is worth hoping that this is an exclusively new model and at the time of writing the review, it will be virtually impossible for you to buy Klarus H1A-PL. As a rule, after some time after the release, the price tag falls and it happens that it drops to an unexpectedly low limit.

The standard size, combination of plastic and 14500 power make this headband quite specific and a potential buyer should consciously come to the conclusion that he needs just such a headband. So, once again, he, like all plastic foreheads, cannot achieve wide popularity.

I have no questions about functionality as such. If you objectively evaluate what can be done in such a case, then the forehead for your size shines well. Given the fact that Klarus can not do without somehow screwing up in each, even, in general, not bad, model, here they, perhaps, even surpassed themselves (wow, so many commas!). If there was only one type of light, then with such a power supply and in such a size, I did not like the model. But additional light here is a rather serious trump card, the convenience of which should not be underestimated.