Curly toothy bezel, urban camouflage, good maximum brightness and flexible control vs thermoregulation and a huge gap between high-turbo. It is, in general, not a new model. But given the fact that the brightness even in budget flashlights has now actually reached a decent level, you can ignore this.
Official specification
- Light source: LED Cree XH-P 35 HD (High Intensity).
- Brightness: 1600 lumens at maximum.
- Light intensity: 14 400 Cd.
- Reflector: smooth aluminium.
- Glass: tempered glass with anti-reflective coating.
- Battery polarity reversal protection.
- 6 modes: Turbo (1600 lm) — high (400 lm) — mid (100 lm) — low (10 lm) — strobe (1600 lm) — SOS (100 lm)
- Working voltage: 2.5V — 8.4V.
- Built-in charger via micro USB port charge current 1 Amp, charge time 4-5 hours.
- Power: 2 x CR123A 3.0 V. / 1 x 18650 3.7 V. (18650 Panasonic 3600 mAh included)
- Memory function that remembers the last operating mode you used for more than 3 seconds.
- Blocking against accidental activation — slightly unscrew the end cap.
- The body is anodized T6061 aircraft grade aluminum of the highest hardness (Type III), which protects the flashlight from scratches.
- Built-in removable clip for attaching the flashlight to a trouser belt, pocket, etc.
- The presence of a shock edge on the head of the lantern allows you to use the lantern as a self-defense.
- Spring-loaded contact inside the housing on both sides for use as an underbarrel light.
- Waterproof flashlight according to IPX-8 standard (30 minutes at a depth of no more than 2 meters). *provided the charging port is closed with a rubber seal using silicone grease.
- FL1 Standard shockproof (drops from a height of up to 1 meter).
- Certified by European CE and RoHS Certification.
- Dimensions: 139mm (length) x 25.6mm (head diameter) x 25.4mm (diameter).
- Weight: 88.5g (without battery)
Packaging and appearance
Well, pretty good packaging. Not luxurious, but quite presentable. It will look good both on the store shelf and in the hands of the one to whom you decide to give this flashlight. Decent design, normal printing. Here, for comparison, other Clarus models.
Inside is a standard and expected set: a flashlight, an excellent capacious 3600mah battery, a case, a charging cable, a lanyard, instructions, o-rings.
The cover is ordinary, just a good cover. But here, as a rule, the black-and-white option works. The cover is either bad or good. As a structurally simple thing, it is difficult to add something to it that would make it great.
Here is the flashlight. I’ll immediately clarify here — there is an option in the classic black color, but there is also such a tactical-tactical one. This is the first time I come across such a camouflage color, I liked it.
Although the size is smaller than the brothers, it still gravitates more towards tactics, walking with its 14cm along the very top edge of the EDC segment. This flashlight can be called a pocket flashlight with a big stretch. Those. it should still fit in a jacket pocket, but for shorts it will already be too long.
The tail cap is a combination of a button and a rocker, familiar to the XT line. Convenient and practical, without a side button you can have comfortable and quick access to everything you need for both everyday and purely tactical purposes, since the trump card of Klarus is just two separate sets of modes.
The spring on the tail is thick enough for the declared maximum brightness. And even so, there is a reserve — it is double. So far, there’s nothing to complain about. But from the side of the head it is single.
Lubrication is plentiful. Here at the same time you can see that another additional tube is pressed into the outer case. This is quite normal for such dual control in a tailcap.
The roll is completely normal. Diamonds, albeit small, but quite tenacious. Together with the clip, they provide a very secure grip. The clip, by the way, is very tight and can be removed only with great effort. Unfortunately, there is only one landing socket for the clip. This could be compensated for with a double-sided clip (like in Olight), but alas … Not that this was a serious minus, but the refinement would be frankly cheap.
The grip is quite comfortable.
On opposite sides of the head are an indicator and a micro-USB charging connector. The lid is amazing. Thick, tight, moderately easy to open.
The indicator is a plastic round with a capital letter K from the logo. It, depending on the degree of discharge of the battery, glows green / orange / red.
Cooling fins are nominally present, but in fact it is a symbolic groove along the perimeter of the head.
The bezel is twisted. On the one hand, this is good — you can use the flashlight just like an ordinary pocket flashlight in the literal sense, without fear of tearing the pocket lining. On the other hand, it twists too easily. If Fine tighten — it will hold, and hold securely. If you do not pull it out, then the cherished 2.5 turns can happen and the bezel will sink into obscurity. But, nevertheless, while I see here more pluses than minuses.
The reflector is smooth, about a couple of centimeters deep with the XHP35 HD E4 at the bottom. In principle, perhaps that is a reasonable choice. Dedominated (that is, without a silicone dome) and more long-range would be less convenient for everyday purposes, and it would not give the cherished brightness figures. And since with such dimensions of the reflector it is not worth counting on miracles of range, it did not help much.
Well, in general, a good-looking flashlight. There are not enough stars, and constructively and outwardly I give him a solid “good”. Of the minuses, perhaps the nominally designated cooling fins. But the camouflage looks really good.
Control.
Typical Clarus control of almost (and maybe the entire) entire XT line. Quite flexible and comfortable.
Charge indication:
- Flashing red — charge
- Red — 30% charge
- Yellow —> 30%-100% charge
- Green —>70%-100% charge
- When turned on, the indicator lights up for 5 seconds.
- During charging, the indicator lights red.
Flashlight at work
Of course the cold white light, clarus in my memory only retreated from this once in the XT line. There is no PWM flicker in any mode.
The light distribution is quite expected for a flashlight with a smooth and shallow reflector. There is a fairly bright hotspot, while the side fill is also present. In principle, from two meters it is already quite comfortable to work. There is a clear influence from the worn bezel, it turns out something more hexagonal. I think that if the use of a flashlight implies precisely the work of a worn bezel, then it frankly does not care.
The mode set is one of the two inherent flaws of the XT line. It is frankly incomprehensible to me for what reasons Klarus stubbornly ignore the fact of the huge gap between High-Turbo, in which one more mode could simply be placed. In many respects, this would also solve the second problem, which will be discussed below. And, by the way, moonlight is also absent here as a class. This is not a new model, I repeat, but everything that is being discussed now still takes place.
The second problem is the «saw». 1600 lumens for such a carcass is a lot and heating occurs quickly. It would be logical with this size to set up thermoregulation as everyone else successfully does and avoid saws. And if there was some 800 lum level, then it would be reasonable to drop the brightness on it. Now, due to the small dimensions for such a maximum brightness, with or without cooling, there is a terrible saw. With cooling, the picture is even worse — the height of the saw grows dramatically, in fact, the brightness walks within 40 percent.
It, as it were, turbo implies a forced short-term use. Say, I briefly illuminated something there at maximum brightness and blow back to 400 lum mode. And it seems like for a lot of situations this is a sufficient mode, which can be illuminated even for half a hundred meters, especially since the dimensions of the flashlight initially do not allow counting on any real range. But, damn it, others do something!
So, the last, the charging current of 1A is not bad. It would be possible to do 2A, but as it is, it’s quite good.
Okay, look. As I said, the set of modes is more than enough for the bulk of targets lying within fifty meters. Turbo allows you to highlight (somehow in the open air and quite well indoors) and that way for a hundred meters.
Here I made a short video, you can better appreciate what this flashlight is capable of.
General impressions
All the same old boring rakes, which Clarus tirelessly steps on, prevent the company from “well, okay, not bad” flashlight from making “no, well, it’s good!”.
So, in fact, the only significant trumps are also, in general, important points
+ convenient flexible control
+ good for such dimensions brightness in turbo
+ good charging current of 1A
that’s just their opponents are not weak
— a thermoregulation saw that even cooling cannot cope with
– a huge gap between 400-1600lum
Where to buy and how to save
You can buy Klarus tactical flashlight on Aliexpress or Banggood
You can save on purchases with coupons and promotional codes from the discount channel in telegram, see the link to it below in the block «about the author»