Unlike Moh25, which I talked about a couple of days ago, Magicshine Moh15 is about a quarter less bright and only supports 16340 power. On the other hand, due to the latter, it is more compact, and its light is HiCRI, which none of the powered headbands that I remember can boast of.
Since in terms of appearance and control, these models clone each other in many ways, so I will go the easy way of self-plagiarism.
Packaging and appearance
The packaging is exactly the same as that of Moh25, that is, quite good. Not something luxurious, but quite decent. From the perspective of a gift, there will be no shame.
Inside, the headband itself with a battery inside is attached to an intricately curved cardboard backing. The remaining complete parts (charging cable, head mount, o-ring and manual) are inside this carton.
Magishine hadn’t made headbands before, so they decided to take their own, untrodden path. And if at first Moh15 can attract the eye only by the presence of two LEDs, then it is worth taking a closer look at it to see that there is a lot of unusual things here.
Frankly, I think that the design of the forehead is rather primitive. In fact, this is the same Moh25 without an extension tube for a 14500 battery. The reverse is also true — with the same handset, Moh15 will support 14500. And the absence of a penny extension cord at such a cost + frankly mediocre appearance does not justify its considerable price. Yes, of course, the forehead is needed to shine and the appearance is secondary here. But I can’t ignore this moment either.
In fairness, there is no feeling of some kind of basement and ultra-budget here either — just a neat facelessness. Just a rather faceless and primitive design that could be dramatically improved by adding some kind of beautiful knurling or color anodizing.
But I liked the headband. It’s lightweight, perforated, soft and has a gel strip on the inside and reflective elements on the outside. Better than many bindings I’ve seen.
It’s time to think about the size. The headband is smaller and lighter than the well-known compact and perhaps the most lightweight headband powered by 18650 Skilhunt H03
Moh15 — 60g versus 92g for the skilhunt. (unit with battery, no headband) This makes the Magicshine Moh15 a really compact headband. It is clear that there are options and less, the same Petzl or some plastic headbands with a built-in battery.
And here there is a very ambiguous constructive solution. The fact is that the metal body of the forehead is a single unit with a plastic mount for the head mount. Sorry for the tautology, I don’t know how else to formulate. The reason is that it is in this plastic part that the power button and the charging connector located on the opposite side are located. All this is perfectly visible in the photographs. In the meantime, I note that the reliability of such a connection remains a question for me.
Due to the ribbed knurling, the tailcap twists without problems
There is a spring on the side of the tail, and a pad on the side of the head. I am against the latter, but in this case I don’t see any disadvantages, except that the user will be the owner of rare 16340 flat-head batteries.
Both visually and to the touch, the thread is absolutely dry, but the tail cap moves smoothly on it.
The cover of the Micro-USB charging connector is thick, closes it securely. It’s all right here.
On the opposite side is a embossed soft button with backlight. The move is deep, with a noticeable click.
The cooling fins are deep enough for the overall size of the browband. I have nothing against it here.
Since the housing is integral with the mount, the usual adjustment of the light direction is not possible. In the case of Magicshine Moh15, the solution is this — the head part with LEDs can rotate within 110 degrees. On the one hand, this is more convenient than scrolling the entire forehead, on the other hand, any mechanical unit is open to entropy. As part of the test, it is impossible to check how reliable and durable this solution is.
As optics, there are two TIR lenses, hiding an XP-G3 for white and an unnamed LED for red light.
The result of this part is as follows: the packaging is not bad, the appearance is mediocre, it looks neat, but since the manufacturer is unknown to me, it is not clear what to expect.
Control
Quite mediocre, in my opinion.
Access to the minimum or maximum brightness only from memory. No access to red light from OFF. The headband is positioned as a hiking-tourist. And in a situation where you wake up in a tent and turn on the light, the chances of you going blind and / or waking up others are very high.
It could have been made much more convenient.
ON OFF by retention. There is a mode memory including red light and beacon.
mode switching on click
blocking two clicks from OFF
transition to red light and back two clicks from ON
toggle red brightness light at the click low-high-beacon.
However, for an undemanding user, it will do. Many use all sorts of boruites-zoomers without any problems, where even a strobe is included in the general line of modes.
Light
Pleasant, about 5000K white + red, unexpectedly wide light. In terms of brightness and light distribution, it is quite suitable from the standpoint of simple tourism.
Given the fact that this is HiCRI, it is logical that the brightness will be less than that of ordinary light. In any case, for a 16340 power supply, it is completely expected, given the size, higher brightness would be extremely limited in time.
As in the case of Moh25, the browband showed not only good stabilization, but also thermoregulation, which pleasantly surprised me.
With cooling it was possible to get a turbo even when the voltage on the battery dropped to 3.7v! It is clear that in such a forced mode, the battery will be discharged quite, so quickly. The latter, by the way, is charged with a current of 0.5A that is quite acceptable for such a capacity.
The duration of work in High is less than an hour, so it is justified to take a couple of spare batteries with you, since they are tiny in size and price. I recommend Soshine 16340, I have been taking them for a long time and they have never let me down. A pair of spare batteries will take up no more space than a matchbox.
Special mention deserves the red light, which in the maximum mode Very bright. In the video version of the review below, this is clearly visible.
General impressions
As in the case of Moh 25, I am ready to say that Moh15 is still the same very peculiar crap. Again, initially I was rather skeptical about the functional component of the headband, so the impressions turned out to be equal, and after stabilization and thermoregulation tests, I tend to think that there is more good here than bad.
If we evaluate the Magicshine Moh15 from the position of 16340 headband, then it does what it should in terms of light — it gives light that is sufficient in brightness and comfortable light distribution for camping purposes. Moreover, in the presence of cooling, one can count on the possibility of starting a turbo up to a sufficiently deep discharge. A big help will be the red light, which is exceptionally bright in maximum mode. And from the position of light, the headband is generally not bad. In this regard, it can actually fit as a relatively compact headband for walking.
And here is where the controversy begins. Built-in charging (which is good) is located in the plastic part of the case. I have never seen such a construct and one can only guess a little it will turn out to be reliable. As well as the rotating part of the head will show itself.
And to the eyeballs, two obvious minuses. The first is extremely primitive, a la Fenix, control without tabs to extreme modes (here the question is more about quick access to the minimum than to turbo). Well, the second minus, the most serious — — the price. On Ali, the headband costs about $ 50, which is comparable (or even more than) with full-size 18650 models. As in the case of Moh25, I believe that Sofirn SP40 with 18350, the can will have the same dimensions, a radically larger battery capacity at 1/3 of the cost of this headband. Personally, with all this, I am ready to forgive the lack of HiCRI light …
Moh25 has more competitors, and this version, although from the standpoint of hiCRI light, is able to interest that part of the audience that is ready to forgive its primitive control and high price. The issue is that these last two factors can reduce the audience to an exceptionally small number of people.
Where to buy and how to save
► YANDEX-MARKET ►SBERMEGAMARKET buy on Aliexpress
You can save on purchases with coupons and promotional codes from the discount channel in telegram, see the link to it below in the “about the author” block