Acebeam PT10-GT

Acebeam PT10-GT flashlight review

Introduction:

Ever looking for a thin, long flashlight with the thickness of a ballpoint pen? Those are called penlights. The Acebeam PT10-GT is one of those lights that can run on 2*AAA batteries. But there is something more unique to the PT10-GT, and that is the included Lithium-Ion 10900 battery. The size of 2 10440 batteries with a built-in USB charger.

What you’ll get:

The quality of the packaging is not bad at all and looks pretty nice. It almost looks like a pen case. However, when you open it up, it looks like a premium flashlight, which is available for less than $40!

• Acebeam PT10-GT
• 10900 lithium-ion battery
• Micro USB charging cable
• 2 O-rings
• Warranty card
• Manual

Acebeam PT10 GT specifications

Brand / Model	Acebeam PT10-GT
LED	multi
Lumens	Max 400
Beam intensity	Max 3,800 cd
Battery config.	1*10900 / 2AAA
Material	Aluminum
Modes	3
Blinkies	–
Reflector	TIR
Waterproof	–
Review date	January 2020

Handling of the light

Since it’s a penlight, you can’t compare it to an ordinary flashlight using 18650 or AA batteries. The PT10 GT uses a reverse clicky, which doesn’t feel like any other switch. You have to press it deeply, which can be a little uncomfortable. It’s also pretty stiff.

It doesn’t feel slippery or anything, and you have a little copper clip to attach the light to your pockets.

While being very thin and long, it doesn’t feel too uncomfortable carrying in your pockets. You can feel the weight a little when you have it in your breast pocket, but just a little. You can get the PT10GT to tail stand, but it is precarious! There is no lanyard attachment point, but you could use the holes inside the clip to attach any lanyard you want.

Build Quality, knurling, threads, and anodization

The head is where you insert the battery and not via the tail cap. When you unscrew the tail cap, there is just a little rubber switch boot. There is no way to insert any batteries from that side.

The knurling is very well done. Unlike other flashlights, the knurling isn’t diamond-shaped but fine reeding around the body of the flashlight. Please refer to the picture below.

The clip seems to be brass or copper, but the User Manual says it’s stainless steel with rose gold plated.

The anodization and build quality overall is pretty good. The head is probably made of aluminum and feels extremely lightweight. All threads are well-lubed and very thin. Screwing and unscrewing the head multiple times haven’t revealed any problems at all with the threads or anodization.

LEDs, Lens, Bezel and Reflector

Acebeam gives you the option to choose your desired LED. You can choose between the Samsung LH351D (that we are reviewing here), the Osram KW CSLNM1.TG and Nichia 219C.

This is quite nice because most (mainstream) flashlight brands don’t offer this.

Since we are reviewing the Samsung LH351D, I will only comment on this particular LED. I don’t know the exact color temperature or tint of the LED, so I will just describe what I see by eye. The center of the beam is a little on the greenish side, while the spill or corona has a slightly purplish hue.  But that is only when you concentrate on a white wall.

When I shine it on colorful items around the room, the colors appear very normal. The colors don’t look flat at all. Please also check out the beamshots at the bottom of this page.

The TIR gives the beam a pretty smooth transition between hot spot and spill. Unfortunately, I have some problems with my Canon 100mm Macro lens. It keeps giving Error01, so I can’t make good macro pictures this time.

Dimensions:

• Length:  134.6 mm (  5.3”)
• Head diameter:   14 mm (  0.55”)
• Body diameter: 13 mm ( 0.51 ”)

Weight: 

• Empty: 23.2 g (  0.82 oz)
• With 10900 battery:  42g (  1.48 oz)

This is extremely light.

Popular penlight flashlights compared

First picture: from left to right: Permanent marker, Acebeam PT10 GT, Olight O Pen copper, Eneloop AA battery.

Second picture: some of the best penlights: Acebeam Pokelit 2AA, Olight i5T Plus, Wuben E19, Acebeam PT10GT, Olight i3T Plus, Weltool M6-Dr, Wurkkos WK02, Nitecore MT06MD, Lumintop IYP365.

Size compared to other EDC flashlights. From top to bottom: Reylight Krystal, Lumintop Tool AA 2.0, and Acebeam PT10-GT

Driver & User Interface:

This part can be pretty short. It doesn’t have any hidden modes. After you switch the light off it will always start from Med again.
Going from Medium – Low – High, in that order.

There is no mode-memory.

Modes:

• Medium – Low – High

From OFF:

• Half-press: nothing
• Single-click: Medium
• Double click: Off

From ON:

• Half-press: Cycle through the menu from Medium-Low-High
• Single-click:  Off

Blinky modes menu: NO

Low battery warning: NO

Lock-out mode: NO

PWM: NO

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

Very straightforward UI. This could be a PRO or a CON. You decide.

Batteries and charging:

Acebeam includes a 10900 700mAh battery. This is a rather exotic-sized battery, impossible to fit in any normal battery charger. Acebeam added a Micro USB charge port to the battery so you can simply use any USB charger to charge the battery. The battery charges at a speed of 0.3Amps.

There is a little indicator LED that shows when the battery is charging (RED) and when it’s fully charged (GREEN).

You can also use 2*AAA batteries like Eneloops, but I don’t recommend using Alkaline batteries! They can damage the light when you keep them inside the light during storage. Too many flashlights have died because of alkaleaks.

Performance:

Lumen measurements:

All output numbers are relative for my home-made Integrating Sphere and is now set up with an Extech SLD400 Lux Meter for measurements. For extremely bright flashlights (above 5000 lumens) I am adding a Kenko PRO1D ND-16 filter. The base measurement is done with a Convoy S2+ that has been tested at 137 lumens.

Tested with included Acebeam 10900 battery

Mode	I measured
Low	5.28
Med	284 Lm
High	472 Lm

With the 10900 battery, the Acebeam PT10-GT can provide up to 472 lumens at the start. The output sags very quickly due to the lack of heat dissipation. When using 2*AAA Eneloop batteries, the output isn’t really worth mentioning. The output on AAA batteries is rather lacking.

Tested with 2AAA Eneloops

Mode	Measured:
Low	3.93
Med	42 Lm
High	121 Lm

Runtime:

I tested the runtime on High and Medium with the included 10900 battery as well as with 2*AAA batteries. But since the runtime on Medium with Eneloop batteries was so extremely long, I decided to separate the 2 graphs. Have a look at the runtimes for the PT10GT

The total runtime on High with the 10900 battery is 42 minutes
The total runtime on Medium with the 10900 battery is 1 hour 22 minutes The total runtime on High with 2AAA batteries is 1 hour 45 minutes when it drops rapidly.
The total runtime on Medium with 2AAA batteries is 7 hours 52 minutes.

Runtime comparison with Lumintop IYP365 on 2AAA Eneloops

Throw measurement:

I got the following numbers

• High (5m):  1450cd =  29 meter /0.024 miles of throw
• Medium (5m):  850cd =  29 meters/ 0.018 miles throw

Beamshots

Since outdoor beam shots are rather useless with this output, I added some beamshots for beam comparison. From left to right: Reylight BLF titanium (Nicha 219B 4500K) , Lumintop FW1A (Cree XPL 1A 6500K), and Acebeam PT10-GT (Samsung LH351D). The PT10 GT looks on the cool side, pretty close to the XPL at 6500K.

Disclaimer: the flashlight was provided by Nitetorch for review.

Overall conclusion

Pros:

1. Great output with 10900 battery
2. 10900 micro USB rechargeable battery included
3. Long runtime on 2AA batteries

Cons

1. Low output on Eneloop 2*AAA
2. UI starts with Medium, then Low followed by High. I don’t particularly understand this order.

Rating: 4 stars ★★★★

Aghhh It’s really difficult to give a flashlight a good star rating. There are a few things I don’t like, including the UI and low output on Eneloops. But the output is very high with the included 10900 battery. And that it comes with a rechargeable battery is also great. It’s probably not worth 5 stars, but it does what it needs to do, but I do have to make my own judgment, so I give it 4 stars!