Jetbeam DM25

Jetbeam DM25 review

Specifications

Brand / Model	Jetbeam DM25
LED	3*XPG3
Lumens	1400Lm
Beam intensity	5260cd
Battery config.	1*18350 (included)
Material	Titanium
Main modes	3 + RGB
Blinkies	Multi
Reflector	TIR optics
Waterproof	IPX8
Review date	February 2020

Introduction:

Jetbeam flashlights have the best anodization and machining of all the major flashlight manufacturers, IMHO. But this bad boy is a little different. The Jetbeam DM25 isn’t made of aluminum and isn’t anodized as usual.

When I read the announcement of the DM25 I jumped on the bandwagon and ordered it straight away. It’s expensive for sure, but who doesn’t like shiny objects?

What you’ll get:

My disappointment started when I received the parcel. A plastic orange container. hmmmm. For this much money, they should have included a much higher-end packaging. I’m going to be pretty brutal about this. Jetbeam.. shame on you!

• The Jetbeam DM25
• Orange plastic storage case
• Chinese Manual, printed on normal printing paper (shame on Jetbeam)

Handling of the light

The Jetbeam DM25 uses 2 switches: 1 magnetic control ring for changing output, and 1 rear switch for power. Mode switching is controlled by the magnetic ring in 5 steps. The rear is a forward clicky. You just need to half-press the switch to power it on. When you release, the light will turn off. This is great if you want to use if for signaling. It’s working as a Momentary On.

The body itself has some nice machining, but not real knurling. The titanium pocket clip gives just a bit of extra grip.

The DM25 uses a magnetic control ring with 5 defined settings. Low-Medium-High-RGB-BLINKIES. When you point the flashlight away from you, the levels go from low to high turning the ring clockwise. The ring doesn’t have any markings so you don’t really know at what level you are. You could simply turning the ring to count how many clicks you feel.

The pocket clip came attached and seems to be of pretty good quality! I’m not going to check how strong it is. It can tail stand, in case you were wondering.

Please read more about the RGB Leds and Blinkies in the Driver section.

Build Quality, knurling, threads, and anodization

Jetbeam produces high-quality products, and the DM25 is no exception. The build quality is top-notch. All parts fit well together and the threads are very smooth and lubed. The threading on the head is actually part of the pill, which is made of brass.

As said earlier, it’s a titanium flashlight, and looks awesome. Jetbeam says it’s made of TC4 Titanium.

LEDs, Lens, Bezel, and Reflector

Mine came with 3*Cree XPG3 LEDs and RGB LEDs. The LEDs are sitting behind TIR optics. It’s impossible to remove the bezel by hand, so I assume it’s glued. The bezel has some light cutouts, so when you put it headway-down, you can still notice that the light it switched on. Some lights, like the famous FW1A and FW3A have flat bezels. If you put this upside down, turned on, you’ll burn something or the battery will drain completely without you knowing it’s turned on.

The tint: pretty warm, and even has some yellow/brown spill. I tried to use Adobe Lightroom to check the temperature, and it’s somewhere between 3800 and 3950K. But that doesn’t seem to be true, since it looks so yellow/warm. The beam itself is very smooth, from hotpot to spill, and especially outside the hotspot is the beam very warmly colored.

Behind the optics is some kind of Glow In The Dark gasket, and RGB LEDs.

Dimensions:

• Length:  93.5 mm ( 3.68”)
• Head diameter widest:   27 mm (1.066”)
• Body diameter widest: 21.5 mm (0.848”)

Weight: 

• Empty: 91 g ( 3.21 oz)
• With battery: 117.2 g ( 4.14 oz)

Titanium EDC Flashlights

Size comparison between some popular Titanium EDC flashlights :

From left to right: Jetbeam E1, Reylight Krystal, Reylight Triple Titanium, Sunwayman V10R ti, Jetbeam DM25

Driver & User Interface:

The DM25 has 3 main modes, Low-Medium-High. They are accessible by turning the magnetic control ring. On the 4th spot is the RGB LED, and in the 5th spot are the blinkies.

Modes:

• Low, Medium, High, Turbo

The rear switch has actually 2 functions: Power and Changing colors and blinky modes.

Normal modes:

If you are in the normal modes, Low-High, you can use the rear switch for signaling and power.

RGB modes:

If you are in the RGB setting (4th level on the control ring) you can change the RGB color by quickly half-pressing the rear switch. You will cycle through Red-Green-Blue-disco. Disco meaning the DM25 just keep cycling the 3 colors with no end. I don’t know why anybody would use this though.

Blinky modes:

If you are in the Blinky setting (5th level on the control ring) you can change the blinky mode by quickly half-pressing the rear switch: Strobe, SOS, Beacon, Battery Check.

Low battery warning:

When using the flashlight you will find that the DM25 starts to blink the colored LEDs to let you know that the battery is running low.

Lock-out mode:

No. But that’s not necessary, just use the power switch! No parasitic drain.

PWM:

Not noticeable by eye

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

The UI is interesting. The RGB and Blinky modes are interesting. Not my favorite UI since there is not real low. You can see what I mean in the Performance report.

Batteries and charging:

The 18350 style battery included is, according to the specs, 1100 mAh. Charge speed is maximum at 0.7A, which is not bad at all. The battery has a Micro USB port so you don’t need a separate charger.

During charge, there is a little indicator LED underneath the white washer around the positive terminal. It’s red when charging and green when it’s finished. After the High output runtime test, the battery was at 2.7V. a little on the low side. After the Medium output it was 2.5V. After the Low output runtime test, I couldn’t measure anything. Probably because it tripped the protection.

I checked to see if it also accepts CR123A batteries, and it does. You won’t be able to achieve the same results as with a 18350 Lithium Ion battery though. The included battery performs pretty well.

The 18350 battery has a capacity of about 1032mAh at a discharge rate of 1A. This is not bad for a 18350 battery.

Performance:

All of my readings were taken from a fully-charged 18350, that was included in the package. There were no markings on the battery, so I don’t really know the brand or model. I tested Amps with a Fluke 77III DMM.

Amp measurement:

• Low:  0.17 A 
• Med:  0.9 A 
• High:  4.01 A
• AUX red:  0.27A
• AUX green: 0.34A
• AUX blue: 0.35A

Lumen measurements:

All output numbers are relative for my home-made Integrating Sphere. It is now set up with an Extech SDL400 Lux Meter for measurements. For extremely bright flashlights (above approx. 5000 lumens) I am adding an ND filter, either a Kenko PRO1D ND-16 filter or a Hakuba HG Wide 8x ND filter. The base measurement is done with a Convoy S2+ that has been tested at 137 lumens.

Used the included blue 18350 battery.

Specs	I measured:
85 Lm	80 Lm
420 Lm	397 Lm
1400 Lm	1332 Lm
red:	12.69 Lm
green:	27.09 Lm
blue:	1.73 Lm

I don’t think that the Extech SDL400 does a good job reading blue light. I can’t really understand why it would measure at 1.73 Lumens, while green produces 27 lumens. This might just be something with the sensor of the Lux meter.

Runtime:

From the runtime graph, we can see that High lasts only for 1 minute and 15 seconds before it drops to 500 lumens. At 7:25 minutes it drops even lower to 400 lumens, where it continues to the 60-minute mark. High has a runtime of 60 minutes. The DM25 starts blinking to warn you of a low battery. When I took the battery out, it had a resting voltage of 2.7V.

Jetbeam claims a 1-hour runtime, which is the same as I measured. Medium has its first drop at 6 minutes and continues its runtime 1 hour and 22 minutes when it drops to 150 lumens and at about the 1.35 minutes mark, the runtime stops. The battery read 2.5V.
Jetbeam claims 1.6 hours runtime, which is more than I measured. Low has a very straightforward

runtime graph of 5 hours and 40 minutes when it starts blinking. The light eventually turned off completely. The battery didn’t give any readings, so I assume the protection tripped. The battery charged normally when I plugged it in.
Jetbeam claims a 6.5-hour runtime, which is longer than I measured.

Throw measurement:

Measurements were taken indoors with a professional Hagner E4-X Lux Meter. I took measurements at 5m.

Using the 3 modes, I get:

• Indoors (5m) Low: 900 cd = 60 meters /0.04 miles / 197 ft
• Indoors (5m) Med: 2,625 cd = 102 meters / 0.06 miles / 336 ft
• Indoors (5m) High: 7,375 cd = 172 meters /  0.11 miles / 564 ft

Jetbeam manual claims: Max 5260cd /145 meters. This means that the throw is better than Jetbeam claims.

Beamshots

In the first few pictures, you can see how the RGB colors look like. They are very ugly, as expected. It’s not really for ‘shining’ onto something.

Beamshots to show the color difference, from left to right:

Reylight Dawn Nicha 219B 4500K, Jetbeam XPG3 tint unknown, Reylight Krystal Nichia 219C, Sunwayman V10R Ti XML – tint unknown.

Beamshots out in the field. Compared with a few tactical flashlights: Nitecore MH25GTS, Fenix PD35 and Jetbeam TH20.

Disclaimer: This flashlight was bought from my own money. I have not been paid to review, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects. I bought This flashlight

Overall conclusion

Pros:

1. Titanium
2. Plenty bright
3. Interesting UI

Cons

1. No real Low mode
2. No useful accessories included
3. No English manual
4. Horrible packaging

Rating: 3 stars ★★★

From the moment I received the flashlight, it welcomed me with disappointment. The orange case they sent the DM25 in, didn’t even have the Brand name on it. It didn’t include any accessories like a holster, spare o-rings or whatever. The manual is in Chinese and printed on normal printer paper. It has no real low, and the blinkies-RGB are within the same menu (or however you have to call it). The quality of the DM25 is great as well as its output. But I expected way more for this price!3 stars!