Acebeam E70 -ss

1lumen selects and reviews products personally. We may earn affiliate commissions through our links, which help support our testing.

Acebeam E70 SS specifications

Brand/model	Acebeam E70-ss
Category	Best EDC flashlight
LED	CREE XHP70.2
Lumens	4,000 lm (4600 for aluminum)
Beam intensity	12,100 cd (14,400 for aluminum)
Battery config.	1*21700
Material	Stainless Steel
Modes	5 + Turbo
Blinkies	Strobe
Reflector	LOP
Waterproof	IPX8
Review date	August 2021

ps. just a little warning. Shiny, silver, titanium, or stainless steel flashlights are very hard to photograph, so the images may not have the same quality throughout the review.

We’ve been in touch with Acebeam for quite some time now, and like many flashlight users, have given them ideas and recommendations. Some manufacturers think they know it better, and some manufacturers would like to produce flashlights, their users like. During our conversations, we have opted a few times for different flashlight colors (not the LED, but the flashlight itself) and to use different materials. (limited editions). These things are usually unknown to manufacturers unless somebody tells them.

They already had different colored LED options, but not for all models.

So Acebeam listened, and started producing flashlights with special colored coatings at the beginning of 2021. A few had camo coating, and soon after that, more and different colors followed. Well done Acebeam.

The Acebeam E70 is one of the few flashlights that is available in multiple materials, including stainless steel, brass, copper, and titanium (besides the original black aluminum). And that seems to be a success, since they are selling like hot cakes. The design looks interesting, and many people in the community agree with that.

The E70 is definitely a flashlight that I have seen shared and liked on social media quite often.

But, seeing flashlights in pictures, and testing them are 2 different things. So let’s dive in and see what the E70 ss has to offer.

Package quality.

Acebeam has sent their flashlights in pretty nice boxes since day 1. I’m not sure if you were familiar with this, but at first they were called supbeam, and probably 1 or 2 other names. Anyway, we got the following:

• The Acebeam E70-ss flashlight
• Lanyard
• 21700 battery
• USB-C charge cable (power bank cable)
• Pouch
• O-rings
• Warranty card, manual

In-person, I found that the Acebeam E70-SS is quite a bit larger than you’d have to believe from pictures. But I still think it looks gorgeous. And on top of that, it looks better than any other Acebeam flashlight I have ever seen :–).

The stainless steel E70 is probably one of the heavier single 21700 flashlights out there, with a total weight of 210g (7.40oz.). If you like to have a flashlight in your hand, that feels beefy, this is a flashlight to consider. Just be careful not to drop the light on your little toe!

That would hurt!

There’s a single, electronic switch, at the rear. I didn’t say tailcap, because there is no cap. The rear has an electronic switch and a lanyard attachment. You need to unscrew the body from the head to insert the battery. The lanyard came pre-attached, but I removed it directly upon arrival. I also tried to re-attach it, but without luck. If you would like to use the lanyard, my suggestion would be to leave it alone because it’s not easy to attach. You probably have to unscrew the switch assembly in order to get the lanyard through the holes, but maybe someone else is luckier.

With all the grooves and the very solid pocket clip, you shouldn’t have any problem carrying it, although stainless steel isn’t the grippiest material out there. If you worry about dropping the light, use the lanyard.

I admit that I really enjoy shiny objects :–) and the E70-ss is one of them. It seems that most manufacturers don’t go the extra mile and think deeply about designs too much. In my opinion, Acebeam did a terrific job and designed the E70 with all the different materials, including stainless steel, copper, and titanium.

Unlike titanium, stainless steel flashlights don’t feel gritty. Tightening and unscrewing the different parts feel just fine. The threads are very thick, unlike many other flashlights. That doesn’t mean the 2 parts (head and body) are attached easily. The threadings don’t line up easily, so you better press the pieces together and turn the body counter-clockwise first, until you feel the threads line up. At that point, it makes screwing the parts together much easier.

Neither the body, nor the head, have any traditional knurling. The head has 8 trit/glow tube slots, and the body has 6. The 6 slots in the body (near the threads) are the traditional 6mm slots. The 8 large slots are 13mm (0.52inches) long and 2 mm (0.08 inches) wide.

The pocket clip is likely able to take a beat. That thing looks very strong and durable. It’s likely made of the same (stainless steel) material.

The following text was taken from Acebeam’s website concerning warranty:

1. If the customer experiences any problems with an Acebeam product within 15 days of purchase, the dealer will replace that product.
2. If an Acebeam flashlight fails during normal use within a period of five years (60 months) of purchase, the dealer will repair or replace the flashlight with the same or similar model.
3. Acebeam flashlights enjoy a limited lifetime warranty – after 60 months the dealer will attempt to repair the flashlight for the cost of spare parts and shipping (i.e. no charge for labor).
Please note:
A: This warranty applies to Acebeam flashlights, headlamps, bike lights, and camping lanterns, excluding lanterns with built-in batteries, purchased after 1 May 2016;
B:  LEP Flashlights, Rechargeable batteries, battery chargers, bike mounts, filters, remote pressure switches, and lanterns with built-in batteries are warranted for a period of one year (12 months) from date of purchase;

C: Products purchased before 1 May 2016 and special offers may have different warranty terms;
D: The warranty does not cover damage or failure caused by:
– Rough usage or operation which does not comply with the user manual or product specifications;
– Battery leakage;
– Unauthorized disassembly, repair, or modification;
– Defects or damage caused by factors outside of Acebeam’s control.

When it comes to LEDs, some manufacturers don’t mention the name or model of the LED. Acebeam doesn’t only give you the make and model of the LED, but also gives you the choice between a 6500K and 5000K beam color. The higher the number, the cooler the beam color. 6500K is supposed to be cool white, and 5000K is neutral white. At least, that is how we, in the flashlight community, refer to them.

The one I am reviewing has the colder LED, with 6500K. It’s a CREE XHP70.2.

To make the beam look more smooth, (and try to hide the color shift) Acebeam used a light-orange-peel reflector. This type of reflector spreads the light wider than a smooth reflector, at the cost of throw. Since this is an EDC flashlight with XHP70.2, nobody should expect it to throw far in the first place. For EDC-ing, a wider beam is preferred over a narrow beam, by most people, including myself.

The beam definitely has a visible color shift from the center (hot spot) to the spill. The center of the beam is yellowish/greenish and the spill is more purplish.

The reflector and LED are protected by a glass lens with some sort of coating. Acebeam says this about the lens: hardened dual AR coated, 99% transmittance glass. When you reflect a light source on the lens, you can see the lens showing a yellowish/pinkish color, which tells the lens is coated.

The front has a stainless steel bezel with crenulations. That should probably help if you want to break glass etc. I would only try that in an emergency.

• Length: 128 mm / 5.04 ”
• Head diameter:  30 mm / 1.19 ”
• Body diameter: 27 mm / 1.06 ”

Weight: 

• Empty:  207.7 g / 7.36 oz.
• With battery: 289.2 g / 10.20 oz.

EDC Flashlights comparison

Size compared to some of the best EDC flashlights.

From left to right: Olight Warrior M2R PRO, Acebeam E70-ss, Fenix E35 v3, Lumintop X1L , Wurkkos TS21, Zebralight SC700d, Amutorch E3H.

The Acebeam E70 is using its own proprietary UI seems like. Instead of the usual single click for on, they used a long press for on. Not the greatest idea for most people, but there are some other useful features that make this a little less troublesome.

Available modes:

• Moonlight, Low, Medium1, Medium2, Medium3, High, Turbo

From OFF:

• Single-click: nothing
• Press and hold: Moonlight
• Double click: to last used mode, mode memory
• Triple-click: strobe

From ON:

• Single-click: turn off
• Double click: Turbo (and repeat a double-click to return to previous used mode)
• Triple-click: Strobe
• Press and hold: run through the modes from Low to High (Turbo and Moonlight are not part of the main cycle)

Shortcuts:

• To Turbo: 2 times double click from Off, or double click from On
• To Moon: press and hold from Off
• To Strobe: triple-click from Off and On

Mode memory:

• Yes, a double click from off brings you back to the last used mode.

Blinky modes menu:

• There’s a single strobe mode, that you enter with a triple click from either Off, or On.

Low battery warning:

• There is no real warning

Lock-out mode:

• Just unscrew the batterytube (body) a FULL turn

PWM:

• Not visible by eye

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

The long press for On or double click for the last memorized mode are not the most ideal features. But considering you don’t have to press-and-hold for on, but you could also do double click makes it less troublesome. At the same time, this is a UI people have to get used to. If this is the only flashlight you have, there shouldn’t be a problem. If you have more than a dozen, the UI is just a bit ‘too’ different from the regular UIs and therefore not so nice.

You can choose to order the Acebeam IMR21700NP-510A battery along with the Acebeam E70, but you don’t have to. My copy included this battery, so I will take this time to explain a bit more about this particular battery.

It’s a 21700 type battery with a capacity of 5100mAh. Near the positive terminal of the battery is a USB-C port to charge the battery, but to also use the battery as a power bank. Yes, you read that correctly. The battery includes a special adapter cable that will charge the battery from any USB-charger, but also has a USB-A port to discharge the battery, to charge a device.

I tried to charge my phone, and the current jumps to about 1.1A, but soon settles down at around 0.5A. So I guess, the discharge current with the included cable is between 0.5A and 1.1A.

Unfortunately, the charge speed is a little low, at around 0.9A. It starts off at around 0.7A, and slowly creeps up to a charge current of 0.9A. This is not very fast to charge a 5100mAh battery, so that would be an ‘overnight charge’. Instead, I would recommend getting a 21700 charger that accepts long batteries.

If you already have many 21700 batteries, you can use button tops and flat tops interchangeably. There’s springs on both ends, so this will give you a bit of extra space. Flat tops fit, and I didn’t have any problems but you can hear they are rattling just a tiny bit.

Lumen measurements:

All output numbers are relative to my homemade Integrating Sphere. It is set up with an Extech SDL400 Lux Meter for measurements including a Kenko PRO1D ND-16 filter. The base measurement is done with a Convoy S2+ that has been tested at 255 lumens.

All of my readings were taken from a fully-charged Acebeam IMR21700NP-510A USB-C

Mode	specs	At turn on	30 seconds	10 minutes
Moon	1	0.59	0.59	0.59
Low	50	36	36	36
Mid 1	180	144	144	144
Mid 2	650	536	536	525
High	1000	1004	998	954
Turbo	4000	3822 lm	3576 lm	1006

It’s interesting to see that the lumen output depends on the temperature of the flashlight body. I used a fan to cool down the light between the readings (on the highest modes) and they differed by about 1-2%.

Runtime:

The runtime test was done with the 50cm integrating sphere, including the Kenko Pro1D ND-16 filter and Extech SDL400 data logging Lux Meter.

Turbo: drops within a minute from about 4000 lumens to just 1,000 lumens. It then runs till it drops to 40 lumens at the 2 hours 48 minutes mark. It runs for 1 more hour at that output, and then turns off completely. (specs: 2 hours 15 minutes)

High: starts around 1000 lumens and slowly decreases to about 915 lumens in 50 minutes from where it maintains that output. At the 2 hours 57 minutes mark, the output drops to a sub-lumen output. (specs: 2 hours and 30 minutes)

Medium 2: pretty stable output for 5 hours 41 minutes when it drops to about 40 lumens, and runs for another hour or so till it turns off. (specs: 4 hours, which is very conservative)

Medium 1: straight line at around 145 lumens till it drop to 40 lumens after 20 hours and 26 minutes. That’s quite a nice long runtime at 145 lumens. (specs: 12 h 45 min, but mine did much, much better than that, but at a lower output)

I didn’t do the runtime tests for Low and Moonlight, but they are supposed to run for 50 hours, and 11 days respectively.

Throw Measurement

Measurements were taken indoors at 5 meters with a professional Hagner E4-X Lux Meter.

Mode	specs	I measured	meters	yards
Low	–	100	20	22
Mid1	625	425	41	45
Mid2	1600	1500	77	85
High	3025	3100	111	122
Turbo	12,100 cd	11,500 cd	214 m	235

Eco/Moon mode was too dim to use the 1lux setting on the luxmeter. The peak beam intensity according to Acebeam is 12,100 cd, which isn’t too far off from my measurements.

For the following beamshots, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 and a 50mm lens. manual settings: ISO1600, 1/4sec , F4, 5000K

The shed is about 65 meters / 71 yards away. 

Disclaimer: This flashlight was sent to me for review at no cost by Acebeam. I have not been paid to review, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects.