Acebeam X70

Acebeam X70 review

Acebeam X70 specifications

Brand / Model	Acebeam X70
LED	12*XHP70.2 + 1*XHP35 Hi
Lumens	60,000
Beam intensity	311000 cd
Battery config.	Battery pack
Material	Aluminum
Modes	4+ Turbo
Blinkies	Strobe
Reflector	Smooth
Waterproof	IPX8 (submersible 10m)
Review date	December 2019

Introduction:

Note: The Acebeam X70 is replaced with the more powerful, and more interesting Acebeam X75

You probably know that this flashlight is pretty special. The Acebeam X70 is a high-end flashlight with a claimed output of 60,000 lumens. I finally caved and bought this lumen monster many months after it was announced. The Acebeam X70 is a one-of-a-kind. It’s one of the brightest flashlights on the planet and will be at the top for years to follow

If you’re looking for something extremely bright and trustable, you better read this review.

What you’ll get:

I received the Acebeam X70 without a box but inside a nice carry case.

• Acebeam X70
• Carry strap
• Handle for cooling Fan
• Wall charger
• 12V charger (for in a car)
• O-rings
• Warranty card

Handling of the Acebeam X70

The X70 is a pretty big flashlight the size of your forearm. Fortunately, Acebeam included a carry strap as well as a carry handle. The handle contains a built-in fan, to cool down the top part of the flashlight (the place where all the heat is produced from the LEDs). This part of the flashlight gets really hot, and instead of using built-in cooling fans (like the Imalent MS18), Acebeam built a handle with a cooling fan. The same cooling fan can probably be fitted to more flashlights in the near future, so they don’t have to re-invent it.

The battery pack comprises 8*18650 High Amp Sony VTC6 batteries and because of the body diameter, I prefer using the handle or the carry strap. If you’re just carrying it without the strap or carry handle, your hands get tired pretty quickly.

Switch:

One thing I want to mention here as well is the placement of the switch. I believe Acebeam has thought this through, and this sets Acebeam apart from the other Lumen Monsters. Although the metal switch sits almost flush with the body, (and is therefore difficult to find), the carry strap attachments are on both sides of the switch.

Since I’m righthanded, I attach the lanyard/carry strap to the attachment point on the left side of the switch, so I can place my right thumb on the switch without feeling uncomfortable. (Look at the picture below) If you are lefthanded, you simply detach the metal ring and attach it to the opposite side of the switch (on the right side).
Since the lanyard attachment ring at the rear is loose, you can rotate it in any direction.

At the same time, I don’t really like the fact that the switch is so small and difficult to find. This size of flashlight should have a much larger switch that is easier to find and operate IMHO. I hope they will improve this on their new Acebeam X75 ..LOL

Oh, yes, it is possible to tail-stand the X70.

Build quality, knurling, threads and anodization

Knurling and machining are 2 important parts of a flashlight. The knurling helps with improved grip and machining is a way of differentiating the quality of the flashlight.

Both knurling and machining are top-notch on the Acebeam X70. Acebeam didn’t choose for a rough grip, but more of a medium slippery knurling. All machining on the Acebeam X70 looks really good with no problems or blemishes and all parts fit together nicely.

Carry handle:

The carry handle feels a bit cheap and plastic. It has a single electronic switch to select 2 fan modes: fast and slow. It takes protected as well as unprotected 18650 cells. So you don’t have to rely on the battery pack.

LEDs, Lens, Bezel and Reflector

The Acebeam X70 uses 12 XHP70.2 LEDs and a single XHP35 Hi in the middle. The XHP35 Hi is a ‘thrower LED’ and is, therefore, the main reason for the max beam distance. We will talk about the beam distance below in the performance section.

It has a very standard, non-stainless steel bezel, which is large but not as large as its competing flashlights from Imalent. Behind the glass lens, there are 12 shallow reflectors for the XHP70.2 LEDs and a single smooth reflector in the center for the XHP35 Hi.

Since the 12 reflectors are shallow, the beam is very wide. It’s a true flooder! The deeper reflector in the middle helps to give it a bit of a punch in the middle.

Dimensions:

Numbers are taken from the specs sheet.

• Length:  280 mm ( 11.02” )
• Head diameter:  116 mm ( 4.57” )
• Body diameter: 51mm ( 2″ )

Weight: 

• With batterypack: 1819 g (  64.16 oz)

Bright flashlights

The top brightest flashlights in the world.

From left to right: Imalent MS12, Imalent MS18, Acebeam X70. You can see the size of the head is relatively small compared to both of the other Lumen Monsters.

At the bottom, you can see the largest LED flashlight that I currently own, the Lumintop BLF GT.

Driver & User Interface:

Power mode and Eco mode

The Acebeam X70 has 2 mode groups. ECO and POWER. ECO mode has a lower High and Turbo output. For the rest they are identical.

You can change mode groups by clicking the switch 10 times when the light is turned OFF

If you see a double beam flicker, it’s in ECO mode. And if you see a Triple flicker = POWER mode. By default, the Acebeam X70 set to ECO mode.

Modes: 4 + Ultra Low + strobe

• Ultra-Low, Low, Mid, High, Turbo (Ultra Low and Turbo are not part of the regular cycle)
• Strobe

From OFF:

• Single-click: On: to last used mode, mode memory, except ultra-low or turbo
• Double click: Turbo and repeat to return to last used mode
• 10 clicks: change between 2 mode groups: ECO Mode group and Power Mode group.
• Press and hold 1 sec: Ultra-Low
• Press and hold 5 sec: Lock-Out
• Single click + click and hold: Strobe

From ON:

• Single-click: Off 
• Double click: Turbo and repeat to return to last used mode
• Triple-click: nothing
• Press and hold: cycle through the modes (excluding Ultra Low, Turbo and Strobe)

Blinky modes:

• Deadly strobe. This thing blinds you with a 10,000-lumen strobe.
• Enter the Strobe mode by a Single Click followed by a Press+Hold.  ( Click – CIick-hold)
• Both accessible from the OFF and ON position.
• Single click + click and hold: Strobe

Lock-out mode:

The lock-out mode helps to not accidentally turn on the flashlight. But with the Acebeam X70, it is also used to change modes.

• Press and hold the switch for 5 seconds when in the OFF position. The X70 will shortly turn on in Ultra-Low mode and finally switch to Lock-Out mode. Repeat this to unlock.
• Within the lock-out mode you can change between the LEDs being used with 5 clicks:
  • All LEDs: 12* XHP70.2 (high power LEDs on the outer ring) + single XHP35 Hi (throw LED in the center) = standard
  • Just the  XHP35 Hi (high beam intensity LED, in the middle)
  • 12* XHP70.2

PWM:

• None that I could notice by eye

Firmware / UI Conclusion:

• The ECO and POWER mode groups are something specifically for Acebeam products. The Acebeam K75 we reviewed earlier has the same groups. The UI is easy to understand, and there are only a few special modes. The difference between 30,000 lumens in ECO mode and 60,000 lumens in POWER mode isn’t as big as you may expect.

Batteries and charging:

The Acebeam X70 comes with 2 types of chargers. A normal AC wall charger as well as a 12V DC car charger. The DC car charger has an extra USB port built-in as well. Again something very useful! The battery pack can be charged independently. This is great since you could get a few battery packs and charge them individually and use them when necessary without having to invest $600 for another X70. AC charging takes about 3 hours, and it uses 2 LED colors to indicate the charge level, red and green. Red= charging, green = full. When in use, the Red light indicates a voltage below 12V. A red light means the voltage is below 11.5V, and at 10.5V the battery turns off.

The battery pack can not be taken apart without using tools. Therefore, you won’t be able to replace the Sony VTC6 18650 batteries in case they go bad. You either have to replace the whole battery pack or use some force to open the power pack.

On top of the carry handle is a little switch with another light indicator. The carry-handle uses a single 18650 battery and the LED indicators simply show a Red light when the battery needs to be charged. Simple and effective.

Performance:

Acebeam X70 Lumen measurements:

All output numbers are relative to my homemade Integrating Sphere. It is now set up with an Extech HD450 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.

Retested in November 2021

Mode	Specified	turn on	30sec
Ultra-Low	625	680	680
Low	3250	3,225	3,225
Mid	8000	7,788	7,767
High	25000	23,534	23,322
Turbo	60000 lm	57,216 lm	47,069 lm

Runtime:

The following runtime test was done in a room with an ambient temperature of 20 degrees Celsius = 68 degrees Fahrenheit. The test was done without using a fan.

From the runtime graph, we can see that the first drop from Turbo is about 40 seconds, the second drop at 2:20 minutes and the 3rd drop at 4 minutes. From 5 minutes onwards it has an extremely stable output of about 7500 Lumens. At 1 hour and 21 minutes, the X70 drops to 0 lumens.

The following tests were done in November 2021.

Compared to other powerful flashlights

Below is a list of the brightest flashlights we have reviewed with an output of over 50,000 lumens.

The following list contains our own measurements and not the manufacturer’s specs. The maximum output is usually measured at turn on, but sometimes after a couple of seconds. The 30-second measurement is according to ANSI FL1 standards, and the 10-minute measurement indicates its sustained output. Discontinued flashlights will be removed from the list.

Flashlight	Max. Output	30 sec	10 minutes
Acebeam X75	83,607	73,716	21,061
Haikelite HK08	64,447	59,727	3,985
Imalent MR90	52,326	32,128	8,574
Imalent MS08	25,745	19,615	6,049
Imalent MS12 Mini	68,773	46,750	10,454
Imalent MS18	101,626	69,879	13,365
Imalent MS32	179,678	166,133	37,396
Imalent SR16	53,657	43,115	8,956
Imalent SR32	101,532	91,014	17,960
Flashlight name	Lumens	Lumens	Lumens

Hover your mouse over any particular line in the following graphs to see data points! Or select a flashlight at the bottom of the graph to highlight that particular graph.

Are you on a mobile phone? Hold your phone horizontally.

(Interactive graphs)

Full runtimes:

Or check this link to view the full interactive chart.

Zoomed in for the first 10 minutes

Or check this link to view the 10 minutes interactive chart.

Throw measurement:

Measurements were taken both indoors and outdoors with a professional Hagner E4-X Lux Meter. I took measurements at both 5m for indoors and 10m for outdoors.
Using the high mode only, I get:

• Indoors (5m):  252,500 cd =  1005m (1km) throw / 0.62 miles
• Outdoors (10m):  250,000 cd =  1000m (1km) throw / 0.62 miles

This is still quite a bit lower than their claimed 311000cd of peak beam intensity.

Warranty

This is what Acebeam has to say:

Acebeam guarantees the flashlight against defects in material and workmanship. Flashlight products that are found to be defective under normal use within 5 years of the period of purchase date will be repaired or replaced without charge. The battery pack and the External Heat Dissipation Fan carry 1-Year warranty. This warranty does not cover damage caused by accident, unreasonable use or product alteration. Failure to follow the general maintenance directions could result in damage to your flashlight that may not be covered by Acebeam warranty.

Beamshots

Overall conclusion

Overall Rating: 4 stars ★★★★

It’s been over a year between the announcement of this beast and our review. The Acebeam X70 does not disappoint, It appears to be a great contender in the list of brightest flashlights ever. The UI is straight forward and there aren’t too many hidden modes, which is great. Since I own so many flashlights, I don’t like hidden modes as much as some people do. The simple reason is, I can’t remember how many clicks there are needed to enter these special modes etc. There are are few things that I didn’t like so much. The runtime is rather short on Turbo, including the cooling fan. 30 minutes isn’t very long, but it’s still very bright at 20,000 lumens.