Acebeam X80 GT2

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Acebeam X80GT2 specifications

Brand/model	Acebeam X80 GT2
LED	18*CREE XHP50.3
Lumens	34,000 lm
Beam intensity	61,900 cd / 498 meters
Battery config.	4*18650
Material	Aluminum
Modes	7
Blinkies	Strobe
Reflector	Smooth
Waterproof	N/A (up to 30 meters underwater)
Review date	January 2022

Since I bought and reviewed all of the other most potent Acebeam models, I just had to get this one as well. This is the 2nd generation X80-GT, and according to specs, is only 1,500 lumens brighter. However, that didn’t stop me from buying it to review.

The 1st generation Acebeam X80-GT (which we also reviewed) has 18* CREE XHP50.2 LEDs with a total of 32,500 lumens, and the 2nd generation uses the newer XHP50.3 LEDs. For the rest, there aren’t any significant differences, except for a few small details.

Package quality.

The box opens with a flip-open lid held on with a magnetic clasp. The flashlight itself is inserted in the holster, with the batteries loaded in the battery carrier. You just need to remove the plastic tabs to start using them. They arrived pre-charged at around 4.19V. So what’s inside the box:

• The flashlight: Acebeam X80 GT2
• 4* Acebeam 18650 batteries
• Handle
• 2 spare o-rings
• Holster
• Lanyard
• Warranty card
• Manual

If you want a real pocket monster, this is it! It’s really small compared to other 25,000+ lumen powerhouses. Well, you need big pockets, but it will likely fit in a jacket pocket.

The diameter of the body is relatively large because it’s housing a battery carrier holding 4*18650 batteries. But in case you don’t like the size, you can always use the included handle. The handle attaches to the body on the opposite side of the switch. So, when you use the handle, the switch is located at the bottom of the flashlight.

Also, I’d recommend using the handle, because this little crazy thing will turn your fingers into charcoal… just kidding.. maybe not… The handle has a Picatinny rail to attach it to a gun.

To attach the handle to the flashlight, they included a small screw that also serves as the lanyard attachment point. Because that’s the only place you can attach the lanyard to.

You don’t need to worry about slipperiness, because the knurling around the battery tube is pretty decent. The tailcap (which can’t be unscrewed, unlike the X80-GT’s) has reeding that helps get a good grip to unscrew the battery tube. As I said, you are not supposed to remove the tailcap (and you can’t), but you need to remove the battery tube to get to the battery carrier.

And because it’s so tiny, it’s not front-heavy, and it doesn’t feel like exercising.

Acebeam knows what it’s doing, and all of their flashlights are built pretty well, and that includes the X80GT2. The X80-GT2 is not a budget flashlight. At the time of reviewing, the Acebeam online store has it for $378.95, which is a little more expensive than the Acebeam X50. But the price will likely get lower the longer the flashlight is available.

The battery tube, tailcap, and flashlight head are all made of aluminum. The manual says the following: Aircraft-grade aluminum body structure with premium type III hard anodized anti-abrasive finish. Whatever that means, I believe them.

The same goes for the handle, which seems to be made of aluminum, and has a nice black finish. Both the flashlight and the handle have a matte finish that I really like. There’s only 1 main part that is made of stainless steel and that’s the bezel. Also, the bolt doesn’t screen down completely without the handle, unlike with its predecessor.

Threads and the single o-ring keeping water out, came lubed. There’s only 1 o-ring, but Acebeam says you can take it underwater, up to 30meters. I’m not sure if I would like to do that.

Acebeam’s warranty:

From the Acebeam site: If the customer experiences any problems with an Acebeam product within 15 days of purchase, the dealer will replace that product. 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. 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).

Like I said above, the only part of the flashlight made of something different than aluminum is the bezel. The bezel is made of stainless steel that will protect the lens and threads. I wouldn’t like to test the drop rating, but I know that aluminum is much weaker than stainless steel.

Behind the window, you can see 18 LED babies. These are CREE XHP50.3’s and are the 3rd generation CREE XHP50 LEDs. They are domeless LEDs to increase ‘throw’. The original X80-GT with XHP50.2 was rated at 34,000 cd (369 meters) while this version has a rating of 498 meters (or 61,900 cd). And it gets really hot….

Generally speaking, CREE XHP50’s don’t have the best reputation when it comes to beam quality. This is sometimes referred to as the CREE Rainbow.

It’s hard to see any rainbow with 30,000 lumens, to be honest…. the beam is all flood… really floody. I added some comparison shots between the v1 vs v2.

Measured with the Opple LightMaster: (I added a frosted lens in front of the X80-GT2)

• CCT: between 5400 and 5500K
• Ra (CRI): 63.7
• DUV calculated: 0.0107

Funny enough, the DUV calculator I used shows a different spot on the color spectrum than the device itself. CRI is low, as expected.

• Length: 118 mm / 4.66”
• Head diameter:  65 mm / 2.56”
• Body diameter: 49 mm / 1.93”
• Tailcap diameter: 53 mm / 2″

Weight: 

• No batteries: 328.7 g / 11.59 oz
• With batteries: 523.7 g / 18.47 oz

Flashlight comparison

Size compared to other powerful flashlights.

First, a comparison between the v1 and v2 of the X80. They look very similar.

Image 1, from left to right: Olight Marauder 2, Lumintop GT3, Acebeam X80-GT, Acebeam X80-GT2, Acebeam X50, and Imalent MS08.

Just like many other high-power Acebeam flashlights, the X80GT2 has 2 mode groups.

The default mode group is: Power mode, and not ECO mode Acebeam claims to be it. This means you have the highest output settings by default. I don’t really understand the point of having 2 similar mode groups, with just lower outputs. That doesn’t make much sense, to be honest. If the second group would have a different UI, it would be more interesting. But 2 the same groups with just a lower output… nah…

How to change between Eco mode and Power mode?

From OFF: click the switch 10 times, and you’ll see the light blink 2 or 3 times. If it blinks 2 times you activated ECO mode. When it blinks 3 times, you activated Power mode.

Whenever you remove the batteries, the next time you turn the X80 Gtg2 on, you’ll be back to Power mode again.

Available modes:

• Low, Med1, Med2, Med3, High, Turbo, Turbo Max
• Strobe

From OFF:

• Single-click: to last used mode, mode memory
• Double click: Turbo (another double-click activated Turbo MAX)
• Triple-click: Strobe
• Press and hold: Low mode
• Press and hold 5 seconds: lockout (it will first enter Low mode, but continue pressing for lockout mode)

From ON:

• Single-click: Off
• Double click: Turbo (repeat for Turbo Max)
• Triple-click: Strobe
• Press and hold: Cycle through the menu from Low to High

Shortcuts:

• To Turbo: double click from on/off
• To Low: press and hold from off
• To Strobe: triple click from on/off

Mode memory:

• Yes, but you still have access to Low and Turbo with the shortcuts…

Blinky modes menu:

• Yes, strobe (3 clicks from on/off)

Low battery warning:

• Yes, a small indicator LED will show Voltage:
• Green >13V
• Red: 12-13V
• Red flashing: 11-12V
• Powered Off when Voltage is lower than 10.8 (I measured

Lock-out mode:

• Yes, hold switch for 5 seconds from off (it will go through Low mode, but keep pressing). Repeat about 5-6 seconds to ulock

PWM:

• Not visible.

Acebeam adds 4 newly designed Acebeam batteries. Up till now, all of the Acebeam batteries were black. The ones shipped with the X80-GT2 are white, and have the following product code:

The battery carrier has the following yellow warning: Must use high drain unprotected 18650 cells, or protected 18650 which PCB including 4 Mosfets.

Also, before you can use the light, you have to remove the insulation sheets from the battery carrier.

Unfortunately, Acebeam didn’t really upgrade it with onboard charging. That would have been a ‘real’ upgrade. I’m not saying this isn’t a worthy upgrade, I’m just saying that if you ‘upgrade’ a flashlight, why not go the extra mile, and include something new?

The battery carrier holds 4*18650 batteries, and flat tops Samsung 30Q don’t fit! They are too short. Unprotected cells (Samsung 30Q) with button tops fit, but not very tight. So I don’t recommend them either. Having a few extra millimeters seems to be important to have for this battery carrier. The included batteries fit very snug!

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.

For Amp readings, I use a Fluke 77III DMM. For higher amps, I now use a Fluke 325 True RMS clamp meter. For microamps, I use a cheap DMM with an easy-to-use micro amp setting.

All of my readings were taken from fully-charged Acebeam Acebeam ARC18650H-310A. And since there are 2 mode groups, I measured lumens for both groups. I measured output at turn on, and at 30 seconds. I recharged batteries between Medium3 to Turbo Max, and didn’t recharge between Low to Med2. the 10-minute numbers are taken from the runtime charts.

POWER MODE MEASUREMENTS

Mode	Specs	lumens @ start	@ 30sec	@ 10min
Low	220	154	154	154
Med1	1250	1104	1101	1083
Med2	2500	2185	2173	2114
Med3	4100	3615	3603	3428
High	9400	8453	8332	3949
Turbo	17800	16551	16067	3956
Turbo-Max	34000 lumens	31890 lumens	27143 lumens	3934 lumens

ECO MODE MEASUREMENTS

I didn’t do runtime tests for these, so I have no 10 minutes measurements. And that’s kind of pointless if you know how Power mode performs. Measured at turn on, and at 30 seconds. I recharged batteries between Medium3 to Turbo Max, and didn’t recharge between Low to Med2.

Mode	Specs	@ start	@30sec
Low	220	152	152
Med1	1000	912	914
Med2	2000	1832	1832
Med3	3200	2909	2891
High	6800	6256.	6189
Turbo	13000	11995	11764
Turbo-Max	21000 lumens	19292	18745 lumens

Parasitic drain:

• Can’t measure

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 Max: starts at almost 32,000 lumens, and drops quickly to 3900+ lumens in 1 minute. It slowly decreases output till it reaches 3750 lumens at 1h37min, when it rapidly reduces and shuts off in less than a few seconds.

Turbo: Starts at around 16,500 lumens and slowly reduces to 15,000 lumens in 1 minute and 45 seconds, when it drops quickly to 3900+ lumens. Runtime is very similar to Turbo Max, and shuts off at 1h37min40sec. Less than 1 minute later than Turbo Max

High: Starts at almost 8500 lumens and slowly decreases to 7777 lumens at 6 minutes and then drops to 3900+ lumens. At 1h37min it shuts off. Almost same runtime as Turbo and Turbo Max.

Med3: Starts 3600 lumens, and slowly decreases to 3200 lumens in 2h3min when it shuts off

Med2: starts at 2180 lumens and is pretty stable. At 3h24min it’s down to 2026 lumens , and then shuts off.

Med1: starts at 1100 lumens and sustains that output, more or less, and shuts off at 6h41min.

Low: starts at 157 lumens and continues at that output throughout the full runtime. It shuts off at 34h57min

Few more runtime graphs, but zoomed in

I also tested it with cooling, and here is the comparison graph. You decide for yourself.

Throw Measurement

Measurements were taken indoors with a professional Hagner E4-X Lux meter. They were taken at 5 meters distance and 30 seconds after turn on.

Mode	Specs	Cd measured	Throw in Meters	Throw in Yards
Low	550	250	32	35
Med1	2770	1750	84	92
Med2	3850	3525	119	130
Med3	6365	5900	154	168
High	16400	13825	235	257
Turbo	27000	25500	319	349
Turbo-Max	61900	41250 cd	406	444
Turbo-Max (@Start)	61900	50750 cd	451	493

Acebeam X80GT vs X80GT2

Max. output measured:

Mode	Acebeam X80GT	Acebeam X80GT2
Low	176	154
Med1	1,057	1,104
Med2	2,078	2,185
Med3	4,058	3,615
High	7,958	8,453
Turbo	15,210	16,551
Turbo-Max	27,765	31,890 lumens

Peak beam intensity measured

Mode	Acebeam X80GT	Acebeam X80GT2
Turbo Max	36,750 cd	50,750 cd

When you compare the runtime graphs, they are very very close together.

I bought my X80GT second hand, and it’s possible that those batteries weren’t in the best shape. My first generation has a much shorter runtime for every mode. In terms of output, they are very very close.

High power flashlight competitors

Hover your mouse over any particular line 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).

Here is the list with most of the high-power flashlights we reviewed in this category (Category: high-power soupcan sized flashlights).

Flashlight (and Link)	Max. Output	after 30sec
Acebeam X45 II	17,972	17,116
Acebeam X50	35,507	30,383
Acebeam X80-GT	27,765	–
Acebeam X80-GT2	31,890	27,143
Astrolux EC06	18,111	8,352
Fenix LR50R	11,698	10,849
Imalent MR90	52,326	32,128
Imalent MS06	20,479	–
Imalent MS08	25,745	19,615
Imalent MS12 Mini	68,773	46,750
Imalent RS50	20,302	16,939
Imalent SR16	53,657	43,115
Lumintop GT3	16,267	15,168
Manker MK38 (SFT)	16,013	13,129
Olight Marauder 2	14,251	13,964
Thrunite TN50	18,200	17,360
Name and model	Lumens	Lumens

(Interactive line graphs below)

Hover your mouse over the lines in the graph to see more details.

Or click on a name at the bottom of the graph to highlight the specific runtime.

Flooders:

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

The shed is about 65 meters / 71 yards away, and the reflective fence is about 200 meters. 

There is a small difference to see between the 2, and the GT2 has an edge in throw. There’s no CREE rainbow visible outdoors, with this output…

Disclaimer: I bought this flashlight with my own money. Nobody paid me to review this flashlight, nor have I been holding back on problems or defects.