Acebeam X80 GT2

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

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.

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.

Acebeam X80GT vs X80GT2

Max. output measured:

Peak beam intensity measured

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).

(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.