Imalent MR90

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Imalent MR90 specifications

Brand/model	Imalent MR90
Category	High power flashlight
LED	8*CREE XHP70.2 + 1*SBT90.2
Max. Lumens	50,000 lm
Max. Beam intensity / distance	629,000 cd (1586 meters)
Battery config.	Battery pack (4*21700)
Onboard charging	DC 19V 5.5mm x 2.1mm
Modes	6*3 (3 light source selections)
Blinkies	Strobe
Reflector	Smooth
Waterproof	IP56
Review date	June 2022

There’s no other brand mentioned as often in our list of the brightest flashlights, as Imalent. Their focus is on producing the highest output flashlights on the planet, seems like. And with the MR90, they have yet another spot in the top 10 brightest lights on the planet.

But it’s interesting to note that most, if not all of their brightest lights have shrunk down in size. While the MS18, R90TS, and the original MS12 were all very long and big, their new ones are much shorter. That includes the MS12 mini, MS08, MS06, RS50, and now the MR90.

That’s not to say that all of these flashlights are just the same with a different number of emitters. No. The MR90 has a different approach with 8*CREE XHP70.2 for extreme output, and 1 Luminus SBT90.2 LED at the center for throw.

Do you think the MR90 can really produce 50,000 lumens? Let’s find out!

Package quality.

The MR90 was shipped in a typical Imalant box, with a nice paper sleeve around the box to keep people from opening it easily. Not sure if it’s good or bad, but once removed, you don’t need to worry anymore. The box itself is made of sturdy cardboard, with a magnetic closure. Inside the box, you’ll find the following:

• The flashlight: Imalent MR90 (with 4*21700 battery pack)
• Holster
• 19V power adapter
• O-rings
• Manual

Okay, where would you be using this kind of flashlight for?

To show off to your friends.. that’s for sure. Or use it as a backup light for your local sports grounds… perhaps.

And how about carrying?

The battery pack contains 4*21700 batteries, and the diameter of the battery tube is therefore noticeably larger than the ones with 4*18650 batteries. This makes it a bit harder to carry for people with smaller hands.

Imalent didn’t include a lanyard but there’s an attachment point on the plate covering the charge port. I’m not totally convinced that this is a great way to carry the MR90, because the plate can be unscrewed and could unscrew by accident, and drop the light. There is no lanyard attachment point anywhere else on the flashlight, nor is there any tripod mount.

Also, if you have really large pockets, this light could possibly fit! Especially in some sweat pants.. not saying that’s comfortable though.

I must admit that it’s a bit easier to find the switch in the dark, on the MR90 than on the MS12, MS12 mini, MS18, or MS08. So that’s a good thing. That’s because the 4 sides feel different (2 sides with fans, 1 side is just flat, and 1 side with the switch). Maybe Imalent could implement the feature to turn the indicator LEDs on the side of the switch. That would help even more. Just do like 5 clicks to turn them on/off.

The Imalent MR90 is black, and won’t be available in any other color. The anodization is referred to as Wear-resistant Type III hard-anodized and has a nice matte finish.

There’s only 2 parts you can separate: the battery pack and head. The threads are anodized, so you can easily break connection by unscrewing the body just 1/10th of a turn. The threads are thick and covered in plenty of lubrication. There’s one o-ring below the threads to keep it waterproof. And it has 1 unused slot to add another o-ring for more waterproofness.

I’m not sure how much that would help though, because the things I worry about most, are the fans. There are 2 cooling fans to keep the temperature down, but I’m not sure how waterproof they are. The water resistance rating (IPX rating) for the MR90 is just IP56, so I wouldn’t recommend using it in the rain.

The fans make quite a bit of noise and reduce speeds when you shake the light. That probably means you shouldn’t be waving with the light too often, or use it on things that move/shake a lot.

Unlike the Imalent MS08 and RS50, the MR90 (as well as the MS12 Mini) doesn’t have the fans built into a plastic shell. Although, they still aren’t controlled by temperature, just by the mode.

Unlike with the MS12 Mini, which looks very similar, the fans turn off the same time as the light turns off.

Imalent’s warranty (copied from their website)

1. Free Repair/Replacement within 15 Days after Receipt

Within 15 days after receipt and under normal use, any quality problem with your IMALENT flashlight, you can either send the light to repair or a new one of the same type with same specifications will be replaced; if the same model has been discontinued or not able to be replaced timely due to other reasons, another model with same or better performance will replaced instead;

2. 60 Months’Free Repair

Within 60 months after receipt and under normal use, any quality problem with your IMALENT flashlight, you can send it to repair for free;

. Lifetime Limited Maintenance

IMALENT provides you with lifetime limited maintenance for your flashlight, after the 60 months free repair period, any probems with your flashlight, IMALENT can repair and maintain it,repairing fee will be charged on an actual cost basis, no labor cost charged;

The warranty is nullified in all of the following situations:

1. The product(s)is/are broken down, reconstructed and/or modified by unauthorized parties.
2. The product(s) is/are damaged through improper use.
3. The product(s) is/are damaged by leakage of batteries.

Most of the flashlights you see have a specific use case in mind. Some are made for tactical use, some for on your keys, and some to see things at a large distance. The MR90 is a bit different because it’s not just extremely, extremely bright, it has actually 2 separate use cases in 1.

There are 8 pieces of CREE XHP70.2 in shallow reflectors to produce a very floody beam, or as some may say: A wall of light.

But there is another LED, sitting in a much deeper reflector, and that’s a Luminus SBT90.2 LED that is very powerful, and can throw really far.

The reflectors are made of 1 piece of aluminum, which is protected by a large AR coated lens. And to protect that lens, the MR90 has a wide bezel, with some small grooves. If you put the flashlight head-down, light will leak, so you can notice when the light is turned on. If you don’t, it might make some burn holes.

I measured the LED with the Opple Light Master III, stood about 4 meters away, and got the following readings:

High mode throw (SBT90.2)

• CCT: 5642K
• CRI (Ra): 66.4

High mode flood (8*XHP70.2)

CCT: 5698K
CRI (Ra): 70.7

Even though the layout of the LEDs may look a bit strange, it doesn’t really have a negative influence on the quality of the beam. It doesn’t have any strange artifacts.

Dimensions: 

Imalent MR90	Millimeters	Inches
Length:	153 mm	6.02″
Head diameter	92mm	3.62″
Body diameter	56.3 mm	2.217″

Weight: 

Imalent MR90	Weight in grams	Weight in Oz.
With battery	903.3 grams	31.86

Powerful Flashlights comparison

Size compared to other high power flashlights

Group 1, Imalent flashlights from left to right: Imalent MR90, Imalent MS12 Mini, Imalent MS08, Imalent RS50, Imalent RT90

Group 2, high power flashlights: In the rear: Imalent MR90, Imalent MS12 Mini, Iamlent MS08, Imalent RS50, Manker MK38

Front row: Acebeam X50, Acebeam X80-GT, Acebeam X80-GT2, Olight Marauder 2.

Available modes:

• Low, Middle Low, Middle 1, Middle 2, High, Turbo
• Strobe

From OFF:

• Single-click: to last used mode ( mode memory)
• Double click: Turbo (and another double click for strobe)
• 4+ clicks: Lockout
• Press and hold: turn on cooling fans (repeat to turn them off)

From ON:

• Single-click: off
• Double click: Turbo
• Triple-click: switching between flood (8*XHP70.2), spot (1* Luminus SBT90.2), and flood + spot
• Press and hold: Cycle through the menu from Low to High

Shortcuts:

• To Turbo: double click from Off or On
• To Strobe: 2 times double click (it will first enter Turbo, before entering Strobe)
• To Low: there is no shortcut to low

Mode memory:

• Yes (single click from off returns ot last used mode)

Blinky modes menu:

• Strobe: double click from Turbo (so if you are in any mode, double click for Turbo, and do another double-click for Strobe

Low battery warning:

• The red indicator lights on the side will flash.

Lock-out mode:

• 4+ clicks from off. Red indicator lights next to the switch blink 3 times to indicate the lockout mode is activated. Repeat 4 clicks to deactivate again, and now green lights will indicate your are back to normal. You can also do 5 clicks or 10 clicks.. works the same.

PWM:

• Not visible

Imalent chose to use a built-in battery pack rather than separate cells. They also did that on the MS12, MS12 mini, and MS18. A battery pack has some benefits but also several drawbacks. Here’s a short list:

• Need to stop using the light when batteries are empty (can’t replace batteries and continue, but can use a spare battery pack)
• Can’t replace batteries easily when they turn bad
• Can’t use a normal battery charger
• Have a set of batteries with the same use (so can’t accidentally mix discharged and charged batteries)

I’m not 100% sure if it’s a feature, but I could continue using the light when the power was plugged in.

The power adapter for charging has an output of 19V and 2Amps, and I measured an average of 18.8V and 1.8Amps (33watts), but it goes up to 35 watts at times. Charging takes about 2 hours and 15 minutes. During charging, there is a red light, which turns green when charging is finished.

The battery packs for the MS12 Mini and this MR90 seem to be the same. I tried the battery pack of the MS12 Mini, and it worked on the MR90. So that way, you can have a backup battery pack.

At this point in time, maybe it’s smart of Imalent to move to USB-C? And use the battery pack as a power bank, and charge it with any kind of USB-C charger.

This is the gear I used for testing:

Gear	Purpose	Link to buy
Hagner E4-X	Measuring beam intensity (throw)	Inquire at Hagner.se
Extech SLD400	Lumens and logging runtimes	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Leica Disto D2	Distance for throw measurements	Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk,
Uni-T UTi260B	Thermal camera	Amazon.com,

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 with a fully charged battery, and measured at turn on and after 30 seconds. The 10-minute readings are taken from the runtime graph.

These numbers are with Flood + Throw combined. So 8*XHP70.2 and 1*Luminus SBT90.2

Mode	Specs	turn on	30 sec	10 minutes
Low	2500	2456	2347	2225
Mid Low	6500	5966	5810	5469
Mid1	10,000	9506	9256	8715
Mid2	18,000	18,326	17,624	15,247*
High	30,000	31,427	29,321	8,630
Turbo	50,000 lm	52,326 lm	32,128 lm	8,574 lm

Turbo reached over 50,000 lumens at turn on.. but in an blink of an eye it drops to below 50,000.. that fast!

Mid2 had the highest output after 10 minutes, but it dropped to 8K+ 10 seconds later.

Next up is just Flood, with the 8*XHP70.2

Mode	Specs	turn on	seconds
Low	–	1669	1575
Mid Low	–	4578	4437
Mid1	–	7549	7369
Mid2	–	14,817	14,380
High	–	26,826	25,344
Turbo	44,500 lm	45,931	30,491 lm

The manual only states the highest output in Flood mode, and none of the other modes. Imalent likes using the measurements at turn on, but they should follow the ANSI FL1 standards in my opinion, just like Fenix, Olight etc.

And last but not least, the Lumen measurements in Throw mode (1*Luminus SBT90.2)

Mode	Specs	turn on	30 seconds
Low	–	835	831
Mid Low	–	1433	1415
Mid1	–	1957	1911
Mid2	–	3049	2893
High	–	4367	3774
Turbo	4500 lm	5739 lm	3618 lm

There are no output numbers of the lower modes. Turbo dropped quickly.

Runtime: Battery life

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

Mode	Specified	Measured runtime (ANSI FL1)	Time till shut off
Low	4h	3h 49min	3h 49min
Mid Low	1h 30min	1h 33min	1h 33min
Mid 1	52min	52min	52min
Mid 2	20min+25min*	41min	41min
High	3min+45min*	47min	47min
Turbo	50s+45min*	48min	48min

*This means that the highest output is 20 minutes, and that the light will continue running for 25 minutes after the output drop. Mine dropped after 10 minutes, not 20 minutes.

The luxmeter I use is set to log every 5 seconds, this means that the highest mode don’t exactly reflect the same numbers between manually measured output, and runtime graph. The luxmeter has a short delay when it starts recording. And with these powerful flashlights, it could measure a half-second or full second later, and looks like a different output in the graph.

ANSI FL1 standards: The runtime is measured until the light drops to 10% of its initial output (30 seconds after turn on). This does not mean that the flashlight is not usable anymore. The last column shows how long the light actually works till it shuts off. If there is a + symbol, it means that the test was stopped at that particular point, but the light was actually still running. This happens on certain occasions, with certain drivers, firmware, or batteries.

Turbo reactivation:

Yes, Turbo can be reactivated after the output drops. It does increase the temperature a lot, but after 4 times of activation, the Turbo mode doesn’t stay on for long, because the batteries already decreased capacity quite a bit.

Temperature rises to about 84 degrees the third time I reactivated Turbo. The other times it didn’t reach that number, because it already dropped output. Also, the average temperature is about 70 degrees, in turbo mode.

Keep in mind that the luxmeter logs every 5 seconds, so it’s possible that the output was a bit higher, but dropped at the point of recording.

Throw Measurement: Peak beam intensity and beam distance

Measurements were taken outdoors at 20 meters for Throw + indoors with a Hagner E4-X Lux Meter. Flood is only measure indoors at 5 meters. I calculated candelas to meters and yards to get a better understanding.

Turbo Mode	Specified	Candela measured	Meters	Yards
Spot (20m)	484,000 cd	227,600 cd	954	1043
Spot (5m)	484,000 cd	227,500 cd	954	1043
Flood (5m)	120,000 cd	51,500 cd	454	496
Flood+spot (5m)	629,000 cd	277,500 cd	1054	1152

Unfortunately, Imalent doesn’t use trustworthy measurements to come to their specifications.

Extra info: Peak beam distance according to ANSI FL1 standards: The calculated value of distance in meters at which the flashlight produces a light intensity of 0.25 lux. (0.25 lux is about the brightness of a full moon hitting a surface).

Imalent MR90 vs MS12 mini vs Manker MK38

High power flashlight comparison

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

Flashlight	Max. Output	after 30sec
Acebeam X50	35,507	30,383
Acebeam X75	64,295	73,716
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 MS08	25,745	19,615
Imalent MS12 Mini	68,773	46,750
Imalent MS12 Mini C	71,967	55,873
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

(Interactive line graphs below)

Hover your mouse over the lines in the graph to see more details, or select a flashlight in the graph.

Using a mobile phone? Hold your phone horizontally!

Another comparison, focusing on the first 10 minutes after activation

And here’s another comparison, but zoomed in. The first 60 minutes after activation.

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, and the reflective fence is about 210 meters. 

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