Imalent UT90

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Imalent UT90 Predator Review: Thrower Flashlight

Imalent UT90 specifications

Brand/modelImalent UT90
LEDLuminus SBT90.2
Lumens4,800 lm
Beam intensity427,980 cd / 1308 meters
Battery config.battery pack: 2*21700
MaterialAluminum
Modes4
BlinkiesStrobe
ReflectorSmooth
WaterproofIPX8
Review dateJanuary 2021

Introduction

The Luminus SBT90.2 LED has become very popular amongst active flashlight manufacturers. Imalent released a couple of flashlights, including the Imalent RT90 and Imalent UT90, both with this famous LED.

Both are considered, high power, flashlight throwers. Meaning, their light beam can reach far and with a lot of lumens. Unlike throwers like LEP flashlights that have an extremely low number of lumens but still reach far.

This LED is able to push about 5000-6000 lumens at max, with the right batteries. And I think and hope the UT90 uses the right batteries.

Package quality.

Within the package you get the following:

  • The flashlight Imalent UT90
  • Large hard case
  • Proprietary USB charging cable (with a very strong magnet)
  • Magnetic remote switch (for guns)
  • Magnetic gun mount
  • 2 spare o-rings
  • 2 filters: green and red
  • Holster
  • Manual

Handling of the light

Before you use the flashlight, make sure you remove the insulator between the driver and the battery pack. Just unscrew the body, and remove the insulator.

The flashlight has just 2 parts, the head, and the body. The head of the flashlight has no knurling, but it has some fins to cool the flashlight down.

There are 2 switches, 1 on the back and 1 on the side. They both work independently and together at the same time. But they don’t work the same.

The rear switch can be used for momentary-on, but it will also get you to Low, Turbo, and strobe because those are special modes. It will not get you to medium or high without using the side switch.

The side switch is located in a relatively convenient location. On the opposite side is a small LED indicator that can show the battery’s charge status. But in the dark, it is hard to find this switch. You are better off using the rear switch instead. Which is a huge bonus! I love they did this. And it’s likely most people (because it’s mainly used by hunters) use the remote switch that is also included. The remote switch attaches on the rear switch with a strong magnet.

On the remote switch are 3 little switches. But only the front and rear switch work, and the middle doesn’t. They work the same, so I’m not sure why there are 3 switches. Maybe if 1 breaks, you can still use the other one?

Build Quality, and Warranty

Since there are only 2 parts, I can’t tell much about the inner construction. The batteries are not replaceable unless you take the battery pack apart. But unscrewing the flashlight, it feels smooth as butter. To protect from water seeping in, the body has 2 o-rings with an extra place for a 3rd one. I like that.

The magnetic gun mount feels very strong, and you better not let the remote switch or magnetic charger attachment touch each other because these magnets are pretty strong… lol. BTW all magnets used on the UT90 are super strong.

The anodization looks great, just like all the other Imalent flashlights, and my preference would be to use a slightly different ‘black’ finish to make it even look more professional. Black is black, but something along the lines of Jetbeam’s coating would be nice.

In the digital manual I received, I couldn’t find anything about the warranty. For details on the warranty, have a look here: https://www.imalent.com/service/

LED, LENS, BEZEL, AND REFLECTOR

One of the current popular LEDs is the Luminus SBT90.2. This is a high-power LED that can reach up to 5-6000 lumens. But only if you drive it hard with good-quality batteries. And the Imalent UT90 seems to have both.

The SBT90.2 is not only a high-power LED, it also has a flat silicon cover instead of a silicon dome. This means that the LED is useful for long-range applications. The LED is therefore considered a useful, high-power ‘thrower’ LED.

The LED sits deep and well-centered with a black gasket, in a smooth reflector. The glass lens has a purple hue, which indicates it probably uses some AR coating (anti-reflective). The beam is a little greenish in the low mode that is not visible when you come to Med 2 or higher.

Dimensions

  • Length: 248 mm / 9.76 ”
  • Head diameter:  66 mm / 2.6 ”
  • Body diameter: 25.4 mm / 1 ”

Weight: 

  • Weight total:: 425 g / 14.99 oz
  • Head: 192.2 g/ 6.78 oz
  • Body: 232.8 grams / 8.21 oz

Thrower Flashlights

Size compared to other long-range flashlights.

From left to right: Imalent UT90, Speras T1, Acebeam W30, Noctigon K1, Astrolux FT03.

Driver & User Interface:

Because the UT90 has 2 switches, I’d like to note that both switches can be used simultaneously, but they don’t work the same.

Available modes:

  • Low, Medium, High, Turbo
  • Strobe

Side-switch from OFF:

  • Single-click: to last used mode, (mode memory)
  • Double click: Turbo
  • Triple-click: Moon
  • 4 clicks: Lockout mode (A red indicator light will blink 3 times to show it is activated, repeat for deactivation)
  • Press and hold: Momentarily on to run through modes from Low to High (not Turbo). when you release the switch the light will switch off. The mode you were in last, will be memorized.

Side-switch from ON:

  • Single-click: Turn off
  • Double click: Turbo
  • Triple-click: Low mode
  • 5 clicks: turn off (don’t know why, but 6 clicks, 7 clicks do nothing.
  • Press and hold: run through the different modes from Low to High (not Turbo).

REAR-switch from OFF:

  • Single-click: to last used mode (from the normal menu cycle, you can’t change modes with the rear switch)
  • Double click: Turbo continuous
  • Triple-click: Moon
  • 4 clicks: Lockout mode (A red indicator light will blink 3 times to show it is activated, repeat for deactivation)
  • Press and hold: Momentary Turbo

REAR-switch from ON:

  • Single-click: Turn off
  • Double click: Turbo
  • Triple-click: Low mode
  • 5 clicks: turn off (don’t know why, but 6 clicks, 7 clicks do nothing.
  • Press and hold: Momentary Turbo

Shortcuts:

  • To Turbo: Double click from either off or on from either the rear switch or side switch
  • To Low: Even if it memorized Mid1 or High, with a triple-click from Off you will always turn on in Low with both switches
  • To Strobe: 2* double click from Off or 2* double-click from on

Mode memory:

  • Yes, by default.

Blinky modes menu:

  • There is only a strobe mode. 2 times a double click.

Low battery warning:

  • The side indicator LEDs will turn red.

Lock-out mode:

  • 4 clicks from when the flashlight is off.

PWM:

  • Not visible by eye

Batteries & Charging

Many Imalent flashlights have proprietary charging systems, and the UT90 does too. The magnetic charge cable can only be used with the flashlight (until more flashlights are built with this setup). Charging goes at a charging current of up to 2.0A. The magnet is extremely strong, and there is only 1 way to attach it correctly. This helps to not accidentally reverse the positive and negative poles.

Inside the battery pack are 2*21700 4000mAH cells, according to Imalent. While charging, a red LED indicator is lit, on the opposite side of the side switch. It turns green when it is finished.

The battery pack can only be charged while it is attached to the head. So you can’t just buy a second battery pack and charge it while you are using the flashlight.

Charging took about 4 hours, according to my Bluetooth USB tester. It also showed it charged 7127mAh, which may be a bit incorrect.

Performance

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.

My measurements were at the start and after 30 seconds. I usually start with the highest output. Then charge the battery/flashlight, and then do high… I typically don’t charge the battery between measuring the lowest modes because the output won’t drop much anyway.

ModeSpecsMeasured @ turn onAfter 30 sec
Low305.465.46
Med150017361706
High300035093321
Turbo4800 lm49974,177 lm

It does perform as advertised except for Turbo mode, at start it easily reaches 4800 lumens according to my measurements, but after 30 seconds it was down to almost 4200 lumens. I’m positively surprised at this. The head of the flashlight becomes hot fast, which is kind of normal for this type of LED and output.

When using the red and green filter, the number differ a lot. I’m not sure if that is because the Extech SDL400 can’t read red as good, but here are the number:

Mode + colored filterLumens at start
Turbo + red filter548 lumens
Turbo + green filter1764 lumens

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.

Please have a look at the following graphs.

And then looking closely at the first 1.5 minutes

From the runtime graph, we can see that Turbo drops slowly till about 1 minute at which point it’s about 1700 lumens. The output continued to drop very slowly till it reached about 700 lumens when it abruptly turned off. This is about 1 hour and 54 minutes later.

High starts at roughly 3500 lumens and quickly drops to about 1700 lumens, just like Turbo. And it’s interesting that High has almost the same runtime graph as Turbo.

Med also has roughly the same runtime graph as High and Turbo but starts at 1736 lumens. This behavior looks similar to the Imalent RT90.

I didn’t measure Low, but according to the manual it is supposed to run for 90 hours, or 4 days and a bit. Because this is a hunting flashlight, I can kind of understand they don’t have another ‘low output’ mode that’s between Low and Medium. But I think Medium and High are just too similar.

Below is the runtime comparison with the RT90 in Turbo.

Throw Measurement

Measurements were taken both indoors and outdoors with a professional Hagner E4-X Lux Meter. Measured at 30 seconds. It was pretty difficult to measure it, because the hotspot is so large and at the 30sec point you must have focused on the highest measurement… which was kind of impossible. So take these measurements with a grain of salt. The actual numbers could be a bit higher.

MeasuredCandelaMetersYards
Turbo @ start308,000 cd11101214
Turbo @ 30 sec288,000 cd10731174

It was too difficult to get numbers with the colored filters because the flashlight was already hot at that time. So I did the measurements again, but then indoors with enough time in between, and recharging the batteries in between. These numbers should also be taken with a grain of salt, and the actual numbers could be higher. And on top of that, I’m not 100% sure how good the luxmeter can handle colored light.

ColorCandelaMetersYards
Red @start22,300299326.62
Red @30 sec17,775267291.61
Green @start93,250611667.91
Green @30 sec80,000 cd566618.64

Beamshots

For the following beamshots with the tower, I used a Canon EOS 5D Mk2 and a 100mm lens. manual settings: ISO1600, .5sec , F4, 5000K. The tower is about 450 meters / 492 yards away. It gives you an idea of the different types of beams.

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.

OVERALL CONCLUSION

PROS

  1. Nice amount of accessories
  2. Nice amount of throw with the Luminus SBT90.2 emitter
  3. Output stays relatively high
  4. Side switch and rear switch with shortcuts to important modes

Cons

  1. High and Med are a bit too close in output and runtime
Author: Marco

4.5 stars: ★★★★⋆

After reviewing the RT90 I was pretty surprised with the Imalent UT90. Although relatively similar in specifications, in terms of performance the UT90 performs better. The output stays pretty high throughout most of the runtime. Especially looking at the application (hunting) I understand the lack of a mode between Low and Medium, but I still would have liked to have a lower Medium, which is really in between low and High, instead of similar to High and Turbo. To have the side and rear switch working at the same time is excellent. Love that.

Imalent UT90 coupon

Discontinued… Instead, check out one of the following articles:

  1. Best long-range flashlights

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