Every once in a while I get the chance to check out some different kinds of gadgets – ones that I wouldn’t normally buy on my own. At first it was the $699 USD Wicked Lasers 155mW green laser that can ignite matches, and then I took a look at the $400 AE Light Xenide 20W HID personal searchlight. Today I’ll be taking a look at something a bit more ordinary, a LED flashlight by Neofab called the Legion II. Okay, well maybe it’s not that ordinary. With a rated output of 742 torch lumens, Neofab claims the Legion II is the world’s brightest single LED flashlight.
The Neofab Legion II at full blast in a room with no other lighting.
Details & Setup
The Legion II is a $179 USD flashlight sturdily crafted out of a few pieces of 6061-T6 aluminum with a hard anodized protective coating. Powering it are three 18650-size 3.7V rechargeable lithium ion batteries (batteries and charger not included). This is the first problem with the Legion II. The batteries are hard to find and expensive.
The Legion II and its power source
I ended up going with UltraFire batteries that were 3000mAh — that’s about the highest mAh rating I was able to find for 18650 batteries. Each battery runs about $10 USD and then you’ll need to get a charger. Unfortunately, everywhere I looked I could only find a charger that charges two 18650s at a time. The Legion II needs three, so unless you have two chargers, it will take about 40 (20*2) hours to charge all of the batteries. The higher the mAh battery rating the longer charging takes, and with 3000mAh 18650s, it took about 20 hours to charge two empty ones. (Note: numbers from the 5.5VDC/450mA 18650 charger I have.)
On top of that, charging the batteries requires taking them out each time and putting them in the charger. It would be nice if there was a simple charging jack, similar to the Xenide flashlight, especially since I found putting the batteries in to be a bit of a challenge. The tail cap of the Legion II has a PCB that relies on some small contact patches to touch the bare aluminum inside of the flashlight body. Getting good contact requires a lot of force, at least with my particular Legion II and batteries, so I ended up applying some foil to help with the connection. I think it would be better if there was a piece of copper that came up the inside of the body and made a better attempt at making contact with the tail cap.
Usage
Close-up of the reflector and ~10 Watt LED.
The heart of the Legion II is the powerful CREE XLamp MC-E LED, which paired to the 18650 batteries gives the Legion II a rating of 742 torch lumens. While technically it is a single LED, it’s like having four LEDs in one with a multi-chip design. Neofab claims the Legion II is the world’s brightest single LED flashlight. Before continuing though, it’s important to mention that the 742 lumens rating is torch lumens, compared to emitter lumens. Emitter lumens measures all of the light coming out of the LED in all directions. On the other hand, torch lumens is a more real-world measurement that excludes light that goes out of the back of the reflector, light that doesn’t bounce off and is used to heat up the reflector, light that is used to heat up the front lens and doesn’t pass through, light that bounces back to the emitter and heats it up more, among other things. It has been said that torch lumens can be as low as 2/3 of the emitter lumens. The CREE MC-E LED used in the Legion II has an emitter lumens rating of 90 lumens per Watt, so the real emitter lumens of the Legion II is likely closer to 900 emitter lumens. Overall, I’m just pointing out that the Legion II really is bright and the rating method used for it is realistic, where as you might see some other flashlights say they have 900 lumens when really they are just stating emitter lumens.
10 Watts for a diode is a lot
Using the Legion II is a bit interesting. It is controlled by twisting a spring-loaded ring on the body of the flashlight. The main benefit is that you can have access to every feature of the Legion II using only your thumb. The downside is that it’s not very intuitive. It can temporarily be turned on by moving the ring counter-clockwise, or turned on for constant use by keeping it in that position for a few seconds then letting go. However if the ring accidentally goes back to the middle and moves back to the clockwise starting position, the flashlight turns off. In addition, there are five levels of brightness available by twisting the ring counter-clockwise to go to a lower level or clockwise to go up a level. The lowest setting emits 98 lumens, the second gives out 157, the third 264, the fourth 456 and the full-brightness fifth level outputs 742 torch lumens.
I would have preferred if the control ring had notches and stayed in those positions as you moved it. While I applaud the creation of an innovative control mechanism, I find it a bit buggy in its current implementation. I have to think about using it, which shouldn’t be the case with intuitive controls. For example, if you are on the fourth level of brightness, there’s no way you could tell based on the position of the control ring. If it had the notches like I suggested, it would be easy to tell from a glance.
Control ring instructions from the manual:
Left = TemporaryON , and OFF when you release the ring.
Left + Hold (5 sec+) = Constantly ON. * * You can set the brightness level for this mode separately.
Right = Temporary ON, and OFF when you release the ring.
Right + Hold (1 sec+) = Constantly ON. * * You can set the brightness level for this mode separately.When the light is constantly ON, you can use these functions:
Right + Hold (1 sec+) = OFF.
Left + Hold (1 sec+) = Battery Gauge.
Right = Brightness Level UP.
Left = Brightness Level Down.
Loosen the tailcap , then the light is OFF,then tighten the tailcap = Save the brightness setting.***
*** You can reach Constantly ON from Left or Right, and the setting will be applied to Left or Right depends on the way you turn on the light.
Performance
I did a run-time test of the Legion II at its brightest setting and it ran for 3 hours and 27 minutes with the 3000mAh batteries I was using. Unlike other flashlights that get dimmer as the batteries drain, the Legion II delivered the same full 742 lumens at all periods during my runtime test. However, when the batteries are done with, the beam shuts off immediately after flickering a few times. That’s why the Legion II has a battery gauge built-in to give you an idea of battery level as you’d have no idea otherwise. Runtime can go as long as 20 hours on the lower settings, but I did not personally test that.
As for how the Legion II can run at full brightness for so long, it does an excellent job at dissipating heat with the integrated heatsink design.
Beam throw is clearly visible compared to the orange glow of the sidewalk light. Photo not manipulated or touched up in any way.
My biggest issue with the Legion II is the lack of a user-focusable reflector setup. While you can purchase additional reflectors and swap them out yourself for different uses, it would be much nicer if you could just twist a ring to adjust the throw and width of the light beam.
Legion II lighting up a sidewalk
Almost looks like a lightsaber..
Video Hands-on
Recorded with a Canon SD990IS that apparently sucks in low light situations. Sorry about that.
Overall
The Neofab Legion II is a strong, well-built flashlight that lives up to its promise of being freakishly bright. However, at $179 USD without including batteries and a charger I began to question its value. I think the price includes research and development — similar to how electric-only cars started out being remarkably expensive (Tesla stated their Roadster price includes their R&D). The Legion II strikes me as an early prototype. I like where it is and surely future versions will be great, but I have a hard time recommending it right now. There’s not even any retail packaging yet and the website doesn’t have
The current implementation of the Legion II, despite its usability issues, does what a flashlight is supposed to do and executes that core competency well. I give the Neofab Legion II 7.5 out of 10 Stammys.
What do you think of the Legion II? Would you shell out $179 + shipping + batteries + charger for it? What would you use it for?
While that is a pretty cool light, some of the drawbacks you mention seem out of place on a $179 flashlight. I have been rocking a $120USD Surefire L1 Lumamax for a few years, and it is a solid light. Bright, durable and only needs one battery.
what kind of battery does it take? CR123 or some regular variety?
To the best of my knowledge, almost every Surefire uses standard 123s, with the exception of a few limited run lights, the rechargeable lights, and one of their military lights.
According to their current product list, the brightest LED flashlight that they have is the LX2 Lumamax, at 200/15 lumens (high/low modes).
I own 3 Surefires myself (two Executive series lights, and one G2L), and all three of them have held up to everything that I’ve put them through over the past 4 years (~1 for the G2L) that I’ve owned them.
The only minor downside is the cost of the batteries, but Surefire carries them for somewhere around $1.75 a battery, and there are rechargeable conversion kits for some of the models.
Although, as good as they hold up, and as bright as they are, battery cost is a non-issue.
+1
Thought you might be interested to know that the script referencing “assets.skribit.com” in your makes your website hang for about 4 or 5 seconds on initial load (at least it does for me here in New Zealand). Perhaps consider a DOMready initiated load?
James, thanks for the info I’m looking into it.
So we already load that stuff on Amazon’s CDN CloudFront so it should be very speedy. I’m thinking it might be a DNS issue on on your end? As for DOMready, that’s not cross-browser and detecting DOM ready reliably cross-browser is not trivial, so it’s not something we can yet adopt globally yet. Thanks again!
Hey Paul, you’re probaby right – a DNS issue no doubt. However the problem still remains that you’re doing multiple HTTP requests in each header load, before the body even starts loading. If you’re not using a framework like jQuery to emulate DOMload you could always put the script tag at the bottom of the page (obviously depending on how crucial it is).
Anyway, just a thought – love your blog! Take it easy
The embedding doesn’t work in google reader, just so you know :)
works for me, granted you have to click the little pop-out button. no biggie, i was thinking you meant the video didn’t show at all or something.
The ideal interface for a flashlight has already been created. A single clicky button, covered with rubber. One click turns on, and subsequent clicks in reasonably rapid succession cycle through the modes. A single click by itself turns the flashlight off.
Funky batteries, funky controls, no user-adjustable beam, no constant feedback of battery level, expensive. I wouldn’t buy this.
well put Mark – definitely agree with the clicky button. While Neofab doesn’t list any waterproof/waterresistant details on their site, I can’t imagine the Legion II fares that well with the twisty ring. I’d think it would allow some water in. rubber clicky button is still my fave.
Awesome review! You’re right it needs to be adjustable without swapping out components, that’s a big downside.
glad you enjoyed it! Yeah, the ability to focus without changing out parts is a pretty big deal for me, i don’t always need a wide throw
I’m normally just a reader and not much of a commenter, but this one spiked my interest. I carry two Surefires myself and always get my batteries from BatteryStation.com
They have their own brand of CR123A batteries, which run about $1.50 a piece. And since they go in some stellar light sticks, I think it’s well worth the cost.
Just a thought. Happy blogging, Paul.
-R
Thanks for the recommendation, haven’t heard of BatteryStation.com before. The Legion II can actually run on 5 CR123′s but it requires a dummy cell to fit properly, which I have not been able to find.
Hopefully you’ll comment on some other stuff in the future. Thanks for reading. :-) oh, and gig em aggies!
Nice review. There are websites that stock 2500mah 18650 cells for less than $5 each, and many actually prefer these to some of the larger capacity versions as they seem to deliver the higher current better. Also you can find torches that use a SSC P7 4 die LED (manufacturere rated 900 lumens – but more like 600 from the torch) for just $30!
At 9.8W CREE measured the ED emiiter at 790 lumens.
The Neofab Legion II is pretty impressive for its size compare to my 156 led security solar lights. However the price is high for what it is. This maybe off subject but I would love to find such small aternatives to delivery 742 lumens using solar panel. Any idea anyone? Looking for experts to put together the best portable and affordable lighting kit for an emerging market with the best components available. 742 lumens + , 8 hours working time, fast charging battery & low cost. Target 3 millions. Iead anyone? email me.
Hi JBernard – readers don’t have access to your email address unless you put it in the comment.
Hello Paul,
Here is the info: creativesearch@yaahoo.com. Hope to hear from you soon. Many thanks for the reply.
JB
The specs on the Legion II seem to be quite impressive and the $179 price tag is actually in the same price range as similar products. I carry a Streamlight Strion, its not as compact as the Legion II but still conceals quite well. The fact that it has a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery and a car charger makes it quite handy.
I think if you are looking for a super bright light this would be a great buy, the only setback I can see is that the batteries and charger are not included.
That UI ring doesn’t look very practical. And for storage, there isn’t even a lockout option is there? I was thinking of buying one and then putting my own tailcap switch into it, and forgetting the ring. What do you think?
No lockout/off option.. just the regular off that could jiggle and get turned on when in transport. As for putting in your tailcap switch, that will be a tough feat. There’s not much room to work with and you will have to find a way to block the connection between the body of the flash light and the cap, and they touch in a few places.
Hi, Everyone. I am Neoseikan, the producer of Legion II flashlight.
We just got another model: Legion II SST-50.
Could you imagine how powerful it is?
The standard version Legion II paul reviewed has an output of 2800mA (current).
And the new version has up to 4860mA! And all the features remained.
Such as flat regulated curve and others.
So it’s much brighter than any other MC-E or SST-50 LED lights in the world.
lightsaga.com/photos/p7/legion2100302.jpg
That would be excellent if someone were to compare the L2 MC-E to the L2 SST-50! The older version is very respected as it is. But a side-by-side comparison would be very valuable. (between the SST-50 and MC-E Legion IIs)
I have did one, but only took a photo for it.
Wow that is one killer flashlight! Thanks for sharing! Does anyone know if Pelican Flashlights has anything that compares to this? Just out of curiosity?
Review: Neofab Legion II (”World’s Brightest Single LED Flashlight …: At first it was the $699 USD Wicked .. http://bit.ly/GRdyf
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#ICTIP Review: Neofab Legion II (”World’s Brightest Single LED Flashlight …: There’s not even an.. http://tinyurl.com/nqrnv5
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Review: Neofab Legion II (”World’s Brightest Single LED Flashlight”) — PaulStamatiou.com http://bt.io/BNR
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Just imagine how scary you’d look with a $179 flashlight under your chin http://bit.ly/2RVE50
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