****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
What can one say about Maglite? Their the best! I have a full size Mag and several of the mini's. I love the Mini-Mag LED!!! FIrst off their as indestructable as a light is gonna come. Serious shock resistance... Serious water resistance... Not a hammer and not a diver's light but as close as the most of us will ever need. Secondly their weight is about right. Heavy enough to protect them but not so heavy that it can't be carried in a pack in the outdoors. Next up is the grip, it does have a nice checkered pattern etched into the shell that gives a good grip even with gloves or even when wet. Battery life always depends on usage but is about average for most AA lights. Like most LED's, bulb life is advertised as 100K hours. While I don't think it will last that long, it will make it long enough to make you feel it was a worthwile investment, and the bulb probably won't be what fails first anyway.Next lets talk about light...four-funtions of light! By twisting the bezel counter-clockwise it turns on the full power beam. Now it's not the brightest compact light in the world (that distiction goes to lithium powers tactical lights) but for a AA Alkaline powered light, it the brightest I've seen. Brighter infact than my 3AA powered Gerber TX3.0! I haven't done a distance comparison between them yet, but I can tell you that sitting in my chair in the woods camping, the Mini-Mag illuminates distances up to 30' like daylight! I'm not kidding! Distances up 50' can be seen pretty well assuming there isn't too much clutter to cast shadows. Also a big plus; unlike previous generations of Mini-Mag LED's, the bezel can adjusted to focus the beam. Finally turning it clockwise until it tightens and stops will turn off the light. Now that was one fuction... Turning the bezel couter-clockwise and then back off, then counter-clockwise (or on-off-on) within about 3 seconds will take you to mode #2...low power. According to the box it's about 25% power. I find it to be a great reading light, map light for the car, light to look in small spaces where too much power could "wash out" or blind your eyes. In fact I use it for navigation in total darkness. That way I'm not totally blind when I turn off my light. Next mode #3... (from off... on-off-on-off-on) It's a flasher that flashes at about 1 flash per second. Great for signaling! I speak from experence here. I had a family member lost after a hike that got past sundown. I hiked to a ridgetop right off the road then used this flasher to help them locate me. It worked! It's not a high speed strobe so it's not a defense tool, but as a locator signal, I give it a useful thumbs up! Finally mode #4... (from off... on-off-on-off-on-off-on) S.O.S. mode. I seriously doubt anyone of us will be so lost or standed that we'll be signaling passing planes and ships but hey I guess if you were... In all seriousness though if it's all you've got, it could help you be found by rescures or a passer-by. Consider this, a 100% truely dead car battery, meaning no 4-way flashers. It addition helping show that you need help with this almost universally recognized help signal, it also helps make your vehicle visible avoiding a potentially deadly accident. All in all, perhaps a little gimicky, perhaps not...it all depends on what you intend to do with your new light. One final word about the bezel switch. After about 3 to 5 seconds of sitting in either the off or on position, the next time the light is turned on it will return to full power output (AKA mode # 1).I'm not kidding when I say this is my favorite product I've ever reviewed! There's so many uses! And everyone has need of it, they may just not know it yet!
