I was looking through the Weltool catalog of lights a while back, and stumbled upon the M6 Mini. I clicked on it because it had the catchy tagline: “Golden-Eyed Tiger Cub”. I cannot answer what this means.
But for $19 with Prime shipping, I snagged the light because it seemed to offer something unique and interesting. It’s a small flashlight with a specific goal of a very round output of even light. I’ll explain, but the truth is: this flashlight is far more handy than you’d give it credit for on the surface.
LED and Power
I am not sure what this LED is, but it’s labeled as “X-LED”. What I do know is that this light is 3000k, so very warm white (love it) and outputs an easy to overlook 20 lumens. This is all powered by a single AAA battery (primary or rechargeable NiMH). There’s just one single mode to select, so it’s on and off all at 20 lumens from the rear clicky switch which does not tailstand. The AAA cell will power it for 6 hours or so.
None of this (except the warm color temp and high-ish CRI stated at better than 85%, so…?) is why you get this light. You buy this light for this feature: “Evenly distributed light, lighted area with 35cm diameter at 20 cm distance”.
Almost every flashlight has a beam shape, and from there that beam shape has a fall off on it. Lots of light near the center, less so as you move outwards. There are some lights which attempt to achieve full flood, but none I have seen achieve it like this.
Essentially this light outputs a perfectly even spot of light — it doesn’t do it for great ranges or even very bright — a perfectly even round circle of light. It’s pretty cool in person.
Use Case
But why? What do you use this for? I’ll quote another spot in the marketing: “The area within the light circle has no dark spot, no glare, and no distracting uneven lighting anywhere.”
If you have ever tried to read with a high powered flashlight, or even most flashlights, you’ve likely encountered the issue where the edges of the light are easier to read words on the paper while the center is too bright, or produces too much glare to be able to read. This light solves that.
Likewise many lights which are flood style, spill light all over the place, making areas you don’t want to light up, light up. This is like a ‘thrower’ meets ‘mule’ in some kind of weird love-child.
This is a very niche light, but if you’ve ever found that you wanted something to put light specifically in that spot and no where else, but not blind you in the process, then this is the light for you.
What I Like
This light isn’t a gimmick as it seems made for serious use with an IP65 water rating, and a really nice body and overall construction. The pocket clip is ok, not great for the pocket, but nice to clip on to other things. What I love is how warm and even the light is and I’ve found the output to be perfect.
It’s a handy light when you need to see something, but don’t need to see everything nearby as well. I dig it. I keep one in my bag so that I have something I can use to read labels or light up a spot to snag a phot without half the lettering being blown out (think of all those electronics labels on the back of stuff that are inexplicably silver with black text, this light will light those up nicely for you to snap a photo of the information).
This is great stuff.