Imalent GR36 Flashlight Review

The Imalent GR36 flashlight offers throwy cool white LEDs, a set of warm white LEDs, and powerful UV. The multi-switch user interface offers a many options!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a link to the Imalent GR36 flashlight page.

Versions

There’s just one version of the Imalent GR36 flashlight.

Price

Super early bird price for the Imalent GR36 flashlight is a remarkable $39, but the Kickstarter is actually over at this point. The product isn’t for sale on Imalent’s website, but expect a price around $60.

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What’s Included

• Imalent GR36 flashlight
• Charging cable
• Lanyard
• Manual

Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

The Imalent GR36 flashlight is a solid light. It’s not intended to be disassembled (more on that in the power section.) The design is “right angle” but it’s not a headlamp.

I never really thought about it much before, but this unusual light still follows Imalent’s general design philosophy. So it seems familiar, even if very unusual.

Size and Comps

30mm x 96.5mm and 120g.

If the flashlight can headstand, I’ll show it here. If it can tailstand, I’ll also show that here!

Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. The version below is a custom laser-engraved Convoy S2+ host by GadgetConnections.com. I did a full post on an engraved orange host right here! Or go straight to GadgetConnections.com to buy your Convoy S2+ now!

Also in the photo above, my Standard Reference Material (SRM) flashlight is the Hanko Machine Works Trident, an 18350 light. While I have not reviewed or tested the Gunner Grip version seen here, I have tested a Hanko Machine Works Trident Total Tesseract in brass. I love the Trident, and it’s a striking contrast to the inexpensive Convoy S2+, another great SRM.

Retention and Carry

The Imalent GR36 flashlight ships with a two-screw pocket clip attached to the back. The clip should be easy to remove. This is a very thin clip, so quite springy.

The pocket clip has four holes, any of which could be used for the included lanyard. There’s nowhere else to attach the lanyard.

In the tailcap is a non-removable magnet.

Power and Runtime

Imalent states that the GR36 has a 1900mAh internal battery. I did not disassemble the light to find out, nor is the light intended to be disassembled. The battery is not field-swappable, and also generally not user-serviceable.

Output is claimed at 2800 lumens, and even if it hit that, it’d be brief. The stepdown from turbo happens at around a minute. Once either of the higher two modes step down, they approximately match medium level, at around 800 lumens.

There are a couple of indicating LEDs on the back of the light (you can see them later in this review) – they indicate in red or green. If the light is on, these indicators are going. I can’t find it in the manual but green means “ok power” and red means “time to charge.”

The temperature lines in these charts are included as general context, not precise measurements. The values represent the range (min to max) during testing, but should not be taken as exact readings. Temperature sensors are attached however feasible and not always on the bezel or hottest spot (assuming that can even be clearly defined). Even with ideal placement, too many variables affect temperature to definitively state a specific max value.

Charging

The Imalent GR36 flashlight uses a USB-C charging port. The port is on the side and does not have a cover. The light as a whole is “IP56 standard waterproof.”

Imalent includes a C to C charging cable.

C to C and A to C work well and are both around 1.8A. That’s around 1C for this 1900mAh battery, so just right.

Charging takes around 1.25h. While charging, the indicators I mentioned above (and show below) are red. When charging is comlete, the switch to green.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens
Main Turbo	2800-1000	60s+63m	2523 (0s) 2144 (30s)
Main Hihg	1500-1000	2m40s+61m	1420 (0s) 1381 (30s)
Main Middle II	1000	1h10m	834
Main Middle I	450	2h25m	454
Main Middle Low	150	7h37m	142
Main Moonlight	20	41h	19
Aux Warm High	120	2h8m	124
Aux Warm Middle	70	4h18m	72
Aux Warm Low	30	10h30m	19

Pulse Width Modulation

Some of the main modes exhibit SMS ripple, but not PWM (and I couldn’t notice it.) The side warm modes (second row, LMH) do have PWM. I was unable to notice it, too.

Click here to see a “baseline” – a chart with almost no light hitting the sensor.

Then there’s the Ultrafire WF-602C flashlight, which has some of the worst PWM I’ve seen. It’s so bad that I used a post about it to explain PWM! Here are multiple timescales (10ms, 5ms, 2ms, 1ms, 0.5ms, 0.2ms) to make comparing this “worst” PWM light to the test light easier. That post also explains why I didn’t test the WF-602C at the usual 50us scale.

User Interface and Operation

There’s a bit going on with the user interface here. First, I’ll mention this top switch. This controls which emitter option you’re accessing – main, aux, or UV. There s a nub (on the blue piece below) that allows you to make a selction by feel. In the center position below, the light is in “main” white LED output.

Next is the e-switch in the center of that blue piece. This controls which level the light is on.

After selecting the emitter, you have these other three choices, too. This rotary is on the side. It has three positions: Moonlight mode, Turbo mode, and Memory mode.

Sometimes I rotated this top dial while pressing the e-switch.

First, select the output on the top dial. Here’s a user interface table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Click	On – Mode memory
On	Click	Off
Off	Hold	Lowest level of Main white (disregards top rotary control!)
On from Hold	Hold	Mode advance (lowest five main white modes – disregards top rotary control!)
Aux white on	Hold	Mode advance (LMH)
Main white on	Hold	Mode advance (lowest five main white modes)
Rotary on Main, any state (except turbo)	Double click	Turbo
Turbo or Strobe	Double click	Iterate between Turbo and Strobe
Off	Click 3x	Lock
Locked	Click 3x	Unlock

That’s surprisingly all for the user interface. There’s a wrinkle with the side selector. Remember, it’s Moonlight Mode, Turbo Mode, or Memory Mode. What this selector does is simply give you direct access from off to those modes. When you’ve turned the light on in any of the states, the user interface is otherwise the same as the table. So for example you do have access to turbo if the side selector is in “Moonlight Mode” and you do have access to Moonlight if the selector is in Turbo mode. And hold from off gets you moonlight no matter what the side dial is set to! (That’s good!)

LED and Beam

I can’t see that Imalent states what emitters are used in the GR36, but at least the main emitters appear to be Luminus SFT25R’s. They have orange peel reflectors. The warm white emitters flank the UV emitter, below the main emitters.

The warm white aux emitters are very floody!

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

The main emitters are cool white (as stated) and low CRI. Neither of those is a huge surprise. The beam is nice and tight though, so that’s a win! Imalent describes the flood emitters as warm, and they are approximately warm, ranging from 4200K to 4500K. The CRI is mid, at around 80.

CCT (Correlated Color Temperature) refers to the measurement of the color appearance of light, expressed in Kelvins (K), which indicates whether the light is warm (yellowish) or cool (bluish). A lower CCT (below 3000K) is considered warm light, while a higher CCT (above 5000K) gives cooler, bluish light.

CRI (Color Rendering Index) is a measure of how accurately a light source renders colors in comparison to natural sunlight. Scored on a scale from 0 to 100, higher CRI values indicate that colors appear more true to life and vibrant, similar to how they would look under the sun.

Beamshots

These beamshots always have the following settings:  f8, ISO100, 0.3s shutter, and manual 5000K exposure. These photos are taken at floor level, and the beam hits the ceiling around 9 feet away.

Tint vs BLF-348 (KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b version) (affiliate link)

I keep the test flashlight on the left and the BLF-348 reference flashlight on the right. These photos are taken around 18 inches from the door.

I compare everything to the KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!

Summary and Conclusion

It’s too bad the introductory price for the Imalent GR36 flashlight is over, because $39 is a good price! Even $60 is on par with other “similar” lights (there may not even be anything similar!) I don’t love the massive stepdown from turbo (which doesn’t hit the claimed 2800 lumens), but I do love how flat the output is once it’s stepped down. I do not like the built-in, permanent battery, but again, that’s sort of where we are now. Charging is good too, and there’s no port cover to fiddle with.

The Big Table

Imalent GR36 Flashlight
Emitter:	Luminus SFT25R (2) (Spot – Cool white) Unstated (2) (Flood – Warm White)
Price in USD at publication time:	$38.96
Cell:	Internal
Runtime Graphs
LVP?	? (but yes, almost certainly)
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (mA):	?
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	USB-C
Charge Graph
Power off Charge Port	All modes
Claimed Lumens (lm)	Spot: 2800 Flood: 120
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	Spot: 2144 (76.6% of claim)^ Flood: 124 (103.3% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	Spot: 14.4 Flood: 0.7
Claimed Throw (m)	Spot: 486 Flood: –
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	Spot: 858lux @ 6.054m = 31446cd Flood: –
Throw (Calculated) (m)	Spot: 354.7 (73% of claim)^ Flood: –
Claimed CCT	–
Measured CCT Range (K)	Spot: 5800-6800 Kelvin Flood: 4300-4500 Kelvin
Item provided for review by:	Imalent
All my Imalent reviews!

^ Measurement disclaimer:  Testing flashlights is my hobby. I use hobbyist-level equipment for testing, including some I made myself. Try not to get buried in the details of manufacturer specifications versus measurements recorded here; A certain amount of difference (say, 10 or 15%) is perfectly reasonable.

What I like

• Rectangular build
• No fiddly charge port cover
• Charging works great
• Flat output after stepdown
• UV is super strong
• Side selector is initially confusing, but in the end works just like you’d want it to work.

What I don’t like

• Massive stepdown
• Low CRI for main emitters
• Built-in battery

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Notes

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