Wuben X5 3-in-1 Compact EDC Flashlight Review

The Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight includes a removable LiPO battery (unusual for a flat light) and can run 4xAAA, too! It’s around 4800K. Read on!

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Official Specs and Features

Here’s a referral link to the Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight product page.

Versions

There are two body colors of the Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight, but they appear to be the same internally, with the exception of the laser, which has at least two different power levels.

Price

List price for the Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight is $99.99, but there’s an introductory 20% off, which brings the light down to $79.99. The Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight is available on Amazon, too!

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What’s Included

• Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight
• Lanyard/charging cable
• Hex driver
• Manual

Package and Manual

Build Quality and Disassembly

The Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight is an interesting light. It’s a flat light but offers a removable cell. The tail switches as they are set up also makes the light feel quite tactical.

The build quality is good, though. There’s a locking latch to hold in the included battery.

Once the latch is unlocked and the tail hinged open, you can see the spring and positive contact. These two contacts are only relevant if you use four AAA cells.

Inside the body are matching contacts.

Size and Comps

The product description give incomplete information about the dimensions, but does state a 21mm thickness and 128g weight (with battery).

Here’s the light in hand:

Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. This is a brass version, which is a good bit heavier than aluminum, but has the same dimensions: 24mm in diameter by 117.5mm in length.

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

There’s a lanyard included. It attaches to the pocket clip. More on this lanyard later.

The pocket clip attaches with two screws

It’s a big pockte or belt clip and well-suited for the Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight. The X5 is quite flat and carries small!

Power and Runtime

The Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight includes a 1200mAh lithium-ion battery pack, but it can also run three AAA cells.

The lithium-ion battery pack is interesting. It’s keyed so it can go in to the Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight in only one orientation. This seems like a reasonable compromise between a flat light like this having a built-in battery and being thicker and using a cylindrical cell.

Here you can see the keyed portion of the battery. It can go into the light in only one way!

There’s also an icon showing how four AAA cells can be installed.

Here’s a bit of testing for the three highest modes with the included battery. The light claims 1300 lumens, but even at startup, it’s not getting close to that.

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. A temperature sensor is not always attached to the bezel (or even the hottest spot, assuming that could be defined). Even with ideal placement, too many variables affect temperature to definitively state a specific max value.

Charging

The Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight has built-in USB-C charging. The charging port is very much like that of other wubens, such as the G5. There’s a slider cover that works very well, and there’s no chance of losing!

Back to the lanyard. This lanyard is more than a lanyard! It is also a USB-C to USB-C charging cable.

Charging from both C to C and A to C works just fine and is very consistent.

Modes and Currents

Mode	Mode Claimed Output (lm)	Claimed Runtime	Measured Lumens
Turbo	1300-400	1m+1.5h	1071 (0s) 814 (30s)
High	350	2h	320 (0s) 319 (30s)
Med	150	5h	139
Low	50	15h
Eco	1	2004

Pulse Width Modulation

None of the white LED modes use PWM.

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

The Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight has two means of control. First, there’s this rotary selector that selects between white LED, lockout, and UV. You can make your selection there with the light on or off.

After that, there are two tail switches. The higher one (first, below) is for the white LED or UV, depending on the rotary.

The lower one is for only the laser.

Here’s a user interface table!

State	Action	Result
Off	Click Laser button	Laser on
Laser on	Click Laser button	Laser off
Rotary to UV (off)	Click Illumination button	UV on
UV on	Click Illumination button	UV off
Rotary to LED (off)	Click Illumination button	LED on (memory)
Rotary to LED (off)	Hold Illumination button	LED Eco
Rotary to LED (on)	Click Illumination button	LED off
Rotary to LED (on)	Half Click Illumination button	LED mode advance
Rotary to LED (on)	Double Half Click Illumination button	Strobe
Strobe	Half Click Illumination button	Return to preivous output

LED and Beam

The white LED is apparently a Luminus SST36F. The light uses a reflector for the LED and UV emitter, too.

The laser can be on while LED or UV are on.

LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)

Surprisingly, the white LED measures in the 4800K range. That’s great! The CRI is low, though.

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

The Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight is an interesting entry into the flat light market, if for no other reason than it does not use a built-in battery. And even past that, four standard AAA cells will work in the light, too! I’m pleased that this one is 4800K, but would love a high CRI option too.

The Big Table

Wuben X5 3-in-1 compact EDC flashlight
Emitter:	Luminus SST36F
Price in USD at publication time:	$79.99
Cell:	1xLiPO
Runtime Graphs
LVP?	Yes
Switch Type:	E-Switch
Quiescent Current (mA):	?
On-Board Charging?	Yes
Charge Port Type:	USB-C
Charge Graph
Power off Charge Port	With battery: yes (lower 4 modes) Without battery: yes (lower 3ish modes)
Claimed Lumens (lm)	1300
Measured Lumens (at 30s)	814 (62.6% of claim)^
Candela per Lumen	3.6
Claimed Throw (m)	200
Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s)	93lux @ 5.969m = 3313cd
Throw (Calculated) (m)	115.1 (57.6% of claim)^
Claimed CCT	–
Measured CCT Range (K)	4700-4800 Kelvin
Item provided for review by:	Wuben
All my Wuben 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

• Can use AAA cells
• The battery is not built in
• Laser always accessible
• White LED is 4800K
• UV hidden away behind the rotary controller
• 3R laser is very powerful

What I don’t like

• The pocket clip is bulky

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Notes

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