JETBeam Jet-ST Personal 12th Anniversary Flashlight Review
Here’s the JETBeam Jet-ST Personal, a flashlight I have chased for ages. This titanium light using one 18650 has an e-switch and a great look!
Official Specs and Features
Here’s a link to the JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight product page.
Versions
I think there’s only one version of the JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight. There might have been a similar light for the 10th anniversary, but I don’t know that it really differed in any way from this model.
Price
MSRP for this light is $249.95. At least some number of the JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight is available at FlashlightGo.com. But as the 12th anniversary of JETBeam has come and gone, this light will only become more scarce!
Short Review
As I said above, I have chased this light for ages. I have actually purchased it twice, only to have those two purchases fall through for various reasons. I love the look of this light (and how a light looks is important to me). As far as using the light goes, though, there are things that could be better. You can read on to find out those issues. But suffice to say that if you’re attracted to this light because it’s a pretty light, you will not be disappointed in the JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight.
Long Review
The Big Table
| JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight | |
|---|---|
| Emitter: | Cree XP-L HI |
| Price in USD at publication time: | $249.99 at FlashlightGo.com |
| Cell: | 1×18650 |
| Runtime Graphs | |
| LVP? | |
| Switch Type: | E-Switch |
| Quiescent Current (mA): | 0.02 |
| On-Board Charging? | Yes |
| Charge Port Type: | micro-USB (on cell) |
| Charge Graph | |
| Power off Charge Port | – |
| Claimed Lumens (lm) | 800 |
| Measured Lumens (at 30s) | 712 (89% of claim)^ |
| Candela per Lumen | 13 |
| Claimed Throw (m) | 211 |
| Candela (Calculated) in cd (at 30s) | 440lux @ 4.95m = 10781cd |
| Throw (Calculated) (m) | 207.7 (98.4% of claim)^ |
| Claimed CCT | – |
| Measured CCT Range (K) | 6200-7000 Kelvin |
| Item provided for review by: | flashlightgo.com |
| All my JETBeam 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’s Included
- JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight
- JETBeam 3500mAh 18650 (standard button top)
- Spare o-ring
- Charging cable (USB to micro-USB)
- Manual etc
Package and Manual
Build Quality and Disassembly
I thought I’d really love this light. I’ve chased it and chased it and thought it looked so great. But in person… I absolutely love both the design and finish (the whole look) of the JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight. I mean I love it. I can’t think of a more fetching light. It’s the perfect mix of how a flashlight lightsaber should look and feel in hand, and everything.
You probably already know I love engraved lights. I had a TorchLAB BOSS custom-engraved! This one has (what’s probably) laser engraved paisleys on most of the sides, as well as some text. I don’t care about the text (it’s fine) but the engraving is exceptional.
The tailcap has some of the text, which is seen below upside down. I’m talking now with my photographer about his lack of attention to detail. In case you’re unable to rotate your device, this text says “Anniversary” and “12 years” along with a firefly. I believe 12 years was 2016 for JETBeam (as I believe they were created in 2004.) That makes this light a number of years old by the time this post was written. I consider the host to be timeless.
Here’s one of my complaints about this light. The tailcap is tiny!
Now functionally the tailcap is fine. It’s easy to unscrew and the threads are fantastic (especially for titanium). But there’s no way whatsoever to remove and reinstall the tailcap without touching the threads. That’s not a problem except that the threads should be (and are) lubed. So you end up with thread lube on your fingers. And if you’re like me, that will end up in your eyes (it can not be avoided, and I’m a professional at avoiding things. It can not be avoided.) So while this tailcap setup helps with the overall look of the light, it’s quite annoying that you end up touching the threads when swapping cells.
The tailcap has a spring (as seen above) but the head has only a little button. No big deal and no problem, since this isn’t a tactical light.
Size and Comps
Length – 4.2″ (106.6 mm)
Head Diameter – 1.04″ (26.5 mm)
Body Diameter – 0.91″ (23.2 mm)
Weight: 3.08 oz. (87.3 g) (Excluding Battery)
If the flashlight will headstand, I’ll show it here (usually the third photo). If the flashlight will tailstand, I’ll also show that (usually in the fourth photo).
Here’s the test light with the venerable Convoy S2+. Mine’s a custom “baked” edition Nichia 219b triple. A very nice 18650 light.
Also above is the light beside my custom-engraved TorchLAB BOSS 35, an 18350 light. I reviewed the aluminum version of that light in both 35 and 70 formats.
Below is the JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight with another of JETBeam’s anodized titanium flashlights. This is the Jet-II Pro, and I’ve got a technical review of the aluminum version and a bunch of photos of this titanium version.
Retention and Carry
Only a pocket clip is included for carry of the JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight. It’s a very interesting pocket clip though, and one of the rare instances of a 3d milled pocket clip on a production flashlight.
As far as clips go, it functions fine. The clip is removable and looks to be held in place by two Torx screws.
Carry with the pocket clip is not super deep, but balance is sufficient to make it a great carry. (More on this topic later, though.)
Power and Runtime
The JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight is powered by a single lithium-ion cell. JETBeam includes an appropriate cell – a button top 18650. Broadly speaking, this is a standard 18650.
The cell goes into the light in the usual way – positive end toward the head of the light. Here you can get a better look at the threads on that tailcap too, and note that the tailcap fits around the cell. This does mean that the light is probably just a bit thicker than you might be used to from an 18650 flashlight. (Not much, though – it’s actually overall very slim!)
Here are runtimes for the top two modes. The light does hit the claimed 800 lumens, but for an 18650 light, that’s a fairly reserved output anyway.
Interestingly, the indicator on the switch doesn’t really do what you’d think. It seems only able to indicate in green, and when cell voltage is low, the switch turns solid green. That’s basically the opposite of what anyone would assume. Also, the manual doesn’t cover this feature… sooo… Essentially I’d just say to disregard the indicating feature of the switch.
Charging
JETBeam didn’t put charging on the light itself, but the included cell does have a micro-USB port.
A USB to micro-USB cable is included.
Charging is fairly slow and takes around 4 hours. Of course, the cell can also be charged in a bay-style charger, and you have to remove the cell for charging anyway, so I’d call the on-cell charging fairly superfluous.
Modes and Currents
| Mode | Mode Claimed Output (lm) | Claimed Runtime | Measured Lumens | Tailcap Amps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| High | 800 | 4.9h | 712 | 2.20 |
| Mid | 260 | 13h | 230 | 0.48 |
| Low | 38 | 45h | 36 | 0.06 |
| Ultra Low | 3 | 200h | 4 | 9.5mA |
Pulse Width Modulation
The order below is Ultra Low first, then HML. Since Ultra Low is outside the main modes, I wasn’t sure where best to put it. But it’s first. It has a few squiggles, but that does not seem to be PWM. The other modes also do not have PWM.
Here you can 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 single switch on the JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight. It’s an indicating e-switch. Indicating, as discussed above, seems to be fairly limited (read: useless). The switch itself is absolutely fantastic – it’s a nice rectangular metal button that has the firefly icon (note that little flashlight in the firefly, too!!)
Below you can see where the problem begins, though. This e-switch is proud, and it’s also on the opposite side to the pocket clip. Thus, the JETBeam Jet-ST Personal flashlight suffers from that Olight accidental activation problem. In fact, I had more accidental activations with this light than I’ve had with all my other flashlights this year combined (non-scientific measurement). As a result of this, the light can basically not be carried in a pocket, at least using the pocket clip.
I’ve opted to just carry the light loose in my bag.
The action in this switch is very good though. It’s nicely clicky.
Here’s a user interface table!
| State | Action | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Off | Click | On (Mode Memory) |
| Off | Double Click | Ultralow |
| Any | Triple Click | Strobe |
| On | Hold | Mode advance (HML) |
| On | Click | Off |
| Strobe | Click | Exit Strobe to previous state except Ultra Low (which goes to mode memory) |
| On | Click 4x | Start timer of current mode for 9 minutes (indicated by two blinks) or 3 minutes (indicated by three blinks) |
Also yes, the main modes are highest to lowest. 🙁
LED and Beam
JETBeam used a Cree XP-L HI in this light. XP-L HI is one of my favorite emitters of all time. This one is a cool white version, though, which is not one of my favorite emitters of all time.
However, with the combination of a reflector and no dome, the beam profile of this light is excellent.
LED Color Report (CRI and CCT)
CCT ranges from around 6200 to around 6600, which is cool white. CRI is also low, at around 71. Neither of those is great, and both of those are things I’m accommodating because I love the host (body) so much.
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.
I compare everything to the KillzoneFlashlights.com 219b BLF-348 because it’s inexpensive and has the best tint!
Conclusion
What I like
- The body
- Purple body
- Engraved body (seriously, I want to see more lights like this.)
- Use of standard (if long) 18650
- Absolutely fantastic shape of host – looks like a light saber?
What I don’t like
- Micro-USB 18650
- Super sensitive e-switch
- Useless indication feature on the e-switch
- Tailcap nearly requires that you touch the threads when swapping cells
- User interface is Highest to lowest
- Modification potential is questionable (I guess the parts are loaded in from the front end?)
Notes
- This content originally appeared at zeroair.org. Please visit there for the best experience!
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