Jetbeam E26 Kunai Review – Feature-Packed Flat EDC

1. Pricing & Availability
2. What comes in the box?
3. Design & Construction
4. Size & Measurements
5. User Interface
6. Emitter & Beam
7. Mode Chart
8. Runtime
9. Driver & Regulation
10. Switches
11. Carry & Ergonomics
12. Batteries & Charging
13. Competition
14. Conclusion

Pricing & Availability

FlashlightGo sent me this light in exchange for an honest review. Here is the product page on their site and their Amazon listing where you can see current pricing. I appreciate their support of my review work. If you do too, consider buying from them.

What comes in the box?

E26 comes in a nice black and purple retail box with a magnetic closure. There’s a foam insert to hold the light and accessories are under a foam divider. Inside is:

• The light itself
• User manual & paperwork
• USB A-to-C charging cable
• Wrist lanyard

Design & Construction

E26 has a great look. It appears rugged, especially in green and black. There’s a big ugly laser warning sticker on the back, but I’m sure that’s a legal requirement. I’m glad it’s a sticker and not engraved into the side of the light. At the time of writing, this is the only flat EDC light available with proper glass breakers in the bezel.

Build quality is good overall. My only complaint is the side rotary switch is a bit wobbly, rattly, and the action is rougher than I expected. It’s nice that it’s mostly held together by screws!

I was able to remove all the screws and partially disassemble the light. I couldn’t remove the bezel or side panel. The clip being removable is a big deal because you can bend it back if it gets snagged on something. This light’s biggest competitor (Olight Arkfeld Pro) has super strong thread lock applied and warnings on the box saying not to remove the clip.

Size & Measurements

Mini Maglite | Skilhunt EC200 | Olight Arkfeld Ultra | Jetbeam E26 | Olight Warrior 3S

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Width	29.0-31.6
Thickness (including clip)	21.4
Thickness (without clip)	16.5
Length	131.6
Lens Thickness	Inaccessible
Reflector Hole Diameter	Inaccessible
Reflector Diameter	Inaccessible
Reflector Height	Inaccessible
LED Footprint (white)	5050
Pocket Clip Screw Spacing	15.6
Weight with included battery (g)	116

User Interface

This UI is a mixed bag. It lacks a Moonlight mode and a shortcut to the lowest mode, but otherwise, it’s great. I love the rotary switch with lockout and the dedicated Turbo tailswitch.

How it works:

• Side switch: Click to turn the light on/off in whatever channel you’re in (except lockout, of course). Hold to change brightness (white mode only). There are no shortcuts to Low or Turbo, and there’s no way to activate both the laser and white light simultaneously.
• Rotary switch: Rotate to select lockout, white light, UV, or laser. Lockout blocks all functions, including the tailswitch.
• Tail switch: Click to turn Turbo on/off. Half-press for momentary, and release to turn off. Double-half-press for Strobe.

What they got right:

• Clicking the side switch turns the light on/off and holding the button changes modes. That’s the way almost all e-switch flashlights should work. It’s intuitive and quick.
• Dedicated Turbo switch. I love it when lights have this feature. You can also double-tap it for Strobe.
• Dedicated channel selector switch. I love it when multi-channel lights have a separate switch (especially a rotary toggle like this one) to select the channel. It’s much more intuitive than a bunch of clicks and hold, and you can select the channel before turning the light on. I like how they integrated lockout into the rotary switch too.

What they got wrong:

• No shortcuts to the lowest mode. There actually aren’t any shortcuts in the side switch at all. The tail switch serves as a Turbo and Strobe shortcut.
• Mode spacing: there’s no Moonlight mode, and there’s a weirdly large jump from Low to Medium modes.
• You can’t use white + laser simultaneously. Not a big deal, but it can be handy when you need to point at a specific thing and illuminate the area.

Emitter & Beam

The version I chose has an SFT40 LED for better throw. I believe it’s the 5000K variant, making this the second Jetbeam I’ve tested with a surprise not-cool-white LED. It’s a great choice for high brightness, decent throw, and neutral white color temperature. They also offer an SST40 version with a wider beam and more brightness, but worse color properties and throw.

The beam has a good balance of flood and throw for EDC tasks. The orange peel reflector makes it clean except for the slight oval shape from the bezel’s shadows.

In the beamshots below, camera settings are fixed and the wall is 2.8M away.

In the beamshots below, camera settings are fixed, the basketball goal to the right of the hotspot is 39M away, and the power pole in the center is 185M away.

The UV beam technically works, but it’s got a lot of visible light coming out too. Some of that is from the UV LED and it’s to be expected. Some manufacturers put a ZWB2 filter to block that light and I’m disappointed Jetbeam didn’t. This particular model also has some brown-ish visible light coming out, and that’s not normal. I think some of the UV is bouncing back into the white LED and making its phosphor glow a brown-ish color. The UV beam definitely makes things glow, but all that visible light makes it difficult to see things that only glow faintly. See the comparison below of three different UV lights, particularly the Skilhunt MiX-7 Gen 2 Plus with a ZWB2 filter installed.

Mode Chart

Disclaimer: All of my measurements are taken at turn-on. Lumen measurements were taken on a Texas Ace 3.5″ Lumen Tube. A candela measurement was taken at 10 meters with an Opple Light Master III on the highest brightness, and other candela figures were calculated relative to that. CRI, CCT, & DUV data were taken for each mode from a few feet away at the center of the hotspot with the Opple Light Master and Waveform DUV Calculator. Runtime tests were performed with the Ceilingbounce app on my smartphone. These tests were performed with a fully charged included battery unless otherwise specified. I cannot measure moonlight directly, so moonlight readings are calculated based on the brightness relative to the next-lowest mode. None of this is professional equipment, so take these measurements with a grain of salt.

The official specs are above, followed by my own measurements below.

Level	Lumens	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
Turbo	1450	9200	190	64	5490	0.0042
High	560	3550	120	63	4890	0.0056
Medium	260	1650	81	62	4790	0.0067
Low	11	70	17	62	4670	0.0083

Runtime

Performance is great. Turbo time is a bit low at ~50 seconds, but after stepdown the output is super stable. Sustained output is an impressive 5-600lm, and total runtime is great too.

Thermal regulation is timed step-downs only, with no active thermal regulation. It will perform consistently but may also overheat in hot weather or leave some performance on the table in cold weather. High mode gets too hot to hold, but not too hot for the electronics. I wish it were a bit dimmer to maintain a holdable temperature.

LVP (Low Voltage Protection): The battery isn’t accessible so I can’t measure it, but it appears that the light shuts off when the battery is effectively empty. It can be temporarily re-activated in an emergency.

Driver & Regulation

The driver is advertised as constant current. My guess is it’s a buck circuit.

Regulation performance is great. Battery charge level only significantly affects brightness when it’s effectively empty. That’s exactly what I like to see. It means the driver is of good quality and the components are being pushed for the best performance. UV regulation is great too, per the runtime test.

PWM: No PWM is visible to my eyes or camera, nor audible to my ears.

Parasitic Drain: I can’t measure parasitic drain because the battery is inaccessible.

Switches

The side switch is how you turn the light on/off and control the brightness day-to-day. It’s made of aluminum, is easy to find in the dark, and has a nice tactile action with a muffled click.

The rotary toggle is how you select between the light’s four channels: lockout, white, UV, and laser. I love when multi-channel lights have a rotary toggle like this. Integrating lockout makes it even better. This switch is a little wobblier and grittier than Olight’s Arkfeld Pro switch.

The tailswitch is for Turbo and Strobe only. It’s a forward clicky, so a half-press does momentary activation, and a full press latches on/off. A double-tap activates Strobe. It’s easy to find and works great. The large, flat boot allows E26 to tail stand!

Carry & Ergonomics

Ergonomics are great. It’s very comfortable to hold and use in a forward or reverse grip, depending on which switches you want.

Clip score 6.5/7 – Excellent

• Clip attaches securely, doesn’t rotate, and is user-serviceable – Pass
• Mounting location is near the tailcap – Pass
• Deep carry for EDC, shallow-carry for duty/tactical – Debatable (half score)
• Landing location is smooth, not the charging port, and away from the bezel – Pass
• Mouth/ramp and loop(s) are wide enough for pants material – Pass
• No bidirectional clips if the light is too big or heavy to clip to a hat – Pass
• Finish is durable – Pass

Batteries & Charging

The battery included is a built-in 1700mAh LiPo pouch cell. It’s not user-serviceable, so when the battery eventually wears out, you can’t replace it. That sucks, and it comes with the territory. All of these flat-style EDC lights have built-in batteries.

Charging is facilitated by a USB-C port on the side of the light. It’s not covered by a rubber flap. They say it’s IPX8 rated, so it must be internally sealed. Charging takes about 70 minutes. There’s no powerbank function, and I wouldn’t expect one with such a small battery. It’s fully functional while charging. There’s a battery indicator LED beside the charging port. It lights up when plugged in, or for few seconds after you turn the light on. Here’s what it means:

State	Green Light	Orange Light	Red Light
Plugged in	Fully charged	N/A	Charging
Unplugged	>35% charged	15-35% charged	<15% charged

Competition

Here are some lights in the same class and how they compare.

Olight Arkfeld Pro: the elephant in the room

• more expensive
• super popular
• less brightness and throw
• better side switch UI
• higher-quality rotary toggle
• no instant-Turbo tailswitch
• convenient and proprietary magnetic charging
• magnetic tailcap
• more body color options
• no glass breakers

Nitecore EDC25: brightest & throwiest alternative

• marginally lower price
• white light only
• lighter weight
• worse build quality
• excellent battery indicator
• dual tail switches (one instant Turbo)
• significantly more brightness and throw

Wurkkos HD01: budget alternative

• about half the price
• no UV, but does have side RGB
• dual side switches with a great UI
• no rotary toggle or instant turbo
• magnetic tailcap

This section is not comprehensive. If I didn’t include a particular light here, it doesn’t mean it’s bad or doesn’t deserve to be here. I simply cannot list every possible competitor.

Conclusion

This cool light has a unique and killer feature set: white light, laser, UV, instant Turbo, and USB-C charging. I love the beam and instant Turbo switch. I like the aesthetics and build quality. The clip and size are OK. I dislike the lack of a moonlight mode, lack of direct access to low mode, wobbliness in the rotary switch, and excess visible light in the UV beam. If you’re OK with those tradeoffs, you won’t find another light with this feature set right now.

Thanks to FlashlightGo.com for sending me this light for review!