Acebeam P20 Review – Big Bad Thrower with Independent Switches!

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

UPDATE

When I initially posted this review, I included the lumen figures I measured on my Texas Ace lumen tube, which were much lower than advertised. Acebeam reached out and explained that a basic lumen tube simply is not accurate for measuring an extremely intense light such as this. They asked that I remove the inaccurate lumen measurements, and I declined. However, after more consideration, I’ve decided to honor their request. I believe their advertised 5500lm Turbo spec is more accurate than the measurements I got from my lumen tube.

Pricing & Availability

Acebeam sent me this light in exchange for an honest review. Here is the official product page where you can see current pricing. At the time of writing it’s $200 USD.

What comes in the box?

The box is nice, with a printed orange sleeve on the outside. The actual box is plain black-covered cardboard with a magnetic closure. Inside is:

• The light itself
• Battery (inside the light)
• User manual
• USB A-to-C charging cable
• Wrist lanyard
• Spare O-rings
• Spare tail switch boot
• Green filter (optional)

Design & Construction

P20 has a striking and aggressive design. I think it’s a bit much, but it really helps it stand out and the extra material at the head gives it more bonk-factor.

Build quality is excellent. It’s built like a tank. The anodizing appears satin and thick. It feels high-quality in a way that budget brands struggle to match.

Size & Measurements

Maglite 2D | Nitecore MH40 Pro | Acebeam P20 | Sofirn SP60 | Mini Maglite

Measurement	Measured (mm)
Bezel Diameter	79.1
Length	255
Side Switch Diameter	13.2
Tail Switch Diameter	16.5
Body Tube Diameter	25.3
Tailcap Diameter	29.1
Tailcap Length	28.8
Driver Diameter	Inaccessible
Included Battery Length	151.6
Weight with included battery (g)	504

User Interface

This is an excellent UI. Best-in-class.

The actions below are the number of presses followed by a hold (H) or a release (C). So, “1C” is one click and release. “2H” is two clicks but you hold down the last one.

State	Action	Result
Off	1C	On (mode memory)
Off	1H (short)	“Ultra-Low” (not memorized)
Off	1H (long)	Lockout
Any	2C	Turbo (not memorized)
Any	3C	Strobe (not memorized)
Turbo	2C	Return to memorized mode
Lockout	1H (long)	“Ultra-Low” (not memorized)
On	1H	Cycle brightness (Low-Med1-Med2-High)
On	1C	Off

State	Action	Result
Off	Half-Press	Momentary Turbo
Off	Full-Press	Constant Turbo
Turbo	Full-Press	Off

What they got right:

• There’s a dedicated Turbo switch, with momentary! I love this feature on every light that has it. It’s so great to instantly access Turbo with a dedicated button and do so momentarily! You can press it all the way for constant-on.
• The switches are independent. Some dual-switch lights use the tailswitch for on/off and the side switch for mode changes. Acebeam made them totally independent on this light, and I prefer this setup. No need to use both hands just to have full control of the light.
• Clicking the side switch turns the light on/off and holding the button changes modes. That’s how almost all e-switch flashlights should work. It’s intuitive and quick.
• The common shortcuts work. Moonlight, Turbo, and Strobe all have shortcuts that work the same way as most other lights. They work very well and there’s no learning curve when switching lights.
• Turbo, Moonlight, and Strobe are not memorized. Each has a dedicated shortcut, so you can access them quickly without overriding your memorized mode.
• 1H from “Ultralow” goes to Low. That means you can get to Low mode without having to go through brighter modes if you don’t have it memorized.

What they got wrong:

• The tailswitch only works if you use the included battery because the signal tube is built into that battery, not the light’s body. Boo!
• Mode number & spacing. There are too many levels (6), and they’re all pretty close together. Plus, the “Ultra-Low” mode is not ultra-low. I would prefer if the mode count were dropped to 4 (Low-Med-High-Turbo) to simplify and spread the modes out a bit. Normally I like to have a Moonlight (5th) mode too, but I don’t really care whether a light this big has Moonlight or not.
• Lockout is a long hold and has no indicator. Recently, other manufacturers have been moving to a 4-click lockout which I prefer. It’s faster and less likely to unlock by accident. When you turn it while locked out, there’s no indication that it’s locked out. I wish the indicator blinked red or something so you know it’s working. It’s worth noting there is no mechanical lockout here, so loosening the tailcap won’t do anything.

Emitter & Beam

Acebeam chose the best big thrower LED: Luminus SBT90.2. It’s bright (lots of lumens) and intense (lots of throw). You can’t beat it. The marketing material says “6500K” but I think it’s only available in 5700K and red. This one measured around 5000K. I tried to remove the bezel, but the one nut I could remove had red loctite on it. You could probably get it apart with some heat and effort, but I stopped at the red loctite.

The hotspot is pretty narrow, as you’d expect. There’s some corona around it that transitions into bright spill. It’s a thrower with a thrower beam.

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.

A green filter is optionally included for hunting use. It threads into the bezel. I didn’t take any beamshots with it installed, but I measured the output and got 670 lumens on Turbo. That’s a huge drop in brightness, and it makes me wonder if a smaller, lighter, single-cell Convoy light with a dedicated green LED would be brighter and throw further.

The bezel o-ring glows in the dark.

Mode Chart

Disclaimer: All of my measurements are taken at turn-on. Lumen measurements are estimated based on relative output compared to the advertised 5500lm Turbo. My typical lumen tube setup is not accurate enough to test a super intense light like this. 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 (est.)*	Candela	Throw (Meters)	CRI (Ra)	Color Temp. (K)	DUV (Tint)
Turbo	5500	420000	1296	64	5307	0.0072
High	2115	160000	800	62	5100	0.0101
Med 2	1058	81000	569	61	5030	0.0112
Med 1	451	34000	369	60	4960	0.0123
Low	126	9600	196	60	4940	0.0129
Moonlight	37	2800	106	59	4900	0.0133

*Note: Originally I had lumen figures from my lumen tube here, but those were not accurate. I’ve since changed the lumen figures to estimates based on the Turbo mode meeting the 5500lm advertised spec because I think that’s closer to reality.

Runtime

Performance is good. 1 minute of Turbo time before stepdown, ~1750lm sustained, and ~2.5hrs of runtime at that level are all in line or better than other lights in this class (2×21700 cylindrical lights). The Turbo time and sustained brightness are lower than some other lights outside this class though.

Thermal regulation: My Turbo and Turbo Cooled tests are virtually identical, so the only thermal regulation is timed stepdowns. That means the light will perform consistently, but it may overheat in hot weather or leave some performance on the table in cold weather.

LVP (Low Voltage Protection) is not present in the light itself. It relies on the battery’s built-in protection circuitry to shut the light off when the battery is effectively empty. If you use two standard cells, be sure they have protection circuits.

Driver & Regulation

The driver is a buck circuit and it’s great because this light has 7.4V battery pack driving a single 3V LED. That voltage difference means the buck circuit will always be engaged and provide excellent efficiency and regulation performance.

Regulation performance is excellent. The only mode affected by battery voltage is Turbo, and it stays at the same brightness level until the battery is effectively empty (when Turbo won’t work at all). This is exactly what I like to see because it shows the driver is good quality and the components are being pushed hard for the best performance.

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

Parasitic Drain: 53 microamps. That will take ~10 years to drain the included battery.

Switch

The tail switch is a forward clicky covered by a rubber boot, and it’s for Turbo mode only. A full press latches it on/off. A half-press will activate it momentarily and releasing it will turn it off. This switch only works if you use the included battery pack. Only the side switch works if you use two standard 21700 batteries.

The side switch has an oily black finish and is located on the side of the head. It’s quiet, reasonably tactile, and is easy to find in the dark. This switch can control every function of the light and is totally separate from the tailswitch.

The battery indicator is located under the side switch and it glows through the center for a few seconds after the light is turned on. Green means >30% charge, red means 10-30% charge, and blinking red means <10%. A little more granularity would be nice, perhaps a blinking green stage that means 30-60%. I’m just happy there’s a battery indicator.

Carry & Ergonomics

Ergonomics are excellent. Thanks to the independent switches, you can use this light entirely one-handed if you like. It’s well-balanced and comfortable to use in a forward or neck grip. A reverse grip works too, but a cigar grip is pretty front-heavy. The grip ring toward the tail seems to be held on with an O-ring. You could probably remove it with some elbow grease, but mine didn’t want to come off.

A carry pouch is included. It’s not the typical nylon & velcro “holster” you might expect. This is a water-bottle-size pouch with a drawstring on the top and a large carry loop on the back. You can technically loop a belt through it, but I definitely wouldn’t call it a “holster.

Batteries & Charging

The battery included is a proprietary pack made up of two 21700 cells in series and a charging circuit. It’s proprietary because there’s an outer contact ring on both ends that serves as a signal tube for the tailswitch. Acebeam has used signal tubes built into the bodies of their lights for years, so it’s very disappointing to see them moving to a proprietary battery pack.

They say two 21700 cells will also work, but you’ll lose tailswitch functionality and I wasn’t actually able to test this claim. The only 21700s I have on hand are unprotected flat tops, and they were too short to make contact even with two Convoy button spacers. I suspect that you’d need two long, protected, button top cells to make it work.

Charging is facilitated by a USB-C port on the side of the battery on the negative end. Charging takes about six hours, which is pretty slow, but can still be accomplished overnight. The battery has to be removed for charging, so you can’t use the light while it’s charging. I assume there’s balancing circuitry inside because there should be and because Acebeam’s done that several times before. Just to be sure, I asked them, but they haven’t responded yet. I’ll update this if they do. It cannot be used as a powerbank.

Competition

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

Nitecore MH40 Pro: the doppelganger

• released at exactly the same time
• similar two-cell battery pack with USB-C
• same size and layout
• 15% lower price
• less lumens and throw
• cool multi-die LED for brighter spill
• wireless remote switch included
• less aggressive styling and lighter weight
• traditional dependent switches (tail on/off, side changes modes)
• no battery indicator

Convoy M21J: budget alternative

• about 1/4 the price (without batteries)
• batteries optionally included
• same SBT90.2 LED
• similar lumens, significantly less throw
• TIR optic instead of reflector
• smaller head
• no charging solution included
• no battery indicator
• traditional dependent switches (tail on/off, side changes modes)
• accepts standard 21700 batteries

Sofirn SP60: budget single-switch alternative

• about 1/3 the price
• similar lumens, less throw
• accepts standard batteries without compromise
• USB-C charging built into the light
• side switch only
• battery indicator
• somewhat cumbersome auto-lockout function

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

P20 may be the best light in this size class. I can’t think of another I’d rather have, primarily because of the independent switches. It’s just so nice to have full control from the side switch and not have to use my other hand at the tailcap to turn it on/off. I love the dedicated Turbo tailswitch, independent side switch, and performance. I like the side switch UI, battery indicator, ergonomics, build quality, beam, and convenient recharging. The aggressive aesthetic isn’t my thing, but it’s fine. I don’t like how long it takes to charge, not being able to use the tailswitch on standard batteries, and the high price tag.

Thanks to Acebeam for sending me this light for review!