I recently bought an EAGTAC MX3T-C LED torch. This is a review of it. For technical details see http://www.eagtac.com/product/mx3t-c.

First up, it gives an excellent light, which after all is its main purpose. The beam is very clear and clean on all settings – no dark rings or dim patches. On the brightest setting, the range is allegedly half a kilometre, and I can believe that. However, most of the time I don’t need the brightest setting; the two lowest ones are fine for my everyday use.

The controls are simple – one button turns the torch on at the lowest setting; consecutive presses cycle through the brghtness settings (five in all). The second button turns the torch off if it is on, or on (at the brightest setting) if it is off. The second button can also be used to flash the torch – any press longer than (I’m guessing) half a second acts as a momentary on, and releasing the button turns the torch back off. Double-press it and you get a strobe light! Not that useful for me, but you never know… Finally there is a tailcap button, which works exactly like the second button.

The build quality seems superb. The whole thing looks and feels really well-constructed, though it does take a bit of effort to get the tailcap off and on. But you want a tight fit if the thing is to remain waterproof.

The belt holster is very solid, suitable even for wide belts, and grips the torch firmly. You would have to be upside down for the torch to fall out, and even then probably not unless you thumped the holster.

Some niggles:

On full brightness the body of the torch gets very hot, to the point where it becomes difficult to hold. This is a disadvantage of the short barrel, but is only an issue if you are using the higher settings for longer periods. On the lower settings the heat is no problem.

The tailcap switch – which is probably only there so they can call the torch “tactical” 🙂 – is a bit pointless on a torch this chunky.

Good though it is, the holster probably should have a strap so that the torch cannot fall out, even if you are upside down. And a clip as well as the belt loop would make it easier to use the holster casually.

The torch would benefit from having somewhere to attach a lanyard – a suitable slit in the tailcap and maybe a metal loop attached where the tripod fitting goes. When holding it in your hand there is no room for anything else.

The torch has no flat spots on the casing, so it rolls easily when put down on any surface.

It doesn’t come with a charger; you can use any 2A USB charger though, and these days most people have plenty of those.

These are all minor issues; overall this is a good torch at a good price. I plan on getting a small tripod so that I can use it as a floodlight if I need to.

See also this article 🙂