AceBeam X50 2.0: 45000 Lumens USB-C Monster Flashlight (and Emergency Power Bank!)

With fast USB-C charging and the ability to act as a power bank, this is exactly the kind of powerful searchlight you want when SHTF.

A handheld floodlight so powerful you don't need the sun anymore? Check. Fast USB-C PD3.0 charging? Check. The ability to act as a power bank to reverse charge your other devices? Check.

It can only be the AceBeam X50 2.0, the new king of absurdly bright soda-can searchlights.

The AceBeam x50 2.0 retails at the time of review for $370, so this is a serious bit of kit, but definitely worth considering if you don't already have a wide-beamed searchlight in your collection.

AceBeam X50 2.0 Specifications and Design

The X50 2.0 is the second iteration of the hugely popular original X50. It's the second brightest flashlight AceBeam sells, and one of the brightest flashlights in the world. As well as gaining the USB-C reverse charge capability, it's 5000 lumens brighter than the original, at around 45000 lumens maximum.

Featuring an IP68-rated rugged “Aerospace-grade A6061-T6” aluminum-alloy body and hard-anodized surface treatment shell, the X50 2.0 can take a beating and is waterproof to 2 meters—but it's not a dive light. Feel free to accidentally drop it in a pool or use it during inclement weather, but don't deliberately take it down with you to illuminate murky waters.

Inside the X50 2.0 Box

In the box you'll find plenty of extras in addition to the main X50 2.0 flashlight body:

• Durable, woven nylon carry case / holster with a variety of connection options (belt buckle, carabiner, velcro strap)
• Safety strap
• Handle
• USB-C cable
• 60W charger
• Spare O-ring seals

The holster is a bottomless design, so about half an inch of the X50 2.0 emerges. This enables you to unscrew the end-cap and plug in a USB-C charging cable (either input or output—it's the same socket), while keeping the X50 safe in the case.

Without the handle, the X50 2.0 is about the size of a coke can, at 5.5 inches long, 3 inches diameter at the widest part of the head, and 2 inches diameter around the tube. It weighs a hefty 750g (26oz), but never feels uncomfortably heavy while in use.

The handle is optional, but you'll almost certainly need to fit it if using as intended—it can get extremely hot. It attaches via a standard UNC1/4" tripod thread, so in theory you could mount the X50 2.0 to a tripod or other fixing. However, the weight of this means it's unsuitable to mount on a rifle or FAST tactical helmet, nor does AceBeam sell a Picatinny rail adaptor.

Compared to the X80 GT2, it's a fair bit larger, and the handle is smooth, rather than serrated. I found this a lot more comfortable when holding it upside down to light the ground.

Battery and Charging

The X50 2.0 uses a custom 4250mAh, built on three non-user-replaceable 21700 cells. It can be fully charged from a suitable 60W USB-C PD 3.0 outlet or the included 60W charger, in as little as one hour.

Compared to most flashlights which take four to five hours or more to fully charge, that’s a huge benefit if you need to use it again quickly.

Replacement battery tubes are available for $130, and it's even compatible with the previous generation (though the design is slightly different on those and you don't get reverse charging). Not quite top marks for repairability then as you'll need to replace the entire tube rather than a few generic battery cells, but it's still much better than most products with a built-in battery.

What’s also really interesting about the USB-C port is that it works both ways, so in an emergency, you can charge your phone (or any USB-C device) from the X50 2.0. While that's not a huge selling point given the proliferation of cheap power banks, it does mean one less thing to carry.

X50 2.0 Emitters

It's worth mentioning briefly that there are three versions of the X50 2.0, and we're reviewing the 6500K cool white model, which offers the brightest output. A slightly dimmer 5000K warm white model is also available, and a high CRI model for photography (though the features on that also vary slightly from the two base models).

The X50 2.0 uses no less than eight CREE XP70.2 LEDs, surrounded by a very shallow reflector with a slight orange-peel texture, resulting in a wide 120-degree beam. This is a floodlight or searchlight that will produce a wall of light in front of you. For that reason, despite an extremely high total lumens output, any individual spot will not be incredibly bright. You can find "thrower" style narrow beam lights that will have a higher light intensity at a particular spot, but will destroy your peripheral vision.

Performance

The headline figure is the Turbo mode of 45000 lumens at a distance of 871m—which is immense—however, that’s only available for a maximum of thirty seconds, after which it’ll drop down to 5600 lumens for up to 66 minutes.

In addition to that headline-bragging Turbo 45000 lumen mode, there are also six standard modes, ranging from Ultra-Low 400 lumens mode:

....to 15000 lumens High mode.

The highest of those is only available for a limited time of two minutes; and again, it drops down to 5600 lumens after that for up to 66 minutes.

The overheat protection will also automatically dim the device if the temperature is higher than 65-degree Celsius, though once it goes below that threshold, the higher modes are enabled again.

Finally, you have a strobe mode, which will run at 7500 lumens continuously for up to one hour, which doesn’t dim.

Operation and User Interfaction

All of the modes on the x50 2.0 are accessed via a single e-switch, which also features a neat locking mechanism to avoid accidental activation.

The menu system is similar to other AceBeam models:

• Long-press from off for ultra-low (400 lm) mode
• Long-press when on to cycle through the standard modes (up to 15000 lm)
• Single press to turn on or off, with mode memory for all standard modes
• Double-press from any mode to activate Turbo (45000 lm)
• Triple-press to activate strobe

While this sounds complex, it's easy to get used to. Some people aren't fans of strobe mode, but it's not included on the standard menu system, so you can safely ignore it by just not triple-pressing the button.

However, I found one very annoying quirk of the X50 2.0 which is related to the boost mode drivers. In some cases, switching to Turbo mode would briefly flash on, then immediately turn off. Other times, it would dim down as expected.

AceBeam told me this was because the voltage isn't high enough to activate the boost drivers (it's 12.6V when full, and Turbo mode needs 11V) , so this protects it from over-discharge and ensures other modes can still be used. But the battery indicator is still green when this happens (which means anywhere between 30-100%). Perhaps another battery indicator state would have been useful. Either way, if I've double-pressed the button it's because I want light—a lot of light—so this behavior is possibly the biggest flaw. To be clear, the brightest standard mode still works when this happens; just not Turbo.

Is the AceBeam X50 2.0 The Soda-Can Floodlight for You?

While the headline Turbo brightness mode of 45000 is incredibly impressive, it's short-lived and can only be used in bursts; but this is true of most high-powered flashlights.

From a design and hardware perspective, it's very well made, durable, and has a replaceable battery pack—though it's not clear how long it’ll be before the battery is degraded. If you like the design and form of the X50, but would rather use standardized and easily replaceable batteries, the AceBeam X80 GT2 is your best option. It has a similarly impressive 34000 lumens Turbo mode, but uses four 18650 batteries. However, you need to remove those from the flashlight in order to charge them in an external charger, and that can take up to five hours.

While the battery of the X50 2.0 is replaceable, it's built into the tube, including the charging circuitry and casing. But it takes merely an hour to fully charge, and can even be an emergency power bank for your own devices. That could mean the difference between life and death in an SHTF scenario. Even if things are not that dire, it means one less emergency battery to carry when out and about. So that seems like a fair compromise.

I admit, I was skeptical about a semi-built-in custom battery pack going into this review, but count me as a convert.

Despite the flawed Turbo mode, I'd highly recommend the AceBeam X50 2.0 if you need a powerful searchlight for your everyday carry, and particularly if you want fast, easy charging without external charging units.