Jetbeam E26 Kunai 3-in-1 flat EDC flashlight review – Pew pew in your pocket

REVIEW – I do love a square-shaped flat flashlight. They’re more pocket-friendly. Now, Jetbeam has released another multi-mode EDC light that combines a bright LED, a green laser, and UV!

What is it?

The Jetbeam E26 is powered by a Luminus SFT40 LED rated at 2000 lumens output (though the included paperwork lists 1700 lumens). It also includes a UV light for insect tracking or locating phosphorescent sources. Finally, a bright green laser pinpoints whatever you want to highlight, all in one handheld package powered by at 1700mAh Li-polymer batter with a Type-C charging port.

What’s included?

• Jetbeam E26 Kunai 3-in-1 flat EDC flashlight
• USB-A to USB-C charging cable
• Instructions

Tech specs

Design and features

Inside the nicely padded presentation box are three items: The Jetbeam E26 Kunai 3-in-1 flat EDC flashlight, a cable and instructions.

Flip the light over and you’ll find a sturdy metal pocket clip. 

The standout feature is the rotary knob. From left to right: Lock, Light, UV and Laser. A center button controls power and brightness.

On the rear is a “tactical switch”. You can press it partway and the light goes to full brightness. Or, you can press all the way to click-lock it in the on position.

Confused by all the controls? The manual spells it all out. Lots of features you wouldn’t know about.

Assembly, Installation, Setup

Feeding time! The Jetbeam E26 Kunai 3-in-1 flat EDC flashlight accepts a USB-C style plug. A cable comes with the light. An LED light glows red when charging, and green when done.

Performance

There are four main LED brighness settings, ranging from 15 lumens to 1800 lumens (the website states 2000.) As usual, the human eye has a hard time distiguishing between the High and Turbo modes, but I will tell you that as it gets brighter, the light gets plenty warm.

What about the other modes? In this series, the LED is on top, UV light in the middle, and green laser at the bottom.

I didn’t have a scorpion handy, but many printed currency have security features that luminesce under UV light. Here’s a US $20 bill. Notice the vertical stripe. 

I really like the addition of the green laser. Green stands out so much better than read when pointing things out, or presenting a Powerpoint demo.

I took the lights outside and set my camera to the same shutter speed and f-stop. This is what I got:

Once again, not a huge difference to the human eye between 1800 and 650 lumens. The bottom one is the tiny green spec of the laser beam. The fence is 45 feet away.

But what about battery life? I tested the light on High and Medium (the most likely settings I’d use and found the following:

HIGH: Advertised: 1.7h. Tested: 1.5h

MEDIUM: Advertised 3.5h, Tested 3.5h

Not bad! Pretty close to the listed values.

What I like about Jetbeam E26 Kunai Light

• Flat shape with pocket clip.
• Light turns off when you rotate the knob to the lock postion. 
• Choice of green laser is so cool
• LED light on the side indicates relative battery level during operation (green, orange, red)
• Four colors are available (Black, Green, Orange, White)

What needs to be improved?

• The rotary knob isn’t very smoooth. It feels like plastic against plastic.
• My eyes are bad, and the light icons are only 1mm in diameter. Something larger would be nice especially in the dark.
• Would be nice if the USB-C port had a cover for dust and water resistance.

Final thoughts

The Jetbeam E26 Kunai 3-in-1 flat EDC flashlight is so cool I might have to either hide it from my son, or just give in and buy a 2nd one for myself. 

Price: $84.88
Where to buy: Flashlightgo
Source: The sample of this product was provided for free by Flashlightgo. Flashlightgo did not have a final say on the review and did not preview the review before it was published.