Luxor Mini flashlight bundles auto-focusing beam into a pocket-sized package

By Kelly Hodgkins Published March 29, 2017

luxor mini flashlight header color — Image used with permission by copyright holder

PLX Devices has held a string of successful crowdfunding campaigns that have brought versions of its innovative adaptive focus Luxor flashlight to market. Now the company is back again with its third torch, the Luxor Mini, and this one promises to be the company’s best offering yet.

The venture started in 2014 with the original Luxor, which had a digital focusing system that adjusted the width of the light beam without any fancy lenses or moving parts. The Luxor 2 in 2015 improved upon that concept by adding in an automatic adjustment feature that changes the width of the beam based on its surroundings. This adaptive adjustment provides you with a wide floodlight beam when pointing the flashlight at the ground, a narrow beam when pointing the flashlight at an object in the distance, and a lantern-like beam when you stand the flashlight up on a flat surface.

Recommended Videos

The Luxor Mini takes the best features of the Luxor 2 and bundles them into a petite package. It’s certainly a small flashlight, measuring only 5 inches in length and 1.5 inches in diameter at its widest point. Similar to the Luxor 2, the Mini has both a manual focus mode and the flagship auto focus feature that adaptively adjusts the light beam from 12 degrees to to 270 degrees. With 7 CREE premium XTE and MLC LEDs onboard, the light is capable of producing up to 650 lumens.

Quality craftsmanship is evident in the way the flashlight is manufactured. It is machined with aluminum to a waterproof rating of IPX-7 and dust rating of IPX-6, which means you can drop it in 1-meter of water for 30 minutes without any ill effect. The whole unit can be disassembled just by twisting. No tools are required to replace the parts or change out the batteries. Designed for convenience, the light can be powered by three standard AAA batteries or one rechargeable Lithium 18650 battery.

Luxor is selling the Luxor Mini on Kickstarter with a starting price of $59 per flashlight, which is $30 below the suggested retail price of $99.

Topics

Contributor

Kelly's been writing online for ten years, working at Gizmodo, TUAW, and BGR among others. Living near the White Mountains of…

Mobile

The best hurricane trackers for Android and iOS in 2024

Best hurricane tracking apps.

The hurricane season instills fear in those who find themselves in the paths of these storms, and in their loved ones who are concerned for their safety. A hurricane app is essential if you’ve stayed up all night worrying about a family member who's alone during a destructive storm.

Many hurricane trackers are available to help you prepare for these dangerous events, monitor their progress, and assist in recovery. We’ve compiled a list of the best apps for tracking storms, predicting their paths, and providing on-the-ground suggetsions for shelters and emergency services. Most of these apps are free to download and supported by ads. Premium versions are available to remove ads and add extra features.

Outdoors

Best lawn mower deals: Cordless, gas, electric and robotic

A robot lawn mower in a backyard while a family relaxes.

Mowing a lawn can be very therapeutic unless you have an older lawnmower, which makes life difficult and constantly causes you frustration. Luckily, you can snag a new lawnmower for a pretty good price, and even the more budget-oriented options have a lot of quality-of-life features that you wouldn't find on lawnmowers ten or even five years ago. To that end, we've gone about and collected some of our favorite lawnmower deals across the board, including some great robot lawn mowers that are worth checking out.
Litheli Cordless Lawn Mower U20 Handy+ -- $120, was $140

If you want a solid lawn mower, this offering from Litheli has a 13-inch cutting width, which is pretty good for the deal that you're getting. Even better, you get a 30L grass bag so you're not having to clean up after yourself, and you can mow for longer without having to stop. You also get 5 height adjustments so you can hone in the length of your grass to the perfect height, plus you get a 4.0Ah portable battery included.

Outdoors

Juiced Bikes offers 20% off on all e-bikes amid signs of bankruptcy

Juiced Bikes Scrambler ebike

A “20% off sitewide” banner on top of a company’s website should normally be cause for glee among customers. Except if you’re a fan of that company’s products and its executives remain silent amid mounting signs that said company might be on the brink of bankruptcy.That’s what’s happening with Juiced Bikes, the San Diego-based maker of e-bikes.According to numerous customer reports, Juiced Bikes has completely stopped responding to customer inquiries for some time, while its website is out of stock on all products. There are also numerous testimonies of layoffs at the company.Even more worrying signs are also piling up: The company’s assets, including its existing inventory of products, is appearing as listed for sale on an auction website used by companies that go out of business.In addition, a court case has been filed in New York against parent company Juiced Inc. and Juiced Bike founder Tora Harris, according to Trellis, a state trial court legal research platform.Founded in 2009 by Harris, a U.S. high-jump Olympian, Juiced Bikes was one of the early pioneers of the direct-to-consumer e-bike brands in the U.S. market.The company’s e-bikes developed a loyal fandom through the years. Last year, Digital Trends named the Juiced Bikes Scorpion X2 as the best moped-style e-bike for 2023, citing its versatility, rich feature set, and performance.The company has so far stayed silent amid all the reports. But should its bankruptcy be confirmed, it could legitimately be attributed to the post-pandemic whiplash experienced by the e-bike industry over the past few years. The Covid-19 pandemic had led to a huge spike in demand for e-bikes just as supply chains became heavily constrained. This led to a ramp-up of e-bike production to match the high demand. But when consumer demand dropped after the pandemic, e-bike makers were left with large stock surpluses.The good news is that the downturn phase might soon be over just as the industry is experiencing a wave of mergers and acquisitions, according to a report by Houlihan Lokey.This may mean that even if Juiced Bikes is indeed going under, the brand and its products might find a buyer and show up again on streets and trails.