Hi, this is my first review so please take it easy 
There is already a review of this laser and it's really good, I just wanted to write about my own thoughts on it.
I already had many lasers and I spent a lot of money on them. I was interested in the wavelength of 465nm, but when I looked at
comparisons between 445-450nm and 465nm, I could not justify a purchase because I thought the colors were very similar. I couldn't
imagine how different they were, but I'm glad I was wrong.
The difference in person is really remarkable and the color is simply amazing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the delivery...
...I ordered the laser on the 8th of April, I sent a message to gray via the webpage when I paid through paypal and the payment was
accepted in a few hours. From there it went quite slow, shipping after 1 week in mid 16th of April and then it went really fast, only 4 days
to arrive from China to Argentina. I couldn't believe how fast it was. I ordered many things from around the world and this package was
the fastest one to date. It arrived in perfect condition with the laser, the expander and a charger (which I didn't order but they seem
to gave it to me for free, thanks) well protected in anti-static wrap and bubblewrap. The box that says JetLasers is a nice touch.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The quality...
When I opened the package and got the laser and expander in my hands I was impressed with the outstanding build quality.
I'm really happy because I felt that the amount of money I paid for this product was well worth it. The detail that this laser has
is just amazing, the focus ring built-in the laser and expander works perfect and shows how professional this product looks. It just
screams quality everywhere you look. I don't have enough words to describe it. The led lights are a nice adition to make sure you
don't forget to turn it off when you are not going to use it and the switches of the buttons seem to be pretty good with quality clicky
sounds, the fact that you have two options to choose (momentary or continous power) is really something I didn't consider, but
now I would want every laser to come like that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I first powered the laser...
As I said I couldn't believe that this would be so good, I expected it to have a failure or something, was just so perfect. I powered
the laser and immidiately the difference between 445 and 465nm was obvious, a perfect blue beam with no signs of violet or purple.
I don't have my 1w guardian around since it stopped working suddenly and i'm waiting for a module replacement but i'm pretty sure
this one feels at least two times brighter, I don't have a power meter but I'm sure is 1400mw if not better since they have an excelent
reputation and most lasers come overspec. Battery life seems fine (if you have two more ready to swap), I'm using two Efest 700mah3.7v
batteries and for a total usage time of 5 minutes both batteries end up at around 50% (See batteries test below) I'll try
16340's later. I don't know too much about batteries but the efest are "high drain batteries 7a/10.5a, maybe that makes a difference.
It took me a little bit of time to get use to the focus system, there is a white line indicating where the focus is and that really helps.
I never calculated the divergence of a laser before, I'll see if I can do that later. But divergence seems to be pretty good, even better than
my 1W 520nm guardian g7. When everything was perfect and started playing more with the laser I realized something, the splash of this
laser is almost non existant, which really blew me away. The last time I saw the cleanest dot in a laser was a 532nm, and this laser only
has a halo around the dot that is basically invisible. I have many lasers and neither one of them has a clean dot like this one has.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sanwu 1w 520nm vs JetLasers 1.4w 465nm (Splash and dot comparison ONLY)
I decided to showcase this with Sanwu 1w 520nm because it's the one that shows a drastic difference. This lasers are
different wavelengths, diodes, etc. I'm not saying that one or the other is bad, I love both lasers, and the 520nm is the
brightest one I've ever had. I just want to show a difference, so this picture is really dark when both lasers are
actually really bright.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I realized...
I had in my hands the best laser I've ever wished for. I mean, I really love sanwu lasers and the form factor of the guardian but
honestly I feel this laser went beyond my expectations. There are only a few things that I think could be improved/changed: The
continous button has a squishy sound when pressed and it's quite stiff (this may be just because it's new, will see).
The lens of the laser is not perfectly glued-in, there are a tiny couple of missed spots but it's really nothing at all more than just me nitpicking
at it. When screwing the expander onto the laser due to the threads being painted (which probably shouldn't be) some microscopic paint
particles can fall into the lens (See last post about the expander), this does nothing but if someone unexperienced tried to clean the
laser with that, is going to really scratch it. Fortunately since the hole for the lens is really wide it's really easy to clean with a lenspen micropro
(first brush side then lens cleaning side). While at this I will really recommend to anyone that has a laser pointer to get a lenspen micropro, while
inexpensive it will last a long time and will make sure your lasers lens are fresh as new.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some notes about the expander...
I really like it. Build quality is amazing as the laser, it came without a single scratch and should be really easy to clean if
needed. I didn't like the fact that the power is greatly reduced when using it with this laser, since the aperture hole is small (smaller than
the guardian expander) about 25-35% power is reduced which really hurts this laser in particular. The 532nm laser shouldn't be as affected
since the beam in that one is really thin and can go through easily.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some pictures (maybe i'll add some later)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
******
Edit
******
Battery test
I've used two Efest 700mah 18350's 3.7v vs Fenix 700mah 16340's 3.7v for this test along with a Nitecore um20 usb charger. 100% in
the charger is around 4.2v and 0% should be around 2.8v to give an idea. Both batteries were charged to 100% and I powered the laser
for 1 minute, 5 times in total with 1 minute cooling off in between. I started testing 18350's, and when I was done I've let the laser cool
off for a couple of minutes then resumed with 16340's testing. The results are 83-84% on the 18350's and 76-77% on the 16340's. The
efest ones are high drain batteries 7a/10.5a and seemed to perform better with the laser overall. 20-25% usage for 5 minutes of play
time is pretty good, so i'm happy with that, I have 6 of this batteries anyways but it's nice to not have to swap them all the time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
******
Edit 2
******
465nm 1.4W (JetLasers PL-E Mini) vs 800Mw (Sanwu Guardian) vs 1W 520nm (Sanwu Guardian)
I played around with the raw file of this laser image to give the most accurate representation of the beam and 465nm color
as it could look like in person, I would say is around 85% close. Note that the colors may not be the most accurate in
the beam comparisons, though I tried my best to calibrate the images to replicate how it really looks. Fog was used
to enhance the beams.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some bad news about my expander:
I guess the paint particles that the expander was leaving when screwing it on the laser were not normal, about 1 day ago
I wasn't able to screw the expander onto the laser anymore because it does not stay in place. I've already sent a message
to Gray and he told me he is willing to send an adapter replacement so I am relieved. Though as I said before, this expander
cuts off around 30-40% of laser power, so the 532/473nm lasers are the only ones that will show no signs of power loss
when using the expander.
If I forget something i'll add it later.
Thanks for reading!
PD: Thanks BobMc for always willing to help!
There is already a review of this laser and it's really good, I just wanted to write about my own thoughts on it.
I already had many lasers and I spent a lot of money on them. I was interested in the wavelength of 465nm, but when I looked at
comparisons between 445-450nm and 465nm, I could not justify a purchase because I thought the colors were very similar. I couldn't
imagine how different they were, but I'm glad I was wrong.
The difference in person is really remarkable and the color is simply amazing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About the delivery...
...I ordered the laser on the 8th of April, I sent a message to gray via the webpage when I paid through paypal and the payment was
accepted in a few hours. From there it went quite slow, shipping after 1 week in mid 16th of April and then it went really fast, only 4 days
to arrive from China to Argentina. I couldn't believe how fast it was. I ordered many things from around the world and this package was
the fastest one to date. It arrived in perfect condition with the laser, the expander and a charger (which I didn't order but they seem
to gave it to me for free, thanks) well protected in anti-static wrap and bubblewrap. The box that says JetLasers is a nice touch.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The quality...
When I opened the package and got the laser and expander in my hands I was impressed with the outstanding build quality.
I'm really happy because I felt that the amount of money I paid for this product was well worth it. The detail that this laser has
is just amazing, the focus ring built-in the laser and expander works perfect and shows how professional this product looks. It just
screams quality everywhere you look. I don't have enough words to describe it. The led lights are a nice adition to make sure you
don't forget to turn it off when you are not going to use it and the switches of the buttons seem to be pretty good with quality clicky
sounds, the fact that you have two options to choose (momentary or continous power) is really something I didn't consider, but
now I would want every laser to come like that.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I first powered the laser...
As I said I couldn't believe that this would be so good, I expected it to have a failure or something, was just so perfect. I powered
the laser and immidiately the difference between 445 and 465nm was obvious, a perfect blue beam with no signs of violet or purple.
I don't have my 1w guardian around since it stopped working suddenly and i'm waiting for a module replacement but i'm pretty sure
this one feels at least two times brighter, I don't have a power meter but I'm sure is 1400mw if not better since they have an excelent
reputation and most lasers come overspec. Battery life seems fine (if you have two more ready to swap), I'm using two Efest 700mah3.7v
batteries and for a total usage time of 5 minutes both batteries end up at around 50% (See batteries test below) I'll try
16340's later. I don't know too much about batteries but the efest are "high drain batteries 7a/10.5a, maybe that makes a difference.
It took me a little bit of time to get use to the focus system, there is a white line indicating where the focus is and that really helps.
I never calculated the divergence of a laser before, I'll see if I can do that later. But divergence seems to be pretty good, even better than
my 1W 520nm guardian g7. When everything was perfect and started playing more with the laser I realized something, the splash of this
laser is almost non existant, which really blew me away. The last time I saw the cleanest dot in a laser was a 532nm, and this laser only
has a halo around the dot that is basically invisible. I have many lasers and neither one of them has a clean dot like this one has.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sanwu 1w 520nm vs JetLasers 1.4w 465nm (Splash and dot comparison ONLY)
I decided to showcase this with Sanwu 1w 520nm because it's the one that shows a drastic difference. This lasers are
different wavelengths, diodes, etc. I'm not saying that one or the other is bad, I love both lasers, and the 520nm is the
brightest one I've ever had. I just want to show a difference, so this picture is really dark when both lasers are
actually really bright.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I realized...
I had in my hands the best laser I've ever wished for. I mean, I really love sanwu lasers and the form factor of the guardian but
honestly I feel this laser went beyond my expectations. There are only a few things that I think could be improved/changed: The
continous button has a squishy sound when pressed and it's quite stiff (this may be just because it's new, will see).
The lens of the laser is not perfectly glued-in, there are a tiny couple of missed spots but it's really nothing at all more than just me nitpicking
at it. When screwing the expander onto the laser due to the threads being painted (which probably shouldn't be) some microscopic paint
particles can fall into the lens (See last post about the expander), this does nothing but if someone unexperienced tried to clean the
laser with that, is going to really scratch it. Fortunately since the hole for the lens is really wide it's really easy to clean with a lenspen micropro
(first brush side then lens cleaning side). While at this I will really recommend to anyone that has a laser pointer to get a lenspen micropro, while
inexpensive it will last a long time and will make sure your lasers lens are fresh as new.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some notes about the expander...
I really like it. Build quality is amazing as the laser, it came without a single scratch and should be really easy to clean if
needed. I didn't like the fact that the power is greatly reduced when using it with this laser, since the aperture hole is small (smaller than
the guardian expander) about 25-35% power is reduced which really hurts this laser in particular. The 532nm laser shouldn't be as affected
since the beam in that one is really thin and can go through easily.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some pictures (maybe i'll add some later)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
******
Edit
******
Battery test
I've used two Efest 700mah 18350's 3.7v vs Fenix 700mah 16340's 3.7v for this test along with a Nitecore um20 usb charger. 100% in
the charger is around 4.2v and 0% should be around 2.8v to give an idea. Both batteries were charged to 100% and I powered the laser
for 1 minute, 5 times in total with 1 minute cooling off in between. I started testing 18350's, and when I was done I've let the laser cool
off for a couple of minutes then resumed with 16340's testing. The results are 83-84% on the 18350's and 76-77% on the 16340's. The
efest ones are high drain batteries 7a/10.5a and seemed to perform better with the laser overall. 20-25% usage for 5 minutes of play
time is pretty good, so i'm happy with that, I have 6 of this batteries anyways but it's nice to not have to swap them all the time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
******
Edit 2
******
465nm 1.4W (JetLasers PL-E Mini) vs 800Mw (Sanwu Guardian) vs 1W 520nm (Sanwu Guardian)
I played around with the raw file of this laser image to give the most accurate representation of the beam and 465nm color
as it could look like in person, I would say is around 85% close. Note that the colors may not be the most accurate in
the beam comparisons, though I tried my best to calibrate the images to replicate how it really looks. Fog was used
to enhance the beams.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some bad news about my expander:
I guess the paint particles that the expander was leaving when screwing it on the laser were not normal, about 1 day ago
I wasn't able to screw the expander onto the laser anymore because it does not stay in place. I've already sent a message
to Gray and he told me he is willing to send an adapter replacement so I am relieved. Though as I said before, this expander
cuts off around 30-40% of laser power, so the 532/473nm lasers are the only ones that will show no signs of power loss
when using the expander.
If I forget something i'll add it later.
Thanks for reading!
PD: Thanks BobMc for always willing to help!
Last edited:
