Sanwu pocket 445nm laser 500mw with G7 lens review

Here is my review of the Sanwu Pocket 445nm 500mw rated laser :san:
This is my first real review so go easy on me

Ordering

I did not order this laser directly from the website. I pm'd Podo because i wanted express shipping. It was 35 bucks which is a lot i know but i hate the standard registered mail so much. iv waited well over a month for things in the past. anyway i payed on 12/07/15 and it shipped on 12/14/15 usps priority mail express and i received it today only 2 days after it shipped from hong kong no less. im very very happy with how fast i got the laser. The laser arrived packaged very well. the laser was in a anti static sealed bag and that was wrapped in a lot of bubble wrap and it was in a small cardboard box and that was in a plastic bag mailer. 10/10

Quality and close ups

The quality of this laser is second to none. the machining is flawless and the finish feels very nice in the hand. the threads are butter smooth. The best part is the focus adapter. there is an oring there so you can turn it very easy yet it will never change focus on its own. The G7 lens is huge compared to g2 and 3 elem lens. really gives it a cool look. the switch is very nice and gives a very solid click. the button is recessed so it most likely will not turn on in your pocket. over all this is a very well built laser. 10/10

20151216_214811 by Alex Littig, on Flickr
20151216_214825 by Alex Littig, on Flickr
20151216_214834 by Alex Littig, on Flickr
20151216_214911 by Alex Littig, on Flickr
20151216_214921 by Alex Littig, on Flickr
20151216_215004 by Alex Littig, on Flickr
20151216_215027 by Alex Littig, on Flickr

Performance(LPM graphs, divergence, battery life, beamshots

This laser is rated at 500mw. The only battery i have is efest imr 350mah cells. On a fresh cell i get a peak of 450mw of very stable 445nm light. The battery life is kinda funny. maybe 5 minutes then i noticed it was delaying to get to power when i clicked it on. it would be very dim for 2 seconds the ramp up to semi bright in about a second. on a fresh cell it ramped to full power in about a second. there is some sort of soft start to this laser which i like. The beam quality is very nice and this G7 lens is fantastic. The divergence is right in the middle between the 3 element and g2 lens. The g7 lens can really get a super pin point spot for burning. i almost thought i was holding the 1w 405 i used to have. The laser gets quite warm fast so i stick to about 1 min on and 1 min off and that works well. my lpm graph is 1 min 40 seconds and i cooled the laser to about 55 degrees so i can run it a bit longer. it was still cool after the test so it was fine. 8/10

LPM Graph
sanwu 445nm 500mw pocket laser by Alex Littig, on Flickr

Left is the pocket laser, middle is the ebay 303 60mw 532nm and right is the olike 250 mw 650 laser.

20151216_215607 by Alex Littig, on Flickr
20151216_215616 by Alex Littig, on Flickr

Next the 445 pocket vs my ple pro 100mw 473nm. The camera is not picking up the colors well at all. the 445 makes the 473nm look turquoise in color in real life. I think because the power is so much greater on the 445nm and the beam is so much wider the camera is picking it u the 445nm very well but cant capture the ultra thin beam of the 473nm the 445nm really does look true blue to my eyes while 473nm to me looks like a very light blue that turns turquoise when i put the 445 next to it. Im going to work on getting colors to come out right. I need some fog.

20151216_220835 by Alex Littig, on Flickr
20151216_220915 by Alex Littig, on Flickr


Well there you have it. Over all i love this laser and im going to add the other wavelengths very soon. I give this laser a 9/10 over all. Im going to see if other batteries might perform better and ill report back.
its just bad ass to have 500mw in a 10440 host

Clean and compact, I like it, good review. :beer:

Nice photo display! I love the Sanwu lasers. I lit cigarettes for everyone at a party with my pocket laser. Safely of course.

looks like the efest are really the only option for this laser. get a bunch of these batteries because they wont last for more then a few minutes. thats the price you pay for a very compact 500mw laser and you know what i dont care. i love this little beast

I'm real happy to read this review because I just ordered the same pocket 445 as well as a Challenger 250mW 520nm. I have been eyeing Podo's lasers for sometime now and after working 11 days straight I was super burnt out and decided to hell with it I deserved a boost. I plan on ordering a few more.
I ordered my Pocket host with the engraving but now seeing yours will get the next one in the satin smooth finish. I have wanted a small laser that packs a punch. I bet when you show people jaws will hit the ground when the beam lights up the sky from such a tiny host.

The fog came rolling in last night so i got some shots in the fog

200mw 650nm
60mw 532nm 303 ebay laser
500mw pocket 445nm

20151217_191053 by Alex Littig, on Flickr
20151217_191038 by Alex Littig, on Flickr
20151217_191100 by Alex Littig, on Flickr

200mw 650nm laser
60mw 532nm 303 ebay laser
jetlasers ple pro doing 55mw in the photo as it was still cold. can do over 120mw warm. Note the 473nm in reality is almost Turquoise looking so the photos are not very accurate for the 473nm.

20151217_191739 by Alex Littig, on Flickr
20151217_191759 by Alex Littig, on Flickr

20151217_191838 by Alex Littig, on Flickr

Great review Alex. +Rep.
Fun having a little host with big power. Waiting on a Guardian 800mW 635 I ordered earlier this week.

Great review! :angel: + Rep

Nice and +4 if I can. For some reason my cameras seem to pick up colors better than most that I've seen here even though they are about 10 years old. One is an Olympus SP-500uZ I think and the other is a Canon S3-is. I haven't tried with my Galaxy Note 4 yet.
Nope, can't REP you yet. I've noticed that all the reviews I've read about the Sanwu stuff are impressive. They may not be cheap but it sounds like they are worth the price of admission as their build quality is always commented on. Would like to see how well the internals are put together.
I have yet to find any 10440 cells better than those Efest ones. I have a lot of them but way more of the Ultrafire ones as before I discovered the Efest ones I couldnt find anything else. I've tested them and they meet capacity and are far far better than the fires. I don't know if Efest can actually meet their high discharge amp ratings but I will say that I have a bunch in other sizes and the only ones that tested a bit under rated capacity were the 18500/490 size which were about 500 mAh under the labels rating.
I pretty much just buy higher discharge rated cells now as diode outputs keep climbing. Would rather give away some run time as I don't need it anyways for lasers sitting in cases. Will say that you should not assume just because a cell has a higher rated safe amp draw than another that it means that at a low discharge rate it will be better also. Batteries are funny things and there's many different "ingredients" that go in them and changing any % of those can greatly affect how the cells should be used.

Pman said:

Nice and +4 if I can. For some reason my cameras seem to pick up colors better than most that I've seen here even though they are about 10 years old. One is an Olympus SP-500uZ I think and the other is a Canon S3-is. I haven't tried with my Galaxy Note 4 yet.
Nope, can't REP you yet. I've noticed that all the reviews I've read about the Sanwu stuff are impressive. They may not be cheap but it sounds like they are worth the price of admission as their build quality is always commented on. Would like to see how well the internals are put together.
I have yet to find any 10440 cells better than those Efest ones. I have a lot of them but way more of the Ultrafire ones as before I discovered the Efest ones I couldnt find anything else. I've tested them and they meet capacity and are far far better than the fires. I don't know if Efest can actually meet their high discharge amp ratings but I will say that I have a bunch in other sizes and the only ones that tested a bit under rated capacity were the 18500/490 size which were about 500 mAh under the labels rating.
I pretty much just buy higher discharge rated cells now as diode outputs keep climbing. Would rather give away some run time as I don't need it anyways for lasers sitting in cases. Will say that you should not assume just because a cell has a higher rated safe amp draw than another that it means that at a low discharge rate it will be better also. Batteries are funny things and there's many different "ingredients" that go in them and changing any % of those can greatly affect how the cells should be used.

Click to expand...

Ok so my part about the batteries lasting only 5 min was way wrong. I was using brand new efest 10440s and on the first charge only lasted a few min but now that they have been charged a bunch of times they are lasting much longer. I did a test were i put a fully charged cell in the laser and did 15 or so 90 sec on 90sec off duty cycles which is like 25 minutes. The battery was still only at 3.8 v lol. Not bad. So i think because they were new they needs a few charges

Damn nice laser + review! I have recently ordered a 3w 445nm Silver Series from Podo, and already from the pocket series it looks very high quality. Amazing beam shots and comparison, love it.

I have to ask, did you order any accessories with it?

Man I'm still waiting for customs to release my lasers from Sanwu's. They have had them for over a week now. I'm dying to get these bad boys. I'm considering selling my 800mW PLE pro 532 to get a couple more from Podo. The Silver series has caught my eye. Waiting makes us live these toys even more when they finally come.

Mine cleared customs in a just a few hours. That sucks

i'm waiting for my challenger from Sanwu as well. this is my first time buying a prebuilt laser.........

I wait customs since 24 hours to release my Pocket 638nm.

Got it !!!