Okay, now I have been at the post office to get this great laser. So here's the reivew... 
I didn't actually buy it directly from Nova, I bought it second-hand from a member here called Kostuhoss. He was very fast and responsive to talk to, and I got the laser from him for about 320$. Not that much cheaper than an Alpha 125 directly from Nova, but I got away from the huge shipping and customs fees that woud have been if I would have purchased it from Nova. My X-85 for example, which I bought from Nova, costed me about 190$, but with all shipping and import taxes, I ended up paying about 350$ for it! So I thought this was a great opportunity to get away with a cheaper price.
Another thing that made it one hell-of-a deal was that 2 Novalasers safety glasses was included with it! More about those later...
The main reason I bought this was because I wanted something that could replace my X-85, which unfortunatley has died. So I decided to get a little bigger, cooler laser than a pen laser now, but still not something too costly. And I don't regret it at all! It's a great laser, almost my favorite one actually.
SHIPPING AND FIRST IMPRESSION:
This laser was shipped from London to my town in Sweden in 3 shipping days, which in my opinion is really good. It was very well emballaged in a box, in fact it was so covered in strong tape that I had trouble opening it. But I finally got it opened, and below all the foam I saw something. 2 goggles in their cases, and below those: A very good looking aluminum case which contains an even more impressive laser.
My first thoughts about the laser was that it was larger than expected. And the feel when I first got it in my hands: Awesome! Really heavy and sturdy, the first impressions was that this thing wasn't a cheap toy laser, it's the real deal. When holding it, it almost feel like holding a lightsaber hilt. So my first impression of it was really positive.
LASER - PERFORMANCE AND POWER:
This laser works on 2 AA batteries, giving it longer battery lifetime than AAA:s. It has loads of safety features: A keyswitch, safety dongle, aperture shutter, indicator LED and 2-second emission delay. Now that's a lot of safety stuff. But In my opinion, it's really positive to have those. I love the feel when turning on the laser, you have to do a little procedure rather than just clicking a button. The only thing I dislike is the safety dongle, which has to be inserted all the time during operation. I don't like the look of a little stick on the laser. But it's not that bad.
This laser has, according to Nova, an average output of 135mW, and peaks at 150mW. Kind of what you would expect from Nova, but I'm still very pleased with it. I have no LPM to verify those valuse, but I have no doubts about it at all! The beam is definitley brighter than I remember my X-85 to be, and burns faster as well! I can easily pop balloons with it from about 15ft away, much because of the good divergence. When looking through the safety glasses and measuring the beam diameter at 10 meters, it's actually as small as 1,1cm. This should give me an impressive divergence as good as about 1 millirad! A number I am very pleased with.
But everything has a negative side as well. The laser does not work that when it's cold, it has to be warmed up a little. It flickers a bit when it's really cold. It came with 2 alkalines and I went to a store and bought some extras. But it can only burn well in about 30 minutes or so, then it drops to about the maximum power that my X-85 reached. Although it may not be the laser, I will try some rechargeables to see if they hold their voltage better than alkalines.
SAFETY GLASSES:
I love them. They look very stylish, much better than the wickedlasers lasershades. They look more like sunglasses. I also love the way a 532nm dot appears through them. Its brightness is greatly reduced, and the spot looks more like this than green. It's still so bright that it can be seen across the room with lights on, so you're not tempted to take them off while burning, to see where the dot is. These are simply awesome, no cons at all.
SUMMARY:
All in all I am very pleased with the laser and the goggles, they were both better than expected. I would like to give the goggles a full 5, because I don't have anything at all to complaint about there. The laser will get 4.5 out of 5, because I love almost everything about it, but it is not very stable in cold weather, and I dislike the dongle a little bit.
Still, I highly recommend the Novalasers Alpha series and their goggles. They are not yet as tried and true as the X-series and could use a little price drop, but looks and feels amazing. I would also like to give a thank to Kostuhoss who sold it to me, for giving me this opportunity to get a great laser like this.
It's a sunny day toay, so I will not add beamshots until the evening. But they will come, trust me.
Here's a pic of the laser in the beautiful case:
I didn't actually buy it directly from Nova, I bought it second-hand from a member here called Kostuhoss. He was very fast and responsive to talk to, and I got the laser from him for about 320$. Not that much cheaper than an Alpha 125 directly from Nova, but I got away from the huge shipping and customs fees that woud have been if I would have purchased it from Nova. My X-85 for example, which I bought from Nova, costed me about 190$, but with all shipping and import taxes, I ended up paying about 350$ for it!
So I thought this was a great opportunity to get away with a cheaper price.Another thing that made it one hell-of-a deal was that 2 Novalasers safety glasses was included with it! More about those later...
The main reason I bought this was because I wanted something that could replace my X-85, which unfortunatley has died. So I decided to get a little bigger, cooler laser than a pen laser now, but still not something too costly. And I don't regret it at all! It's a great laser, almost my favorite one actually.
SHIPPING AND FIRST IMPRESSION:
This laser was shipped from London to my town in Sweden in 3 shipping days, which in my opinion is really good. It was very well emballaged in a box, in fact it was so covered in strong tape that I had trouble opening it. But I finally got it opened, and below all the foam I saw something. 2 goggles in their cases, and below those: A very good looking aluminum case which contains an even more impressive laser.
My first thoughts about the laser was that it was larger than expected. And the feel when I first got it in my hands: Awesome! Really heavy and sturdy, the first impressions was that this thing wasn't a cheap toy laser, it's the real deal. When holding it, it almost feel like holding a lightsaber hilt. So my first impression of it was really positive.
LASER - PERFORMANCE AND POWER:
This laser works on 2 AA batteries, giving it longer battery lifetime than AAA:s. It has loads of safety features: A keyswitch, safety dongle, aperture shutter, indicator LED and 2-second emission delay. Now that's a lot of safety stuff.
But In my opinion, it's really positive to have those. I love the feel when turning on the laser, you have to do a little procedure rather than just clicking a button. The only thing I dislike is the safety dongle, which has to be inserted all the time during operation. I don't like the look of a little stick on the laser. But it's not that bad.This laser has, according to Nova, an average output of 135mW, and peaks at 150mW. Kind of what you would expect from Nova, but I'm still very pleased with it. I have no LPM to verify those valuse, but I have no doubts about it at all! The beam is definitley brighter than I remember my X-85 to be, and burns faster as well! I can easily pop balloons with it from about 15ft away, much because of the good divergence. When looking through the safety glasses and measuring the beam diameter at 10 meters, it's actually as small as 1,1cm. This should give me an impressive divergence as good as about 1 millirad! A number I am very pleased with.
But everything has a negative side as well. The laser does not work that when it's cold, it has to be warmed up a little. It flickers a bit when it's really cold. It came with 2 alkalines and I went to a store and bought some extras. But it can only burn well in about 30 minutes or so, then it drops to about the maximum power that my X-85 reached. Although it may not be the laser, I will try some rechargeables to see if they hold their voltage better than alkalines.
SAFETY GLASSES:
I love them. They look very stylish, much better than the wickedlasers lasershades. They look more like sunglasses. I also love the way a 532nm dot appears through them. Its brightness is greatly reduced, and the spot looks more like this than green. It's still so bright that it can be seen across the room with lights on, so you're not tempted to take them off while burning, to see where the dot is. These are simply awesome, no cons at all.
SUMMARY:
All in all I am very pleased with the laser and the goggles, they were both better than expected. I would like to give the goggles a full 5, because I don't have anything at all to complaint about there. The laser will get 4.5 out of 5, because I love almost everything about it, but it is not very stable in cold weather, and I dislike the dongle a little bit.
Still, I highly recommend the Novalasers Alpha series and their goggles. They are not yet as tried and true as the X-series and could use a little price drop, but looks and feels amazing. I would also like to give a thank to Kostuhoss who sold it to me, for giving me this opportunity to get a great laser like this.
It's a sunny day toay, so I will not add beamshots until the evening. But they will come, trust me.
Here's a pic of the laser in the beautiful case:
