Wicked Lasers - 5mW Core

[abramawitz]

ill be honest this is my first post so i dont really know much about this forum other than the half hour ive been derping around the site.

so i purchased the core laser 5 days ago, thier customer access thing blows monkey nuts, wouldnt work at all

i emailed their support and got an email within a half hour! however he said hed tell the "tech group" then a 2 days later it still wouldnt work

i emailed them again hoping id get someone else, which i did, he knew quite a bit more about my order and promised it would be shipped in 2 days or less.

this is where i am now. im just a highschooler that wanted to be able to one up his bros with a green laser. im going to post an honest, well made review, with a video (maybe). i did NOT get this laser for free, it was almost 40 bucks with shipping.

if the core laser doesnt suck nuts by my very amateur standards, this forum will be the first place to know about it

 

[abramawitz]

Well, it came today. So far all I have to say is that it exceeds all expectations, the beam is NOT visible in plain daylight but slightly visible at night, the dot is very bright and overall I'd say that I would recommend this to someone else, even the case that it came in is very nice, it took 2 weeks to get here but whatever it's here. Im very satisfied so far.

 

[foulmist]

Well, it came today. So far all I have to say is that it exceeds all expectations, the beam is NOT visible in plain daylight but slightly visible at night, the dot is very bright and overall I'd say that I would recommend this to someone else, even the case that it came in is very nice, it took 2 weeks to get here but whatever it's here. Im very satisfied so far.

I have the Core too - IMO very good build :beer::beer:

 

[midias]

I liked my core a lot until I dropped it and everything came unglued

 

[Event_Horizon]

I had nothing short of a terrible experience with the Core.

I bought four of them as a part of a Christmas bundle a few years ago. Within 2 weeks, three of them just stopped working for no reason. I sent all three of them back to WL and they dutifully replaced them. All three replacements as well as the fourth laser stopped working for no reason only a few days after the warranty expired.

I had previously purchased a Fusion (125mW). A while later when I got my first power meter, I found out it only does 70mW. I will never buy another WL product.

 

[Abean95]

I have heard bad reviews for Wicked Lasers (33 reasons why not to buy...), but they has realy good looking lasers

If you already know that WL is horrible, then why even consider...? I personally would rather have an up to spec and long lasting laser than a cool looking one with horrible performance. Not to mention WL's customer service lol :crackup:

 

[kilter]

WL is overpriced and gives you underspec lasers.

Ebay gives you super cheap lasers that are overspec.

THe choise is yours :san:

 

[midias]

WL is overpriced and gives you underspec lasers.

Ebay gives you super cheap lasers that are overspec.

THe choise is yours :san:

The core is a good laser and it is right on spec. It is no to overprices as it uses optical feedback to make sure it is steady power and it is IR filtered.

If you want a true 5mw IR free stable laser the core is a good choice.

 

[zeramant86]

With anything, you'll find good and bad reviews. I've got a green core, but I've only had it for a couple of months. It gets daily use and is carried on my belt everyday working maintenance. Can't say anything about customer service, as of yet I haven't needed it. I question them breaking "easily". Everything will break if handled in a way that is outside of the way it was designed to perform. I consider my use to be a little more risky than most, since everything is covered in oil here, and I'm working in/around/under machines regularly.

Not sure about power levels, but I can star point easily at night. No visible beam until then tho, but @5mw not sure what else I should expect.

 

[NervousEnergy]

Interesting... I'm looking to replace my Core, possibly with another one, as the one I have is having major button issues after 3 years of heavy use. I don't consider that a bad run... I have dogs and cats, and they've loved chasing the dot daily for all this time. The button still works but it's gotten so tempermental it's a major chore to use.

Any comparable quality 5 mw pointers? I don't mind paying a decent price for good build quality, and that means a steady beam that *never* exceeds 5 mw, as I really don't want to risk hurting the eyes of my pets. I've got a 70mw green for star pointing and perhaps looking to get a few other colors to play with, but the pet toy needs to be rock solid at 4-5mw.

 

[midias]

Interesting... I'm looking to replace my Core, possibly with another one, as the one I have is having major button issues after 3 years of heavy use. I don't consider that a bad run... I have dogs and cats, and they've loved chasing the dot daily for all this time. The button still works but it's gotten so tempermental it's a major chore to use.

Any comparable quality 5 mw pointers? I don't mind paying a decent price for good build quality, and that means a steady beam that *never* exceeds 5 mw, as I really don't want to risk hurting the eyes of my pets. I've got a 70mw green for star pointing and perhaps looking to get a few other colors to play with, but the pet toy needs to be rock solid at 4-5mw.

To be honest the only true mw green I know of is the core. With optical feedback it is also one of the most stable.

 

[MichiganMan]

I have 3 wicked lasers and they are of great quality, The only problem I had with my S3 Arctic was the paint chipped off of the power button(so the button is white/clear, I don't know its actual power but I am happy with it. And the 5mW core I have is nice , it may not be the brightest, but the build quality is very nice. Last but not least I both of them in under a week.

 

[MojoLA]

Michigan Man I had the same issue with my Arctic, the design on the power button wore off pretty quickly. Not so bad if it's the worst problem you have, but it's still a very odd issue of build quality. I've never seen anything like it before, so you must have to look pretty hard to find paint so thin it rubs off in a week!

Now a MAJOR problem that just creeped up is the threads of the battery cover wore out, so I can no longer screw the cap back on. This means I can't use it! I sent them an email about it a while ago and never heard back. I'm sure when I stick to it and stay on the case I'll get through and they will replace it; WL is really weird - they DO have good customer support, but sometimes it takes a few tries to get them to notice you.

Most people shouldn't worry too much about having the same problem, since I was replacing batteries 3 or 4 times a day for a few weeks straight before it happened and I'm sure the average owner won't be using it nearly as much as I did (I use it to run a laser lumia setup I have at home, I like to run the lumia pattern on my wall as "background atmosphere" all night) but the fact is the threads should NOT have stripped at all. Certainly not that quickly.

I wish there was an adaptor to run this thing off a wall socket! Some similar lasers have that option, making it a sort of hybrid portable/lab laser, but those were not yet available when I ordered my Arctic.

 

[ARG]

I got a core for free and it's only 1.8mW. Typical underspec Wicked Lasers. Besides that it's a nice laser, I like the host. Not worth the price they are asking though.

 

[MichiganMan]

I got a core for free and it's only 1.8mW. Typical underspec Wicked Lasers. Besides that it's a nice laser, I like the host. Not worth the price they are asking though.

They really should stop lieing, and focus on keeping an accurate output.

 

[X FLY]

I have the core and it's a good enough laser for the price, but if you want to really be sure that you have a proper laser I'd go with this: https://www.laserglow.com/GAN#
Laserglow has top notch customer support so I'm sure if you just ask they could get you one that's exactly 5.0mW (and not more like 3mw since the official spec is 3.0-5.0mw).