Reviews

Xeccon Spear 600 front light – review

Bright commuting light with a good battery life, let down by its limited choice of sequences

The Xeccon Spear 600 front light is bright, easy to mount and simple to use, but is limited when it comes to sequence choices.

The nights may be getting a bit shorter, but the need for lights is still very much there and the Xeccon Spear 600 is one of the two most powerful offerings in the Chinese brand’s ‘City Commute Light’ range.

As you may have guessed from the name, the Spear 600 puts out a maximum 600 lumens – the same as Xeccon’s Link 600 – and that’s more than enough for use on the roads.

It lit the roads in front of me very well, even on dark lanes with no other light sources, and while I’d hesitate to use it for the trails it certainly illuminated obstacles and potholes.

The Xeccon Spear 600 front light is one of the two brightest in the brand’s “City Commute” range

The Xeccon Spear 600 makes use of a CREE LED and offers four sequences: high, medium, low and strobe. These are accessed through holding the on/off button for three seconds for strobe or a short press to move between the different solid beam strengths.

In truth, however, it was a little frustrating there weren’t more options – personally I prefer to use a slow flash thanks to it using less battery and the Spear 600 does not have an option for that.

Battery life, however, is claimed at being anywhere between two and 40 hours, dependent on mode choice, and that seems about right.

In use, at the lowest setting it would last around 30 hours and so using it on strobe probably would get that up to the 40 mark.

Charging, meanwhile, is done through a USB cable and takes around five hours – that’s a bit long compared to other lights, but it was simple enough to plug the light into my work laptop and leave it charging.

The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted the mount we were given looks different to that shown on the Xeccon website, however – so we can only review what was put before us.

And on that topic, our mount used an easy-to-use bolt system which tightened around the handlebars and featured a rubber section to prevent damage.

It held the light in place well, despite tipping the scales at 124g, and also allowed the light to be turned 360 degrees which was a nice touch.

The Spear 600 only features four lighting modes, however

The grip was impressive enough, meaning the light didn’t suddenly rotate if we hit a pothole, and it boasts a simple release system so you just take the light off when not in use. Just press in the button and the light slides off, and when you stick it back a reassuring click will tell you it’s secure.

So how much does all this cost? Well the Spear 600 carries an asking price of £43.99 – it’s not bad, but for that price you might expect a better choice of lighting modes.

Conclusion

Overall the Xeccon Spear 600 front light is a decent light, but it would be nice to have access to a better range of lighting sequences. Nevertheless, it has a decent battery life and puts out more than enough light for anybody looking simply for a bright commuting light.

Pros

– Bright

– Good battery life

– Decent mounting system

Cons

– Could do with more sequences

– Listed mounting system not available in review