In the past year or so, Imalent have produced a whole range of high output flashlights, such as the MS08, RS50 and MS12 Mini. The Imalent MR90 is their latest powerful flashlight.

What sets the MR90 apart from the others is the combination of high brightness (lumens) and beam distance (candela). This is due to the use of 2 different types of LEDs.

The MR90 is a combination of Imalent’s high power MS series lights and R long distance series lights.

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The Imalent MR90 uses:

• 8 CREE XHP70.2 LEDs – just like the Imalent MS08 and Acebeam X50
• One Luminus SBT90.2 LED – like the Imalent RT90 and other bright SBT90.2 flashlights

This results in 50,000 lumens and 1586m beam distance!

Imalent MR90 specs

Here’s Imalent’s official specs for the MR90

What’s in the box?

All Imalent’s high end flashlights come in quality boxes with reflective blue lettering. The MR90 package is no different.

Inside the box you get:

• Imalent MR90 flashlight
• Integrated battery pack
• Nylon holster
• Power brick (mine is a UK version)
• Manual
• 2 spare O-rings
• Lanyard

Everyday use

The Imalent MR90 is big, with quite a bit of weight to it but still easy enough to hold in 1 hand. fairly standard for a soda can / soup can flashlight.

The side switch is easy to reach and because it’s on a wider surface, is easier to find than with the MS08.

Just like the MS12 Mini, there’s also 2 fans built into the MR90. These provide extra cooling on medium and high modes. In fact, the fans turn on in all but the lowest 2 modes. The fans are a bit loud if there’s no other noise around you. It would be nice if the fans could optionally be disabled for all the middle modes.

User interface

The Imalent MR90 has a single side switch. The basics of it are:

• Click once to turn on / off
• Hold to change brightness

The light has mode memory, so will turn on in the same mode you left it.

There’s some advanced options too:

• Double click from off to go to turbo
• Double click from turbo to go to strobe
• 4 clicks to lock or unlock (indicators flash red for lock out or green for unlocked)
• Hold from off to activate the fan by itself

The MR90 does not have Imalent’s usual 3 clicks from off to go to low mode, which is a shame. Accidentally blasting 50,000 lumens is not something you want to do – especially with the fan going off too. I manually cycled back to the lowest mode after use.

Switching between flood and throw modes

What’s special about the Imalent MR90 is the option to use just the wide angle LEDs, just the long distance one or both at the same time. This works at any brightness, even though Imalent only show specs for turbo. This results in 18 different modes, not including strobe!

• 3 clicks to switch between flood+throw, throw, then flood

LEDs

Not only have Imalent have managed to fit 8 floody CREE XHP70.2 LEDs in shallow reflectors but they’ve also included a Luminus SBT90.2 LED in a deep reflector, which is about 55mm wide.

Size, weight and comparison

The MR90 weighs in at 898g (1 lb 15.7oz), making it 1 of the heavier lights that I own.

Dimensions:

• 92mm head diameter
• 56mm body diameter
• 152mm length

For comparison, the MS12 Mini has a 83mm head and the MS08 is 74mm.

Imalent MR90 vs Imalent MS12 Mini

The MR90 is almost as bright as the MS12 Mini but throws much further.

	MS12 Mini	MR90
Lumens	65,000	50,000
Throw	1036m	1586m

Imalent MR90 vs Imalent RT90 – SBT90.2 long distance throwers

The RT90 and MR90 have similar size reflectors for the SBT90.2 LED but the MR90 has a bigger battery pack and can sustain the output for much longer.

	RT90	MR90
Lumens	4800	50,000
Throw	1308m	1586m

Imalent family

192,000 lumens!

From left to right:

• Imalent MS12 Mini, Imalent MR90, Imalent MS08
• Imalent RT90, Imalent R60C, Imalent RS50

Imalent MR90 vs Acebeam X50 and other XHP70.2 flashlights

The CREE XHP70.2 LED is one of the best LEDs for high lumens. Here’s 36 of them.

• Top: Imalent MR90
• Left: Acebeam X50
• Right: Imalent MS08
• Bottom: Imalent MS12 Mini

Battery and charging

The Imalent MR90 comes with a battery pack that’s identical to the one from the MS12 Mini. The battery pack says MRB217B on it but Imalent list it on their site as the MRB-217P40. Inside are 4 high drain 21700 cells.

The MR90 is charged by unscrewing the cap on the end of the battery back and plugging in the 5.4mm barrel plug. The power brick charges at 19V and 2A, which is a massive 38W.

Performance

Lumen measurements

Note: normally my measurements are within 5-10% of of other flashlight reviewers. In this case, the MR90 didn’t quite fit properly in my integrating sphere, so measurements might be 15-20% out.

Measurements are at 0 seconds, rather than 30 seconds (ANSI FL1). The light hit its claimed 50,000 lumens at 0 seconds but note that it will step down quickly to a more reasonable level.

Mode	Flood and spot	Spot	Flood
Low	2875	844	2070
Middle Low	6165	1404	4932
Middle 1	9493	1901	7853
Middle 2	17,733	2951	15,213
High	31,200	4168	27,673
Turbo	50,933	5189	47,760

Imalent MR90 Beam distance

Measured indoors at 10m at 0s. The MR90 didn’t hit Imalent’s specs.

Mode	Candela	Meters
Spot	396 kcd	1259m
Flood	88 kcd	592m
Both	464 kcd	1363m

Imalent MR90 Beamshots

The distance to the building is 170m. Photos were taken with a Pixel 6 Pro, set to 1/12s shutter speed and ISO 400, F1.85.

Turbo comparison

Spot

Flood

Spot and flood

Conclusion

Flashlight manufacturers tend to either optimise for more lumens, at the expense of just having a wall of light that doesn’t reach far, or optimising for throw, resulting in a very focused beam that isn’t practical for most uses.

The Imalent MR90 goes for the best of both, with very little compromise. Thanks to its use of 2 different LEDs, the Imalent MR90 has more throw and more lumens than the Lumintop GT4 in a much smaller size.

Not only that but it is versatile with the different LEDs and beam profiles. I found it worked great as an off road mountain bike light on the low and middle-low modes.

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