Moon Meteor Vortex Pro Front Light

Update to review published Nov 2017

The Moon Meteor Vortex Pro offers a decent amount of brightness matched by some impressive burn-times. Nine mode choices could see you really stretch out that battery life too.

The Vortex Pro is quite a small unit compared with a lot of the lights on the market today, especially those that boast an output of 900 lumens, as the Vortex Pro does in its Boost mode.

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It uses a single Cree XM-L2 LED and what looks to be a simple lens and round concave reflector to deploy the light in a very torch-like way: a central spot which Moon claims has an angle of 17 degrees before fading out to 80 degrees.

It's not perfect for road use where a wider, flatter beam is better to reduce the chances of dazzling oncoming traffic, but angled down I didn't seem to irritate anyone while still getting the light shining up the road. You need to have a bit of common sense and courtesy with the lumen output too.

You get four solid modes: 700/400/200/80 lumens, plus give the button a double tap to get that Boost mode.

On main roads you can easily get away with the 400-lumen setting which also has an impressive 4.5-hour burn-time. There is enough light there to be able to see a decent distance ahead and pick up potholes and the like, though if I switched onto the back lanes I'd step that up to the 700 lumen, especially if things got a little twisty.

Each mode is selected by pressing the top button and you cycle from bright through dim, although the light does have mode memory so whatever mode you turned the light off in is the one it comes back on in.

The mode display changes colour to let you know where you are, and sitting just in front of that is the battery display which changes from blue through red as the power drops.

Moon keeps the flashing modes separate, which I like, so you are never scrolling through a disco on a technical back lane to get to a steady beam.

You press and hold the button for a few seconds to swap from steady to flash, and then you have another four flashing modes plus an SOS setting.

FL1 and FL2 are simple flash modes with 20 lumen and 100 lumen respectively, with FL3 offering a 400-lumen flash while the LED stays on at 20 lumen output. It's similar to Exposure's pulse mode where the light never actually goes out.

DF stands for Day Flash and it is a double shot of 400 lumens, plenty bright enough for you to be noticed on a sunny day as you filter through traffic.

All of the burn-times here last for absolutely hours too.

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The button is a little on the small size, plus it is quite stiff which did make changing the modes a little bit of a faff on the fly.

Resistance to the weather is always a concern for use in British weather. The Meteor Vortex Pro is rated to IPX4, which basically means it'll withstand splashing water from any direction. Alongside riding with them in the rain, I also like to give all the lights I test a good soaking from the bathroom shower to replicate really heavy rain. The Moon sailed straight through with no water entering the battery compartment, lens or charging port.

You'll find the charging point underneath and it uses the small USB type found on most mobile phones. It's protected by a small rubber cover.

Charging from a flat battery takes four hours. Once full capacity is reached, the light reduces things down to a trickle charge to reduce the risk of damage.

The light itself is pretty robust. The front half of the body is made from aluminium, which easily resists being dropped onto the road without issue. I would like to see a better warranty though: one year for workmanship or material defects and a mere 120 days for the battery doesn't seem long enough to me.

Fitting the light to the handlebar is a simple affair, with a bracket that uses a rubber band style clamp. The neat thing is the little nub that you fit the rubber band around is hinged, so the bracket can be used on any shape bars, even aero wing style. It's a snug fit too, and sees very limited slippage, though you might get a touch if the road is really rough.

Price-wise, £69.99 is pretty good for a light that chucks out this much power. The Cateye Volt 800 costs an extra £20, the Giant Recon HL 900 is £79.99.

For the whole package I'd say the Moon offers a sensible price for what you're getting, and even putting the few little niggles aside it makes a great general purpose light.

Verdict

A small light with plenty of modes to cover all eventualities