Magicshine MJ-902B Smart Light

The Magicshine MJ-902B Bluetooth Smart USB Bike Light APP version – to use the full name – builds on the previous model of the 902 light by adding a smartphone app, while subtracting 400 lumens, the red rear light and the Bluetooth remote (which is now an optional extra for £7.99). And it's £5 more expensive. Magicshine might offer a compelling smorgasbord of accessories and lights at attractive prices, but misses the mark with the MJ-902B when it comes to long-term customer satisfaction.

• Pros: Customisation, hardware connectivity, useful as general external battery pack
• Cons: Wasted lumens, no included remote, unintuitive app, no ability to change mode without using your phone, hard to make quick mode changes in gloves

In February 2017 Dave gave the non-app version of the 902 three and a half stars, noting that the beam didn't deliver the promised output, and switching modes between high and low outputs required cycling through the disco strobe settings. The 902B reduces the output and removes the remote along with the ability to change mode without using a smartphone, while not addressing the main complaint of a mostly wasted, unfocused output.

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In the box you get the head unit, battery with straps, and the 38cm battery-light connecting cable. It all feels premium – the connectors snap home firmly, and the body of the battery and light look and feel well made.

The head unit fixes to your handlebar using a simple rubber ladder strap. There's no left-right tweakability in the mount, and on my handlebar positioning the head to be easily reachable for button presses meant putting it right next to the stem.

The battery pack has a rubber backing and mounts on your frame using wide Velcro straps, with enough spare to wrap securely around the largest of box-girder frames. There's a rubber seal around the inside, and the connector to the light is a robust circular push-fit – both survived several pressure-washings with zero ingress. I found the 38cm cable a perfect length for getting from the frame up to the bar via three or four wraps around a brake or gear cable outer.

The 5200mAh battery pack is charged via micro-USB, accessed under a robust double-sealed rubber cover. Alongside the charge port is a full-sized USB port you can use to charge other USB devices while running the light as well. You can also charge the battery while using the light – for example via a dynamo hub – but you can't charge and run the USB output at the same time.

Application required

The major update of the MJ-902B over the MJ-902 is the addition of a smartphone app, connected to the light via Bluetooth (once you've given Magicshine your email address so it can send you a code to activate the app). A generous summary of the app functionality would be 'Could do better'.

The app is confusing – I kept getting lost as to exactly where the setting I wanted resided. The app lets you set up 'scenes', and to scenes you add modes – constant/flash/strobe – with customisable intensities, that you can then cycle through by pressing the button on the head unit. So you could possibly create a scene where you had a 100% blast, a 20% flash, a 10% constant beam, and so on. I went with a simple constant 100%-20% high-low beam scene for night rides, plus a 100%-50%-20% flash scene for daytime road riding.

To change scene you need to use your phone's app – unless you constructed a mode that included all possible options you can click through. But then you'll have lost a likely most-useful high/low beam setup. If you go for the Bluetooth remote, you can change between modes – high/medium/low – but you can't change between 'scenes' – that still requires connecting the app. This is most annoying, as there's a redundant button on the remote previously assigned to switching the rear light on or off. Hopefully a future firmware update will add this functionality and greatly improve the user experience.

Sometimes the light didn't automatically connect to the app even when visible in the 'Bluetooth devices' list. In comparison to other Bluetooth-enabled bike lights I own such as the excellent See.Sense Icon, the experience was not consistent. I applied a firmware upgrade to the light via the app which seemed to improve things, so time will tell if Magicshine uses that functionality to improve app-light connection stability or the overall user experience.

On the road

All the technology, accessorisation and features in the world won't amount to a hill of beans if a light doesn't perform on the road. Here, yes there was light – but probably 50 per cent of it is wasted. The Magicshine's broad beam loses photons horizontally and vertically, with no spot in the target riding zone – the bit you actually need to focus on lest you come a cropper. Indeed, the amount of peripheral light de-sensitises perception in the focus zone where you need it most.

I found I needed to angle the head unit slightly above horizontal to reduce the light shone immediately in front, which was desensitising my eyes to the middle-distance where you need to detect upcoming hazards. Of course this then makes you an annoying hazard to other road users.

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As a result, I wasn't comfy riding faster than about 15mph. Augmenting the MJ-902B with a 400-lumen helmet-mounted light increased my rideable speed by maybe 5mph through adding an aimable spot. I ended up using both the MJ-902B and the headlight, just so I wasn't left behind by riding mates on the way to the pub.

The definition at the centre of the beam is woefully lacking. On the road I couldn't pick out detail at speeds/distances any better than with my ageing 475-lumen Lezyne Powerdrive XL, a five-year-old handlebar-mounted all-in-one light.

Battery management

The MJ-902B has an indicated maximum-power run-time of 2 hours 36 minutes. I found it would run on 100% for 3:09 before a sudden switchoff. Kudos to Magicshine for taking a conservative line on battery capacity, not so much for giving no useful warning of shutdown.

The light button glows orange when the battery level hits 30%, but this seems dependent on the battery drain at the time, and is hard to pick out against a high-beam output. Switching to low beam from high, the low-level warning on the button went out – therefore fooling me that I had more than 30% remaining.

There's no in-your-face, while-riding warning of really low battery charge apart from pressing the button on the back of the battery where there are three green LEDs (when battery level is critically low, the last green LED flashes). Having no warning or graceful degradation of light level – a simple software implementation – is a let-down and something I hope Magicshine will remedy as soon as possible.

On the levels

The indicated battery levels between the app and the battery LEDs don't seem to bear much similarity. With the app indicating a 'Middle' charge, the battery shows a single green LED. So you'd think there was a fair bit of juice left before setting off, going by either display. However, in one admittedly poorly prepared pre-ride instance using the MJ-902B's 3,200-lumen sibling (which shares the same app and battery), it lasted just 30 seconds on High before turning off. Cue a frantic swapping of lights to make the 8pm Pub Run depart. If I pick a battery up off a shelf and click a button or check an app that says 'about 33% remaining', I don't expect it to die before reaching the end of our road.

The MJ-902B battery charging algorithm/display leaves a good deal to be desired. When charging from flat, the first green LED comes on flashing, and after just a few minutes the second starts flashing – to me indicating that it's at least a third charged and progressing towards two-thirds. If you then connect to the app, it shows charge as 'Middle' – but as above, there's only a few seconds' run-time possible.

Years ago we expected this sort of user experience from cheap-as-chips CreeBay Special lights of dubious lineage, but this is a modern light from a major industry brand costing £105.

Charging time is totally dependent on the output of your charger, but based on a conservative 400mAh you can expect it to take 13 hours – or two and a half if you have a 2-amp charger.

Accessorise yourself

For around £6 each you can buy a helmet or headband mount and 1m extension cable, which would enable the MJ-902B (or most of the Magicshine light range) to be used as a helmet or head light. There's also a Bluetooth remote option that costs £7.99; given how people use lights like these, a remote is a highly desirable item and it's a pity it's not included in the package, as it was previously. For £114.99 you can get a package with the 902B light, remote, extension cable and a helmet mount included, saving you 10 quid.

In summary, as with its higher-output sibling, the Magicshine MJ-902B is a fair amount of headline lumen for your pound, but suffers from a poor physical lens design and various app/usability flaws. While the latter might be addressed by updates, the issue of no focused spot permanently restricts your potential speed.

Verdict

Rock-solid battery attachment and connections, let down by a poorly designed app and lens