Klarus Tactical Flashlight of the Month

Klarus makes a ton of terrific tactical flashlights to suit the needs of everyone, not just security or law enforcement officers. Klarus has worked hard to make versatile products that flashlight users like you and I can truly appreciate and get use out of. There’s one particular Klarus flashlight I’d like to talk about today. We at FlashlightZ believe it deserves a special mention this month because of its unique features. And here it is….

The Klarus XT12GT Tactical Flashlight

This little beast is a humdinger of a flashlight. It has a max output of 1600 lumens and has a maximum beam distance of 603 meters! It’s completely packed with features, but I want to highlight one of my favorite aspects of the XT12GT. It has an excellent balance of everything you’d want in a tactical flashlight while being a compact throw light. There are many tactical flashlights that have a focused beam and allow you to see quite far away, but the XT12GT was made to be a compact throwing light. On the same note, throwing lights are usually made bigger or bulkier and often have less tactical features. The XT12GT would be considered a larger tactical flashlight, but it’s still more compact than most throwing lights you’ll find. That’s a pretty unique thing to have in a flashlight. If you were looking for a compact throwing flashlight that had tactical features I’d point you to the Klarus XT12GT without a second thought.

Ok now it’s time to go into all the features of the XT12GT including a few benefits and downfalls so you have all the info you’d want. First, the XT12GT is equipped with a CREE XHP35 HI D4 LED that allows the XT12GT to deliver that powerful 1600 lumens. However, you won’t be using 1600 lumens all the time and there are times when so much brightness can actually be a downfall. Thankfully, this Klarus tactical flashlight features a total of six outputs. You have four different brightness levels - Turbo which is 1600 lumens, high which is 400 lumens, medium which is 100 lumens, and low which is 10 lumens. I’ve heard some flashlight users say they prefer a low brightness level to be around 1 lumen. This is completely up to the user which is best. I find that 1 lumen can often be too little light for what I need to do so I prefer a low brightness level that’s around 5-10 lumens. It’s different for everyone though.

The XT12GT also features a flashing strobe mode and SOS mode. It’s always positive when a tactical flashlight comes with both modes! Many flashlight users prefer one mode over the other and it seems to be split pretty evenly. Personally, I don’t think I could pick which mode would be better. Both are useful and I consider both important.

Operating the XT12GT is simple thanks to the dual tactical tail switch that Klarus users love so much. You have the main round switch that allows you to turn ON and OFF the flashlight and gives you access to momentary-on. You have the secondary paddle switch that gives you access to strobe, SOS, and allows you to cycle through the brightness levels. The great thing about these switches is how easy they are to find and differentiate between. They feel so different so you won’t be accidentally strobing someone.

The Klaurs XT11GT is one of the most popular tactical flashlights we have and one of the reasons for that is because of the programmable settings. Because of this, Klarus included programmable settings for the XT12GT as well.

Tactical Setting - If you’ve owned a Klarus XT series tactical flashlight then you’re more than likely familiar with this setting. The main switch turns ON and OFF the flashlight and turns the flashlight onto the turbo brightness level. It also gives you access to momentary-on while the secondary switch gives you instant-strobe by holding it down and lets you cycle through the brightness levels by clicking it while the flashlight is ON.

Outdoor Setting - In the Outdoor setting the main switch works the same way as the Tactical setting. The only difference is that the secondary switch gives you instant-low rather than strobe. So if you find yourself using the low brightness level frequently, this setting would be for you!

There’s more to the Klarus XT12GT than everything we talked about so far believe it or not! This awesome flashlight is rechargeable and actually features a unique magnetic charging port. When you buy this flashlight it also comes with a Magnetic Charging Connector that magnetically connects to the charging port on the side of the XT12GT for safe and secure charging. This little connector actually comes with a few of its own features! First, you plug it into a micro USB cable and turn any USB cable into a magnetic charger for your XT12GT! With the older Klarus XT12 you needed to use a proprietary magnetic charging cable. With this Connector you can use whatever micro USB cable on hand and be ready to go! The downside with this is that you need to make sure to not lose that Connector. Thankfully, it’s small enough to easily carry on your keyring. It also has a small light on it so you can use it as a keychain light if you’d like to. This way it’s serving more of a purpose on your key ring.

So that Magnetic Charging Connector is really cool and on the charging port you can see a small LED ring. This LED is a charging indicator/battery power indicator. I really like this battery power indicator. Many indicators will just let you know when the battery power is running low. This indicator gives you a clearer idea of where your battery is at. If the battery is over 70% charged the indicator will glow green. If the battery is 30-70% charged it’ll glow orange. If the battery is less than 30% charged it’ll glow red and it will flash red when it’s less than 10% so you know it’s time to charge the flashlight.

All-in-all the Klarus XT12GT tactical flashlight still amazes me today with all the features it has. It’s incredibly versatile and can be used in a variety of different situations from hunting to search and rescue. You can see more on the Klarus XT12GT here.