Safety:
The Spyder II Arctic comes with a safety plug which in essence serves as nothing more than to complete a circuit and allow the laser to power on. Removal of this plug (Phono plug) with plastic cap disables the laser. We did find that like the crooked labels the hole for the safety plug is off center which seems odd with the overall higher quality of the laser. We also found it odd that Wicked Lasers chose to use a phono plug as a safety plug but it does serve the purpose and works well. Sitting opposite the safety plug we found two screws that hold in place a fuse for the laser.
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Battery Life and Indicator:
The Spyder III Arctic comes equipped with a battery indicator and is powered by a single 1300mah, 4 volt, Lithium Ion Battery Type 18650 as well as a charger for this battery. In actual use we found the battery has a useful life of about 1 hour before a noticeable decrease in beam and brightness strength. The indicator itself has three lights that are meant to indicate battery charge. Our testing showed that the indicator can often times indicate a less than complete charge on a fully charged battery with the battery indicator showing different results if switched on and off a few times. We hope this will be corrected in the G2 release. We would also liked to have seen Wicked Lasers use blue LED’s for the battery indicator instead of the yellow/orange indicators we see on the G1 revision. This is a minor complaint though and this too does not impact the use of the laser at all.
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Testing:
Below we bring you a short video showing the Spyder III Arctic in use:
Analysis and Conclusion:
The Spyder III Arctic is THE very finest laser to come out of Wicked Lasers manufacturing facility and quite honestly is a pleasure to use and hold. Its construction is top notch and leave little to be desired. In fact the only areas that we had any complaints about were the fine details which seemed to be applied last moment. Knowing a bit of the history behind the production of the G1 and the Arctic series I am sure this was done to get products into eagerly awaiting customer hands. We will be very interested to see if these little details are fixed in the G2 version which we will also have a review of.
From opening the package in our office and first holding the laser to testing and up close inspection the G1 Spyder III Arctic is easily worth the $299 pricetag and is a must buy for anyone interested in owning a powerful Blue laser at a very cheap price. The quality will leave you very happy as will the overall package. When we evaluate products worthy of your money and our awards we compare them against similar products in the marketplace. In this situation the Spyder III Arctic stands in a class of its’ own without equal in price, construction, and quality. We are happy to award it the Editors Choice Award and are pleased to recommend this as a great buy.
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