Not as clumsy or random as a blaster; a chic weapon for a extra civilized age. That’s proper, we’re testing some lightsabers at the moment which were despatched over to make use of from Encalife, an organization most likely higher identified for its star projectors and telescopes, however now they’re getting into the Kyber crystal sport it appears.
Duplicate lightsabers are extremely standard amongst Star Wars followers, particularly amongst cosplayers and conference goers who wish to costume up as Jedi Knights and Sith Lords. Whereas many individuals need precise reproductions of the lightsabers that Obi-Wan and Darth Vader use, others wish to create their very own force-wielding characters and that’s the place firms like Encalife are available in.
However how do the Encalife lightsabers stack up towards the best lightsabers on the market? There may be a number of competitors on the market already, with firms like Sabertrio and Vader’s Vault providing high-end, excessive price sabers, whereas locations like Kyber supply nice entry-level choices for Star Wars followers. Encalife is clearly aiming extra on the latter class with these sabers which retail at $199, however can often be discovered for $150.
Encalife lightsabers: Design and meeting
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Encalife was sort sufficient to ship us over three of their completely different lightsaber hilt designs to take a look at and mess around with – black, grey, and pink. The black saber is a comparatively easy design with indented rings and silver banding including a little bit of aptitude. There may be additionally a protruding hexagonal design on the underside of the saber that appears loads like the top of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber.
The pink design is definitely primarily black, however with sinister pink banding for the accent particulars. There may be much more texture to this saber’s deal with, with a number of grooves the place your fingers naturally sit while you’re holding it. It has a extra intricate design on the high the place the blade comes out, with a slanted emitter port that has a number of slits in it, permitting the lit blade to shine via.
The grey blade is someplace between the opposite two by way of design. It has a grey steel physique and silver trim, however shares the slanted emitter port with the pink saber, although the cutout design is formed as an inverted T, relatively than the three slits.
All three hilts are constituted of strong steel and have an acceptable heft to them. They really feel nicely made, the end is clear, and all the varied screw-on sections and connecting components are nicely machined. All of the sabers feel and appear nice, though they’re nowhere close to as intricately detailed as official lightsabers which could put some folks off, particularly when you’re after one thing extra elaborate primarily for show.
Meeting is a chunk of cake. The saber blade comes separate from the hilt within the field, however that is simply hooked up through two included screws and an Allen key. The blade can simply be indifferent afterwards too, so you’ll be able to put on your saber in your belt with out the blade getting in the way in which.
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Encalife lightsabers: Options & efficiency
Encalife’s web site makes a number of claims about what these lightsabers can do, so we shortly set to work on testing them out – aka we began swinging them round wildly, pretending to be dueling Darth Maul.
These lightsabers use a single button management system, however there are not any directions supplied on methods to use this. Fortunately for you, we have managed to determine all the things out so there’s a information for you under.
You flip the saber on by urgent and holding the button. As soon as turned on, the surface of the button will illuminate and you’ll hear a noise, at which level you let go of the button after which press it once more to ignite the blade. From there, when you press the button and maintain it down then the button gentle flashes, and every variety of flashes will take you to a special operate.
By default, the lightsaber is in blaster deflect mode. Now, every time you hit the button the saber will flash and make a blaster sound, letting you imitate deflecting blaster bolts. Holding the button down for one flash after which urgent it is going to activate the “clashing” impact that occurs when two lightsabers lock up collectively – that is nice for dynamic pictures throughout cosplay shoots or throughout choreographed duels.
Two button flashes will allow you to cycle via the 12 colour choices accessible for the blades. It’s good to see some selection past the same old pink, blue, and inexperienced, they usually’re all equally vibrant. There’s even a purple possibility, so Mace Windu followers gained’t be dissatisfied. The colours of the lightsaber are all tremendous vibrant and shiny, so you need to use these lightsabers in broad daylight and nonetheless clearly see their illumination, they usually look phenomenal at evening.
The fourth flash will put the saber into standby mode, retracting the blade however not turning it off fully. This implies it may be reactivated with a single button press, relatively than an prolonged maintain. While in sleep mode you’ll be able to fiddle with the quantity controls. Holding the button for one flash will cycle between low quantity, excessive quantity, and mute. The loud quantity mode might be too loud, to be sincere, although that could be a great factor for the conference crowd who need their sabers to be heard in a corridor full of individuals. The quiet mode is a bit softer, however truthfully, it’s nonetheless a bit too loud. A 3rd quieter possibility between quiet and mute would have been good (you could possibly hack this your self by placing some tape over the speaker output on the pommel of the saber).
Holding it down for 2 flashes throughout standby mode will change the sound profile of the lightsaber. You get a voice line indicating which character’s lightsaber profile you’re deciding on – a few of these are fairly naff impressions, however the Vader one is so good that I couldn’t inform it wasn’t the actual deal. Every saber profile has completely different sounds for the start-up/shutdown, idle hum, swooshing, and clashing sound results that can assist you individualize your lightsaber. It’s a pleasant contact, permitting you to go for the extra crackly, violent sounds of Kylo Ren’s saber or the class of somebody like Luke or Yoda.
Additionally they have impression detection, flashing and making a noise when you hit them towards one thing with sufficient drive. The reliability of this detection isn’t good although, so that you wish to smack issues moderately onerous to ensure the sound goes off.
The entire single-button system is a little bit of a ache to be sincere with you. You’ll be able to’t shortly ignite or extinguish the saber which makes utilizing them for choreographed fights awkward – you’ll be able to’t precisely ask Darth Vader to politely wait whilst you maintain down the on button for 3 seconds.
The blade itself is only a tube for the sunshine to bounce round in, with the saber deal with successfully functioning as a coloured flashlight that illuminates the polycarbonate tube to offer the lightsaber impact. There are professionals and cons to this method. On the plus aspect, the blade is straightforward to detach for while you simply need the hilt. There are additionally no fragile, breakable electronics within the blade that could possibly be broken by dueling. The draw back is that the sunshine is brighter on the base and will get slightly fainter in the direction of the tip. We’re really impressed with how minor this distinction is in these sabers to be honest, however it’s nonetheless noticeable, particularly in pictures.
Encalife Lightsabers: Battery life and charging
You may be delighted to listen to that there isn’t any want to purchase batteries for these sabers, as they arrive with rechargeable batteries built-in.. Encalife claims that the lightsabers final for 4 hours of steady use on a full cost. We’ll degree with you expensive reader, we didn’t spend 4 hours swinging a lightsaber round to check this declare, however we are able to say that not one of the sabers have wanted to be recharged after their preliminary cost within the two weeks that we’ve had them.
Once you do have to recharge them, it’s a comparatively easy process on two of the three choices: the pink and black sabers have a charging port on the surface of the hilt – merely use the included USB to charging port cable that comes with the sabers and go away them to cost. The sunshine on the ability button pulses when it’s charging and stays strong when totally charged.
Weirdly, the grey saber doesn’t have the identical system. As an alternative, it’s a must to unscrew the underside of the hilt after which plug in a micro-usb to USB charger. We don’t know why this mannequin is completely different.
Encalife Lightsabers: Value
We must always most likely get one thing out of the way in which early on – Encalife doesn’t really make these lightsabers – they’re partnered up with Ciel Tan, a Chinese language model that makes a complete host of lightsabers, sometimes on AliExpress although you may also discover them on Amazon.
Encalife may be very up entrance about this on their web site, stating that they’re partnered up with Ciel Tan however truthfully, that is overstating issues. We assumed that these designs/colour combos can be unique to Encalife, however that doesn’t look like the case as we discovered the pink saber on Amazon underneath a special title. We couldn’t discover the precise grey or black fashions wherever else although, so these two designs could be unique to Encalife.
Now, none of this could be a problem if it wasn’t for the worth disparity between different Ciel Tan sabers and those that Encalife are promoting. Encalife is promoting all three variants at a typical value of $199.97 on their web site, although at time of writing all three are at present reduced to $149.97 (opens in new tab). In contrast, the identical pink saber that we discovered on Amazon is selling for $75.99 (opens in new tab).
Do you have to purchase an Encalife lightsaber?
When you’re in search of a sturdy lightsaber prop for cosplaying, photoshoots, or simply to swing round the home while you wish to really feel like a Jedi, then these lightsabers are an excellent selection. They’re nicely constructed, have shiny blades and loud sound results, they usually include a great deal of options like impression flashes and blaster sounds. They’re not good – the designs are a bit plain and the single-button controls are a ache – particularly with the whole lack of directions, however these are irritations, not deal breakers.
Nonetheless, except you really need these precise designs, you will discover the identical model of lightsabers made by the identical firm, on Amazon for less expensive. Nonetheless, these are good worth, good high quality sabers and when you see them on supply, then we might fortunately suggest them.
