One of the best things about running the coolest gadgets site is that we sometimes get sent cool gadgets to play with review and test. We’ve just received are favourite review piece so far, courtesy of one of our sponsors, Wicked Lasers, who sent us a cool (or should that be hot) Extreme Nexus 95 mW Laser Pointer.
The Nexus is a pricey piece of kit, costing a hefty $369.99 but for that you do get a very high quality bit of kit. The specs for our laser are:
- Name: Nexus 95mW
- Range: 38 Miles
- Output power: 95mW CLASS 3B
- Operation voltage: 3V
- Output model: CW
- Average loop: <550mA
- Battery source: 2xAAA Batteries
- Dimensions: Ø13×143mm
- Laser lifetime: 3000-5000 hours
- Battery lifetime: 2 Hours
- Crystal efficiency: Excellent
- Beam divergence: <1.2mRad
- Suggested Duty Cycle 100 seconds on / 10 seconds off
Which as impressive as they are (especially the 38 mile range) wasn’t what we were really interested in, we just wanted to burn and pop stuff which forms the basis of this review.
The Wicked Laser comes in a posh box and is accompanied by a decent pair of safety goggles (though when you wear them you do look like a cross between Edgar Davids and Ali G). After seeing the laser in action the goggles are an absolute must if you don’t want a trip to your local eye clinic.
We tested the laser on a fair few different surfaces and here were our results:
Black Bin Liner
The Nexus was able to slice through a bin bag with relative ease, not exactly sure how useful this is to know but hey it’s not often you get a chance to slice anything with a laser.
Chocolate
As it was Easter and there are plenty of chocolate eggs in my house at the moment we thought we’d better test what happens when chocolate meets green laser. It took about 10 seconds of pointing but we were able to melt a small hole in a chocolate Easter egg, I then had to confiscate the egg for research purposes :).
Lighting a Match
This is one of then things we really wanted to see, could we light a match with a laser? Unfortunately the answer for us at least was no, though we have seen videos of other people accomplishing this feet. I’m going to put it down to British matches being a bit too safety conscious.
Human Flesh
The number of times people asked me can you burn people with it meant I had to put this to the test. I can certainly testify that the Nexus Laser can burn flesh, after about 5 seconds you start to feel a prick like pain in your arm. After 15 seconds you can smell burning flesh and hair and that’s as much as I could take. So does it burn flesh, YES, would you want to, err NO.
Popping Balloons
Balloons are fun objects anyway and when combined with a laser they are even more fun. We did a bit of scientific research to see which balloons popped best and as you will hear at the end of the video Ali summed it up beautifully.
Blues are the best, greens are rubbish!
Conclusion
Wicked Lasers are decidedly cool, if you have the cash to splash and enjoy terrorising kids parties by popping balloons (obviously making sure all party goers are wearing goggles) then the Nexus is ideal. I must admit I’m struggling to find a “real” use for it as a laser isn’t really a toy but hey it’s fun. Thanks again Wicked Lasers for sending us this, er, wicked laser to review.
If you interested in the Wicked Laser you might want to check out these reviews too Gear Live and Oh Gizmo.
Note: Wicked Lasers are a sponsor of Coolest Gadgets, though we don’t think we have let that influence this review in anyway, so rush out and buy your self a laser now :).
Comments are closed.