Magicshine Allty 1200U
The Magicshine Allty 1200U is the latest headlight to be released by Magicshine. This light follows in similar fashion to the Maghicshine EVO 1700 light that I have previously reviewed. They are similar in that they both are underneath mount style bike headlights.
Technically you can mount most lights underneath, but the light probably hasn’t been designed to be mounted upside down. Thus, with these Magicshine underneath mount style lights, you can get a sleek clean look on your bike and a light that doesn’t take up space on your handlebars.
If you are using an out-front mount with a GoPro connector, then you can hook this light up to your existing mount. If you don’t, an out-front mount is provided with this light.
Check out my in-depth review of the Magicshine Allty 1200U on my YouTube channel too.
Unboxing
The Magicshine Allty 1200U comes with everything you need to get riding at night. Don’t worry if you don’t have out-front mount, it has one included. The out-front mount comes with three different shims, allowing you to attach the mount to most round handlebars (28 mm, 32mm, and a 35 mm).
Also included, are Allen/hex keys (2 mm and 3 mm), a USB-A to USB-C charging cable, a bolt and nut to mount the light to the out-front mount, a remote control to change between light settings, and a user manual.
Pricing as of Late 2024
Currently the Magicshine Allty 1200U is listed at $79.99 USD or if you combine it with the SEEMEE 50 V2.0 you get both for $99.99 USD.
Sign-up for their newsletter and you can get 15% off and sometimes Magicshine is have sales for these lights.
This light comes to about $0.07/lumen, which is slightly more per lumen than the EVO 1700, but the Allty 1200U has some perks that the EVO doesn’t have.
The Light
The Magicshine Allty 1200U has a cylindrical-like shape to it and when mounted underneath has a small frontal area. This light follows the shape to one of my all-time favorite lights from a different brand, so I am quite excited to be testing this light out.
Since it does have a small frontal area, this light will create less drag compared to a light with a large rectangular frontal area. If speed it key while riding in the dark, the Magicshine Allty 1200U will make a good choice.
The Magicshine Allty 1200U light is 107 mm x 31 mm x 31 mm (4.25 in x 1.25 in x 1.25 in). Though the measurements are equal, the body of the light isn’t square. The corners of the body are chamfered, and it is shaped more like an Isosceles trapezoid with the smallest edge on the bottom. With the GoPro adaptor added to the light, the light is 54 mm tall (2.125 in tall).
The Magicshine Allty 1200U light alone weighs 165.7 g (5.84 oz) and with the GoPro adaptor it weighs 192.6 g (6.79 oz). This light is slightly heavier than the EVO, but it is a fully aluminum housing, and the GoPro adaptor is aluminum too. This should make it a quite durable light.
Charging time is 2.5 hours at 5V 2.4A and the battery capacity is a 3.7 V at 4200 mAh. When on the 300 LM low setting, the Magicshine Allty 1200U has a runtime of 12 hours. It has a 2-hour runtime on the 1200 LM high setting.
The light uses a high-efficiency LED. It has a max throw 184 m (604 ft) and a beam intensity of 8470 cd.
The Magicshine Allty 1200U has an ingression protection of IPX7, which it is protected against water immersion for 30 minutes at a depth of up to 1 m. When the rear port is securely sealed, this light will stand up to most all riding conditions.
I would recommend removing the light from the bike first if you will be pressure washing the bike though.
Light interface and Settings and Magicshine App
The Magicshine Allty 1200U has 2 default light modes: Flash and Constant. Within the constant mode there are 3 default settings: Low, Medium, and High. Within the flash more there is Night Flash and Day Flash. Night Flash has a 300 LM constant light with a 1200 LM flash every few seconds, whereas the Day Flash just has the 1200 LM flash every few seconds.
The light is initially in Lockout Mode when it first arrives. This is indicated when the button is clicked and the red-light on the button flashes for three seconds. To exit out of or to enter this mode, press and hold the power button for three seconds.
Once out of Lockout mode, press and hold the power button for one second to turn it on. Click the power button to scroll through the light settings. To move between Flash and Constant mode double click the power button.
When the light is on, the power butting will be lit to indicate the batter level. The light indicator on the power button for the battery level will show: Green – 100-21%, Red – 20-11%, and Flashing Red – 10-1%. The battery level can be accessed while the light is off too by clicking the power button (the same level mention pervious will show when the button is clicked).
If you want ultimate control of the Magicshine Allty 1200U, you will want to use the Magicshine App. Connecting to the app is very easy and once connected you can adjust the brightness by 1% increments. You can switch between light modes and save custom settings.
I don’t expect a lot of people to use the app, so I won’t delve too deep into it. But it is still worth mentioning, because you will need the app to access the SOS feature and to upgrade the firmware.
Full details on downloading and connecting to the device and more can be found on the Magicshine App User Manual.
The last and possibly the best/most efficient way to use the light is with the wireless remote. The remote has two buttons, one marked with a square and the other with a circle. The remote allows you to quickly change between modes and brightness levels, power on and off, and go into flash mode.
For full details, check out the Magicshine Allty 1200U Manual.
The Magicshine remote is now smaller than before. Also, it no longer uses a coin cell battery, it is rechargeable using a USB-C cable. The remote will also indicate the battery life of the light unit and the remote. This remote allows you to connect to multiple lights too (more below).
Mounting The Light
I won’t go over how to mount the light or how to mount the out-front mount. Read the User Manual above for all those details. The light does come with an out-front mount that has a quarter-turn mount for Garmin on the top side and a GoPro mount on the bottom.
The light adaptor mounts easily to the GoPro mount (both the provided one and 3rd party mounts). I would recommend removing the adaptor when attaching it to the mount to make installing it easier.
Once the adaptor is connected (don’t fully tighten initially), you can adjust the light angle. This will need to be done at night most likely. Most lights you can just slap onto your bike and go, but this light needs to be positioned properly to get the most benefit out of the anti-glare technology.
Initial Thoughts
As mentioned before, the shape of the light is very similar to another light I have been using for many years. I like the long slender shape of the light because it has a small frontal area. It is quite compact, so it looks sleek on the bike, and it doesn’t get in the way.
Underneath mounting is preferred method of mounting a light to my bicycle. I don’t really like mounting to my bars because of cable housing getting in the way and it takes up space on the bars.
The light uses an anti-glare technology, which will be interesting to test out. The glass over the LED light has groves in it to deflect the light away and hopefully prevent it from blinding oncoming traffic.
Plus, I think mounting the light underneath just looks better.
This light has a USB-C charging port, which is pretty much the standard for charging devices now.
FTR LightSync
FTR LightSync is a little difficult to show via blog post. Check out my YouTube video at timestamp 05:15 to watch it in action.
The Magicshine Allty 1200U is the pioneering light with FTR LightSync Control technology. This smart feature allows the control of multiple lights with the click of a single button. Once the lights are synced up via Bluetooth connection, the front and rear light can be controlled with the click of a single button.
The lights are paired together using the remote (a remote can’t be paired only to a taillight though). But, once the lights are paired, the taillight will still be controlled but the power button on the headlight. Thus, the front a rear headlight can be turned on simultaneously with the remote or from the headlight.
This is a great feature, because usually turning your taillight on is a little more difficult than the headlight while riding. With the click of the button both lights turn on. But this will also help with forgetting to turn off you rear light too. Both lights are turned off with the click of a single button.
Light Performance
The fine people at Magicshine provide all the technical details of the light, but unless you are an electrical or lighting engineer (which I am not) you may not know what they mean or even care to understand.
After falling into the rabbit hole of trying to understand luminous flux, throw, useful lumens, candela, steradians, etc., I have come to realize these values don’t really mean too much. This is especially true about bike lights since there isn’t (that I am aware of) a standardize testing procedure for bike lights.
Magicshine uses the ANSI/NEMA FL 1-2009 for obtaining their data which is the Flashlight Basic Performance Standard, which is a good start, but if other bike light companies aren’t using this standard, it is tough to make direct comparisons based on published numbers.
In the end, all most people care about, including myself, what matters most is once the light is on the bike, how well does it illuminate what is in front. Though, the more lumens a light has the more intensity of light comes out of it, brightness will depend on the spread of the light beam (anyways, enough technical nonsense).
The Magicshine Allty 1200U has a cone shaped reflective mirror behind the light with various groves at different angles on the glass in front. These groves divert the light on the edges of the beam to give you the light where you need it most.
The light beam has a concentrated hot spot at the center and the light tapers off around the edges. The light doesn’t have a hard cut-off light at the top edge, so the light needs to be angled down to prevent oncoming traffic from getting blinded.
The light can easily be switched into Low and High settings with the remote which will reduce blinding people.
The light has a somewhat warm yellow color too it.
Things I Would Change
I’ve mention this before, and until it is changed, I will continue to mention it. The battery level indicator is too broad, specifically the green level (100-21%). I think a flashing green light should be added after the solid green and the ranges should be changed. The ranges could be as follows: solid green – 100-75%, flashing green – 74-50%, solid red – 49-25%, and flashing red – 24-1%.
This will give a little move confidence of the actual battery level.
Though the out-front mount is secure, I prefer mounts ones made from aluminum. I would say it does not need to be included. I think nowadays, if someone is choosing this type of light, they most likely have an out-front mount. I think Magicshine could have the out-front mount as an addition option for a small up-charge.
I don’t like that once a preset is made, you can no longer access the default settings. The app is kind of cool if you spend some time setting it up properly. If you do make a preset, make sure to make various ones so you can scroll through and have various light settings.
Also, the power button location. The power button is a little too close the mounting point. Especially, since you must reach around and underneath the mount to turn it on/off the button is a little difficult to press the button.
This will be significantly more difficult with thick winter gloves on.
If the button was shifted forward 1/4 in that would make it significantly better. But this can all be avoided if the remote is used to control the light.
Continuing with the power button location, while riding it is difficult to see the battery life light indicator. Since the button is right in front of the GoPro adaptor and it is covered by the out-front mount and most likely a GPS cycling computer when riding the bike. To notice the light, I had to lean around to be able to be able to see it.
Really, I think the button should be moved. If it were place behind the mounting point, it would solve both issues mentioned above.
Lastly, I wish the light had amber lights on the side of the light. Since it is a designed to be a road cycling like, I really think this is a must and is only going to increase rider safety. Though not having the amber lights is really a deal braker.
Final Thoughts
This light is designed for urban and on-road riding, and it is clearly advertised as such, but of course, I tested it in off-road riding too. I tested it in the rain and fair-weather too. I’ve also tested it on smooth roads, but more importantly I tested it on some rough gravel roads too.
Though this light is intended for urban and road riding, I think this will make a good secondary light mounted on your bars for mountain bike too. The beam has a nice spread which will allow you to see the trail nicely. But when mountain biking, I typically use a helmet mounted light as my primary source.
Testing this light within its design parameters, for road riding, it performs very well. The Magicshine Allty 1200U shines far enough ahead of you to give you time to stop or avoid an object in front of you even when riding at high speed.
I found though that when using the Magicshine Allty 1200U in the lowest setting 300 LM constant light things were a little hard to see. This was especially true when it was pitch black out and no moon light shining. The lowest setting doesn’t have a large amount of light spread.
Personally, I needed to use the light at the medium setting a minimum to see well when it is dark out. In areas that it is well lit, the low setting works great, and the device gives off plenty of light for vehicles to see you.
With the Magicshine Allty 1200U in the High setting I could see very well. The beam has a nice spread that allows you to see a large swath in front of you. The beam throw extends out far so you can plenty up ahead. The beam pattern lights up the area right in front of you too really giving you a long fetch of light as you ride.
With the Magicshine Allty 1200U in the High setting I could see very well. The beam has a nice spread that allows you to see a large swath in front of you. The beam throw extends out far so you can plenty up ahead. The beam pattern lights up the area right in front of you too really giving you a long fetch of light as you ride.
Testing the light outside of its design parameter (gravel cycling), it performed very good. The connection between the GoPro adaptor and the light is quite sung and very secure. The connection of the GoPro adaptor to the mount is also quite secure. Once the light is tightened down, it doesn’t move.
Riding on bumpy roads, the light doesn’t shake. I have a different light that the connection is a little loose and when riding rough roads, the light shakes quite a bit. This shaking is disorienting and distracting, but the Magicshine Allty 1200U doesn’t have that problem.
This review hasn’t allowed me to test the longevity of the light since I have only had it for a few weeks. After a sometime and further testing I will update that. Also, in a subsequent post, I may do some further testing to confirm battery life new and compare it to the battery life after significant use.
I have no hesitation recommending this light if you are looking for a new bike light. Magicshine has been around for a while and has been making quality light.
All lights were provided by Magicshine for me to review. Magicshine had no input in this review, and they did not have access to this review prior to its publication. I was under no obligation to say anything specific about these lights. This review is based on my actual use of these lights.
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