The MA6 continues Tiablo’s style of simple, straight forward design. I consider this a benefit especially if you do a lot of air travel. The more aggressively designed lights tend to attract unnecessary attention sometimes. The head of the MA6 has quite a tall, smooth edges bezel which can be unscrewed to swap between reflectors.  Threads between the bezel and head are of average thickness, well machined and smooth. They fit together very well and I did not encounter any cross threading at all. A rubber o-ring sits below the threads on the head for water resistance.  Inside the bezel sits the AR coated glass lens and you choice of reflector. Both the smooth and textured reflectors are very well made, they’re nicely polished and even throughout. The reflector is held in place inside the bezel by a retaining ring which screws onto threads along the inner wall of the bezel. Alignment between the reflector and emitter is almost perfect. Further down the head you will find the emitter module which is also held in place by a screw-on retaining ring, unscrewing this allows the emitter module to slide out easily. The emitter module which also houses the electronics looks very compact. On its rear end is the “+” battery contact. Do take note that this contact is recessed, with a plastic collar sitting around it. This serves as a physical reverse polarity protection measure. Of course this also means that flat topped 17670 cells will require magnetic spacers in order to work in the MA6. Moving on, the neck has a clip attached by 3 small hex screws. It is removable, but do remember to screw them back in after removing the clip, otherwise you will leave holes where water may enter. The head and neck are separate parts but seem to be adhered together and could not be unscrewed. Anodized coating on all around the surface of the head is smooth and consistent.

The battery tube continues its simplistic design concept. There are no fancy find or scallops to be found here. Some may question the reason for Tiablo making this light able to accommodate 17670 but not 18650 cells. While 18650 cells do provide higher capacity, the MA6's design does feel noticeably slimmer the instant you hold it in hand compared to other 18650 cell lights. A band of diamond textured knurling about 3.7cm wide goes all around the battery tube. The knurling is well done and consistent, no rough machining marks to be found. The texture of the knurling isn’t very deeply cut, I would have preferred if the knurling was more aggressive thus providing more grip. There are no flat faces machined onto the battery tube, just knurling all around. The inner wall of the battery tube has also been anodized in black, which is nice compared to just leaving it bare. The threads on both the front and back end of the battery tube are smooth and well machined. They are slightly thicker than the threads on the bezel. I did not encounter any cross-threading throughout testing of the MA6. The threads on both ends are anodized which allows the tail cap to be locked our when loosened. There are 2 rubber o-rings which sit at both the front and rear end of the battery tube for water resistance as well. The MA6 is advertised as being waterproof up to 5m. They’re quite thick and provide a snug fit when screwing on the head and tail cap. As with the head, anodized coating is well done too.

The tail cap has a band of knurling about 1cm wide, with the same texture as the knurling around the battery tube. Inside, it houses a switch module which is quite different from most other lights. Its mechanism is much like the flat push button switch of the NovaTac 120P. There is almost no travel, as it simply clicks much like the keypad buttons on a mobile phone. It does provide good tactile feedback, with a slightly muted clicking sound. Alternatively, you can swap in the single stage forward push button included in the package. This switch will allow for momentary activation, has slightly longer than average travel and produces good tactile feedback and clicking sound when pressed. The rubber cap over the switch has a moderately rough checkered texture and feels nice overall. It does stick out the end of the tail cap though, so the MA6 isn’t able to tail stand on flat surfaces. Finally, there are 2 slim slits along the lip of the tail cap for lanyard attachments.

Note: This review sample of the Tiablo MA6 is identical to the final retail version accept for the lack of Tiablo branding imprinted on the product.

The Tiablo MA6 produces a narrow spot which transitions to a slightly less intense hotspot. While its not as tight as lights designed for throw with large reflectors, it isn't too wide either. With the smooth reflector installed, the beam profile is slightly ringy as to be expected, some minor sing artifacts but nothing too glaring. With the textured reflector installed, the beam profile produced is somewhat smoothen out, ideal for either medium or long range applications. Beam produced by the Q5 bin XR-E emitter has no noticeable hue. Hot spot is a pure white while the ring artifacts are just slightly yellow.

As aforementioned, the MA6 comes with a 3/5-stage and single stage switch module. The single stage switch is ideal for outdoor or tactical use since its a regular forward push button at 100% brightness. The 3/5-stage switch is good for general use, and work a little differently from other multi stage switches.

In Mode I, the switch has 3 levels of brightness in the following sequence:
100% > 50% > 20%

In Mode II, the switch has 3 levels with S.O.S./Strobe in the following sequence:
20% > 50% > 100% > S.O.S. > Strobe

Holding down the button for 3 seconds at any time toggles between modes. Each press of the button within 2 seconds cycles between levels. The light does have memory functionality and will revert to the last used level if its been kept on for 2 seconds or more.

As can be seen from the runtime graphs below, the Tiablo MA6 provides slightly better than average runtimes considering the amount of lights it outputs. The circuit accepts input voltages ranging from 3.7V to 8.4. Regulation is maintained better with higher input voltage, in this case running on 2x CR123 cells, while on 17670 cells the output steadily declines to slightly above 50% initial before the battery's circuit protection kicks in. Take note that when using the 3/5-stage switch module with freshly charged 2x 16340 cells, the light will not power up. You'll have to wait or run down the cells in another light till each of their voltages stabilize to 4.2 or below. This will be the case with popular chargers such as the UltraFire WF-139 and WF-138 models.

Note: Will be updated with 2x 16340 cell readings soon.

The Good - Clean and slim design design with ample knurling. Smooth and consistent anodizing throughout its surface. Multi stage switch provides nice option of cycling levels from high to low, or low to high.

The Bad - Nothing.

The Relative - Nice white tint with slight ringy artifacts when using the smooth reflector. Has both forward push button and multi-stage switch modules. Metal clip is removable. Push button switch slightly protrudes out the tail end so its not able to tail stand.

Head, smooth reflector installed.

Head, textured reflector installed.

Bezel (front view).

Bezel (side view).

Bezel (rear view).

GITD o-ring.

Lens.

Smooth reflector (front view).

Smooth reflector (side view).

Smooth reflector (rear view).

Textured reflector (front view).

Textured reflector (side view).

Reflector retaining ring.

Head (front view).

Head (side view).

Head (rear view).

Emitter module retaining ring.

Emitter module (front view).

Emitter module (side view).

Emitter module (rear view).

Battery tube (front view).

Battery tube (side view).

Battery tube (side view).

Tail cap (front view).

Tail cap (side view).

Tail cap (rear view).