Magene L308 Review 🚴🏻‍♂️🔦💡 An intelligent expression tail light

Magene asked me to help publicise its new tail light. The thought of flashing emojis under my saddle didn’t especially appeal to me. I guess I’m not the target market. However, the company is very persistent and they have some nice products coming out in 2024 so I thought I’d play nice in 2023.

It got worse for my ego, rather than the 5 minutes I’d anticipated spending on it I ended up playing with it for well over an hour! Maybe it’s not so bad after all 😉

Buy: Amazon

OK, it’s not in the same league of smartness as the Magene L508 smart radar tail light

Installation

It has a good generic mount that fastens to your bike with thick rubber bands and the mount has a Garmin-like quarter-turn fitting for the light. It can be very easily attached and detached.

You easily pair the app to the OnelapFIT app to set up the customised LED light patterns. Here are some images from the app to give you an idea of how it works

In Use

At 30lm it is bright and that should make you noticeable for half a mile.

It’s also lightweight and sufficiently waterproof, and I got 10 hours of battery life from it, although the specs say you can get up to 50 hours presumably if you have fewer active LEDs in your light pattern.

Special Features

Other than custom emojis (the product’s key, niche feature) the light will turn off when not in use and, handily, you can customise the inactive period before it turns off. Also, there’s the smart braking sensor which presumably works with the light’s onboard accelerometer detecting your rapid braking and turning the light solid. Handy for group riding.

Magene L308 Intelligent Expression Tail Light Specifications

• Dimensions：35*35*26mm
• Weight: 23g（Only tail light）
• Emoji mode: Pattern, GIF, scrolling message
• Light mode: Solid, flash, pulse
• Number of emojis can be stored: 15
• Charging port: Type-C
• Battery life: 5h-50h(Affected by custom settings, usage environment)
• Wireless protocol: Bluetooth
• Maximum luminous: 30 lm
• Maximum visual distance at night: 800m
• Waterproof: IPX6
• Smart brake sensing: Yes
• Auto-sleep/auto-wake: Yes
• Compatible software: OnelapFit APP
• Package includes:
• Seat post : L308 tail light*1, rubber straps *2, seat post bracket (with pad) *1, manual *1, type-C power cable *1
• Saddle : L308 tail light*1, saddle bracket*1, Allen wrench*1, manual *1, type-C power

In Action – Magene L308 Intelligent Expression Tail Light

Note the light pattern is much more readable in real conditions. For some reason, I couldn’t video it properly and the light appears blurred.

Buy: Amazon

Buy: Amazon