Best Micro Red Dot or Gimmick? - Holosun AEMS (Opmod FDE)

Good morning everyone, this is John with gun.deals, you're a best source for deals online, and today we're going to be taking a look at the Holosun AEMS in the OPMOD FDE.

Full disclosure on the Holosun AEMS, this is the OPMOD FDE and the reason for that is that OpticsPlanet actually sent this out to me for reviewfor free so I don't have any relationship with Holosun, I do have access to distributor pricing on some of their products through third-party wholesalers, but I don't have a relationship with Holosun, they haven't ever sent me out anything to review, but I did get this for free so keep that in mind.

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The Holosun AEMS is a fairly interesting red dot, it has some fairly unique things about it. Specifically, there are two versions of the AEMS, they have the Core version, which this is not, and then they have the Full version. The Full version has your flip up windows to add a little bit of protection, depending on what you're doing, also has your solar fail safe and I believe solar charging on top as well, as well as the reticle is also a little bit different, this one here has the 2 MOA dot and the 65 MOA outer circle. The one I have here is in red, though they come in both green and red for both the Core and the Full version models as well.
The material choice that they went with on the AEMS is very nice, it's 7075 T6 Aluminum, which is a very strong material, especially when compared to 6061, most micro style red dots are 6061 or some variation they're in. 7075 is a good option to go with, it has about double the strength to weight ratio of 6061, so for a tough durable optic 7075 is a good way to go.

Very interestingly on the mount, the mount is a unique pattern, so it is not aim point T1, T2 compatible, so good and bad there. The good is that the mount that is included is very good, I have very little issues with it whatsoever, it's a fairly standard mount, you have a crossbolt to recoil lugs on the bottom, locking block on the other side, the set screw has a bit of a notch system in it, so it actually has little clicks as you go along, so when you get it to a certain torque it will feel like you're making little clicks that help to hold it in place, so it's not going to back out on you. The only downside of the mount is that it is not going to be compatible with aftermarket mounts, however, there have been people out there making adapter plates for the AEMS pattern, because the pattern on the bottom is different to like a standard T1, T2 riser plate, so on and so forth, to get it to whatever height that you want.

As it comes out of the box it sits at a lower one third or a 1.63, which is perfectly fine, I think that's probably where about 90% of people want their red dots to be anyways, and it will line up with most magnifiers just fine, depending on which model you go with, most of them have a riser plate to move it up and down just a little bit. This is the Holosun HM3x, though I have also used it with the HM3x-T and the Vortex VMx3 as well their micro magnifier, they all line up perfectly fine, no issues there. And that's going to be the main issue with having a unique mount, a proprietary mount on the Holosun AEMS is that if you did want to get it higher or lower you're gonna have to find some sort of aftermarket solution, they do exist, but it still can be somewhat obnoxious versus just a T1, T2 style optic where basically any mount on the market will fit it.

Getting into the rest of the features of the Holosun AEMS, on the left hand side of the body we have our illumination controls, a Plus button and a Minus button should be very intuitive, you have 10 different settings, the top six are daylight settings and the bottom four are night vision settings. From what I've heard, I haven't tested this personally, but from what I've heard the night vision performance is very good. As far as daylight goes it gets more than bright enough on Max illumination, the reticle emitter is very, very good as well, I haven't had any issues with it whatsoever, it has a very clean constant refresh rate, the dot looks good we'll get into glass quality a little bit later on, but as far as the reticle, emitter, brightness settings go, all of those are very good.

Talking about the Illumination in conjunction with battery life and some of the other features that it has going for it, for the battery itself it is a 2032 on a side-loading tray, that fits right into the bottom of the actual optic body itself, which is very nice and clean, it keeps it out of the way and it does make the optic a little bit taller at that lower one third, but overall, it is a great place for the battery because it means that you don't have something sticking out on top or on the sides, which is going to occlude a little bit more of your vision. As far as the rated battery life, it is at 50, 000 hours, though I believe that is with the 2 MOA dot not the 2 MOA dot plus 65 MOA outer circle, with that you're probably looking at around 20, 000 hours, though keep that in mind that that is in conjunction with their Auto on technology, so basically it will automatically turn off, and then turn on when it senses motion, saving your battery life, giving you a battery life that is functionally measured in years rather than hours.

On top of that, these models also have the solar charging system on top on the AEMS, which means that it will prolong that battery life even further and it will also work as a fail-safe as well. Some Holosun optics only have the fail-safe feature meaning that they will only operate on ambient light when the battery dies or when they're in that specific mode, this one here I believe will also help to charge the battery as well, which is a good feature to have.

As far as windage and elevation goes, you have two turrets that are flush mounted with the body, the one on the left hand side is for windage and the one on the right hand side is for elevation. I believe they are in half MOA increments, perfectly fine, you can use the edge of a case, you can use a flathead screwdriver, basically anything to adjust them, which does makeit quite nice if you need to do it out in the field, and as we'll get into later on, fortunately, it does hold zero fairly well.

As far as size and weight goes, it's really not much bigger than a T1, T2 style optics, in fact it's quite a bit shorter than some of them that are on the market. As far as weight goes, I believe with the included mount it's right at about four ounces, so it's right there in terms of weight as well. The biggest advantage though is going to be in the window size, so most of your micro red dots, 20 millimeter window size, it's pretty diminutive, it's fine it's, not really going to slow you down, but you don't really get a great sight picture through the actual optic itself, but it's a red dot so you should be using it with both eyes open.

However, with the AEMS you get to see a lot more through the actual glass itself because you have a square window that has a lot more surface area on it, I believe it's like 25 and 30 or something like that, so it is a much larger than your standard T1, T2 style of optic in terms of its window size, without being really bigger or heavier, it is going to be a little bit thicker in terms of its dimensions but not by much. So, if you are somebody who does like a bigger window size this definitely does have a much nicer window size than a lot of micro style optics, it's not going to be quite as big as like an EOTECH or a SIG Romeo 8 T, but it's also 50-70% lighter than some of those other optics.

Getting into the glass quality of the Holosun AEMS and a couple minor downsides that I have with it personally, whenever you're in a full daylight environment, at least with this unit specifically, the blue green notch filter that these optics have is very, very apparent and it is fairly ugly to look through, you guys will notice that it just kind of has a blue/green filter over everything, that isn't the worst thing out there but it is ugly and a bit obnoxious, it does definitely take the image quality down a little bit. As far as the actual glass quality goes, it looks perfectly fine, there's nothing ugly about it whatsoever.
The second minor gripe that I have with it is that it does appear to have some magnification, so anywhere from like 1.05, 1.1, somewhere in that range, it does appear to have a minor magnification effect. Not necessarily the worst thing for what I'm doing, but it is just something that I have noticed, if you're somebody who loves that or hates that, just something to be aware of.

When it comes to actually using the Holosun AEMS, the only real complaint that I have is that very aggressive blue notch filter when you're in direct sunlight, other than that, the form factor is very nice, I like the larger window size, the glass quality seems fine. The reticle looks good as well, it looks good under magnification. Size, weight, form factor, all of that is good, I am personally a fan of bigger windows, so I do like this over like a standard T1, T2 style of optic, it's a preference thing, it's not like a actual performance benefit, but I do prefer it over smaller window sizes and the Holosun AEMS does have a bigger window.
The main problem that you're are going to have with the Holosun AEMS, at least the full versions, is that they are a little bit expensive, somewhere between 350-400 bucks, depending on which version, which color reticle you're going with, so that can be a little bit more expensive, fortunately, you are getting a good feature set with the Full version. Personally, the best buy is going to be the Core version, which loses the 65 MOA outer circle, the lens covers and the solar charging system. You're already having a battery life in years with Auto on, Auto off, so for me it's not that big of a deal to not have it and if it saves me 100-150 bucks, still giving me the good body, good window size, that sort of stuff, then I'm very happy with that.

As far as durability on the AEMS goes, we do a drop test on basically every optic that we test, fortunately, the AEMS did very well, so we did a five shot control group at I believe 50 yards, using the Holosun AEMS and the HM3x magnifier, then we did a shoulder height drop onto dirt and rocks, and put down another five round group. Fortunately, we had basically no shift in zero whatsoever or no noticeable shift in zero, which is very good, that is exactly what you would like to see.

As far as durability of the optic goes, you have a 7075 body, you have a decent mount that is included can be a bit of a pro and a con, depending if you're wanting to put it on like an AK on a low mount or if you want like a 193 mount, then you're gonna have to figure out an aftermarket solution to it, but, fortunately, those do exist now.

There are a lot of things to like about the AEMS, the Full version has basically all the features you could ever want, but as far as the body design goes, 7075 body, bigger window size, I think a lot of people are going to find that preferable. If you're looking for just the ultimate value, I think the Core version is definitely the best value and probably the one that I would pick up over the Full version just because I don't really need all of those extra features, but if you do like those features it is fortunately in a good body, good form factor as well, you have a very good size to weight while giving you a bigger window size, which a lot of people are going to like. The main downsides are going to be that aggressive notch filter and the unique proprietary mount that there are fortunately aftermarket solutions for, but if you're already spending three-four hundred dollars on a red dot and then 100$ on an aftermarket solution it's pushing that price up just a little bit.