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How Cheap is Too Cheap for a Handgun Red Dot - Primary Arms Classic Mini Red Dot
Updated
12 months ago
Good morning, everyone, hope you’re all having a wonderful day today. Today, we’re gonna be taking a look at the brand new, only available for pre-order, Primary Arms SLX Classic Micro Red Dot.
Getting into some specifics, this is Primary Arms brand new SLX micro red dot, so this one here is designed for RMR/full-size footprints basically, they have a couple of different versions of this optic, they have the RMR version, and then instead of the micro they have the mini, which is the RMR C version, and recently they released the RS10, this one here is a doctor/no black style. This one here has a few more features and it’s a little bit nicer and a little bit worse at the same time, it’s also a little bit more expensive.
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These optics, the both, the mini and the micro, are coming in at a very value-focused price point of a 149$. When these eventually go up for sale in the middle of November, for micro red dots, I believe they will be some of, if not the cheapest options on the market, from a major manufacturer like Primary Arms.
With the question of how much did they cut in cost, we have to ask how much did they cut in performance and durability. Before we get into all that we do need to go over just some basic specifications on the optics, on the SLX micro.
This one here is made out of 6061 T6 aluminum versus the much stronger 7075 T6 aluminum, so it is a little bit of a cheaper material there, and it comes in at right at 1 ounce. This one here is the full-size RMR/footprint, it has a fairly decently sized window of 17x24mm, though it is certainly not the largest window, in fact, the 507c, 407c-s do have a slightly larger, slightly taller window size. On this comp Glock 17 Gen 3, this one here is going to be very easy to track the dot through recoil because the dot really never leaves the window, but for smaller guns, snappier guns, non-comp guns as well, the smaller window size can be a little bit more finicky, especially if you’re not somebody who shoots with dots all the time.
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Externally, on the SLX micro, the adjustments are very easy, so you have an UP arrow and a DOWN arrow for adjusting your illumination. You have 10 different illumination settings and a rated battery life of 40, 000 hours on a medium setting with a bottom-loading 2032, meaning that when you need to change the battery you will have to take the optic off, switch out the battery, put the optic back on, and then re-zero if there’s any point of impact shift, which there probably will be some.
Very interesting, this has auto-OFF but not auto-OFF, so that 40, 000 hours of battery life will be a very long time if you’re not using it, however, every time you pick it up you need to push either the UP or the DOWN arrow to get that reticle to turn back on.
I believe the auto-OFF time is extensive, I believe it’s 8 hours or 12 hours, I didn’t see exactly where that was in the literature, but it does have a fairly long auto-OFF time, so if you pick this up, you’re carrying it around, mess with the illumination settings or set it to your preferable setting, then it’s going to stay ON for a long period of time, but just keep in mind that after a certain amount of time the optic will automatically turn OFF.
While I was out on the range with this I’m not sure of the auto-OFF is motion sensitive, so basically it won’t turn OFF if it senses motion for certain amount of time, for instance, out of the three range shifts that I’ve had this optic on this gun, it has not shut of automatically during like 5 to 8 hours on the range, so because I’m messing with the brightness settings occasionally or if it senses motion and it won’t turn OFF automatically or if it’s just a set amount of time like 8 or 12 hours, but if you’re gonna carry this optic that might make you a little bit nervous, so you might be playing with the illumination settings every couple of hours to make sure that it doesn’t turn OFF on you.
Unfortunately, the adjustment on the windage and elevation utilizes a very, very small Allen key. Fortunately, they provide that Allen key, which you will inevitably lose in the first 5 minutes, however, it does use a very, very small Allen key, which is annoying, and on top of that, they don’t have really any tactile clicks, so there’s a little bit of trial and error, concerning zeroing, however, as we’re going to do later on, it actually did hold zero very well, even during the drop test, which I kind of expected to kill the optic.
Getting into the actual dot and glass quality itself, it definitely does have a fairly noticeable blue tint to it, it also definitely has some warping and magnification to it, if you move it around in front of you, you can definitely tell the picture’s shifting around quite a bit, it’s actually perfectly fine for a micro red dot, most red dots, especially something like 507c, will have a very similar effect, in fact, this is actually worse than the SLX micro, so as far as the glass quality goes and image it’s perfectly fine, it’s not exceptional by any means, but it is perfectly fine for this segment of optics.
The dot itself, somehow, is actually much better than what they include on their more expensive RS10, and the emitter is also better as well, so it uses a 3 MOA dot, which is perfectly precise enough for all pistol work basically inside of 100 or 200 yards. It does get bright, however, on maximum brightness, outside in full daylight, there are certain times where I wish it had one additional brightness setting. For 99% of the time it definitely gets bright enough and it was certainly usable, but for me personally, there were times when I wish it had one additional brightness setting.
The dot itself is very uniform, it’s very precise, it’s a nice looking 3 MOA dot. On top of that, the emitter refresh rate is very good, so even on lower brightness settings the emitter refresh rate is still very good, it’s very constant, laser-like beam versus the more expensive RS10 has a very poor emitter refresh rate, like it’s very bad, very noticeable at all illumination settings, it does get a little bit brighter, but the illumination or the refresh rate is literally much worse than the cheaper SLX micro.
Before we get into usability and durability on the SLX micro, one very minor gripe that I did have is that in the box, Primary Arms only included two different sets of screws, a very, very short set that was basically unusable, and then a very long set, which you could shave down to fit your specific slide, adapter plate, what have you, so I had to go out and pick up other screws because I didn’t really want to shave screws down to fit this specific gun, so I had to go out and get other screws that actually fit perfectly. Not a big deal, but just something worth mentioning and if you pick some of these guys up you might need to pick up some extra screws as well.
Getting into actually using the optic, outside of those very few scenarios where I did want an extra brightness setting in full direct sunlight, it was a very usable optic to use, it’s very fast to pick up, it has a decent sized window, it’s not really what I would consider to be a large window whatsoever, and there are gonna be other full-size optics that do have much larger window size, which in general is going to be a little bit more forgiving, a little bit easier to use, however, if you get used to it, the SLX micro is not bad by any means and there are certainly smaller optics out there as well.
The glass quality, the dot quality, all of that looks very good, the emitter refresh rate is also very good as well. The only minor gripe when it comes to usability of the optic is I do wish that it had an additional brightness setting.
Getting into durability on the SLX micro, I wasn’t really sure if I was even going to do a drop test as the hood design is very thin and it’s just made out of 6061, as opposed to the much higher strength to weight ratio 7075, so I wasn’t even sure if I was going to do a drop test in the first place, however, Primary Arms does say that this is a durable optic with a lifetime warranty, and what have you, suited for concealed carry and performance shooting competition, what have you, so I wanted to see if it would hold up to at least a simple drop test, so I did a shoulder height drop test onto dirt and rocks, directly on top of the optic, and it passed with flying colors in terms of its durability.
Before the drop I did a five round control group at about 12 yards standing. After the drop test just a single drop from shoulder height onto dirt and rocks. I did another five round group at again 12 yards. So, in terms of its durability, for a fairly hard drop, it’s not the hardest drop you can do with an optic, but it’s also a lot more than most people will experience with their concealed carry handguns. It survived the drop perfectly fine and it also retained zero basically perfectly, so I really don’t have any complaints about its durability.
When we talk about its features in relation to its price I think it is priced accordingly as one of the cheapest micro-styled optics from a full manufacturer like Primary Arms. It has a lot of good features, good battery life, good dot quality, good glass quality, durability is at least decent, zero retention also at least decent. I think auto-ON/auto-OFF would be an awesome feature to have and I think if it had an additional brightness level, it would be basically perfect, and those are some of the sacrifices you’re going to make when you get a micro red dot that has a good level of performance this inexpensive.
This is going to be an optic that I think is going to be a lot of people’s first optics, it’s definitely not a perfect optic by any means in terms of a pistol red dot, but I think, for a lot of people, this can make sense as an entry-level initial red dot, their first red dot handgun, what have you, that can make a lot of sense. I certainly would not side grade to this from another red dot like if you already have a Holosun 407, 507, really any of the Holosons for that matter. I really don’t see the reason to side grade to this or to switch to this red dot.
What this is, is a very good entry-level red dot that has a good level up performance when compared to its price. It’s not really something that you should all run out and go grab, but if you’re looking for an entry-level red dot, your first red dot on a handguns, what have you, this is a very good starting point that gives you, 90/95% of the performance of much more expensive red dots, certainly not perfect, not for everyone, but as that entry-level red dot I think it does a good job of filling that niche.
