Pulsar Axion 2 XG35 Thermal Monocular

Works good but for the price but I expected a whole lot more. Was able to “detect” deer behind the house at 1300 yds. Ability to identify is a whole different story. Magnification over 5x at the distance is pretty much unusable. I ended up returning because i couldn’t justify the price.

Image is amazing. Detects animals so far the range finder cannot read (2000 yards+). Very durable, carried on a 4 day hunt no problems. Battery lasts a long time. Everyone i showed wants one now.

The AMOLED screen looks noisy/grainy when compared to the image you get streaming video to your mobile device, but its not bad. It is too bright for night time use though, even on its lowest brightness. I forgot to try the red monocrhome setting, that might have helped (ended up returning mine).My unit was somewhat defective in that it had a permanent hot spot in a portion of the screen. Don't know how something like that makes it through QC.The physical build quality is good. You can focus both the eyepiece and the objective.Thermal sensor seems sensitive. Can see things in pitch black. But I was expecting to see little birds in their nests in the trees that have dropped their leaves but I couldn't see any of that. Maybe the algorithm they use to change colors drowns out the small sources of heat. Maybe I need to adjust my expectations.I didn't know this about thermal imagers, but apparently the sensors need to calibrate periodically (or at least this one does, and it has a shutter you can hear click every time it does it). When set to automatic, it was constantly calibrating. It was distracting because the image freezes momentarily while the shutter closes. Maybe it was more frequent because of the defect/hot spot that wasn't supposed to be there.I was looking into the microbolometers and noticed the XQ35 has a larger pixel pitch, so although the resolution is lower, it may pick up more "light".Lastly, the official app is giving me notifications with ads.Horrible.

I currently have the Helion 2 XP 50 Pro, which still seems to be the benchmark, so I wasn't expecting this to match the quality, but online comparisons made it look close. I was willing to give up a little performance for size, but the XG 35 wasn't really close. Aside from disappointing image quality, it did constant linearity corrections during the first several minutes it was on, with a very grainy image. This improved once the unit warmed up, but the number of automatic corrections/graininess made it hard to use soon after turning it on. Ergonomics were great, better than the Helion 2. Usability wasn't quite as good though, likely due to the reduced number of buttons. I imagine that for people coming from lower end units, the XG35 will seem very good. But compared to the Helion 2 XP 50 Pro, it's disappointing. I was expecting more for the price.

I purchased a new unit. I received a used unit. The screen has a small hot spot, is grainy and the whole left side has the appearance of a fog. There is also paint rubbed off above the objective lens indicating previous wear and tear. I will be requesting a refund to purchase another unit. I'll provide an updated review after completion of the return.