SIG Sauer’s new XRAY5 pistol red dot and FOXTROT2R LightFight have just raised the bar for handgun accessories.
Photos by Steven Kuo
We’re at SIG NEXT checking out the company’s latest products, and there’s a lot of very cool stuff on the range this year. The new P385 pistol will likely be the most talked-about release from the event, but it probably shouldn’t be. While it felt great in my hand and has a lot of interesting features and variants, at the end of the day it’s not going to revolutionize the 9mm pistol market. It may prove to be an excellent new handgun option, but the market is awash with those. What is revolutionary, however, is SIG’s new XRAY5 red dot sight and its companion FOXTROT2R LightFight weapon light.
What, pray tell, could be revolutionary about yet another pistol red dot? It’s built different. Literally. Traditional red dot sights use a single emitter that’s moved internally by a complex mechanism during the zeroing process. That requires a lot of moving parts, and a lot of failure points. The XRAY5 instead features what SIG is calling “solid-state architecture with no moving parts”. This is possible thanks to its 225-dot rigid matrix.
In other words, it can project a grid of 225 red dot reticles. Adjusting your zero simply changes which of those 225 dots is being illuminated instead of physically moving where the single dot is being projected. This system brings a host of benefits, from improved durability to a new super easy zeroing system that only requires a phone app and a few rounds of ammo.
The new internal layout of the XRAY5 allowed SIG to implement another groundbreaking improvement that they call the Zero Distortion Optic (ZDO) system. The short of it is that instead of using aspherical lenses like every other red dot, it uses flat lenses. It can do this because it utilizes the freed-up space up top to put an aspherical reflecting lens in the optic’s roof. The emitter projects the reticle onto it, where it’s then bounced off the front lens and back through the rear lens into the shooter’s eye. The result is that both lenses you’re looking through are as clear as a window.
After trying it on the range side-by-side with traditional red dots, I can tell you that the difference is night and day. This thing is as clear as can be.
The integration with an app for zeroing and adjusting other settings is a really helpful feature, but if that’s not something you’re interested in, don’t worry. The XRAY5 can be fully zeroed and used the old-fashioned way without any phones involved. However, the fact that it can connect to a phone app leads to another interesting aspect of the optic: Bluetooth.
The integrated Bluetooth required for connecting to an app also means that it can connect to other Bluetooth devices, like its new companion accessory, the FOXTROT2R LightFight. Why would you want your optic to be able to talk to your weapon light? Dot brightness. An optimally bright reticle setting for your ambient lighting condition will usually become washed out and imperceptible after activating your WML. The FOXTROT2R fixes that through SIG’s FightLight technology that, when both devices are synced, automatically increases the XRAY5’s brightness level whenever the flashlight is activated. With this system, you can now have the best of both worlds: a medium-brightness reticle for average lighting conditions and a big, easily visible dot as soon as you flip your light’s switch.
The XRAY5 is an incredibly impressive optic on its own, but paired with the FOXTROT2R, they create a very sleek package.
This has just been an initial overview of SIG’s new system, but keep an eye out for our full review once we get these in hand to fully test ourselves.
The XRAY5 will be available in standard and compact flavors with either a SIG-LOC, RMSc, or DPP footprint, and prices start at $499; the FOXTROT2R is priced at $199.
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